Arthur Ward/CFL.ca
Hello, David Foucault. Nice job in switching from the left side of Edmonton’s offensive line to right tackle in your game against Saskatchewan. It didn’t look easy, but that’s probably only because it’s not. You should see me when I try to brush my teeth with the other hand. Bravo for getting things smoothed out as the game wore on. I’m not surprised by that. I remember you telling me, just prior to your draft day, that you liked to drive your friend’s Smart Car around town. If you could figure a way to get your six-foot-seven, 323-pound frame into that tin can, you are obviously a problem solver.
Here are the Week 5 takeaways.
RELATED
» Steinberg’s MMQB: How the West is being won
» Play CFL Pick ‘Em presented by Old Dutch
» Riders put together late comeback to beat Elks at home
» Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally
JUST SO YOU KNOW: OTHER GUYS IN THIS LEAGUE ARE PRETTY FAST TOO
BC’s running back Shaun Shivers found out the hard way on Sunday night.
The amiable, high energy rookie from Florida caught a short swing pass from quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., turned a corner, flipped the nitro switch on his pretty substantial engine, and left a vapour trail along the sideline as he made his way towards what would’ve been a 69-yard touchdown. One problem. Dionté Ruffin is pretty fast, too, as well as determined. The Montreal defensive back caught Shivers inside the five and knocked the ball out, recovered by the Als.
When he was asked what happened, Shivers shook his head and then smiled a sheepish kind of smile.
“When I ran past everybody I’m thinking ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going, ain’t nobody gonna catch me.’”
Shivers might not have been smiling so much when answering the question had his error been a more costly one. But since the Lions were on their way to a win over a mistake-laden Montreal team, the 24 year-old is in the clear. Well, almost.
“Now I gotta hear from my mom,” Shivers said. “I know she’s waitin’ to call me. That’s bad ball.”
WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
At the very least, the Edmonton Elks should have been able to make their way into overtime after the Saskatchewan Roughriders tied things up with a minute to go in regulation.
But when the ensuing kickoff was misplayed by the Elks and turned into a single point, the Roughriders came away with the freakiest of freak ways to win a football game, and even their quarterback, Trevor Harris, couldn’t wrap his brain around it, really.
“How we won I don’t know,” said Harris afterward.
Lots of people wanted to blame the returner on the play, C.J. Sims, for the gaffe. He let the ball sail over his head and into the end zone, figuring on downing it, I suppose, and getting decent field position for
his team. And if he was still playing in the land of the free and the home of the dead ball, sure, that would’ve been fine. “Boneheaded play by me,” said Sims, owning up.
However, a lot of folks place the blame on coaching, and Elks’ head coach Chris Jones agreed with that, coming to Sims’ defence and lamenting that the situation had not been met with ample instruction for
the rookie.
Saskatchewan’s head coach Craig Dickenson wasn’t going to get into specifically pointing the finger at someone on the other sideline, but he did offer some sound protocols that all teams would be wise to
follow.
“I try to reinforce that with the returner,” said Dickenson, alluding to having his guy fully prepped on the situation at hand and what is expected, even if it is a veteran like, say, Mario Alford. “Every time
he goes out I want him to check with me and make sure we’re on the same page.”
That seems like a pretty good idea.
THEY WEAR LAB COATS ON THE SIDELINE, NO?
For the second game in a row, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were performing in a less than formidable way at home.
The Calgary Stampeders had jumped out to a 10-point lead, yet somehow, the Bombers had managed to climb into a half-time tie. The seeds of a terrific second half had been sown, with Winnipeg pulling away from there on the way to a 24-11 win.
Head Coach Mike O’Shea thinks he knows how his team was able to do that, and it has a little to do with honest self-appraisal. Because even while the Stampeders were looking superior in building a lead, Bomber vets were treating their bench area like a library, keeping hollow chatter to a minimum and instead putting their noses into books – well, tablets in this case – and doing the proper research.
“They come to the sideline, they get right to work,” said O’Shea after the game. “They find the reasons why. They’re very calm, finding the answers. Looking for the truth as to why those plays are happening the way they are.”
The truth shall set you free. Or, at least, lead you to a super solid second half.
YOU CAN’T WIN WITH 122 YARDS PASSING
That is a direct quote from Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson, who uttered those words after Friday’s loss in Winnipeg.
“It’s just not gonna work,” said Dickenson, whose team had a pretty good ground game going for a while, but could not back it up with a decent air attack.
“We’ve gotta find ways to push the ball downfield,” said Dickenson. “But that takes protection as well.”
“We have to be better. We have to be more explosive.”
Asked if Calgary’s offensive line held up its end of the bargain, Dickenson merely said “um, no.” But if you think for a second that he believes Calgary’s pass game woes all stem from the line, you’d have to
think again.
“You can’t tell me that anyone on offence can look in the mirror and say that we played a good game,” said Dickenson, whose team fell to a 1-3 record. “We were not at our best and we can’t win with that.”
“We’ve gotta make plays. You can’t just stall and not move the field.”
WEEK 5 HAS RAISED SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. AND SOME THAT ARE NOT
I have questions. Yes, I do have questions.
Can the REDBLACKS win with Dustin Crum at the controls? Did the Hamilton Tiger-Cats really right their ship with a tight win over a team with a first-time quarterback? If it is darkest just before the dawn, is the sun about to come up in Edmonton? Is the shortest distance between being disgusted by even your own team’s fans and being worshipped by them two weeks later a big defensive stop at your own three-yard line?
Is there anything Greg McCrae can’t do? How far off its axis would the earth have been knocked had Kony Ealy and Micah Johnson actually come to blows? Does Winnipeg’s offence even *need* Kenny Lawler? Why did Edmonton receiver Kyran Moore stick his finger in teammate Kevin Brown’s
earhole during a huddle? Can the Montreal Alouettes step up into contender’s level or not? Why doesn’t BC’s Mathieu Betts ever stop? Does he simply have to keep going until he finds Sarah Connor? Is that his
deal?
AND FINALLY…It isn’t right what happened to Jeremiah Masoli. It just isn’t. I have two words for the football gods and they ain’t “thank you.” Well, one of them is “you.”
