Jun
Ray still pushes Esks’ buttons
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
The Edmonton Eskimos’ all-Canadian backfield project has training camp optimists envisioning bloodied opposition linebackers lying vanquished at the feet of Calvin McCarty and Jesse Lumsden.
And it’s only Day 2.
They are both powerful and elusive enough to rack up impressive yardage, provided the offensive line wins more ground than it loses in the trenches and Lumsden somehow stays healthy past Labour Day.
But pardon me if I don’t pencil in either one of them for 1,000 yards just yet. The running game’s larger issue beyond Lumsden’s durability is that of opportunity. There is only one football and recent history tells us highly paid quarterback Ricky Ray will be slinging it far more than he hands it off. When Ray does call a running play, Lumsden’s status and 6.3-yard career rushing average demands he get the most touches while McCarty will simply have to turn the dregs into yardage. His two-season average of 5.3-yards per carry suggests he is capable, and he will be catching swing passes, too, of course.
It is also true that offensive co-ordinator Rick Worman will be calling plays from the pages of a book that is no longer focused entirely on the short passing game. But suggesting the Eskimos are suddenly going to sprint totally away from their offensive bread and butter is ludicrous. The aerial assault has been their primary focus and remains their default position as long as Ray is pushing the buttons.
“I told the players this is the 2009 edition of the Eskimos, but whatever we do we’re not inventing a new wheel here,” said new head coach Richie Hall. “It’s just a matter of putting our own twists or wrinkles in it.”
Exactly. The Eskimos have been pass-first-and-listen-to-people-ask-questions-about-the-running-game -later kind of offence for the better part of this decade. In 2005 for instance, they ran the ball 288 times and threw it 718. Since 2000, they have averaged 624 pass attempts and 359 rushing plays per season. That’s 34 pass attempts and 20 rushes per game.
That’s how they like to do things in the Igloo.
It was almost 10 years ago that they last had a player run for more than 200 yards in a single game. That was Sean Millington in October of 1999. Their last 1,000-yard rusher was Troy Davis in 2006. Before him it was Mike Pringle in 2003 and ’04.
Simply put, the offence always revolves around Ray. He is the Eskimos’ MVP in almost any given season. He sets the tone, distributes the ball, decides the outcome more often than not. He will benefit from having Lumsden join the arsenal, certainly, but this is still Ray’s team.
“To see (Lumsden) in the backfield and Ricky Ray at quarterback, that’s a 1 and 1A punch,” said Hall. “Pick your poison.”
Last season, the coaching staff lived and died again on Ray’s right arm. They were 6-1 when they rushed the ball 20 or more times, meaning they went 4-7 when they didn’t. They out-rushed the opposition just five times all year.
And the enduring image of that one-dimensional offence has to be its last game, the East Division final. The organization wasted a plane ticket to Montreal on running back A.J. Harris, who ran the ball exactly three times in a loss to the Als.
The off-season brought about change as Danny Maciocia became GM and hired Hall, Lumsden joined the fold and offensive line coach
Jeff Bleamer came with him from Hamilton. The offensive playbook grew with input from Worman, former slotback and current assistant coach Jason Tucker and Bleamer. As training camp opened Sunday at Clarke Park, some offensive players were talking about a slight change in philosophy.
“With coach Worms steering the ship, I really think he’ll bring a different style to a familiar offence,” said receiver Kamau Peterson. “He brings a different philosophy in how he’s going to call plays and attack defences. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t balanced in his play calling.”
Worman talked a good game at training camp last year, too, saying they wanted to be unpredictable, multi-dimensional and balanced.
It didn’t pan out, but he didn’t have as much control over the offence as he seems to have been given by Hall. So, is there a renewed commitment to the running game or not?
“I wouldn’t say it’s renewed,” said McCarty. “We’ve got some new schemes and plays in there, more runs.”
Now all they have to do is use them. McCarty is “a beast” according to new defensive back Scott Gordon who played for Saskatchewan last year and Lumsden is “a home run hitter” in the eyes of Peterson. It seems entirely possible they would complement one another but again, there is only so much opportunity.
“We have a package. It’s a matter of what can we do in that package to exploit their attributes?” said Hall. “Can they both be successful? Yes, they can.”
It’s Day 2 of training camp, Lumsden is healthy and McCarty looks fast. Anything is still possible.
