Sep
Edmonton: Offence puts up numbers
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
While the Edmonton Eskimos defence has admittedly struggled of late, battling through injuries to key people, the offence has ignited to the point where it’s become not only good, but scary good.
At key times as well, as the Green and Gold have shown plenty of character in bounce-back wins.
In their last four victories the Esks have scored an average of 35 points and averaged 434 of net offence.
The scary part is that slotback Kamau Peterson thinks it should be better.
“We have to get better at attacking zone defences that we’re seeing,” Peterson said. “It shouldn’t be 30-point games, to me. I feel like we have to get better at attacking that. I feel like we’re not firing offensively. If teams are going to play straight zones or majority zone, we should be able to put up 45 on everybody.”
The top Canadian player in the CFL in 2008 isn’t kidding.
“With the calibre of guys we have offensively and with Ricky (Ray) throwing, if teams are going to play us zone and give us shots like they have been, we should never have two-and-outs.”
Peterson took it even further following the 31-30 last-minute win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday that leaves the Esks at 5-3 and in first place in the West Division.
“While this was a win, it was bittersweet for me. I feel like we took a step back offensively, and hopefully it was just rust from the bye week. We’re going to have to turn it up more than that against Calgary,” he said of the Labour Day clash.
The Esks struggled early and looked sluggish. But for the second straight game they recorded a come-from-behind victory.
Ray completed his last six passes and was good on eight of his last nine. Fred Stamps again was a key receiver as he hauled in a 48-yarder that set up Arkee Whitlock’s nine-yard touchdown scamper midway through the final quarter and then caught six-and 20-yarders in the offensive series that set up Noel Prefontaine’s 49-yard field goal.
“That long play to him, they just came up and played us in man coverage,” Ray said of Stamps. “The halfback was right on his hip. It was a great catch by Fred. That set up that score that got us back in the game.
“At the end, we faked a little out route and got the DB to step outside. Fred curled it back inside, we were able to hit that and it got us into field goal range,” added Ray, who has developed a strong rapport with Stamps, who finished with five catches for 119 yards.
In fact, Stamps has now moved into first place in receiving with 610 yards on 32 grabs and leads the CFL in average gain per catch at 19.1 yards, much like Kelly Campbell did last season at 22.6 a catch.
“He does a good job of getting open, he has a lot of speed. He can make tough catches,” Ray said of Stamps. “He’s what you want in a receiver. If they come up and press him, he has the ability to at least get a step on the guy and when you put the ball out there he’s definitely going to make catches. He’s one of our go-to guys, that’s for sure.”
But Ray also spreads the ball out. On Saturday, Maurice Mann had seven catches, Whitlock had six and Peterson and Jamaica Rector had three apiece.
“All our guys are surehanded,” said Peterson. “We have so much talent on this receiving corps, you just don’t know who it’s going to be.”
Defensively the Esks staved off Hamilton with a better second half, earning some valuable confidence with a late first-half interception from Bobby Keyes–the first pick of the year for the team. They added a second, from Jonte Buhl, on the final Hamilton offensive play.
