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Heeere's Johnny! Lions Visit Eskies

By 250 News

-by John Goodwin

"The measure of the magnitude of an accomplishment is the magnitude of the obstacles one had to overcome to reach the goal.”

If they line up with their poop in a group ready to play with focus and commitment, one would think the Lions have a better than average chance to win this one against the Rickey Ray lead Eskimos....or do they?

The Caveat: The Leos secondary has now been hit with yet another key injury. DB Mark Washington went down in the Montreal game with a broken collar bone and it’s reported he could be out for as much as six to eight weeks. Ouch!!

So.... much like shuffling the ”lawn” chairs on my bud Meisner’s good ship Ursus Horribilis, Barron Miles will be returning from injury this game, and will likely be assuming the vacancy left by Washington leaving Sam Young to fill his role..... not sure who’s covering for Sam Young.

The Eskimos:

To my mind the stars went out of alignment when 2 weeks ago these same Esks couldn’t solve a Calgary Stampeder defense that simply took away the long ball to Jason Tucker to neutralize his effectiveness, and effectively shut down their vaunted and most publicized offensive machine.

Are these Edmonton Eskimos “largely” one dimensional?

I refer to this game as it may well have been a watershed event for both, that only the Stamps delivered on.

Calgary’s D outplayed and out-strategized the Esks who looked very ordinary against their provincial Western Conference counterparts. .

Their record so far, and they’re not burning up the league is just OK at 7 and 5, losing their last two to Western Conference teams Calgary and Saskatchewan.

And to make matters worse for Edmonton, the Stamps and Roughriders both tied the Esks for second spot winning their games on Thursday and Friday nights respectively heating up the race in the West..

Edmonton’s last two straight losses mostly ended any hope the Eskimos had of catching BC (they still have a mathematical chance) who are now several furlongs ahead in this horse race, currently up by 8 points with a game in hand.

The Lions:

The BC Lions continue to burn and pillage relentlessly through all opposition, finding ways to win when at times they deserved otherwise.

Last week against a well coached and determined Alouette team at BC Place Stadium, the Leos were unsuccessful in staving off a furious comeback crafted by a charged up QB Anthony Calvillo. Lightning flashing in his eyes he methodically came within a cat’s whisker of erasing a
15 point deficit in short order to bring Montreal within one point late in the game. As history has now chronicled, the Als would ultimately lose this one on their last possession.

The point’s been made by some that BC can expect any combatant they face from here on in to bring their “A” game. I believe that’s been largely true in the past few contests already, but in looking at the team win-loss records around the CFL and following some of the performances,
many see this powerhouse as the league’s undisputed elite ahead of arguably 8 also-rans and it’s for the most part in the hands of the Leos as to whether that opposition “A” game is enough to knock them off.

So far BC has measured up well against the old adage that “to be the best you gotta beat the best”.

The Lions continue to rewrite the history books as they look to improve on an already fairy tale campaign to12 and 0 which would put them into a tie for first overall with the 1948-49 Calgary Stampeders for their CFL record of 12 consecutive victories in a single season. The Stamps actually went 22 straight games without a loss at that time.

As well, the Lions 14 consecutive victories dating back to last season have tied them with the 54- 55 Eskimos for number two over all on the all time consecutive wins list behind those same Stampeders.

If the Leos win this one they will “clinch” the West title with 6 weeks remaining.

And finally some candy for the senses.
BC QB Dave Dickenson once more received CFL top honors for player of the week, rewarding his performance in the Lions last game against the Alouettes.

Now shake what your momma gave ya and rain hell down on those Eskimos!!!
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