The players may be wearing Green and Gold, but the names won’t be familiar to Eskimos fans at Commonwealth Stadium.
Eight more changes were made because of injuries to this week’s roster for Friday’s game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, leaving the undefeated Eskimos with a whopping 18 players on the six-game injured list – some of them out for the season – and two more on the one-game injured list.
A program will definitely be mandatory to identify all the players on a team that has already lost a starting player at 13 different positions, and that doesn’t count players injured during training camp.
“Everyone in our locker room is tuned in to the fact it’s going to take all of us to win this thing,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas, who saw the Toronto Argonauts go through more than 20 receivers one year, but has never experienced something that affected the entire team. “They’re all ready and anxiously waiting their opportunity.”
The most recent additions to the injured list are running back Travon Van, wide receiver Duke Williams (one game), offensive tackle Joel Figueroa (one game), kicker Sean Whyte, rookie cornerback Arjen Colquhoun, long-snapping specialist Ryan King and his younger brother, Neil, at safety.
That means safety Josh Woodman, a 2016 draft pick, will make his first CFL start on Friday while former Eskimos D’Anthony Batiste (offensive tackle) and Kenny Stafford (receiver) return to the active roster for the first time this season. Both Batiste and Stafford were added to the practice roster after training camp.
Hugh O’Neill, another ex-Esk, will handle the punting and place-kicking while runningback LaDarius Perkins plays his first regular season football game since 2014. Recent acquisition Levi Steinhauer takes over the long-snapping duties while national defensive back Cauchy Muamba, another former Eskimos player who rejoined the team this week, is on the roster as a backup along with linebacker Kevin Jackson, another recent recruit. And Mercy Maston shifts over to cornerback from defensive half with Garry Peters returning from a one-game suspension for bumping an official.
Veteran Chris Getzlaf is scheduled to make his first start of the season at wide receiver while Tony Washington shifts from right tackle to left tackle to replace Figueroa, while Batiste slots in at the right tackle position he played the last three years.
The Eskimos have weathered the storm despite all of their injuries so far, putting together three game-winning drives in the fourth quarter – including a 31-28 victory in Hamilton two weeks ago – and beating the B.C. Lions 37-26 last week despite not having a kicker for most of the second half.
Edmonton will attempt to start a CFL season 6-0 for the first time since 1961 when it takes on the winless Ticats (0-5) at The Brick Field. The last two times the Esks won their first five contests (2011, 1980), they lost Game No. 6.
The Tiger-Cats were embarrassed 60-1 by the Calgary Stampeders last Saturday and had a brawl break out during a practice this week in Calgary, but the Eskimos are expecting a desperate team ready to battle.
“That’s the thing about this league; there’s no push-over wins,” said quarterback Mike Reilly, who was on the 2011 B.C. team that started 0-5 and then turned things around with 11 wins in their last 13 games and went on to win the Grey Cup.
“I don’t care what the records are. If you don’t come out and put your best product on the field, you’re going to lose and this week is no different.”
Reilly was impressed by Perkins – the Esks’ third starting running back this season – during training camp.
“I wasn’t aware of his top-end speed until that (exhibition) game in Winnipeg,” he said. “He busted one, got out in front of everybody and took off, so he’s obviously very capable of making big plays in the run game. But he’s done a nice job in protection as well.”
Having Washington and Batiste manning the tackle positions is nothing new for the Eskimos. They played more than three-quarters of last season in those spots.
Despite the Eskimos’ incredible run of injuries, Reilly still managed to win a CFL player of the month award for July. He completed 125 of 173 passes (72.3 per cent) for 1,628 yards and nine touchdowns, with only two interceptions and ran 19 times for 44 yards and two TDs.
“If nothing else, it’s just a marker that our team has been playing really good,” he said. “When you have a 5-0 team, it’s a group effort and it’s been more than a 46-man effort. It seems like it’s been like a 60-man effort.
“Our defence has been playing lights out, our offensive line has protected well, our wide-outs are making great plays, running backs are doing a great job. Everybody’s done a good job so far. That’s why we find ourselves in the position we’re in.”
Previously placed on the six-game injured list were middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt, weakside linebackers Corey Greenwood, Adam Konar and Blair Smith, cornerback Marcel Young and defensive end Phillip Hunt from the defence and all-star slotback Adarius Bowman, running back John White, offensive guard Simeon Rottier and kick returner Kendial Lawrence on offence or special teams.
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At the end of the Lions game last week, Reilly threw a towering deep pass far downfield and way out of bounds on the final play. He was just trying to run out the seconds remaining on the clock, not run up the score.
“When you take a snap and go to take a knee, you can generally burn two, maybe three seconds before the defence starts to get pretty upset about what you’re doing and they’re going to start rushing and there’s going to be fights and skirmishes,” Reilly explained. “As a quarterback, I get it. If you’re standing back there hovering your knee above the ground for more than a couple of seconds, I’d be pissed off too if I was the defence.
“We had six seconds left on the play clock. We didn’t want to give them the ball back. I threw that ball 15 yards out of bounds. That’s a play everybody has in their playbook. It’s just utilized nothing more than to burn more than the three seconds you can do if you’re taking a knee. They don’t blow it dead until the ball hits the ground, so you just throw it as high and as far as you can and make sure it goes out of bounds.”
SHORT YARDAGE:
· The CFL has reduced the coaches challenges to only one per team per game to limit the amount of disruption they create in a game.
· Vidal Hazelton’s team record 108-yard pass-and-run touchdown last week wasn’t a CFL record, but it was the longest in the league since Alfred Jackson combined with Damon Allen for a 109-yard play with B.C. in 2002.
· Jerry Keeling and Terry Evanshen also hooked up for 109-yard gain with the Calgary Stampeders in 1966, as did Sam Etcheverry and Hal Patterson with the Montreal Alouettes in 1956.