Aug
Esks have weathered storm well
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
All right, then, how best to summarize the Edmonton Eskimos season so far?
General manager Danny Maciocia assembled a talented roster, including newcomers like Maurice Lloyd, Kitwana Jones, Kelly Malveaux and Arkee Whitlock, not to mention head coach Richie Hall and a revamped staff.
An upbeat training camp produced much optimism and two pre-season victories.
The home side eked out a season-opening victory over Winnipeg. Then the monsoon hit, in the form of demoralizing back-to-back blowout losses and a 22-0 deficit to kick off Game 4 in Regina.
Since that point, which might as well be rock-bottom, the Eskimos have outscored the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes by a combined 71-27, posted a pair of confidence-boosting victories, and risen to the top of the heap in the West Division.
For social scientists, theorizing, as they do that groups go through four developmental stages–form, storm, norm and perform–the Eskimos present a classic case study.
And the season is not quite one-third complete.
So, just for fun, where on that continuum would veteran defensive tackle Dario Romero situate the Eskimos as they prepare to play the Tiger-Cats on Saturday in Hamilton?
“I’d say we’re at perform,” Romero said. “I would say the storm is over.
“Oh, there was a storm, there was a nasty storm. But, you know what? It was good for us, I think, the adversity. You learn more about each other when you lose. And, when you get your butt kicked twice like that, you learn a lot.”
The ’09 Eskimos learned–some re-learned–that veteran quarterback Jason Maas will get after them verbally for sloppy practising, not merely sloppy play in games.
They learned that middle linebacker Maurice Lloyd will stick up for his QB, even if it means calling out the fans for booing Ricky Ray off the field after the 40-22 B. C. loss.
After that one, as well, the captains met with Hall to talk it over, all part of the process of finding answers.
Another thing the group learned is that their coach won’t throw a player like Whitlock under the bus for his mistake-prone debut in that 50-16 loss in Montreal.
On the contrary, Hall and the Esks offence showed their belief in Whitlock that game, going back to him again and again. Rather than let one nightmarish performance defeat a player and hurt his team, Hall chose a more humane approach.
“To me, it’s no different than after the Montreal game, why didn’t they fire me?” Hall said. “In reality, that’s what we’re looking at. I’m responsible for our football team and we didn’t perform very well, so get another guy in there.
“If you start reacting on extremes, what happens is the next guy you put in there, he doesn’t do well, you get rid of him and it becomes a revolving door. What it does is set a tone for your whole football team.”
Now? Whitlock was named the CFL’s special teams player of the week (167 all-purpose yards, including three kickoff returns for 131 yards) on Wednesday. The team’s belief in the rookie is paying off and the team is better for that.
Romero believes the captains meeting with Hall and the natural group dynamic began to resolve the early-season performance issues.
“I think people were finally coming out of their shell and owning up for what’s going on out here,” Romero said. “We just asked each other, ‘What’s going on?’ because there was nothing you could put a finger on.
“(Coach) Hall asked us what we thought we needed to do and he took some of our advice, and it’s just worked. After that, I felt like that last week of practice (before the 33-19 victory over Montreal), it felt like we were a real team.
“We were practising like a team, we were talking about stuff that’s usually talked about in meetings; just getting more down to the finer details that go on out here. It was something.”
Hall evaluates his group a bit differently from his players on the form-perform continuum.
“I think we’re between storm and norm,” he said. “To me, it’s a process. I don’t think we have established our norm yet. I think we’re migrating toward that norm where, if we continue being consistent like this, then I think you’ll start seeing our performance really elevate.
“But I can’t say that we’re a consistent football team. We’re working toward that.”
Nor would Hall say hiring Kevin Strasser as senior offensive consultant, to work alongside offensive co-ordinator Rick Worman, was a reaction to the inexplicable offensive doldrums the club only emerged from sometime in the second quarter in Regina.
Hiring the well-regarded former Als assistant was not, as it were, a convenient port in the storm.
“No,” Hall said. “We were struggling, but what you always look to do, whether you’re struggling or not is, ‘How can we become a better football team?’ ”
Like any group dynamic, that is a process.
