The Pony Express

Wow, what a way to end a weekend! After a whirlwind trip to the coast again last week to play Best Man at my brother’s wedding it was a straight 12 hour drive home on Sunday in order to be good and ready to take in this year’s edition of the Labour Day Classic against the Eskimos.

The weather was fantastic, the tailgaters were out in record numbers (thanks for the brats and suds Razor!) and the crowd was ready to be entertained.  Props to our fighting forces flyboys who piloted a couple of CF14 fighter jets over the stadium just before kick-off at an earsplitting altitude.  It was amazing and definitely got the crowd riled for the game.

Regardless of the record to this point being sported by each team the Stampeders and the Eskimos always seem to reach a little deeper into their respective bag of tricks for this game and let it all hang out come game time.  Calgary especially had some revenge on their minds having lost the last four LDC’s.  Ice that fact up with last year’s western semi final loss and there was a lot of fuel on the bonfire waiting to be lit.

On paper it was Calgary’s time to shine.  Riding a three game win streak the suddenly hotter-than-Oysoyos-sun Stamps should be easy victors over a sputtering Eskimo squad.  But this is the LDC and all Calgary fans were secretly worried and all Eskimo fans were nervously expectant that if the Eskimos are ever going to get that high-powered machine fired up for action this could be the day that sees it happen.  Alas for the fans on the northern end of the QE2 highway it was not meant to be.  And for the fans on the south end of the same highway it was a great day for partying.

Denny Creehan mixed up the D a little with some new alignments that saw the Eskimo offensive line struggle at times to contain the pass rush.  One had to feel sorry for Ricky Ray no matter what colours you wore as he was clocked a few times by backfield invading Stampeders.  Even with this assault, a big surprise to all was the absence of last year’s defensive player of the year John Grace.  John was a supposed healthy scratch to allow Cornelius Anthony to dress and fill the linebacker role.  With this surprise, and the recent release of George White, it would seem to outsiders that the Calgary linebacking core is in disarray.  But this is the CFLinsider and I happy to say such is not the case, sorry rest of the league.  After the game John was the first person the players saw in the dressing room, congratulating his team-mates, especially Anthony who registered three of the five sacks levied against Ray.  When questioned afterwards Coach Tom Higgins said he was suitably impressed with Grace’s reaction to not playing and noted that this is the kind of stuff that great teams are made of, when the players are not above the team and will support what is best for all over what is best for the individual.

On the other side of the ball Henry Burris impressed all again with his ability to scramble and be deadly on the run.  One of the hardest things to defense against is a highly-mobile QB.  Just when a D thinks they got everything covered and there’s no way the ball can be advanced a guy like Henry will tuck the ball in and take off with it himself.  Joffrey Reynolds stayed barely ahead of Charles Roberts in the rushing race and managed to punch a couple of TDs in while doing so.  The receivers were in full flight and it seems the bad case of the dropsies the Stamps had earlier in the season seems to be cured.

So now the rematch looms on the horizon.  Sorry to say I won’t be making the trip to Commonwealth and watching the game on the tube will have to suffice.  Three days to prepare, heal and get motivated.  Coach Higgins noted on the radio he and his staff have approached this back-to-back series as one long extended game comprised of eight quarters and a lengthy halftime break.  A bit strange if you ask me but by that logic we are looking pretty comfortable going into the second half.

But don’t count the Eskimos out.  They are a proud bunch of guys and the sting of this loss could be that spark that reactivates the dangerous assembly of talent that won a Grey Cup last year.  Higgins has a tough job ahead of him, not allowing a fired up Stamps squad think this next one is in the bag already.  Good luck with that Tom.