ESKIMOS BACKUP REBOUNDS FROM FUMBLE IN IMPRESSIVE FASHION
It wasn’t how Shaq Cooper started, it was how he finished that counted.
Making his first start of the 2019 Canadian Football League season in place of injured Edmonton Eskimos running back C.J. Gable, the second-year rusher helped his team to a 26-0 win over the visiting Toronto Argonauts.
But it couldn’t have started out much more cringeworthy for the always likable Fort Hayes product, who had all his teammates pulling for him to make a triumphant return from an injury suffered in training camp.
And it looked like there was some rust that had to be knocked off, as the 5-foot-10, 190-pound native of Coral Gables, Fla., fumbled the ball away after taking a handoff at Toronto’s two yardline on Edmonton’s opening possession.
“That guy, he gets paid, too,” Cooper said of Argos safety Robert Woodson, who stripped the ball that was immediately recovered by cornerback Alden Darby. “I shouldn’t have fumbled. It happens, it’s football. I got over it fast.
“I went back out there. The coaches told me to flush it, let it go like it never happened. Go and do your job. And that’s what I did.”
To the tune of 128 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, to go with 48 more yards on five receptions.
“Any time you haven’t played football for a good portion — or any — of the year, no pre-season games, it’s hard,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “We don’t wear pads in practice, we’re not allowed to anymore, so there is no contact in practice ever. So it’s very difficult to simulate game speed and game hits. So we’ve just got to work on that with him.
“It cost us there on the goalline. That’s been our Achilles heel on offence all year, is goalline situations and turnovers, or just getting stopped. We’ve got to stop it. But he did bounce back and had some tremendous runs, tremendous plays throughout the game that helped us win. I’d rather think of the positives than the negatives.”
And there is plenty of positivity when it comes to Cooper’s young resume. In three starts since joining the Eskimos as a rookie last season, he has hit triple digits on the ground twice.
“That’s the goal in every game, to try to get 100 — most definitely try to get the win, though,” Cooper said.
“You asked me the day before the game about my potential and I told you I would show you. That was the goal.
“I was more worried about protection and everybody being on me about protection,” he continued. “Once again, I gave up no sacks, I got the job done and we got the win.”
Cooper’s not simply tooting his own horn, either. Keeping quarterback Trevor Harris’s jersey clean is a major point of pride throughout an Eskimos pass protection unit that has surrendered just a single sack throughout the first third of the season.
It’s not the easiest job, backing up a workhorse like Gable, who sits fourth overall with 448 rushing yards in five games and is primed for a career year after last season becoming the first Eskimos player to rush for 1,000 yards since 2011.
“It’s not, but you’ve got to play your role, wait your turn and be patient,” Cooper said. “I felt like he still could have gone last week, but you’ve got to do what’s best for you and be ready for this week.
“When your number’s called, you’ve got to be prepared. Even though I didn’t practise for all of camp, the coaches prepared me right and that’s what we get paid for, to go out there and do our job.”
Regardless of who gets the start.
“We have great backs: Him, Alex (Taylor) is good, too,” said Gable, who is back in the saddle for Saturday’s road game against the Calgary Stampeders (5 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED).
“So I’ve got a great backup and our team’s not worried if I go down. We have somebody else that will be able to pick up the slack.
“They have faith in (Cooper), it turned out great for him, too. He did great, he had 100-and-some yards, he did everything right.”