Esks in Montreal

As dp says, we will see if the Demons have been exocised. Given he will be back in MTL for the first time with the Smith family somewhere in the vicinity (be it at the stadium or at home watching) I am hoping his anxiety is up there and he pulls another performance like he did in last year’s GC.
Heck given his “temperment” maybe he will get into something with Anderson during the game :smiley:

A new chapter will be written and it all starts tonight. An EE Run back of some nature please. :wink:

Honestly, backer, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that runback happened for you guys tonight. Our special teams unit is probably the worst ST unit I can recall seeing in the CFL in the past five years. There is no aspect of the ST game, apart from placekicking, in which we are even competent, let alone excellent.

Both Kickers Duval/Whyte can pin a team deep and gain field position, however Ray/Calvillo/Pierce/Burris have found ways to over come and get out of trouble. On that note we’ll see what happens in the ground game with Whitaker and Messam. I think both teams secondary is in for a tough night, thus to mention the Esk’s are 4-11 in games at Montreal.

Should be a good one.

It shouldn’t be too much to ask, but given our horrendous unit, it probably is. :smiley:

I’ll be happy if they don’t make any huge mistakes – blocked punts, kick-return TDs against, etc.

As for storylines in Montreal, do not forget aside from AC, there was chatter on Anderson and his antics for a couple of weeks (Riders and TiCats games).
True, but it wasn't even a storyline, just a lot of hot air from other teams' players and some ridiculous accusation of Anderson defying the laws of gravity at Ivor Wynne Stadium (must have been one magic loogie to travel 30 feet up to the fan seats, LOL).

In terms of on-field stories, we get virtually nothing except:

Calvillo breaks or is about to break records.
Richardson and Green are pretty good receivers.

;)

That’s it. On another team with better media, the emergence of Brandon London would be a story. So would the shocking underperformance of special teams and the persistent struggles of our defensive line (last in sacks).

If Bonner's returning kicks for us, Montreal's guaranteed at least one possession within Edmonton's 30 yard line.

James and Armstead will be back there; one of em I hope will do the “Dipsy Doodle” and take one to the house.

Was Bonner cut? :smiley:

He’s on the injured list with a slight hamstring issue (that’s what the team says), other than that a backup DB by nature.

He should be cut. :stuck_out_tongue:

I said at the start of the season that our O-line was average. It wasn't giving up a ton of sacks, but there was still far too much pressure on Ray. Well, the line seems to be getting worse. Now, you could argue that last week was tough because Winnipeg has the best D-line. However, how the hell does Montreal, the team with the fewest sacks, have four sacks in the first quarter? This O-line is fallen apart at the seams. :roll:

Another thing that disappointed me about this game is the team couldn't rally around Stamps. We saw the team rally around Tucker a few seasons ago, and It was huge. I would've thought this team would be able to do the same with everything that Reed's been preaching. Oh well.

Part of our D pressure came from some timely newcomers to our defensive line: Moton Hopkins and Luc Mullinder. For the first time this season, I saw someone besides John Bowman winning one-on-one battles at the line of scrimmage. Edmonton had no film on Hopkins and were playing with injury substitutions at O-line and receiver. This wasn’t the real Eskimo squad tonight. We took advantage of a beat-up unit playing on the road. The return match at Commonwealth will be much tougher for Montreal.

I wouldn't put too much stock in the injuries. I've been saying since week one that Edmonton's O-line is average. There's always been a lot of pressure on Ray. The last two weeks basically just showed us that not only is our O-line average (at best), but we've zero depth in that department, and that's going to be a major concern for the rest of the season.

Depth is a concern, but if you had Bowman and Stamps in the lineup, methinks the O-line would have less heat on them as Ray could stretch the field and connect with his hot reads more frequently. Montreal were blitzing Ray tonight because they had no fear of anyone not named Jason Barnes doing any serious damage.

Although we may have fared a little better with Stamps and Bowman playing I don't believe our O-Line would allow Ray the time to throw deep. Until this group is overhauled I see little success in our future, Kabongo may be a great team and community guy but he is incredibly over-rated as a player.
The defence played reasonably well, with the usual exception of Chris Thompson.
I find it astounding that Armstead with only a couple practices is still a better option at receiver than Coehoorn???
Bauman's salary continues to infuriate me.

That's my rant for now :frowning:

I don't think you can trash Coehoorn just yet. He's fresh out of college. Give him some time to adjust to the new game.

Bauman was a guy I wasn't thrilled about. He was drafted first overall by the Cats but did very little in Hamilton. What's his salary?

You're right, I don't mean to trash Coehoorn, but he must know the plays better than Armstead so he either can't run well or he can't catch???

I thought I read on here that Bauman's getting over $100K, if this is wrong I'd really like to know.

The after math from twitter; Marcus Henry - Concussion, Jason Barnes - Ribs, Jermaine Reid - Hand, Greg Wojt - Knee
The extent of these injuries is a wait and see how serious though. Our two week break is badly needed. Thus to mention; Calgary is on the verge of steppin it up to Rockin and Rollin.