Grey Cup champions step into Esks lineup
Even with all the injuries, Edmonton more than talented enough to go 6-0
Make no mistake, injuries haven’t been the biggest story of the Edmonton Eskimos’ season.
With all the Ws they’ve been putting up and a chance to start 6-0 for the first time since 1961, this can only be referred to as a season of “winjuries.”
On Friday against the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats (7:30 p.m., TSN, ESPN2, 630 CHED), the Eskimos are entering with an injury list 20 players long, 15 of whom have been a starter at some point this season.
Every unit has been hit, from defensive captain J.C. Sherritt to special-teams captain Blair Smith.
Thankfully, quarterback Mike Reilly is still standing tall. The same can’t be said for the five guys in front of him, given the Eskimos are down two starters along the offensive line from when they last played Hamilton two weeks ago.
But when your Plan B looks almost exactly like the same offensive line he followed to victory in the 2015 Grey Cup final, things could certainly be worse.
Even down to a replacement at left guard for Simeon Rottier — albeit a different backup this time, but a backup for Rottier, nonetheless — it’s the same. The other starters: left tackle Tony Washington, centre Justin Sorensen, right guard Matt O’Donnell and right tackle D’Anthony Batiste.
“In this situation, it’s nice when you can go ahead and put guys in that are still familiar with playing next to each other,” said Batiste, who spent the first five games on the practice roster after rejoining the Eskimos as a free agent in the off-season. “And that’s almost unheard of, to just go ahead and put guys in that are used to playing with each other, have chemistry, recognize each others’ voice and in a crunch-time situation with one or two seconds left on the clock, you hear a call and know where to go.”
The only difference from 2015 is Danny Groulx has taken the place of former Eskimos sixth-man Chris Greaves, while an injury to starting left tackle Joel Figueroa last week sees Washington shift over from right tackle to his previous home at left.
“For the past four years, we’ve been having these same guys up and that’s huge in a sense that our communication goes back to the way we used to do it,” Washington said. “You can just feel the dynamics changing back to the way it used to be.
“These last few games, we’ve been decent but we haven’t played our O-line football. I think this week we’ll start rolling.”
Even talking about making progress instead of simply hoping to hold the fort in the face of two injured starters shows just how deep the Eskimos offence started the season out up front.
“We have so much depth at all of our positions, the starting tackles from that Grey Cup season, that’s a lot of snaps together, so those guys are going to fit in just fine,” Reilly said, pointing to another Grey Cup connection with receiver Kenny Stafford getting activated off the practice squad for the first time this season.
“In addition to that, you’ve got Kenny coming in as a wide receiver, who was our starting Y in the Grey Cup.
“So if those are your backups, you’re in a pretty good situation.”
Unfortunately for Stafford, starting cornerback Arjen Colquhoun was injured in practice late this week, requiring American Mercy Maston to draw in as a starter, which forced the Eskimos to change the ratio to go with three American receivers instead of the usual four they’ve had this year.
So instead of starting for injured wide receiver Duke Williams, Stafford will dress in his place but appear behind Canadian veteran Chris Getzlaf, who is making his first start of 2017.
“He just felt something this week at the very end of practice, enough to hold him out this game,” Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said of the rookie Colquhoun. “With that injury, it has us changing some things around.
“What’s new?”