Sept. 13 Game Notes
QB-Ricky Ray was not Ricky Ray today, and there is no way that he should have played in this game. He had a few nice plays to Kelly Campbell, but his touch and accuracy was not there. The passes to the flats were lobbed up, and he was generally not on target....this game would not have been near as close if he was his usual self. I'm not sure what we're going to do next week. I'm thinking that he should not practice most of the week, and if he's ready to go, put him in there, but DM should seriously be considering using Maas for this next game, he's a good back-up.
HB - too bad Harris went out, he was doing pretty well. Sprained knee sounds bad, but luckily we have McCarty, who was not as good when he gets the ball on the flats, but he had some great runs and had good blocking most of the night.
R - Kamau...not a very good game, the one INT went right through his hands, and had another costly fumble. That's two games in a row that he has not been as good as he usually is. I'm sure he'll work hard at it, let's hope he shows up next game as his usual self. Campbell bounced back very well though, caught everything that came his way and got open frequently. I think we need to go to Stamps more often, our passing game has lacked and I think it's because Stamps has not been involved as much.
OL - They did alright, not as good as I was hoping, but decent. They should have been allowed to run block more often. They did well on the screens but the tackles gave up some free rushers.
DL - they lost contain a lot. That's the whole story. Romero was missed. Anoai is a good run stuffer, but he doesn't get a consistent push up the middle. Davis was getting double-teamed all night, which left it up to our ends, and they were awful. Clutts was probably the best one out there. I'll give them a break though, they were on the field A LOT. We just can't let our defense stay on the field that long. Hopefully we get Braidwood and Romero back next week, we didn't have much of a rotation, and it killed us. Wayne has also been pretty much useless for us. Props to Anoai on the hit on Printers to force the fumble though, I love seeing a 290 lb. guy put all his weight on a little QB diving through the air.
LB - Onatolu is consistently getting better. He had a good game. We stuffed the run, he was a big part of that, he blitzed well also. The others had a mediocre game.
DB - Goss is the hero of the night. 3 INTs, 2 TDs, part of the forced fumble at the end....he had his worst game as an Eskimo last week, and bounced back this week with his best. Props to him. I'm not sure what LaRose did to DM, but he's in the doghouse big time. Dada went out there with only being part of the team for 4 days and did real well. He never gave up anything big....gave up a couple catches but ultimately did well the entire game. I'm impressed. Buhl had a hit and miss night, I can't comment on his coverage since I don't see it most of the game. They only really went his way a couple time. Once he had good coverage downfield, and another time he went for the ball and missed the tackle....so ya, he needs to work on his fundamentals, but here's what I like about the kid, he hustles. When Goss ran 94 yards down the field, who was beside him? Buhl. All season when we give up a big return on special teams, who is always hustling downfield to make the tackle? Buhl. He's still young, no he's not a raw rookie anymore, but he did miss most of last season, and didn't see a whole lot of time in his rookie season, and was also moved around quite a bit. I like his effort. He'll get better, I guarantee it.
ST - What Tristan did today is exactly what I want out of a returner. He ran up field and got as many yards as were available to him, and he was close to breaking a few. That's all we need. As for the rest of special teams, they were solid, good blocking on returns, good coverage except for the one where four guys beat any of our guys downfield.....too many penalties however.
Reffing - I am amazed. So many extremely bad calls lately in the CFL....none go our way, but today Augie lays a blatantly early hit that should have been PI, and it wasn't.....and don't you go complaining you non-esks fan out there, you've all gotten one that went your way, we haven't, now we finally got one. However, I can still complain about the reffing because the Cats o-line was holding on almost every play in the first half, it was ridiculous. It's a lot easier for Printers to get the edge when his tackles are holding for him.
Coaching - not crazy about the play calling. We need to run more....maybe if our offense was on the field a little more, but regardless, we needed to run more, look what happened late in the game when we did. Instant success.
In the end, this was a scrappy win. We won because of catches by Campbell and INTs by Goss. But hey, a win is a win....and in the past, this team didn't win a lot of these games. We fought to the end, we've been doing that all season, and it's really nice to see.
A 'W' is a 'W' is a 'W'......
Now, I have one more thing I must say. FIRE GLEN SUITOR NOW!!!!! Dear lord he is terrible. I have never seen a commentator more biased that he is. The Riders weren't even playing and he still found a way to be biased. All he could do was mention all the penalties that the Esks should have been getting, and all the things that the Esks did wrong.....and that was only when he found time to actually talk about the Esks. All he did was talk about Hamilton for most of the game. Just fire this guy and get him off the air. He can join Joe Theismann, Chris Walby, Bryan Hall and Chris Collinsworth in the club of the worst sports commentators of all time.
That is all.
HB - too bad Harris went out, he was doing pretty well. Sprained knee sounds bad, but luckily we have McCarty, who was not as good when he gets the ball on the flats, but he had some great runs and had good blocking most of the night.
R - Kamau...not a very good game, the one INT went right through his hands, and had another costly fumble. That's two games in a row that he has not been as good as he usually is. I'm sure he'll work hard at it, let's hope he shows up next game as his usual self. Campbell bounced back very well though, caught everything that came his way and got open frequently. I think we need to go to Stamps more often, our passing game has lacked and I think it's because Stamps has not been involved as much.
OL - They did alright, not as good as I was hoping, but decent. They should have been allowed to run block more often. They did well on the screens but the tackles gave up some free rushers.
DL - they lost contain a lot. That's the whole story. Romero was missed. Anoai is a good run stuffer, but he doesn't get a consistent push up the middle. Davis was getting double-teamed all night, which left it up to our ends, and they were awful. Clutts was probably the best one out there. I'll give them a break though, they were on the field A LOT. We just can't let our defense stay on the field that long. Hopefully we get Braidwood and Romero back next week, we didn't have much of a rotation, and it killed us. Wayne has also been pretty much useless for us. Props to Anoai on the hit on Printers to force the fumble though, I love seeing a 290 lb. guy put all his weight on a little QB diving through the air.
LB - Onatolu is consistently getting better. He had a good game. We stuffed the run, he was a big part of that, he blitzed well also. The others had a mediocre game.
DB - Goss is the hero of the night. 3 INTs, 2 TDs, part of the forced fumble at the end....he had his worst game as an Eskimo last week, and bounced back this week with his best. Props to him. I'm not sure what LaRose did to DM, but he's in the doghouse big time. Dada went out there with only being part of the team for 4 days and did real well. He never gave up anything big....gave up a couple catches but ultimately did well the entire game. I'm impressed. Buhl had a hit and miss night, I can't comment on his coverage since I don't see it most of the game. They only really went his way a couple time. Once he had good coverage downfield, and another time he went for the ball and missed the tackle....so ya, he needs to work on his fundamentals, but here's what I like about the kid, he hustles. When Goss ran 94 yards down the field, who was beside him? Buhl. All season when we give up a big return on special teams, who is always hustling downfield to make the tackle? Buhl. He's still young, no he's not a raw rookie anymore, but he did miss most of last season, and didn't see a whole lot of time in his rookie season, and was also moved around quite a bit. I like his effort. He'll get better, I guarantee it.
ST - What Tristan did today is exactly what I want out of a returner. He ran up field and got as many yards as were available to him, and he was close to breaking a few. That's all we need. As for the rest of special teams, they were solid, good blocking on returns, good coverage except for the one where four guys beat any of our guys downfield.....too many penalties however.
Reffing - I am amazed. So many extremely bad calls lately in the CFL....none go our way, but today Augie lays a blatantly early hit that should have been PI, and it wasn't.....and don't you go complaining you non-esks fan out there, you've all gotten one that went your way, we haven't, now we finally got one. However, I can still complain about the reffing because the Cats o-line was holding on almost every play in the first half, it was ridiculous. It's a lot easier for Printers to get the edge when his tackles are holding for him.
Coaching - not crazy about the play calling. We need to run more....maybe if our offense was on the field a little more, but regardless, we needed to run more, look what happened late in the game when we did. Instant success.
In the end, this was a scrappy win. We won because of catches by Campbell and INTs by Goss. But hey, a win is a win....and in the past, this team didn't win a lot of these games. We fought to the end, we've been doing that all season, and it's really nice to see.
A 'W' is a 'W' is a 'W'......
Now, I have one more thing I must say. FIRE GLEN SUITOR NOW!!!!! Dear lord he is terrible. I have never seen a commentator more biased that he is. The Riders weren't even playing and he still found a way to be biased. All he could do was mention all the penalties that the Esks should have been getting, and all the things that the Esks did wrong.....and that was only when he found time to actually talk about the Esks. All he did was talk about Hamilton for most of the game. Just fire this guy and get him off the air. He can join Joe Theismann, Chris Walby, Bryan Hall and Chris Collinsworth in the club of the worst sports commentators of all time.
That is all.
Seriously, both are practising but are not quite ready for game action. Not sure about this part, but we may see one of them this week, but it would not surprise me if both return to action in two weeks.
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