The collective hearts of Eskimos fans skipped a few beats when international receiver D’haquille (Duke) Williams lay injured on the turf at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.
Williams, 25, had just pulled the Eskimos away from the shadows of their own goalpost with a 32-yard pass-and-run play to the Edmonton 35 when he was upended with a big hit and landed on his shoulder.
The Esks had already lost veteran wide receiver Derel Walker (51 catches for 875 yards) for six to eight weeks with a knee injury in the Labour Day Classic and now the CFL’s leading receiver (1,235 yards) was hurt in the Labour Day Rematch after reaching the 100-yard mark in a game for an eighth time this season.
“Duke was awesome for us; the toughness, the heart that he showed,” Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly said after the game. “He had a great catch to get us out of our end zone (Calgary had just turned the ball over on downs at the three-yard line).
“I still don’t really know what happened, but I know he took a pretty good hit and landed on the ground hard,” Reilly continued. “We thought he was out for the game.
“Then I came in and saw him in the training room during halftime and asked him how he was feeling. He said he was going to come back out. A lot of guys tell you that, so I just gave him a nod of my head like, ‘Yeah, OK. He’s not coming back.’
“Not only did he come back, but he made huge catches for us during the time he was in,” Reilly said. “Awesome job by him. Awesome job by Nate (Behar), Natey (Adjei) and Sam (Giguere) filling in while he was out. But that was pretty impressive to see what Duke did.”
A physical six-foot-three, 225-pound receiver, Williams missed the final 5-1/2 minutes of the first half before returning to the field to catch Reilly’s third pass of the opening series in the third quarter for a 21-yard gain. He added three more catches on second down in the second half – moving the yardsticks each time – to finish the game with seven receptions for a CFL career-high 172 yards and his league-leading ninth receiving touchdown.
Williams was named one of the CFL Players of the Week for his performance. It’s the second time he has been selected for the award this season in addition to being a Player of the Month in June and July.
“I know he was hurting,” Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said. “He sucked it up big time and came back and made some huge catches down the stretch. Very proud of him for doing that.”
“That’s how I earn Mike’s choice,” Williams said. “Big-time plays like that, that’s how you earn a quarterback’s choice.
“I just felt like I can’t quit on my team,” he added. “A little pain ain’t going to hurt. It’s temporary. So, I just had to go out there and dominate. Don’t think about and just make plays whenever my team calls my name.”
Williams was also excited about the way his teammates played to avenge a heart-breaking 23-20 loss on a last-second field goal on Labour Day in Calgary.
“It was that dog in us,” he said. “We were hungry from last week, a game we know we shouldn’t have lost, so it all played out (Saturday). I don’t think we had over five penalties (just four for 22 yards). We’re starting to come together as a team.”
Williams acknowledged the performance of Bryant Mitchell, who stepped into the lineup to replace Walker on Saturday and contributed seven catches for 86 yards, including 51 yards after the catch (YAC).
“(Derel) was a big piece missing, but B-Mitch played his part,” Williams said. “He made big plays. As a receiving corps, we all made good plays.”
Nine different receivers caught passes as Reilly completed 30 of 44 throws for 397 yards and three TDs in the game. Reilly was also named a CFL Player of the Week for a fourth time this year (along with Player of the Month awards in June and August).
As well as he has played this season, Williams has also attracted a lot of attention – and a couple of penalties for objectionable conduct – for his creative touchdown celebrations.
The CFL recently changed the rule to allow players to have some fun after scoring TDs, using props as long as they’re not hidden in their uniform or the goal-post assembly. The actions cannot be considered demeaning to the opposing team.
So, with the gates wide open, what did Williams do after catching a 29-yard pass to give the Esks a 14-7 lead 6-1/2 minutes into the game on Saturday? He took a different approach, simply dropping the ball on the ground and running back towards the Edmonton bench to celebrate with his teammates, jumping into the air to bump a fellow receiver and slapping a few hands along the way.
“We didn’t have anything planned,” said fellow receiver Kenny Stafford. “The goal of this game was to win, period. Whatever was needed, whatever we had to do, just win.”
Williams may be only in his second season with the Eskimos, but he’s already been caught up in the intensity of the Calgary-Edmonton provincial rivalry. He hurt deeply inside after the loss in the Labour Day Classic and was ecstatic after winning Saturday’s game despite hurting on the outside.
He gave the Stampeders credit for playing “a hell of a game” in the Labour Day Rematch, but pointed out that the Green and Gold “came out to play hard, too.”
“I love rivalries,” he said. “They bring out more dogs. You know, big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.”