It’s Harris vs. Harris as Esks meet Bombers
Offensive stars enjoying career seasons heading into key midseason showdown
EDMONTON Harris versus Harris for Most Outstanding Player?
OK. It might be a little too early for that.
But Edmonton quarterback Trevor Harris and Winnipeg
Blue Bombers running back Andrew Harris could decide on Friday who finishes first in the CFL West.
Both players are enjoying Mop-calibre seasons through the halfway mark of the schedule and come into the biggest game of the season so far as the men on the marquee at Commonwealth Stadium.
The two head into the second half of the CFL season chasing statistical history.
Andrew Harris became the all-time Canadian leader in yards from scrimmage last week with 13,377, breaking Ben Cahoon’s record of 13,368 yards.
He’s on pace for more than 1,600 yards on the ground and more than 600 yards receiving with his totals of 819 yards rushing and 322 yards receiving at the turn of the CFL’S 18-game schedule. He’s on a pace to break the yards-from-scrimmage record for a Canadian of 2,157, set by Jon Cornish in 2013.
Trevor Harris, a CFL player of the week with three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns to go with 420 yards through the air, has completed 260 of 361 passes for a remarkable 72-per-cent completion rate and 3,051 yards for his first half of the season.
Double that and it will be a season of seasons for Harris in his first year with the Eskimos. In his CFL most outstanding player season with the Eskimos, Mike Reilly passed for 5,830 yards. Only Doug Flutie, Anthony Calvillo, Kent Austin and David Archer have topped 6,000 yards passing in a single season in CFL history.
But this is about winning a single game, a big game, which the Eskimos need to stretch their mark to 5-0 at home.
They also need to win by eight points to capture the season series after losing 28-21 in their third game of the season in Winnipeg. The interesting thing about that game is that neither Harris really got it done against the top two defences in the league.
For the Bombers, Andrew was held to a mere 34 yards rushing on 10 carries and caught only two passes for 17 yards.
For the Eskimos, Trevor threw for 345 yards, but he didn’t complete a touchdown pass.
All 21 Edmonton points came courtesy of seven Sean Whyte field goals.
The Edmonton quarterback has been putting up big numbers all season, but until he scored touchdowns on the first three series against the Argos on
Friday in Toronto, he had been having trouble getting the ball into the end zone.
Obviously Andrew Harris will be a focus of Eskimos defensive co-ordinator Phillip Lolley’s game plan. But, and this may seem strange to say, a bigger focus may be on stopping the running of quarterback Chris Streveler.
With Matt Nichols sidelined from four to six games with an injured throwing arm, Streveler starts, and he may be a bigger concern for an Edmonton defence that has registered 30 sacks this season.
Linebacker Don Unamba, who missed the first game on the injured list, excels in rushing the passer, tackling on the run and dropping back into coverage. He said after practice on Monday that he believes this will be an interesting test for the Eskimos defence, because the change in starting QBS alters the Blue Bombers offence significantly.
“With their situation, that could almost be in their favour, if you think about it. I’m sure they’ll switch up their game plan and play a little different. The new guy is more mobile. He’s kind of like having a running back at quarterback. They’re going to be doing some different things.”
And what about Andrew Harris?
“Obviously he’s been a good back for a while now. We’re going to have to gang tackle him. Everybody is going to have to go to the ball,” said Unamba.
“I’m sure, with their quarterback being out, they’re going to feed him the ball and let him be the anchor on offence.”
Head coach Jason Maas expressed his thoughts on the subject.
“Obviously Streveler is different than most quarterbacks in our league, with the legs he has and his ability to run, and how tough he is,” Maas said.
“He can also throw it. But the question is if they’ll be different. It’s different from putting him in for a play here or there, or a series here or there. He’s going to be taking over the whole game, so now you ask yourself how much they’ll be different.
“Obviously you have to contain him. We can let him out of that area. That’s important for us this week.
“Streveler can go the distance when he gets out. He’s tough to bring down. He’s a big, strong kid. He’s very impressive. He’s going to be a challenge.
“We have to play team defence, be careful about setting edges, and gang tackling is paramount. That’s generally what we do and what we’re all about, but it’s as important as ever playing a team like this. We have to be mindful of what our game plan is going to be so we can play fast.”
Uh, yes. And don’t forget about Andrew Harris.
The best way to handle all that is for Edmonton’s Trevor Harris to win the time-of-possession battle by the usual significant six or seven minutes.
So maybe it does boil down to Harris versus Harris after all.