Tale of two Harrises in crucial CFL clash
Esks’ qb and bombers’ rb in west spotlight
Harris versus Harris for MOP? OK. It might be a little too early for that.
But Trevor Harris of Edmonton and Andrew Harris of Winnipeg could decide first place in the CFL West Friday.
Eskimos quarterback Trevor and Blue Bombers running back Andrew are both having most outstanding player seasons through the halfway mark of the schedule and go 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.
The Bombers’ Andrew Harris became the all- time Canadian leader in yards from scrimmage last week with 13,377 to break Ben Cahoon’s record of 13,368 yards.
Andrew is 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.
The Eskimos’ 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’ll be a season of seasons for Harris in his first year as an Eskimo. In his CFL most outstanding player season with the Eskimos, Mike Reilly recorded 5,830 yards passing. Only Doug Flutie, Anthony Cal
villo, 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, in which the Eskimos not only need to make it 5- 0 at home, but need to win by eight to take the season series after losing 28- 21 in their third game of the season in Winnipeg. The interesting thing is, in that game 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 didn’t complete a touchdown pass or generate one on the ground either. All 21 Edmonton points were produced by 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 Friday in Toronto he had been having trouble getting the ball into the end zone.
Obviously Andrew will be a focus of Eskimos defensive co- ordinator Phillip Lolley’s planning. 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 four to six games with an injured throwing arm, Streveler gets in and he may be of bigger concern to an Edmonton defence that has registered 30 sacks this season.
Linebacker Don Unamba, who missed the first game on the injured list, excels in versatility in rushing the passer, tackling on the run and dropping back into coverage, and told me after practice Monday he believes this will set up as an interesting test for the Eskimos defence because the change in starting quarterbacks changes the 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 a more mobile guy. He’s kind of like having a running back at quarterback.
“They’re going to be doing some different things.” 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.”
Edmonton head coach Jason Maas went into the week expressing his own 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. But he’s going to be taking over the whole game, so now you ask yourself now how much they’ll be different?
“Obviously you have to contain him. We can let him out of that area. That’s important this week. We know that.
“Matt or Trevor, if they get out, can hurt you a little bit and get a first down. 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 by the usual significant six or seven minutes.
So maybe it is Harris versus Harris.