Defending their 2003 Grey Cup championship is going to take a bit more work than that provided Saturday night in Montreal. The Edmonton Eskimos old/new gun, Jason Maas had a rather horrible return taking the place of Ricky Ray. Maas, who sat on the Eskie sidelines for most of the last two years as back up to Ray, did not get the Eskimos where they needed to be in their regular season debut. A fumble and an interception spotted the Alouettes 14 points on the way to a convincing 33-9 win, as the Grey Cup rematch quickly became a blow out to entertain the traditional sell out crowd at McGill Stadium.
The Alouettes led by Anthony Cavillo were up 22-2 at the half and never really were in any trouble in this game. The Als dominated every aspect of the play, offense, defense and special teams all were superior when dressed in rouge, blanc and bleu.
These Eskimos bore no resemblance to the confident crew that took home Lord Earl Grey’s Championship trophy last November on the frozen prairie of Saskatchewan. Montreal had them off balance for most of the game, overwhelming the front line of the Eskimo offence frequently making Maas scramble for his life, or rush his passes. Adding an extra attacker to the rush the Als could count on somebody being within harms distance of the Eskimo backfield all night long. Unable to pick up the extra rusher the Eskie attack never really got unleashed.
Statistically neither of the two QB’s were stellar but the edge went to the Als Anthony Cavillo, he went 18 for 33 and racked up 229 yards, throwing for two TD passes. Maas was 19 for 38 and 165 yards, his downfall the interceptions, fumble and an inability to move the offence. He did score the Esks only touchdown, a one yard scramble, but by that point the game was long since decided.
Both teams will have to shake the cobwebs out of their playbooks however to compete in the more competitive divisions. With Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton all showing life in the East the traditional cake walk for the Als is gone. They’ll have to fight for their two points, no longer able to just walk into a park and expect the victory. They get to retool the offence against Calgary on Sunday afternoon. The game will provide an opportunity to have the offence match the defensive contribution of this weekend.
As for the Eskies they won’t be able to ride their reputations on to victory in the West. Perhaps parity has arrived in the CFL, each team on any given day likely to beat the other. One thing is for certain, any talk of an Eskimo dynasty about to be launched will quickly be kept quiet. Saturday night’s performance was not that of a team ready to launch a dynasty, rather it showcased a team that has much work to be done. Esks head coach Tom Higgins and his assistants need to regroup their squad and get them on the same page. BC travels to Edmonton on Saturday; with both teams smarting from opening day losses it could be a matter of which team snarls the loudest that determines which team will be winless after week two.
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