For over two weeks now the big topic of discussion surrounding the Edmonton Eskimos has been the status of starting quarterback Mike Reilly and his injured thumb. Backup Matt Nichols has played for the better part of the last three games including the Labour Day series against the Calgary Stampeders.
It looks like the Eskimos will get Reilly back this week when the Montreal Alouettes come to Commonwealth Stadium on Friday. The Eskimos now have to deal with the loss of another key member of their team.
| Tough loss for Esks |
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Grant Shaw showed improvement in all areas in his shortened 2014 season, particularly in the kicking game, where he converted on a career high 85.2 per cent of field goal tries. |
Kicker Grant Shaw made a touchdown saving tackle on Stampeders kick-returner Jock Sanders in the first quarter. Shaw was hurt on the play but gutted it out for the rest of the game. Shaw didn’t play last Saturday in the Labour Day rematch and following day we found out that Shaw would be lost for the season because of a torn right pectoral muscle.
Shaw was having a career-year leading the CFL in kicking points with 97 before suffering the injury. He enjoyed a career-best 85.2 per cent success rate in field goal. Shaw had a 44 yard average on punts and a 62 yard average on kick-offs. Shaw struggled with field goals early on in the season missing some very makeable tries from outside thirty yards and even outside the twenty yard line.
Following a week three matchup with the Ottawa REDBLACKS, Shaw would only miss one field goal. A 50 yard try in Ottawa — I think we can forgive him for that miss from a long ways away. Before the injury Shaw nailed six straight field goals off the heels of an earlier streak of ten straight. Shaw also hit seven of his last eight field goal attempts from outside the forty yard line.
Shaw’s punting showed great improvement in the area of directional kicking. In his final two games of the season, he trapped his opponents inside their own 20 yard line eight times. Unfortunately Grant Shaw is now lost for the rest of season and special teams coordinator Craig Dickenson knows it’s a blow to the team.
“Yeah it’s a shame; he’s had such a good year and I just think he’s grown week in and week out,” Dickenson said. “Every week you got the sense that he was more comfortable and he started feeling better out what he was doing. I really thought by week nine he was one of our top guys in terms of leaders in the clubhouse and also on the field. Tough loss but we’ll be alright.”
Now enter in Hugh O’Neill who is in his second season with the Eskimos and who split time with Grant Shaw during the 2013 season. O’Neill played his first game of the season last Saturday against the Stampeders and looked very strong. He made both of his field goal attempts while recording a 43 yard punt average and a 52 yard average on kick-offs.
Promising considering the struggles O’Neill went through last season in field goals recording a 68.8 per cent success rate. His punting average on Saturday was slightly higher than his career average and he boomed a couple too. It was a nice start for O’Neill.
Not comfortable with just one kicker in the fold, General Manager Ed Hervey signed CFL veteran Luca Congi, ex of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Congi has a career average of 80.3 per cent success rate in field goals with his highest average being 88.9 per cent two years ago in Hamilton. Where Congi struggles is punting where his career average is just 38 yards.
Congi was released in the off-season by the Tiger-Cats after they signed Justin Medlock. Congi was consulting for a company and training hoping to get a phone call from a CFL team.
“This game is very unpredictable and you can never control and predict things, it never goes that way,” Congi said. “It went a little longer than I thought but I kept plugging away and just keeping the faith that something would come up and it did.”
What Congi’s role is at the moment is uncertain. O’Neill’s performance last week probably has earned him another chance to perform all three kicking duties against Montreal this week. If O’Neill struggles with doing all three then Congi steps in if the Eskimos can find the roster room. With the importance of the kicking game in CFL, you can bet the Eskimos would make that happen.
Just another test for the Eskimos and their depth this season.
