Lefko on CFL: Week 1 observations

For the first game of the season with a new head coach, a new offensive co-ordinator, a new defensive co-ordinator, a new special teams co-ordinator and the majority of the roster new, the Edmonton Eskimos looked incredibly impressive in their 42-28 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina.

The Eskimos dominated in all three phases of the game, and every time the Riders tried to climb back, Edmonton found a way to widen the gap.

There were numerous storylines: quarterback Ricky Ray completing more than 75 per cent of his passes, throwing for three touchdowns and running once for 13; Jason Barnes, who caught two touchdown passes, coming back from a possible career-ending injury last year; Adarius Bowman, a onetime Rider and Winnipeg Blue Bomber who developed a reputation for dropping passes, leading the Eskimos with seven catches for 103 yards and a touchdown; kicker Damon Duval, dispensed by Montreal after six seasons and apparently washed up, nailing both field-goal tries and punting with precision in all but one of his attempts; the defence as a whole buckling down when it mattered; head coach Kavis Reed winning his first game (and not getting a Gatorade shower for some reason).

But one note about the win: the Eskimos exploited many of the Riders’ defensive tendencies, likely based on knowledge of Saskatchewan’s schemes. Edmonton offensive co-ordinator Marcus Crandell quarterbacked the Riders and knows the patterns of Riders’ defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall, who is back in Regina after two years in Edmonton as head coach. Of course, Crandell had to get the players to execute his offence, and collectively that was the case.

If Eskimos’ general manager Eric Tillman was feeling chipper after the game, small wonder: He built the Riders with many of its key parts, including football operations and player personnel.

THE RIDERS’ NEW DEFENCE: It was strange watching the Riders’ conventional 4-3 defence with very little blitzing after years of seeing the team unveil multiple, unorthodox looks under former co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry. It was entirely unpredictable at times, but it produced results. Some Riders’ fans are critical that the new defensive line didn’t get enough push. But if the front four is basically showing the same looks aside from some twists and stunts, well, that’s the difference between forcing the offence to think seeing different looks versus playing basically man-to-man and trying to outmuscle the opponent. The idea that the Riders’ are missing rush end Brent Hawkins doesn’t wash: he missed most of the second half of last season with a shoulder injury.

DURANT’S INTERCEPTIONS: Rider quarterback Darian Durant has a reputation of taking chances to make plays and sometimes making mistakes — a classic example in last year’s Grey Cup — and did so again. He looked like Houdini escaping from the defence on one play against Edmonton and running for a long gain and then throwing an interception on the next play.

TWO DIFFERENT PHILOSPHIES: Durant struggled with consistency against Edmonton, but there was never any thought by Marshall to replace him. Contrast that with what happened in Hamilton, where Ticats’ starter Kevin Glenn struggled and was given the hook by head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. The Ticats now have a full-blown quarterback controversy, hardly the way to start a season.

COACHING DECISION PART TWO: Trailing by 22 with slightly more than seven minutes to go, Marshall elected to punt from the Edmonton 45 rather than gamble. When punter Eddie Johnson missed the coffin corner and sailed the ball into the end zone for a point, it clearly ruined the strategy anyway. And then there was the call by Lions’ head coach Wally Buono to go for a field goal instead of gambling on third down and trailing by seven late in the game against Montreal. It drew all kinds of criticism and Buono later admitted he made a mistake, getting “greedy” thinking his defence would hold the Als and get the ball back in the hands of the offence. Marshall is a rookie head coach, Buono is the top-winning head coach in CFL history.

COACHING DECISION PART THREE: Montreal head coach Marc Trestman elected to punt out of the end zone late in the game, leading by seven, rather than giving up a safety. It was a ballsy call, but clearly he wanted B.C. to work for its points. What was particularly interesting is that the Als took a penalty for delay of game before punting. The penalty only cost a few yards, but it knocked some precision seconds off the clock. Whether by design or on purpose, it worked out well.

SPEAKING OF THE TICATS: Hamilton had a crowd of 23,000-plus for their season opener and managed to bore everyone with a dull effort. This is the problem with the Ticats: They put so much time into advertising/marketing and often blow it with a disappointing product on the field.

THE HIT ON PIERCE: Undoubtedly overjoyed with their season-opening win, Winnipeg will take a long, hard look at pass protection after quarterback Buck Pierce took a blindside wallop. Either the team will have to go with twin tight ends or use a fullback to help in that case.

As an aside, I mentioned in a Tweet the Bombers were going with short passes in the final pre-season game and would need to stretch the field more, which prompted one critic to suggest the Bombers were working on timing routes and declared that going into the game. Well, Pierce took many three- and five-step drops without a lot of rollouts and didn’t truly stretch the field aside from his 49-yard touchdown pass to Terrence Edwards.

A TALE OF TWO QUARTERBACKS: Henry Burris turned it on when Calgary had a sense of urgency in the second half against Toronto and executed the hurry-up offence with efficiency after some inconsistency in the second quarter. Argo counterpart Cleo Lemon showed some improvement from last year, notably putting the team in position to score late in the game. As long as running back Cory Boyd rushes for 100 yards, which he did against the Stamps, the Argos should be competitive, which means Lemon only has to avoid turning over the ball.

WROTEN ISN’T ROTTEN: Argo rookie defensive tackle Claude Wroten certainly made an impression in his debut, absolutely manhandling the Stamps’ offensive line. Argo head coach had high praise for the NFL refugee, who was a late addition to the team this year because of visa issues but was billed as a player with special skills.

THE LIONS DEN: Had to like the effort of the Lions to battle back against Montreal, who took it to them in the first half, in particular the gunslinger approach of quarterback Travis Lulay. Given that the Lions’ receiving corps consisted of only player who had caught a single regular-season pass going into the game — that being veteran Geroy Simon — it wasn’t a bad game. Inexperience clearly showed at times with dropped balls and wrongly-run routes.

AND FINALLY: Will Anthony Calvillo ever age? What a clinic he displayed in the first half against the Lions. It says here the only reason the Lions got back in the game is because the Als decided to turn to the running game in the second half. They were passing on almost every first-down play in the first half. But the running game mattered when the Als needed to move the chains and run out the clock late in the game.