October 3, 2016

Landry: 5 takeaways from Week 15

The Canadian Press

Hello, Terrence Campbell. My, that was a bit of a hit you put on Calgary’s Ben D’Aguilar on Saturday. And I mean “bit” in the way that Donald Trump is a “bit” polarizing. Holy pancake, the syrup was really flying on that one.

Here are this week’s takeaways:

1. Walking papers are going to be issued in Toronto. Soon.

 

Head Coach Scott Milanovich issued that veiled threat over and over again, moments after his team’s disappointing 38-11 loss in Montreal.

“We’re gonna make sure we’ve got guys who wanna be a part of this,” he said. “We’ve got some good football players here that I’m not sure are real committed to what we need to have take place. It’s little things (like) being late, not showing up prepared. It’s screwing around. That’s where we’re at right now. It’s not going to stay that way.”

This season has just never found any rhythm for Toronto. They started the year with most of their first string receivers injured and had to try and weather two extended Ricky Ray injury absences. They played secondary and linebacker roulette with a season-long plague of injuries there, too. At this point, judging by the head coach’s comments, none of that matters now and a message (or two or three) is about to be sent.

2. John White would like his starter’s job back, thank you.

 

The Edmonton Eskimos had elevated the electric Shakir Bell to starter’s status before their game with Winnipeg. Then, Bell got injured at practice and became unavailable. Enter – or re-enter, I should say – John White, the running back he was replacing.

White responded with a terrific game, rushing for 104 yards (5.5 per carry) and catching seven passes for 64 yards, finding the end zone twice. White had been decent in 2016, but not quite the same back we’d seen before an Achilles injury forced him to miss the entire 2015 season.

Apparently John White is not thrilled with the prospect of being a healthy scratch. This is win-win for the Eskimos who can put Bell back in there when he’s healthy, as he’d won the job with stellar play. OR they can keep on truckin’ with White, who let the motivation of being relegated to a back-up role be the wind beneath his wings.

3. I should have written about Alex Singleton sooner.

Photos of the Week: The best photos from Week 15

For the last few weeks, I’ve been all ready to write a takeaway about Calgary’s rookie middle linebacker and then just kind of shrugged it off as there were other worthy performances and topics that somehow made it in ahead of him and I was content to be certain before banging out a few sentences on how he’s the next great thing at MLB.

With six tackles on defence along with a pass knockdown, Singleton showcased his speed and nose for the ball carrier in the Stampeders’ win over Hamilton. So here it is, better late than never (which is something Alex Singleton would never say): Alex Singleton is officially a thing.

Let’s just say Singleton’s reaction time has been a far bit better than mine. That’s one of the reasons I’m not a middle linebacker in the Canadian Football League. There might be one or two more but I can’t think of them right now.

4. Trevor Harris has the BC Lions’ number. But the Lions have his letter.

 

That letter is “W.”

Harris showed that he was back in gear on Saturday night, piling up huge passing totals; 485 yards on 32 completions and 2 touchdowns. He didn’t have a lot of trouble taking on whatever defences the Lions were presenting to him, outside of them cannily placing an upright in the path of what might have been a go ahead touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter.

What did it get him? A 40-33 loss to go along with another loss to the Lions back on August 25th. On that night, Harris went 23-of-30 for 352 yards and a touchdown. That’s 837 yards and two losses for Harris against BC. Sometimes you can leave an all-you-can-eat buffet and still not feel totally satisfied.

5. You can be flagged for sarcasm.

The Canadian Press

Willis has collected six quarterback sacks so far this season (The Canadian Press)

Yes you can, although there’s no official signal for that, I don’t think.

During the second quarter of Edmonton’s win over Winnipeg, Eskimos’ defensive lineman Odell Willis was rung up for roughing the passer when he took down Bombers’ quarterback Matt Nichols and he didn’t much care for that. Four plays later, Willis charged into the Winnipeg backfield again and pulled up, just barely brushing the Winnipeg QB and then – it looked like to me – turned to the referee and quickly mimicked a tossed flag as if to say “Hey, why don’tcha flag me for that one, too?”

Well, Willis DID get flagged, not for roughing, but for objectionable conduct. It went into the official score sheet as “OC, General,” but could also have been listed as “OC, Ironic.”

And finally… No, I did not forget about you, Jonathon Jennings. The reason a quarterback can rip a team’s defence the way Trevor Harris did and still lose is that the other guy is pretty damn good, too.