Friendly RIVALS ready for ON -FIELD battle
Redblacks’ Madu, Roughriders’ Powell both excelling in early stages of CFL season
As he walks off a field that’s so familiar to him, Willie P flashes The Smile — that awesome, wide grin he carried around Ottawa from 2015 to 2018 (he missed the 2016 CFL season with an Achilles injury).
Now the starting running back for the Saskatchewan Roughriders — William Powell signed there as a free agent in February — he says Thursday night’s game against the Ottawa Redblacks, back in his old stomping grounds, is just another football game. But you know it’s a bit more than that to the 31-year-old. Not that he wants to talk trash about his former employer.
There’s this: Powell was going to win the CFL rushing title in 2018. He had a nice lead on Winnipeg’s Andrew Harris with two games to go, but the Redblacks sat Powell, wanting to make sure he was healthy and rested for the playoffs. Powell said all the right things, but he wasn’t happy; he couldn’t have been. He wound up with 1,362 yards rushing. Harris played just enough in the final game of the season to get 1,390 yards. There was a cash bonus attached to leading the league in rushing; the Redblacks still paid it.
“I wanted to be on the field, for sure,” Powell said.
Then there’s this: Powell agreed to re-sign with the Redblacks on a one-year contract before the 2018 season. He had to come down from his initial ask. Before this season’s free-agency period, there was another contract ask. The Redblacks decided, instead, they’d go with Powell’s backup, Mossis Madu, who’s also 31 years old.
“It is what it is,” said Powell. “At the end of the day, it’s the coach’s decision.”
On Thursday, Powell will line up against his former team and several former teammates.
“When the schedule came out, I knew (this game) was early in the season, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I circled it,” Powell said.
So far, it’s worked out for both teams. Last week, Powell had 20 rushes for 104 yards and a touchdown in a loss to Hamilton. Madu had 24 carries for 112 yards in a win over Calgary.
Asked about transitioning from Powell to Madu, Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said, “They’re both really good running backs. We had planned last year to use them both; that’s not the way it worked out. William just kind of got on a roll (last year) so we didn’t want to mess with it.”
Said Madu: “It was nothing against me, it was nothing personal. If I was the head coach, I wouldn’t have pulled him out. He was absolutely destroying people.”
Madu and Powell are friends; they’ve known each other since they worked out for the New York Jets a few years back. They texted back and forth Wednesday and had dinner together.
“He wants to see me do well and I want to see him do well,” Powell said.
“That’s my brother,” Madu said. “We talked all off-season. We made a goal, we challenged each other. He wants to come out of the West and I want to come out of the East as far as all-star backs. We’re definitely cut from the same cloth. We’re laid-back, clowns, goofy — I’d say he’s way more goofy than me. That’s why we mesh well, we both like to have fun, not take ourselves too seriously.”
THE JOY OF SACKS?: The Redblacks are coming off a game in which they sacked Calgary QB Bo Levi Mitchell three times. So maybe that’s a new trend for a team that had the third-worst sack total (33) in the CFL last season, ahead of only Hamilton (31) and Toronto (24). Then again, sacks don’t tell the whole story. (Funnily enough, Ottawa’s sack leader in 2018, A.C. Leonard, with six, was pulled from the starting lineup late last season and is now with the Roughriders.)
“I think you can skew statistics,” Redblacks defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe said. “We preach about points, sacks and turnovers. Sacks, especially on first down, have the ability to change field position and make it very hard on the offence to convert on second down. What you don’t always see is what does a pressure do? It may not be a sack, but it’s something that may cause an errant throw or a turnover. We don’t stand on a soapbox and say, ‘(Sacks) is a stat we need to have.’ Points are No. 1 for us (the defence allowed an average of 21.7 per game last season, third-best in the league) and are we playing consistent football? That’s what’s important for us.” SECOND AND LONG: Redblacks DB Sherrod Baltimore says there’s no way Ottawa will take Saskatchewan lightly, even with Cody Fajardo starting in place of injured Zach Collaros at QB. Said Baltimore: “We’re focused on Sask, they have a good program. Coach Campbell tells us to respect them, don’t sleep on them. We have to make sure we get this win.” Speaking about Ottawa’s win over Calgary, he said: “We played fast, we played aggressive and physical. We had some mistakes, blown coverage ... but we won the game.” ... Campbell says having a lot of familiar faces around has helped the Redblacks in the early going. “A lot of people were talking about the (players) that weren’t here,” Campbell said. “But we actually have a whole bunch of (players) who are still here. The good news is there’s still room to grow. Having a lot of guys back — 22 starters on offence and defence were here last year — that makes a big difference.”
He wants to come out of the West and I want to come out of the East as far as all-star backs.