This one not only cut deep, but was badly needed for team standings, personal confidence and self respect.

One must acknowledge that our heroes are in a division that’s without doubt the class of the league and on any given night these inter-divisional rivals can send all those so called pundits back to the drawing board shaking their heads, ‘cause each contest is proving to be up for grabs.

 

With a great performance in their convincing win over the division leading Saskatchewan Roughriders (12 points) Thursday, the Edmonton Eskimos found themselves in second place just 2 points out of the lead in the West, followed by BC and Calgary at 4-3-0 with 8 points each having to fight it out Friday night for a chance to get out of the cellar.

 

The Leos who are not only in a less than graceful descent down the ladder to obscurity, and looking less like lions and more like paper tigers, should have been spitting he-backed-his-ass-up-against-the-wrong-fire-hydrant-this-time mad about the way they were handled in Calgary when these two teams last met. But hey, they just don’t have the will...(akin to walking over hot coals)..to prove to the folks who care the most that they still have the stuff needed to be a contender....let alone feared. Good thing they’re not yet at the self loathing stage.

 

Coach Buono was heard to say this week, “are we evolving as an offence? I don’t know.”

 

If it looks like a duck, talks like a duck and walks like a duck it ain’t a swan. At this point in time, the team is lacking a “consistent” starting QB (without which the chances of being entertained this season by their usual high octane offence will be nada), along with the confidence and desire necessary for them to be legitimate contenders. In their search in the world for grid iron mastery, success will be predicated upon the much needed drive living in the belly of the beast, than the rest for the most part will fall into place. Friday night however, with some exceptions, too often the interaction initiated by the Lions towards their challengers looked more like a social event as people were reconnecting after an indeterminate absence.

I have seen the enemy and it is me!

 

I liked this panoply of athletes better when they were “uni-bomber crazy”, inciting hatred from other teams, players hoping to elude team and league discipline as the price they’d pay for living on the edge and winning at all cost. Until the heart again shows up on the field, they will continue to be puppies in a bear cage.

 

The season and the time for players to commit to the solution is almost half gone. Coaching can now remove the packaging and put that fleshed out action plan in place to take these guys to the next level.

 

Coach, there is a plan right?.......Coach?

 

 

Running back Joe Smith may just have upset his boss one too many times, as the coach looks to be now trying to send a message to the man, who’s mind looks to be somewhere in the 60's, acting like anything but a team player, seemingly obsessed about growing his garden and looking like Frank Zappa on a bad hair day.

Smith when questioned by reporters about his future with the team said “If tomorrow is my last day in the CFL I go back to what I was doing before....when I started my (dog tag) business. I actually don’t even think about it. Why waste my energy?” Whaaaat??

 

Smith is now on the inactive roster while Stefan (Joystick) Logan (those aren’t legs, they’re pistons) along with former Bengal Tiger Terrence Whitehead share the running back duties.

 

Both Winnipeg and Toronto are reported to have expressed interest in Smith.