On August 27th in Toronto, a Monday night game at Rogers Centre against the Argonauts, the Eskimos notched a 26-17 win to move into second place in the West Division.
Fast forward almost six weeks later and the landscape has changed quite a bit. The Eskimos have lost three games by a total of four points and two games by a whopping total of 67 points.
In an effort to awaken their slumbering offence, Head Coach Kavis Reed made the bold decision to remove Marcus Crandell from his Offensive Coordinator post and make himself the team’s offensive play-caller. The decision stunned many people around the CFL. This columnist had to look at the e-mail on his phone several times to believe it.
Reed might be the first coach in CFL history to be a defensive, special teams, and offensive coordinator.
He admits he’s not very well versed about the offensive side of the ball. He’ll rely heavily on Crandell who remains on as the team’s Quarterbacks Coach. David Kelly’s role increases as he serves as the club’s offensive adviser.
As tough as it seems for the Eskimos right now, a win tonight over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats puts them back into a playoff spot as the crossover team in the Eastern Division. It would also move them one step closer to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for third place in the West Division. The two teams play each other next week.
In the Canadian Football League, one win can change the complexion of a season for a football team. Reed could have stayed the course, or fired Crandell. He did neither. Instead, he decided to take more of a load on his shoulders. He feels he can make a difference to the offence.
“I think that we have the ability to do some things a little bit differently that will allow us to have more explosive plays,” Reed said. “I think that we’ve done a good job with the situation that we’ve been in. I looked at the numbers, for the most part we’re doing a good job of moving the ball, and it’s our own self destructiveness that has been our Achilles heel.”
One thing Reed did right away this week was name his starting quarterback for tonight’s game in Kerry Joseph who hasn’t played for the last two weeks because of a lower body injury. He’ll be the third different quarterback to start for the Eskimos after Matt Nichols made his CFL debut last week in Calgary and Steven Jyles started two weeks ago vs. B.C. 
If the Eskimos keep themselves in the playoff picture, you can bet Joseph will be at the controls for the rest of the season.
Instability has been an issue for the offence. Not only has there been shuffling of quarterbacks but the running backs have been shuffled in and out as well.
The Eskimos signed Cory Boyd in mid-August and then welcomed back Jerome Messam before Labour Day. Now the Eskimos needed to sign a running back in August as they only had two healthy backs on their roster, Boyd was available. Messam came back to the Eskimos after a tryout with the Miami Dolphins.
Through it all, the Esks’ best offensive weapon was seemingly lost in the shuffle. Hugh Charles was on pace for a 1,000-yard rushing season, now it might not happen with five games left. More importantly, he needs the ball more and it appears Reed has recognized this as he named him the team’s number one running back.
At the end of the day, it isn’t who calls what play, it’s about taking advantage of field position. It’s about not taking bad penalties to put yourself in first and long, or second and long, or simply have to punt.
Most of all, it comes down to execution.
NOTES: CFL tackles leader J.C. Sherritt will miss tonight’s game because of a knee injury and Simoni Lawrence will make his first CFL start at middle linebacker. Defensive lineman Ted Laurent will return to the lineup after missing two games as the result of re-aggravating his ankle in Hamilton three weeks ago. Devin Tyler will start at right tackle he missed two games with a throat injury. Dylan Steenbergen comes out and has been placed on the one-game injured list with a lower body injury. Fullback Darcy Brown is out with a hamstring injury and fellow fullback, Peter Thiel, will miss the game because of a concussion. Jerome Messam will start at fullback.
