Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Heading into the season, I thought there would be a good chance we’d be talking about the quarterback in situation in Ottawa a few times. After all, with Trevor Harris joining Henry Burris in the off-season, the REDBLACKS boasted two bona fide number one pivots. We’re not even halfway through the 2016 campaign, though, and we’ve spent way more time on this topic than I ever thought we would. Well, here it is in the news again thanks to a tough decision made by head coach Rick Campbell. While it might not have been an easy decision for Campbell, it was the right one.
Here we go again
With losses in three of their last four games, things have become slightly more urgent for the REDBLACKS. The East Division is a dead heat with all four teams still very much in the mix, so Ottawa still has a really good chance to finish as a top seed. To do that, though, the REDBLACKS need to ensure they’re fielding the best possible lineup on a weekly basis. Part of accomplishing that task includes starting Harris.
Before we even start to delve into what we’ve seen from Burris this year, the most convincing argument for me comes from Harris’s body of work prior to injury. Before going down in Week 5, Harris was in a class of his own and had the REDBLACKS’ offence humming. Heck, he still sits sixth in passing yards and fifth in passing touchdowns despite only playing three full games this season.
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I’m well aware there’s no guarantee Harris will pick up where he left off in late July. But with what he’s accomplished this season and with the struggles in recent weeks for Ottawa, making a change was the natural course of action here. Benching the reigning Most Outstanding Player is unusual and Burris likely wouldn’t be sitting if he didn’t have Harris behind him even despite his recent hiccups. The fact is, though, Harris is there, ready, and waiting.
Burris hasn’t been as good as he needs to be this season and he’d likely be the first to admit it. He hasn’t been bad, but his completion rate is down from 2015 and his 6-5 touchdown to interception ratio doesn’t come close to the 9-1 rate for Harris. In fact, Burris’s split doesn’t put him near the range of the league’s top pivots; Mitchell, Reilly, Durant, Jennings, Glenn, and Nichols all trump that fairly significantly.
The recent struggles of the REDBLACKS don’t fall solely on Burris’s shoulders. Unfortunately for the MOP, though, there are a few factors at work. Expectations are high in Ottawa after a 2015 Grey Cup appearance. To make matters worse, a promising, younger quarterback is also on the roster. Those would be compelling reasons alone to at the very least contemplate a change behind centre. The fact Harris has outperformed the incumbent the way he has this season really seals the deal.
Milestone chasers
A few weeks ago, the venerable Marshall Ferguson and I debated whether Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly had a legitimate chance of challenging Doug Flutie’s single-season passing record of 6,619 yards. As that quest continues, the Eskimos have a couple other players chasing significant milestones, too. Evidently, Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker also want in on the fun.
On the Reilly front, I argued he absolutely has a shot at breaking Flutie’s record set back in 1991. Reilly is one of the league’s elite pivots and he plays on a team that likes to throw the ball. The conditions are right for him to at least come close and it’s a chase I’m continuing to watch with interest. For the record, Reilly is currently on pace for 6,397 yards, which would be the second most of all time; to break Flutie’s record, he’ll need to average around 378 yards per game from here on out.
Right there with Reilly are the quarterback’s two favorite targets. With 875 and 837 receiving yards this season, Bowman and Walker sit one and two respectively approaching the halfway mark of their season. After their convincing 46-23 win over the Argos on Saturday, the Eskimos have 10 games to go and their two stud receivers are on pace to flirt with 2,000 yards.
» RELATED: Walker, Bowman chasing 2,000
Adarius Bowman and Nate Coehoorn celebrate during a win over the Argos (Geoff Robins/CFL.ca)
Reilly’s chase of Flutie’s mark is definitely significant, specifically because the latter’s record has stood for a quarter century. But what Bowman and Walker are on pace to do would be equally unprecedented. 2,000 yards as a receiver in this league is about as prestigious as it gets; it’s only been done three times in CFL history. It has never been done in the same year and certainly not by a pair of teammates.
Okay, so maybe seeing a pair of receivers hit 2,000 yards in the season isn’t the most realistic expectation. Neither guy is technically on pace to get there right now, but it’s still a fun story to watch. More importantly, though, having two guys do what Bowman and Walker are doing right now is highly unusual.
Just to put it into perspective, the league hasn’t had a receiver go over the 1,500 yard mark since 2011 when Jamel Richardson lead the league with 1,777 receiving yards. Five years later, we’re talking about not one but two receivers who are flirting with 2,000. That alone tells me all I need to know about how incredible the first eight weeks have been for Bowman and Walker.
Edmonton may not have the league’s most terrifying defence like it did in 2015 en route to a Grey Cup. Instead, the Eskimos boast the CFL’s most explosive attack. You can disagree with that statement if you want, but with three players chasing down records, it’s tough to argue.
Statement made
Week 9’s marquee matchup didn’t end up quite as hotly contested as we were all hoping. Instead, the Calgary Stampeders dismantled the BC Lions in Vancouver and took a convincing 37-9 win the in process. As such, the Stamps have won the season series against BC and now have a bit more breathing room on top of the West Division. Knowing how close these two teams are at the top, Friday’s win for Calgary could end up being crucial.
It was only a few weeks ago I wrote about how the Stamps are doing it again. Sure, they’ve got a first-time head coach and a first time defensive coordinator. Yes, they said goodbye to some extremely significant players on both sides of the football. And yet Calgary sits without a loss since Week 1 and all alone atop the league. Some things change while some things stay very much the same.
Friday’s win for the Stamps was a statement, though. They manhandled the Lions and turned a relatively close 17-9 game at half into a four-possession rout after 60 minutes. I was wholly impressed with the job Calgary did in the second half respectively, because they Stampeders shut that game down like it was going out of style.
The Lions came away from Friday’s loss talking about how unprepared they were and how they know they’re capable of better. That’s definitely true, because this team is much better than it showed against the Stamps.
That said, the way Calgary played a few nights ago cemented the fact it is the team to beat in 2016. The Lions not being ready to play certainly played into the lopsided nature of the score, I won’t deny that, but the way the Stampeders played at BC Place, they were winning that game regardless.
Quick hits
Most of me thinks the Saskatchewan Roughriders are ready to string together a number of solid performances in a row. There’s no doubting how embarrassing their 53-7 loss in Hamilton was on Saturday night, but after two tight, emotional games with archrival Calgary, a slight letdown wasn’t a total shock. That’s not excusing what happened, but a fair observation nonetheless.
The Riders have the Eskimos this week before their annual home-and-home set with Winnipeg. Losses like Saturday’s can tend to be wakeup calls and they have three consecutive games with built-in motivation. At 1-7, if we don’t see Saskatchewan bounce back after this week, we’re probably talking about much larger problems.
Oh, and to close it out, the MMQB is eating his hat once again. Ferg and I debated whether Kevin Glenn should be replaced at quarterback in Montreal this week, with me taking the stance that he should. Well, what did Glenn do this week? He just threw for five majors and almost 400 yards in a 43-19 thumping of Ottawa.
When am I going to learn my lesson about being critical on quarterbacks? First it was Matt Nichols and now Glenn! Please understand I don’t have a big enough ego to think any player would read this column and derive motivation from it. Instead I point these things out to underline how opinions can’t be taken too seriously. This hat doesn’t taste too good, though.
