Cliffhanger goes Eskimos’ way
If the season opener is any indication, it’s going to be quite a year
If the opener was a sample of the season ahead, construction crews should be attaching seat belts to the green and gold seats in Commonwealth Stadium this week.
And instead of kids in free for the first home game Friday against the Montreal Alouettes, they should be setting up ‘You Must Be This Tall’ midway signs for kids to get in to ride this roller coaster.
Watching the Edmonton Eskimos 30-27 last-play walk-off fieldgoal win over the B.C. Lions Saturday night in Vancouver, the thought occurs that the Eskimos may have to outscore their mistakes this year.
The other thought is that they might just be able to do it.
Having two starting linebackers out for the season including middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt who went down with a suspected Achilles injury before halftime, is a double whammy recipe for disaster.
But if you could make sweeping statements about the Eskimos off that game (and there were people in the organization that were quietly making them throughout training camp) they’d be these:
The Eskimos may have lost Derel Walker to the NFL but they are actually improved at receiver.
John White is finally going to have his career year at running back.
Quarterback Mike Reilly with the protection he’s going to get from the veteran offensive line, combined with being able to have a balanced attack, will have his best chance to be all he can be.
The defensive line is going to be dominant and that will make up for a lot that might be wrong at the back end.
A Canadian content star was born.
For openers, it was ‘No Darel Walker? No problem.’
If Walker had not played and Adarius Bowman had the grand total of two catches for 13 yards at any point last year, do you think the Eskimos would have won the game?
Walker and Bowman were the dynamic duo last year combining for 229 catches and 3,350 yards receiving. But, at least until Brandon Zylstra became a factor late in the season, they were a bicycle builtfor-two.
The Eskimos are going with four import receivers this year and Reilly completed 20-of-28 passes for 315 yards with a QB efficiency rating of 132.3. Zylstra caught seven for 152 yards including the 76-yard pass on the second last play of the game and rookie D’haquille ‘Duke’ Williams caught four for 110 starting as a rookie in his first.
White carried 17 times for 104 yards to provide the balance to allow the passing game to work.
All of that was made possible by a first-rate job from the offensive line that allowed only one sack and opened a huge hole for White to hit for 46 yards.
The Eskimos defensive line was dominant and it looks like they’re going to have to be with the two starting linebackers out for the season and the number of players on training wheels behind them.
The defensive line recorded five sacks and had pressure on Jonathan Jennings most of the night.
Odell Willis had two sacks, played some linebacker, and had a great game.
“Old-dell looked like New-dell” was the line of the season so far by Milt Stegall on the TSN panel on the game Willis produced for openers.
Canadian Adam Konar, replacing out-for-the-season Cory Greenwood starting for the first time in his career at the linebacker spot, had an exceptional game.
This night the Eskimos got away with Korey Jones, next man up behind Sherritt at middle linebacker.
Remember head coach Jason Maas saying this was the deepest team he’s ever seen in 17 years in this league?
Regardless, new GM Brock Sunderland, no matter how Jones grades out, is going to have his first test finding help in that area.
Canadian Arjen Colquhoun also appeared to play well starting his first game at cornerback.
There were negatives back there, especially with Johnny Adams less than impressive on the other corner.
There were issues with special teams including an offside penalty on the opening kickoff. In all the Eskimos took 10 penalties for 125 yards. The Lions were more disciplined but had a 90-yard return and a 43-yard gain called back on penalties.
The bottom line was that it was an exciting, entertaining game and a big win for the 2015 Grey Cup champions who came out of opening weekend alone in first place in the Western Conference.
You just wonder if they’re going to have to win them all like that?