Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
I’m not sure the CFL could have put together a better opening weekend to the 2016 season if it tried. Football is back for real and it was back with a vengeance in Week 1 of the season. This week’s Monday Morning Quarterback looks at some early indications for the defending champs, a banner performance in Vancouver and a whole lot more.
Early worry
Heading into the season, my biggest area of concern for the defending Grey Cup Champion Edmonton Eskimos was on the defensive side of the ball. Things were a little less dicey on the offensive side of the ball knowing the personnel in place and the track record of incoming head coach Jason Maas. Well, one week into the season didn’t do a whole lot to ease those worries.
Before we go any further, we need to acknowledge just how darn good that game was between Edmonton and the Ottawa REDBLACKS. The Grey Cup rematch had absolutely everything and was a thrill to watch. For the Eskimos, though, being entertaining is only good when it puts you on the proper side of the win-loss column.
The biggest area of concern for Edmonton was what we saw in the defensive backfield on Saturday night. To see the defending champs torched for almost 600 yards through the air was hard to watch at times and didn’t do much to quell the fears that existed in some circles heading into the season.
Chris Williams on his way to the end zone during Ottawa’s season-opening win (The Canadian Press)
Those fears existed because of the significant personnel losses Edmonton suffered in the secondary during the off-season. We’ve talked about it in this column a few times and even touched on it last week; John Ojo (injury), Aaron Grymes (NFL), and Otha Foster (Saskatchewan) are all significant losses, especially on the wide side of the field.
How things go from here is going to be interesting. I love Pat Watkins, but he’s 33 years old and isn’t as effective as he once was. Watkins and Marcell Young are the two holdover starters from last year’s defensive backfield, giving you a pretty good idea as to how much turnover there’s been.
Now, I’m not going to write this unit off completely just yet. It’s only one week in and, with so much change, it’s not a total surprise to see some growing pains early. But this is going to be a test for general manager Ed Hervey. Can the group he’s assembled take some big steps in the coming weeks? And can Hervey bring in bodies to fix things if we don’t see things improve?
One thing is for certain after Week 1: the Eskimos need to be better in defensive coverage. If we don’t see some big leaps in the near future, it could be a long year.
Great expectations
The aforementioned Chris Jones has to wait to debut his new look Saskatchewan Roughriders. After a Week 1 bye, the Riders don’t start their season until Thursday when they open things up at home to the Toronto Argonauts. It’ll be our first look at a team with lofty expectations for the 2016 campaign.
If I had one word of caution to fans in Regina it would be to be patient. I’m not saying the Riders won’t be good early on, because they very well might be. But much like the Eskimos have undergone a ton of change, Saskatchewan enters the season with a very different looking group from the end of 2015. Sometimes these things take time to really gel.
Now, if you look at Jones’s first year with Edmonton, things got off to a pretty rousing start. The Eskimos started the 2014 campaign with four straight wins as Jones led them to a turnaround 12-6 season. It would be amazing if he could do that with the Riders, but it shouldn’t be the expectation.
» Season Preview: How high can the Riders fly in 2016?
Riders fans have to wait just a little bit longer to see Chris Jones’ changes (The Canadian Press)
I have no doubt Saskatchewan will be a drastically improved team in 2016. Even if the Riders hadn’t made the significant personnel changes they did, a healthy Darian Durant is enough to help the team back to respectability. As we all know, though, respectable isn’t enough for the Riders. This team wants to win and it wants to win now.
I think Saskatchewan will win its fair share of games this year. The Riders look like a pretty decent team that should be able to hang with everyone in the West Division. My only caution is to give them a little bit of time, because it doesn’t always click right away.
Rainey day
It sure is fun watching explosive players do their thing. Chris Rainey was doing just that on Saturday night for the BC Lions as they opened their season with a 20-18 win over the Calgary Stampeders. It was Rainey’s 72-yard punt return in the fourth quarter that put the Lions ahead for good and it put the exclamation mark on a banner game.
If Brandon Banks is the most explosive player, or at least returner, in the CFL then Rainey has to at least hold that crown in the West Division. The guy is so fun to watch and has the ability to change the game on any given return.
It’s a luxury that few teams have in this league. Banks clearly brings that element to the Tiger-Cats while Stefan Logan is always a reliable threat for Montreal. Otherwise, we’re not talking about any other players who can turn a game on its side in the blink of an eye.
Rainey is an easy guy to root for, too. He’s spoken openly about some of the challenges he had to overcome growing up in Florida and even his path in pro football has been an arduous one at times. But Rainey has found himself a home with the Lions and after the work he did last season and his start to this season, that’s not going to be changing anytime soon.
Quick hits
I must admit, watching live CFL football was difficult this weekend. I was in Buffalo, N.Y. for the NHL Draft so I watched most of my action on PVR when I got back home yesterday. I did get to watch one game in its entirety, however, and it was a pretty cool experience.
The Stamps and Lions were on ESPN 2 south of the border on Saturday night and it was the perfect way to wrap things up after a busy weekend running around a draft floor. I thought it was really cool to see the league I love showcased nationally south of the border and the game didn’t disappoint, either.
Finally, our conversation last week about Jeremiah Masoli seems to have been a well-timed one. In last week’s column, we talked about the progression of Hamilton’s quarterback since his rather dismal first start with the team in 2014. The guy we saw torch the Argos on Thursday was definitely not that guy.
Masoli threw for 318 yards and three touchdowns in a 42-20 road win for the Tiger-Cats and he looked great doing so. Zach Collaros is Hamilton’s guy and no one should dispute that. But with Masoli performances like that, the Ticats can allow to really be cautious with Collaros while he’s on the mend. There’s no need to rush Collaros back right now because, going back to last season, his understudy is proving he can get the job done too.
