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Edmonton hopes to turn season around in clash with Saskatchewan

Wed 25th, August 2010

Edmonton, AB (Sports Network) - The Edmonton Eskimos soldier on this weekend as they entertain the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a Western Division showdown at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.

Both teams enjoyed a week off recently, although the Roughriders probably had a better time of it than Edmonton seeing as how Saskatchewan is currently second in the division standings with a record of 5-2 and the Eskimos are scraping the bottom of the barrel with just one win in seven tries. Except for a 28-25 win over British Columbia, the other team in the division that is a mere 1-6 thus far, Edmonton has had little to be proud of to this point. The last time the team hit the field was on August 15 and they hit it hard, suffering a 56-15 setback at the hands of the Calgary Stampeders on the road. The loss was the second in a row and prompted a number of changes on the Edmonton coaching staff.

First, it was announced that assistant coach Danny Kepley had decided to retire on August 18, a move that surprised head coach Richie Hall. Shortly thereafter it was announced that offensive line coach Jeff Bleamer had been relieved of his duties. In hopes of changing the team's fortunes at this stage, coach Hall brought on Mark Nelson to handle the linebackers and Tim Prinsen to take care of the offensive line. Only time will tell whether these alterations to the coaching staff bear any fruit here in 2010.

But one thing is for sure, Edmonton needed a shakeup in order to show that it was unwilling to go through the rest of the campaign without making some sort of effort. Through seven weeks of the season, the Eskimos were second-to-last in the league in scoring with a mere 20.7 ppg and dead last in terms of points allowed, permitting an unhealthy 34.1 ppg. Playing into all of those numbers was the team's inability to not only maintain possession of the ball (24 giveaways) but also to force opponents into turnovers (10 forced) which means they are by far the worst team in the CFL with a minus-14 in the turnover department.

Against the Stamps the last time out, Edmonton was charged with nine penalties for a loss of 141 yards, fumbled the ball four times and was tabbed with a pair of interceptions as three different players took their turn at quarterback. Starter Ricky Ray went from being ineffective (2-of-5 for 19 yards and a sack) to taking a seat on the bench with an injury. Jared Zabransky hit on half of his 16 pass attempts for 107 yards and a score, but he was picked off once and suffered three sacks as well. Jason Maas converted 5-of-8 throws for 62 yards and a pick for the inept unit. If there was anything positive to take from the outing it was that kick returner Kelly Campbell was named the CFL's Special Teams Player of the Week after bringing back five punts for 162 yards, including one for a major on a 95-yard gallop. He also returned five kickoffs for an additional 141 yards.

As for the Roughriders, their offense was hitting all the right notes against British Columbia in their 37-13 victory two weeks ago. However, garnering some attention of his own was linebacker Jerrell Freeman who was named the CFL's Defensive Player of the Week after logging the first three sacks of his professional career. Not to be ignored was quarterback Darian Durant who threw for 223 yards and a touchdown and also scored two of the team's four rushing majors in the decision. Durant, who suffered a pair of INTs, gained a team- best 67 yards on just nine carries, while running back Wes Cates contributed 61 yards and two touchdowns on 13 attempts coming out of the backfield.

With seven weeks in the books Durant was second in the league with 2,263 passing yards, yet his 60.3 percent completion rate was less than impressive and his 11 touchdowns against nine interceptions doesn't exactly strike fear into opposing defenses. More positive was the overall production of Cates who was not only third in the CFL with 558 yards on 88 carries, but he was by far the top scoring running back with seven majors in as many games and thanks to one receiving TD he was first in the CFL in touchdowns overall. In 14 career games against Edmonton, Cates has scored a total of seven touchdowns while rushing for 707 yards and registering 380 yards receiving.

On a personal level, Durant has had his issues against the Edmonton defense since making his first appearance against the club last year. In just four games the signal-caller has issued four INTs and been sacked a total of 11 times, but at the same time he has averaged about 245 ypg through the air as well.

Edmonton has been a slow starter all season, scoring just 14 combined points in the opening quarter, and the team has been notorious for lying down in the fourth as well, putting up just 24 points in that period. In between the squad has generated an impressive 107 points in 2010, but until the unit is able to put together a solid effort from the opening kick to the final gun it will never seriously contend on a regular basis.

For the Roughriders, they too need some time to warm up when they hit the field, tallying a total of 34 points in the first period this year, but once they get started they are hard to hold down, improving upon their scoring in each successive quarter before finishing off with an average of more than 11 ppg in the fourth alone.

Believe it or not, the Eskimos actually gave Saskatchewan a fight in their first meeting of the season back on July 17 when the Roughriders slipped by with a 24-20 victory. Edmonton led by a touchdown heading into the fourth quarter, at which point the Roughriders picked up a TD pass from Darian Durant, a single and a 23-yard field goal late in the meeting to secure the victory at home.

Ray threw for 319 yards, but was sacked three times and failed to get his squad into the end zone, while Durant accounted for 238 yards through the air and another 49 on the ground as Saskatchewan logged 234 rushing yards, against just 94 for the visiting Eskimos.

In terms of the all-time, regular-season series between the two clubs, the victory for the Roughriders last month means Edmonton now leads by a count of 106-80-2 dating back to 1949 campaign. If there is any bright spot to this matchup for the Eskimos it is that Saskatchewan has lost two of its three road games so far this season.