Cauz: The matter of the 2014 playoff pivots

What I love about the upcoming playoffs season is they are a complete paradox. On one side, it seems so utterly predictable. Calgary and Edmonton are the two best teams and one of these two Western powerhouses should, nay, will win the Grey Cup. Part of me likes it when the obvious storyline comes to fruition. It mean’s that the regular season meant something, and it means that the team that consistently played the best football for 18 regular season games is rewarded with the leagues top bauble at the end of the year.

Sure upsets are fun, as long as they happen early in the playoffs and that in the end we can all agree that it was the “best” team won that won it all. I mean, what’s the point of investing over six months of your life in a sport if a .500 team gets to be the last team standing?

However, there is another side to this coin that makes this year’s playoffs in fact wildly unpredictable: the quarterbacks. Of the six teams entering the playoff dance, four are led by quarterbacks who have never started a playoff game in their lives. Two other teams are hoping their former Grey Cup winning quarterbacks are healthy enough to start next week. There is so much volatility and inexperience at the most important position in football! How much fun is that? Let’s take a long at the unknown quarterback landscape.

The last time I saw Bo Levi Mitchell throwing a pass in the playoffs was last year in Calgary’s 35-13 loss to the eventual Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders. Of course, he threw a whopping three passes in a game that featured an ineffective Kevin Glenn in the first half and Drew Tate in the second. That’s the interesting thing about the Stamps; they have had so much success despite not being able to fully settle on just one signal caller.

This has been a team waiting for someone to replace Henry Burris, but because of inexperience or in many cases, injury, has yet to find “the guy”. The fact that the Stampeders keep on winning is a testament to their overall collection of talent and coaching acumen. Well, now it seems like Calgary has its answer in Mitchell, who started 15 games and is just 24 years old. Of course, if the playoff shine is too much for him, then questions will once again crop up. Fair or unfair, quarterbacks are judged far more harshly at this time of year. If Mitchell wants to be considered the hands down quarterback of the present and the future, he’s going to prove it in two weeks.

Next up is Mike Reilly. Reilly goes into his Semi-Final contest against Saskatchewan with more career starts than Mitchell and was just voted, for the second year in a row, as the league’s toughest player. I don’t care that his passing numbers took a big dip this year. It’s one thing to throw for a lot of yards for a 4-14 team as he did in 2013. It is a completely other matter when you go 11-3 as a starter (I don’t include Edmonton’s 41-27 win over Toronto, as Reilly was injured after one pass), while posting strong passing numbers and being the leading rushing quarterback in the CFL.

All this praise aside, Reilly has yet to beat Calgary and let’s see how he does against the Roughriders. The playoffs are a completely different animal. Every pass means that much more and the level of commitment from the opposing team to exposing your flaws goes up exponentially. A lot of fans and media types are going to be picking Edmonton to win it all … enjoy that new level of pressure, Mike. I can’t wait to see how you play in these foreign conditions.

The Ticats are looking to get back to the Grey Cup, only this time Hamilton is hoping to repeat last year’s playoff success with a quarterback who has yet to attempt a post-season pass. That is a lot to ask of Zach Collaros. But if there is one quarterback who should be able to handle the pressure, it’s Collaros. Can we at least agree that Week 20’s 29-15 win over Montreal was “playoff-ish”?

Think of the stakes involved. Lose and you give your hated rivals, the Argonauts, a playoff berth. Win and the Eastern Division and a week off is yours. In horrible weather conditions, Collaros, Nick Grigsby and the Tiger-Cats defence delivered yet another home win and a chance to go back to the Grey Cup.

2014 CFL Playoffs: Always better live!
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I’ve written about it in the past, but consider how much pressure was on Collaros coming into this year. It’s not like Hamilton was coming off of a 5-13 season and decided to take a chance on Collaros. Instead, after licking their wounds from the Grey Cup, Kent Austin jettisoned their veteran leader and gave the keys to Collaros. Asking a 26 year old with only a handful of starts to suddenly be the face of the franchise is a tall order. He overcame early-season concussions with an 8-4 record in games he started AND finished, without much of a running game and the loss of Andy Fantuz. Not a bad debut.

The final quarterback who will start his first ever playoff game is the much embattled Jonathan Crompton. Of course, I feel I am one of the few people that is battling with how I feel about Crompton. I understand the positives. Out of the scrap heap of a 1-7 start, Crompton became that steadying influence at quarterback. Troy Smith and Alex Brink were not the answers. Crompton was. You love his toughness and his competitive spirit. Who isn’t rooting for him to succeed? We love stories about players who come from relative obscurity to success.

Yet once again I feel like the Debbie Downer who is making sure there is no alcohol in the punch at the Jonathan Crompton party. But I can’t get past his production as a passer. I know the guy “just wins”, but eventually you need more than that. To all the Montreal Alouettes fans I ask, don’t his numbers scare you just a little bit?
This is a passing league, yet in his 11 games as a starter, Crompton has completed less than 60 per cent of his passes six times. Twice he couldn’t even crack 50 per cent. He has yet to hit 300 yards passing in a game and only twice did he throw multiple touchdown passes in a game. I’ve yelled about this all season, but at some point for a team to be great you need your quarterback to win either a shootout or to pull out a come from behind victory. I know I’m ruining the good times in Montreal, but I need to see more from Crompton. And no, this has nothing to do with my bitterness that your loss to Hamilton means Toronto has been eliminated from the playoffs.

Next up to add even more intrigue into the 2014 playoffs are the two quarterbacks who have gotten it done, yet we have no idea if they’ll even be playing next week. I’m talking about Travis Lulay and Darian Durant. Between them they have two Grey Cup wins as starters. Durant has been to the Grey Cup three times as a starter while Lulay has an MOP and a Grey Cup MVP under his belt. Between them they have been voted on multiple all-star teams and, when healthy, have proven they can carry a team.

That is what we do know about them. What we don’t know is how effective they will be on Sunday. Lulay is off the six-game injured list but has more issues with his shoulders than Atlas (sorry, first year University mythology joke). The 2014 season has been nothing more than a cameo appearance for him. What do you do if you’re Mike Benevides? Kevin Glenn has been inconsistent all year, long mixing brilliant performances with head scratching interceptions.

But on the other side, do you risk the long term health of Lulay by putting him back in the game? The big picture of course is all about the health of the 31-year-old Lulay. He has one year left on his deal and he is the highest-paid player on the team. If he can’t be counted on in the Lions’ biggest game of the season, when can he be trusted? It may be as simple as you treat this year as a wash-out and hope that 2015 Lulay is back to the healthy version that used to be the league’s best quarterback. Either way, who starts and who finishes for the Lions against the Alouettes will be fascinating both on a micro and a macro level.

Finally we end with the man who was the winning quarterback in the 101st Grey Cup, Darian Durant. There is not much that needs to be said. If the doctors say he is ready to go and, more importantly, if Durant says he is fit to play, then he gets the start over Kerry Joseph. What I find curious is his tendon injury is the most significant injury of his CFL career. Durant is a war horse; you can basically count on him starting 15-18 games a season.

But I wonder what will be the mental challenges for an athlete who is experiencing his first impactful injury. Could we see him not take that chance on second and six and try to run for a first down with multiple defenders coming at him? Will he be a bit gun shy against the Eskimos? I wouldn’t blame him if he was. Mind you, when you consider the kind of leader Durant is and how many big games he has been involved in, I’d bet he will hold nothing back.

That is of course if he is able to play. I hope he does. Who doesn’t want to see the young, up and coming Mike Reilly taking on the tested playoff veteran in Darian Durant?

Predictable versus unpredictable; young stars with no playoff pedigree versus the “old” guys who know how to get it done . . . can’t wait for this weekend!