Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
“I had a heart attack!” – Paul Woldu immediately following the Montreal Alouettes’ 32-26 win goal-line stand victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
“…not only will you have the chance to hone our team to a fine edge, you’ll also have the opportunity to learn a great deal about life.” – Warden Hazen, “The Longest Yard”, 1974
Nose tackle Eric Wilson has seen The Longest Yard many times, both the old school original starring Burt Reynolds made four years before he was born, and the 2005 remake with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock.
But a real life goal-line stand by the Als in Winnipeg should remind all Canadians, one yard off the end zone makes “the longest yard” all the more special to defend. And reliving those remakes never gets old.
“It’s man on man, muscle time…you put your balls on the line…I take it personal,” says Wilson, in his fifth season with the Als after five pro football moving days in his previous six years.
“At the bottom of the pile there’s grabbing and pinching and pulling.”
“Mike [D-line coach Sinclair, a former NFL All-pro] teaches us just to ‘submarine’ get – their legs so they get no surge. Then you just grab whatever.”
Battles of the trenches may have their subtleties of footwork and precision, but when there are eight seconds left and it’s first-and-goal from the one, a team’s character is refined, defined, and revealed.
“It’s a lonely job down there but the biggest thing is staying onside,” admits Wilson.
The 33-year old veteran of trench-warfare on both sides of the football and both sides of the 49th parallel actually believes CFL defences benefit from being backed up a yard from opposing O-lines.
“I like having the yard to get down low and get under guys. I just look at the ball (being snapped) then I’m going at the legs in front of me.
“Mentally it’s not the hardest, but physically it is.”
Even so, in the seconds before the grunt-work of the season began, Wilson was being bombarded by his inquisitive linemate Ryan Bomben.
“He was asking me 100 questions,” chuckles Wilson from his New York state home where he’s playing Mr. Mom during an Als’ break.
“Bomben’s in there for the first time and for an O-lineman moving over to defence…he’s only had walk-throughs,” marvels the veteran, popular for handing out victory stogies after the Als’ Grey Cup repeats.
“But to dig in there twice, Bomben’s in the A-gap. He’s gotta make the crucial stop.”
The former Guelph Gryphon has already proven his versatility this season, catching every ball thrown his way while lined up at tight end. He even has one career sack from CIS ball.
“The told me to just keep my feet moving and stop penetration,” says the good-natured behemoth.
“The guys are teasing me about sitting in the D-line meetings now. But plays like [that]…they can change a season,” says the Als’ 2010 fourth round draft pick.
Remember, twice in eight seconds. With CFL war-room video reviews of the trench mayhem, this still doesn’t even rate as the greatest stand of the Trestman coaching regime.
Coach Sinclair recalls the Als’ stopping the BC Lions at Molson Stadium a few seasons ago, galvanizing the entire team.
Twice the Als jumped offside, once the Lions moved too early. Four stops and a defining moment for a defence that would win back-to-back Cups.
“I’m a fullback on our short-yardage package so I know how it crushing it can be if things don’t works on either side,” says the 300-pound “Human Humidor” Wilson.
“At Michigan we had some big stops versus Penn State and that fired us up…We went on to win the Big 10 championship.”
“This is huge,” he says of the Longest Yard victory in Winnipeg.
“This puts us in the driver’s seat and we’ve driven a lot of cars around here. Now we just have to work our asses off for five weeks to be where we want to be when postseason comes around.”
