August 20, 2018

Landry’s 5 takeaways from Week 10

Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca

Hello, Duke Williams. Climbing right inside the ad board set-up after a touchdown, eh? Those things make a nice little tent, don’t they? ‘Fess up. You still build pillow forts at home, don’t you? Wouldn’t blame you. I love a good pillow fort.

Here are this week’s takeaways.

1. GOT ANOTHER DUKE EMERGING

Williams-Lambert makes one of his 10 catches against Calgary (Arthur Ward/CFL.ca)

Speaking of the Duke, it seems we’ve got his football doppelgänger rising in Saskatchewan.

Jordan Williams-Lambert had a breakthrough game for the Roughriders in their thoroughly impressive win over the Calgary Stampeders and was the brightest star on a night where the Riders had a constellation.

With 10 catches (on 10 targets) for 152 yards, Williams-Lambert sprinted, leapt and bullied his way around the field all night long, showing off sticky hands, crisp routes and an absolute refusal to be taken down gently on any given play. Looked like the Stamps would have had an easier time tackling an SUV.

Remind you of anyone?

At the most critical juncture of the game – with the Riders facing a 2nd and 8 from their own 45, up by 14 points and with half the fourth quarter to go – Williams-Lambert outfought one Calgary defender and shook off a well-timed blast from a second as he came down with a 39-yard completion at the Calgary 27-yard line. With that catch, the Riders grabbed some momentum back from the charging Stamps, and a field goal that put them up by three scores.

Jordan Williams-Lambert is here. Deal with it.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: I dunno, Chris Jones, doesn’t it seem like you ought to wear green again next week?

2. NO SOUP FOR THE MONTREAL DEFENCE

 

Nope, no soup for you. Next!

Pity the Montreal defence, victims of offensive onslaughts in three consecutive weeks. This time, Edmonton’s air machine went to work, piling up 424 yards in passing offence.

Some of what a defence gets it deserves and the first ones to tell you that will be members of that defence and its coaches. And that is often true.

Where the pity comes in is pretty specific and it happened during the second quarter of Saturday night’s Eskimo win, when an Alouettes blitz package successfully stormed the Edmonton barricades, smothering quarterback Mike Reilly, who nevertheless decided to loft a balloon up to no one in particular. Passes with the arc of a punt are usually harmless to a defence, or – even better – serve as a tasty, easy meal.

Instead, the pigskin rained down from the heavens as an on-the-ball – oh, hey… THAT’S where that saying comes from – Bryant Mitchell circled under for a major score. A 17-14 game became a 24-14 game and the Esks were never sweated again.

Montreal’s defence did just about everything right on that play and got burned anyway.

3. OH, RIGHT. ANTHONY COOMBS.

 

I do believe a lot of us kind of forgot about Anthony Coombs, the Argos’ slotback who has had a tough time staying healthy over the last year, missing the final eight games of 2017 (returning for the playoffs and Grey Cup Game) and then getting nicked in training camp, missing the first nine weeks of this season.

The 25-year-old offered a dose of “miss me?” highlights during Toronto’s win over BC on Saturday, hauling in a touchdown pass and reminding us of his dynamic abilities when he catches a ball, turns and makes a quick decision on his next step. Coombs had three catches on the day, for 56 yards. Of those, 36 were credited as YAC. His skill set is an ingredient that is a boon to Toronto’s offence and he made key plays at crucial moments of the Argos’ much needed win over the Lions.

Anthony Coombs is back. And the Argos offence gets shiftier.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: Mcleod Bethel-Thompson has more in common with Mike Reilly than just a serious beard game. Go back and watch him get crushed as he releases the ball on the Coombs touchdown. Saw it coming. Took it for the team.

4. WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED REDBLACKS.

 

At least I think we do. A blown lead in Toronto three weeks ago, a last-second win over the last place Montreal Alouettes the following week. Neither of those were what you’d call super-giant confidence builders, so there was some question as to which direction this Ottawa team was really heading.

They were a bit of a head-scratcher, that team. An offence with oomph, a Noel Thorpe led defence and a rookie placekicker who can’t seem to miss. Yet the REDBLACKS were still on the outside of the Contenders’ Club, wondering why the doorman would not grant them passage.

A tremendously thorough, tremendously dominant road win over a good Winnipeg Blue Bombers club probably signals that the REDBLACKS are ready to roll a little, execution-wise, anyway. They’re not out of the woods of inconsistency yet, and will endeavour to keep trending upwards over the next few weeks. If they do, the East is theirs.

For now, that doorman can probably let them in. But they won’t get sized for club member jackets just yet.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: William Powell? Second fiddle in running backs? No thanks, he has his eye on first fiddle.

5. SHAQ COOPER CAN CUT A RUG

 

Oh my, I DO enjoy a dicey cut by a nimble player. Went on and on about Chris Rainey’s super-cut in last week’s takeaways and Edmonton’s Shaq Cooper deserves the same kind of treatment.

Seventeen rushes for 102 yards is a pretty terrific debut for any back, but the way in which Cooper fashioned those yards was particularly eye-popping. Tire drills much, young man? Cooper’s cuts were very Rainey-like, all razor-sharp and seemingly easy. Shaq Cooper’s cuts slice and dice and make great julienne fries.

The super-agile running back caught the eye of the Edmonton brass at mini-camp, and you knew they thought highly of the 25-year-old rookie because they released veterans Travon Van and then John White, figuring Cooper could fill in nicely if ever C.J. Gable was unable to go.

Well, yeah.

The question I have is: How much will the Eskimos have to spend to bring in the team of tailors and seamstresses needed to sew up all the gashes Cooper made in that carpet of theirs?

AND FINALLY…

Jermaine Gabriel is having a rather large year, yet somehow remains under the radar when talk of the CFL’s best safeties comes around.