Landry: Two teams, two different types of desperation

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

If you like your football to come with a side of desperation, Week 18 sure has a game for you.

There are varying degrees of desperation, I suppose, and in Saturday’s match-up between the Edmonton Eskimos and the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS, we see the different levels of it at play.

For the Eskimos, the season is on the line. There is no mathematical elimination involved this weekend, but it sure is darn close. For the REDBLACKS, it’s an alternate kind of urgency, one tinged with the knowledge that an opportunity may be slowly, slowly slipping away.

Ottawa has a playoff spot clinched. What’s eluding them is the killer resumé of a bona fide contender, a forward march that suggests they can take on all comers. As well, their perch at the top of the East is very much in doubt and will be even more so, should the Hamilton Ticats precede Saturday’s activities with a Friday night win in Toronto.

“We’re in a good position with an opportunity ahead of us,” said REDBLACKS’ receiver Brad Sinopoli, choosing not to dwell so much on last week’s overtime loss to Winnipeg. “You always look forward to the next game regardless of what’s happened.”

Edmonton urgently needs to get into the win column, in a life and death struggle to nail down a playoff berth after spending the first half of the season looking like a comfortable pick for a spot in the West, never mind scrambling for a crossover position.

“The message is very clear,” said Eskimos’ linebacker J.C. Sherritt after practice, on Thursday. “Nothing more needs to be said, on this team.”

After losing three in a row and five of their previous six, the Eskimos find themselves south of a playoff spot, tied with the BC Lions in points, but with the Lions holding a game in hand. Winnipeg isn’t out of the woods yet, meaning this is a three-team battle for two playoff berths, the Eskimos being in the most precarious position of the three.

“Our practices have been great the last two weeks,” said Sherritt of the mood in Eskimos camp. “We’ve practised very well. It’s just….” He pauses, last Monday’s loss to the Roughriders no doubt on his mind. “I mean, sometimes you get beat.”

Sherritt knows this Eskimos team is very different from a couple of editions that ushered in the early portion of his career, particularly a
2013 team that went 4-14. While that team was out with more than a month to go in the schedule, this edition still has plenty to fight for and a confidence that has not been cowed by recent losses.

“That was just miserable,” Sherritt said of 2013. “It was knowing that you weren’t very talented and you were one of the worst teams in the league compared to this team that’s extremely talented and on the verge of taking that step to get us over the top.

“We know we’re good enough that if we get in the playoffs, we can beat anybody,” he said.

Ottawa’s desperation may not shout from the rooftops the way Edmonton’s does, yet it is there. Theirs is more the quiet, “is everything cool here?” kind.

“We’re locked in, we’re doing things the right way. And sooner or later, it’s gonna pay off for us. And that’s what we’re hoping for this week.”

Esks’ linebacker JC Sherritt

The REDBLACKS remain a mystery and that puzzlement has really been stretching on for nearly two full seasons now. The team never really did find a healthy dose of momentum in 2017 and the same can be said of 2018, a season dotted with alternating moments of promise and frustration.

“We’re still trying to find ourselves and get to that position where we’re playing consistent football,” said Sinopoli, this week. “Not only game to game but even quarter to quarter for the whole game.”

When on track, the REDBLACKS have looked strong, like a team ready to roll like thunder. Hard hitting defence. Powerful running attack augmented by perpetually open receivers. A quarterback, Trevor Harris, at his zip-it-in-there best. At other times? Meh.

They win big in Winnipeg and stymie the Eskimos in a home game. They win in Regina after losing two in a row and looking a little lost. The defence throttles the high-powered Ticats’ offence in a road game. On the other hand, they blow a 24-point lead in Toronto, get stuffed by Montreal’s defence at home, and stuffed again a week later in Vancouver.

Who, really, are these REDBLACKS?

“I know that our team shows good fight and spirit but we need to do that more consistently,” said Head Coach Rick Campbell. “We seem to do pretty well when people count us out or we’re behind and having to fight our way back. We need to be able to maintain that mentality all the time.”

The East could have been theirs, already. Instead, the prospect of an all-in home and home set with Hamilton looms as the defining crucible for first place and a playoff bye.

The REDBLACKS suffered a setback with last weekend’s overtime loss to Winnipeg (The Canadian Press)

His teammates are not frustrated, Sinopoli said, nor are they puzzled. What they are, is determined.

“At this moment in time we’re in a good position where we’re fighting for first in the East. We have a playoff spot. So, the only reasonable thinking that I think we can see is to have that resolve. The only way that things are going to turn out how we want them to is if we have that positive mindset.”

In Edmonton, the REDBLACKS will face a team that is more desperate than they are and Sinopoli is fully aware that desperate teams perform with playoff-like intensity.

“They’re trying to fight for their lives to get into the playoffs,” he said. “If you’re not aware of the position your opponent is in, it’s doing a disservice.”

“We know that they’re gonna be coming out flying, especially on offence. The last couple of games they haven’t been themselves, I guess.”

That is true. Once an offensive machine, the Eskimos have suffered through stalled ball movement for three games, now, and it is their primary area of concern at the moment.

Sherritt doesn’t go there, however, not that you’d expect him to. As one of the Eskimos’ spiritual leaders, he always keeps his eye on the ball and keeps grinding, never looking for excuses. He has a belief that hard work is about to pull the Eskies out of their recent misery.

“We’re locked in, we’re doing things the right way,” said Sherritt. “And sooner or later, it’s gonna pay off for us. And that’s what we’re hoping for this week.”

“There’s no drooping any heads around here,” he continued. “There’s no feeling sorry for ourselves. We know we still have a great opportunity to get the ultimate goal done.”

Two teams, two different types of desperation. That’s usually a recipe for some pretty good football and Saturday’s tilt between the REDBLACKS and Eskimos will have it floating in the air.

So, who’s even more desperate once it’s over?

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