Johany Jutras/The Canadian Press
I bet you thought I would write 5,000 words about how this is finally the year that the East would over take the West as the dominant division in the CFL. From Hamilton whipping up on Winnipeg on Thursday to Toronto’s thrilling double overtime win over Saskatchewan to finish off Week 2 I was tempted to do so. But than I remembered I’ve written this column in the past only to be proven horribly wrong about five weeks later. Also we’re only two weeks into the season, even I’m not that reactionary.
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Only 31 per cent of fans think Travis Lulay can help the Lions win their first game of 2015 this weekend. What do you say? |
Instead I want to focus on two players, Travis Lulay and Nik Lewis, who both accomplished something they had not done since 2013: Score a touchdown. Lewis caught a six-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter of Montreal’s surprising 29-11 win over Calgary while Travis Lulay hit Austin Collie for a 26-yard touchdown in the third quarter of the Lions’ 27-16 loss to Ottawa.
Lewis has always been one of my favourite players. Over a decade this bowling ball of power has constantly beaten defensive backs for over 11,000 yards. Unfortunately the past couple of seasons have not been kind to Lewis as age and injuries have taken their toll on a receiver who put up nine consecutive 1,000 yard seasons. Of course you can’t really blame Lewis for this, last time I checked Father Time was undefeated, is undefeated and will always be undefeated. Well on Friday night Lewis was able to turn back the clock. Yes his final numbers were not mind blowing but he made the most of his three catches.
The first one, a 23 yarder, was all brains and brawn. Lewis, recognizing that he was uncovered seven yards downfield did the smart thing and simply slowed down his pattern and looked back to Rakeem Cato giving his quarterback an easy completion. The highlight of this play was watching Lewis perfectly execut the always difficult spin-move/drag a defensive back combination as Lewis gained 15 more yards with DBs Joshua Bell and Buddy Jackson wondering what the hell had just happened. Hell, even the Russian judge gave Lewis top marks for that move. Two plays later Montreal would score the opening touchdown of the game. It would be a lead they would not relinquish.
His longest catch, a 36-yard strike from Cato, saw Brandon Smith take a bad angle on Lewis and an even worse tackle attempt as Lewis left him in his gargantuan dust. Even when Bell managed to bring him down Lewis still used his considerable momentum to pick up another four to five yards.
The icing on this 240-pound cake had to be Lewis’ six-yard touchdown catch which was a classic case of power on power. I won’t rip Brandon Smith for this one, he went low and tried to tackle Lewis in the hip area. It looked like a textbook tackle with the one slight problem of Lewis knocking Smith down and running over him for the score. This play was made that much more entertaining with Lewis knocking away all the sideline advertising to go and celebrate with the fans. I imagine a number of Stampeder fans couldn’t help but to enjoy that moment while wishing he was back in Calgary. Big picture you can see why Calgary’s management let Lewis go but on this night it was Lewis: 1; Calgary’s Defence: 0 with several bruises.
WATCH: Where did Lewis’ catch land him in Week 2’s #KegSize Plays of the Week?
