Eskimos will see familiar faces with Lions
So many Lions have extra motivation to put an end to Commonwealth curse
If all the wheels hadn’t come off the Edmonton Eskimobile so spectacularly in front of 31,334 fans at their home opener, the remainder of the schedule for the first third of the CFL team’s season would be a series of speed bumps.
B.C., @ Toronto, Toronto, Bye, @ Montreal.
Bingo. Bango. Bongo. Zongo. With Toronto quarterback Ricky Ray out for the year and likely his career (until he shows up here next year as a Jason Maas offensive coach), and with Montreal on a CFL-record losing skid, if Edmonton can dispatch their divisional opponent Lions, it should be smooth sledding for a month.
But the way the almost totally remodelled Eskimos defensive line failed to fire against Jeremiah Masoli and the Hamilton TigerCats here last Friday, maybe not so fast, fellas.
And with the way the young, injury riddled, ridiculously inexperienced Edmonton defensive secondary turned into a fire drill, the following question looms large over tonight’s game against the Lions at Commonwealth Stadium: How long will it take for the Eskimos to get out of their own way on defence?
The Lions generally fly in, donate the two points, and head home. They’ve lost their last five games here.
Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly has won eight of his last nine against B.C.
And it’s not just here. The Lions have managed to win only three of their last 14 games on the prairies, including two starts in Regina.
That would take care of the storyline if it weren’t for all the other storylines involving, if you’ll excuse the expression, Edmonton’s pipeline to B.C.
There are so many Eskimos angles in covering the Lions this year that a Lions win would make a great story.
The Lions are coming off a bye week with a 1-0 record and have had two weeks to plan for the Eskimos. And they have the added bonus of last week’s game film that was essentially a road map on how to beat the Eskimos. And now, you have to figure there’s an incentive for many of the Lions facing the Eskimos.
Ed Hervey was fired as the Eskimos’ general manager and hired in B.C.
Former Eskimos president and CEO Rick LeLacheur, who stepped down because of health concerns, came out of retirement to take on the president’s job in Vancouver.
And there’s the return of the selfproclaimed ‘Mayor of Commonwealth,’ Odell Willis, and several other players that Hervey rounded up.
Friday night’s contest will also mark Wally Buono’s final regular season game coaching in Commonwealth Stadium.
LeLacheur, for one, is going to feel especially strange. He grew up going to Eskimos games at Clarke Stadium. He was on the board of directors for six years, board chairman in 1987-88, and chairman or co-chairman of every Edmonton Grey Cup committee dating back to the first one in 1984.
Our guys will be playing former teammates for the first time in a big game, a West Division game at home. I think that’s a great thing.
“I remember we moved the Grey Cup up a week because of concerns for the weather and it was cold, cold, cold. On the following Sunday, when it should have been held, it was a perfect day for football,” he said.
After heading up the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, LeLacheur was asked to run the 2002 Grey Cup for the final five months, then hired to head the organization through to 2011, when he retired due to health concerns.
“I’m now six years cancer free and really enjoying being back in football. And I look good in orange,” he said with a laugh. LeLacheur said he’s enjoying watching Hervey and Buono work together.
“Wally is a great people person as well as a very good coach, and Ed and Wally are working very, very well together. Their skill sets complement each other.”
Buono may have the record for most CFL wins overall, but you wouldn’t know that if the only place you watched him coach was here in Edmonton.
He’s won only 12 of 36 regular season games at Commonwealth.
This will be Jason Maas’ sixth game coaching against the legend. Maas has won four of five.
Maas spent his pre-game press gathering playing down that angle.
“Any time you’re coming off a bye, you have the extra week to plan, and rest on your side, and all those things going for you, but they’re still coming into our building and we’re coming off a loss,” he said.
“The opponent just happens to have a lot of people we’ve been associated with. Our guys will be playing former teammates for the first time in a big game, a West Division game at home. I think that’s a great thing. We’re trying to focus on ourselves.”
To help fix the problem in the defensive secondary, the Eskimos will play four Americans, demoting Canadian Jordan Hoover and bringing on cornerback Maurice McKnight. That meant going with two Canadians at receiver with Nate Behar drawing his first career start.
This game, at this point of the season, has the potential to send either team off in a different direction than the one predicted for them at the start of the season.