Esks’ Willis week’s top defensive player
Interception, sack against Blue Bombers earns lineman nod
EDMONTON — Odell Willis’s one-sack, one-interception performance in the Edmonton Eskimos’ victory on Thursday over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers has earned the lineman league defensive player of the week honours.
Willis made the interception, the first pick of his CFL career, in the first quarter to open the scoring in the Eskimos’ 26-3 win over the host Blue Bombers. The 29-yearold, second-year Eskimo also picked up a fumble recovery and recorded two defensive tackles in the game.
The sack runs Willis’s 2014 total to four, good enough to put him in a three-way tie for second in the CFL with the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ John Chick and Toronto Argonauts rookie Tristan Okpalaugo. Willis’s teammate Almondo Sewell and the Montreal Alouettes’ John Bowman are tied for the league lead in sacks with five each.
The B.C. Lions were double trouble for the overmatched Montreal Alouettes on Saturday, with their performances earning them league honours as well.
Emmanuel Arceneaux, who hauled in three touchdowns and 145 yards receiving yards, was named CFL offensive player of the week for his play in the Lions’ 41-5 win over the Alouettes.
And running back Andrew Harris, who compiled 150 yards from scrimmage on 72 rushing and 78 yards receiving — including a 13-yard touchdown reception from backup quarterback John Beck — was named Canadian player of the week for the second week in a row.
Through four games, Harris is the CFL’s leading rusher with 273 yards and the league’s top offensive producer with 518 yards from scrimmage.
Ottawa Redblacks kicker and punter Brett Maher was named special teams player of the week. He went a perfect 6-for-6 on field goals and scored all his teams points, in their first game at TD Place — the franchise’s first-ever win — an 18-17 decision over the Toronto Argonauts.