Matthew Cauz
CFL.ca
To quote Mike LaFontaine from ‘A Mighty Wind’, “What Happened?”
Remember a month ago when the Edmonton Eskimos were 5-0? We were bringing up names like Warren Moon and conjuring up memories of Ricky Ray completing deep passes to Jason Tucker in past Grey Cups.
The team had put together a string of impressive double-digit victories over the Tiger-Cats and Lions, and had also defeated the Stampeders in the Battle of Alberta.
Fast-forward two weeks later and the Eskimos are faced with an entirely different scenario heading into the bye week. The team has a minus-16 scoring differential and just recently took a world-class 35-point beat down to the same Lions team that they defeated by sixteen points just a few weeks ago.
It’s a good thing for Kavis Reed that he isn’t employed by the Roughriders, or he may have found himself looking for work.
So the question is: What went wrong so fast for this team?
I wish I could point to the slump as being the result of something controversial like fighting in the locker-room, or the team quitting on the coach, or some sort of juicy scandal.
But it isn’t anything even close to that.
I can’t even pin the blame on arrogance. When the Esks were at their peak, you didn’t hear any signs of cockiness during interviews or games.
All throughout the roster, the Eskimos were saying the right things, and were certainly not trying to draw any attention to themselves. Reed just wouldn’t allow his locker-room to get to full of themselves.
Just look at the way he dealt with players like Rod Williams and Jerome Messam and it is quite clear that the Eskimos employ a team-first mentality.
Unfortunately, what it all comes down to are injuries and a bit of a market correction.
Now, I’m not talking about the DOW losing 500 points kind of market correction, because American’s are treating their economy like they are on spring break.
Realistically, you can’t expect a team that was last in their division one year to be the best the next season can you?
Let’s start with the team’s most glaring problem, injuries. Edmonton’s fan base are the only people out there that can look at Saskatchewan and tell them to stop complaining about Fantuz & Co.
Heading into their matchup with the Lions last week, injuries to Fred Stamps, Jason Barnes and Adarius Bowman forced Edmonton to dress replacements like Prechae Rodriguez, Dobson Collins and Ryan Grice-Mullen.
While Grice-Mullen had yet to see a football field this season, Rodriguez and Collins are each playing for their second team this season and we aren’t even into Septembe yet.
The Washington Generals had a better chance of beating the Lions than the Eskimos did last week.
Next is the offensive line.
Throughout the first five weeks of the season, the Eskimos were able to wear down their opponents with a successful running game, leaving defences guessing whenever Ray took a snap.
Ray was also sacked just seven times.
Today, only the 2-6 Lions have fewer yards for, while the Roughriders are the only team to score fewer points. To make matters worse, no team has given up more sacks than Edmonton.
I think it is safe to say the rash of injuries on the offensive line has proven to be a major contributor to the fall of the mighty Eskimos.
Considering that during Edmonton’s 36-1 loss last week, the team had two lineman in Devin Tyler and Chris Patrick making less-than-stellar debuts, while Kyle Koch was forced to play out of his comfort zone at centre, I’m absolutely shocked that BC’s Keron Williams didn’t finish with 10 sacks.
Check out this quote from Reed about the team’s lack of momentum heading into the bye and see if you can spot the ominous line:
“For me, it’s difficult. You want to go in on a high obviously, but the situation is what it is”
UH-OH it’s the dreaded “Is what it is!”
Nothing signifies something is going wrong quite like “it is what it is.” No one says that line about getting married, being promoted or winning the lottery.
That line is saved for getting dumped, fired or general random bad luck.
When was the last time one of your friends said “I decided to push my luck after getting named Senior VP so I bought a lottery ticket. I won. Yeah it is what it is; I guess can by more lingerie for Olivia Wilde.”
Anytime you hear that expression coming from your coach you know it can’t be good news.
Now of course, not all the news is bad.
Thankfully for the Eskimos, the bye week provides extra time for their walking-wounded to heal up. Reed and general manager Eric TIllman will also make the necessasry roster adjustments.
Hopefully, the Eskimos will have Barnes back in time for their Labour Day matchup with the Stampeders. Stamps should be able to return three weeks later.
Finally, it wasn’t a big move by any stretch, but I rather liked Reed’s reaction while addressing his reasoning for pulling Ray in favour of Kerry Joseph during last week’s loss.
“There was absolutely zero quarterback controversy there. It was 27-1 and as a coach you know when the game is over. I did not feel that we were going to be able to come back in this football game and I was not going to allow our franchise players to get hurt under these circumstances.”
By stating the obvious Reed has given the team at least one less thing to think about during their time off.
With Edmonton facing Calgary for back-to-back weeks they have plenty of other concerns to worry about.
