Can Eskimos play the cohesive game?

The theory was advanced to Marcus Howard in the form of a question: Are the 1-3 Montreal Alouettes the Roger Federer of the CFL? A once-great champion in rapid decline, ripe for the taking by a young club on the make like the 1-3 Edmonton Eskimos?

If only they could put something resembling a complete game together, that is.

The Eskimos rush end, a nasty defensive weapon, but nobody’s fool, wasn’t endorsing the theory.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Howard said. “I think it’s more the scheme they’re (Montreal) doing right now.

“I mean, they have a whole new coaching staff. It’s just going to take them a while to get adjusted to things. Kind of like ourselves. Basically, our whole coaching staff (except head coach Kavis Reed) is different. It’s taking longer for us (to adjust) than I would like and I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing with them.”

What does seem clear is the Alouettes and Eskimos, linked in CFL history as great Grey Cup rivals, both are seeing Thursday night’s game in Montreal from opposite sides of the same lens.

The Alouettes, who played in eight Grey Cup games from 200010, including victories in 2002, ’09’ and ’10, are trying to recapture that dominance with a largely veteran team, led by quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who turns 41 in a month.

The Eskimos, learning on the fly, are trying to elevate their game.

Like Federer, who has reached out for a new, big-headed racket to recapture his old magic, the Alouettes are trying out a new head coach in Dan Hawkins, who is finding the fastidious Marc Trestman, now head man for the Chicago Bears, a mighty tough act to follow.

They sprinted to a 24-0 early lead against the Stampeders in Calgary last weekend, before giving up 35 straight points and eventually losing 38-27. Visions of Federer losing in four sets to 99th ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky in four sets in the second round at Wimbledon last month.

And no disrespect is meant to the Stampeders, a formidable opponent. But a few years back, Calvillo and the Alouettes were a mortal lock with any significant lead, much less a 24-point one.

Reed, like Howard, was loathe to voice the judgment that the Alouettes are on the downhill side of Mont-Royal, as it were.

“They are a very talented, veteran team,” Reed said. “They have the ability to get that power serve in and ace you if you’re not on the top of your game and able to return the serve and hold your court.

“We really have to be smart. Because they’re a veteran group, if they get any momentum going, it could be a long day for you. People are talking about the fact that they lost a 24-point lead.

“It took a lot to get a 24-point lead. That’s where I’m looking at: they didn’t lose a lead, they got a lead. We have to be smart not to allow them to jump out on us because we’re not built to be able to come back right now.”

The Eskimos, trying to grow around 28-year-old quarterback Mike Reilly and a reconstructed offensive line, will be as effective this season as the growth curve for Reilly and the O-line permits.

Reilly has shown big-time ability in spurts, such as the first-half scoring drive in B.C. on Saturday when he marched the Eskimos down the field for a touchdown to tie the game 10-10 and give Edmonton some momentum.

It’s sustaining that momentum that’s the issue right now for the Eskimos, or one of them, at least.

“What we’re seeing is a football team, as youthful as it is, they’re starting to understand,” Reed said. “I’m not trying to be the prize motivator, but coming out of this last B.C. game, there are so many positives that we can accentuate.

“There’s so many things on all three sides of the ball that happened so well in that football game. We actually got to see what we’re capable of doing as an offence, what our talent level really is defensively and how well we play special teams.

“Now, to be able to amalgamate the efforts that we’ve had over the course of four games and put a complete, 60-minute game together is the key to getting two points.”

Reilly believes that continuity is coming.

“It comes down to being focused every single play and not thinking too far ahead and not being concerned about the score, just executing each individual play,” Reilly said.

“It is difficult to get a long stretch of seven or eight or nine plays in a drive.

“When you’re able to do that, it kind of defeats the morale of the other team and keeps their defence on the field. It’s not sitting there and banking on a big play happening in the drive ... it’s just executing each individual play, having success on first down, so that you’re in second and short or second and medium, rather than second and long, and not having penalties that kill your drives.”

It’s also about the quarterback learning to link the plays together, finding ways to avoid a string of two-and-outs. It’s a process and it takes time.

“It is a good feeling when we get into that rhythm, and obviously we’d like to see it happen more during the game,” Reilly said.

“We’ve had good stretches where it does happen, but if we can string that together, at least get a couple of those going per quarter, then we’ll be much more successful.”

Are the Eskimos close to that sort of breakthrough? Reilly was asked.

“Yeah, each week we’ve had some things that have gone wrong for us, and we’ve learned from those mistakes. I think we’ve overcome them, but we have yet to put together a complete game.”

We’ll have to wait until Thursday night to see if the Eskimos now are capable of a stitching together a performance such as the cohesive game Stakhovsky assembled at Wimbledon to knock off Federer. It’s football; it’s complicated. There are more moving parts than a singles tennis match.

Still, sooner or later, they have to be in sync.

Don’t they?