Esks’ QB Harris gets two games to settle in before semifinal
Quarterback eager to get some repetitions against Saskatchewan after injury layoff
Trevor Harris couldn’t have asked for a much better scenario coming in off a late-season injury.
Unless, of course, it was to avoid winding up injured in the first place.
The Edmonton Eskimos quarterback returns to action this week off the six-game injured list where he’s been rehabbing an issue with his throwing arm.
And he does so not only knowing his team has already clinched the crossover playoff spot with a date against the Montreal Alouettes in the East Division semifinal Nov. 10, but that he’s also got two regular-season games left to serve as sort of a playoff runway.
And that will allow for the usual shaking of cobwebs and getting back in the groove for the quarterback who led the league in passing yards until he was forced to the sidelines partway through the Labour Day Rematch.
“It’s one of those deals where I haven’t played since Labour Day, really, or thrown a football since then, but now I have an opportunity to come out here and play,” said Harris, who still sits in the top four with 3,706 passing yards despite missing four and three quarters worth of games. “But it’s not really about me, it’s about us as a unit, as a team jelling well and getting this thing going.
“So here we are with just two weeks left in the season. Hopefully we can get this machine working with some oil and get rolling.”
The Eskimos will have to do so against a Saskatchewan Roughriders squad that has won four of its last five and sits tied atop the West Division standings. The teams play a back-to-back series to close out the regular season beginning Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium (5 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED).
And you can bet Saturday’s game can’t come soon enough for Harris.
“Talking to the docs, they said, ‘There’s a chance you rehab this and it doesn’t respond and it’s one of those injuries where it may not respond well and you may not be able to come back this year,’” Harris said. “‘But just attack it, take it one day at a time.’ But I thought that was a really out-of-this-world possibility that I wouldn’t be back this year.
“I felt very strongly that I would, it was just a matter of taking time to heal, which is not something I felt that I wanted to do, was take time.”
Especially when it meant watching helplessly from the sideline the next game as the team suffered its fourth straight loss following a 6-3 start to the season.
As up and down as things have been since, the Eskimos still have a chance to come out on top, finish with a winning record, capture some all-important momentum heading into the playoffs and, as icing on the cake, enjoy playing the role of spoiler in their own division.
“Absolutely, every game is an opportunity to win and to grow as a team,” Harris said. “Every week we have is practice opportunities to grow and become the team that we want to be.
“There’s not a team out there that we fear, there’s not a team out there that we don’t feel like we can go out there and do what we need to do and accomplish the goals that we have set as a team.”
The Eskimos are handing Harris the reins Saturday, when he will make his first start since Sept. 7, but he is tempering his enthusiasm at the moment so as not to overextend the rehabbed arm.
“Of course, and that’s kind of why they have me on a pitch count right now and we’re just taking it a day at a time to see how it reacts and what happens this week,” Harris said.
“But I don’t anticipate any setback so I’m excited about being back here and getting to play.”
Hopefully we can get this machine working with some oil and get rolling.