The Esks are 6-3 and tied for second overall, but who have they beaten really?

Some will say the Esks have beaten anyone to own a 6-3 record … it comes up every year and it is one of the dumbest arguments made by CFL fans. Of course hindsight is 20-20 and the teams that the Eskies beat they should have beat and the teams they lost too they shouldn’t lost to … right? WRONG!

With the exception of Calgary who is on their annual roll on their way to another playoff choke their is parody in the CFL once again. The Argos, Ti-Cats and Redblacks have been figuring it out with the Redblacks being the best of the bunch tied with the Eskies.

So let’s look at who the Reblacks have beaten and how it compares to the Esks, shall we …

Redblacks have won against: Riders, Lions, Als X 2, Ti-Cats and Bombers

Eskimos have won against: Bombers, Lions, Riders, Argos and Als X 2

Seeing the Argos and Ti-Cats are tied in the standings I would say this is about the same who’s who of who did you beat to get to 6-3.

If the Esks win this week in Hamilton and the Redblacks win at home versus the Als both will be 7-3, but the Esks will have beaten a higher number of teams in playoff contention. This of course being the case seeing the Redblacks will have beaten the Als 3 times this season.

I for one would take 7-3 the Esks to be going into the Labour Day home and home with the Stamps at 7-3 and getting healthy enough to split or even shock the Stamps with a double win. Many will say not going to happen, but yet in 2015 the Esks were 6-3 going into Labour Day and split with only a procedure call killing the Esks opportunity to score down 13-7.

Still lots of football left and the Eskies are building nicely going into Labour Day and down the stretch into the playoffs. As most CFL coaches know it’s not how you start, but how you finish and one can expect the Eskies to finish nicely down the stretch.

Well hopefully the Esks don’t repeat on Thursday the parody of a good well motivated football team that they displayed in their previous encounter with the Tiger-Cats.

:frowning:

The Esks offense has not faltered twice in the last 10 games against the Ti-Cats and with a short week a fairly similar game plan to the Als game will be in play. The last time the Esks lost to the Ti-Cats they went on a 4 game winning streak against the tabbies. It started with the Willis hit on Collaros that sent his career spiralling downward and I suspect the front six will be looking to put some licks on Massoli.

Fully expect the Ti-Cats to activate their LB’s and bring Lawrence and Unamba often leaving Dean in to spy Gable. The Esks use a mix of the delay trap they like to run, with RB/FB passing using Gable, McCarty maybe even Cooper to own the D-line and LB’s. The Ti-Cats are giving up around 6 yards per carry now. If the Ti-Cats keep Lawrence-Dean-Unamba in the box then Williams, Hazelton and Adjey will all be released, but Mitchell and Walker will be used to spread the defense horizontally.

The Esks defense comes down to the pass rush and getting licks in on Massoli who coughs up the ball fumbling 7 times and throwing 8 interceptions so far this season. Sewell and Moore need to collapse the pocket to flush Massoli into Bazzie and Boateng, but also mix in Sherritt and Mulumba/Konar on well timed LB blitzes. The Ti-Cats don’t run the ball that much, so the Esks can just pin their ears back often.

Do you know for a fact that Vidal Hazelton and Shaq Cooper will play against the Tiger-Cats on Thursday? Both C.J. Gable and Shaq Cooper can’t/won’t play.

???