Suddenly, O’Brien is veteran on kicking crew

Danny O’Brien has gone from the new kid on the block to the most veteran member of the Edmonton Eskimos kicking trio in the span of one week.

The third-string quarterback, who only joined the Eskimos in the off-season after spending his first three Canadian Football League seasons with the Ottawa Redblacks, came in as the new guy to hold on field goals alongside long-snapper Ryan King and kicker Sean Whyte.

But with both Whyte and King going down with leg injuries in last week’s roster-depleting win over the B.C. Lions, O’Brien came into Friday’s game as the only remaining piece of a puzzle that is seeing Hugh O’Neill handle kicking duties and offensive lineman David Beard snap on field goals.

“That was quite a flip from being the new guy to this,” O’Brien said. “But Hugh’s played here in the CFL longer than I’ve been in the league and Beardo’s excited to do it and has gotten better each and every day. So it’s been pretty smooth, to be honest.

“I keep it simple, man. I’m just going to put it on the tee and let him do the rest.”

The crew started slow on Friday, missing their first point-after attempt of the game wide right. Most of the week in practice was spent by gauging the distance of the snap to see where the laces end up facing out the highest percentage of the time, O’Brien said.

He didn’t do any holding in last week’s fourth quarter, with both the primary and emergency kickers, Whyte and King, hurt and the offence running on all three downs. It’s a good thing he didn’t need to, either.

“They told me if Odell (Willis) has to go in to kick one, he’s a lefty so I’d be holding on the other side,” O’Brien said. “But as you saw on third-and-goal, we were going to go for it.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

FOUR-MIDABLE FRONT

The secret to the Edmonton Eskimos’ early success out of the gates isn’t a secret at all.

The defensive front four has powerhoused the team to the top of the standings throughout the first-third of the season, pressuring opposing quarterbacks on the way to a league low in passing yards surrendered.

It’s the same formula the Eskimos rode to a Grey Cup championship two seasons ago. And with Jason Maas’s coaching staff finding early success its second year together — as Chris Jones’ did back then — they aren’t about to reinvent that wheel.