Calgary Stampeders' Keon Raymond (R) intercepts a pass intended for Edmonton Eskimos' Fred Stamps during the second half of their CFL football game in Calgary, Alberta, September 28, 2012.Reuters
The Edmonton Eskimos hope a 39-year-old quarterback and a depleted defence can find a way to stop the high-flying Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Mired in a five-game losing streak, the Eskimos made moves this week to try to stabilize their struggling, inconsistent offence. Edmonton declared Kerry Joseph their starting quarterback for the rest of the season and ended the merry-go-round at running back by naming Hugh Charles their No. 1 man.
Putting the team's fate in the hands of Joseph is ironic, given that the team traded away 32-year-old Ricky Ray because of his age and to give the club's young quarterbacks a chance to develop.
That experiment is proving to be a failure as Steven Jyles, in his second stint with the Eskimos, hasn't been inconsistent and third-stringer Matt Nichols basically sat on the bench until recently.
With the offence last or second-last in most statistics, head coach Kavis Reed this week took over as offensive co-ordinator and decided to end the uncertainly at quarterback and running back.
"Now we're going back to square one, like we started at the beginning of the season and hopefully it works out," said Charles, who has had more than 10 carries only once since the team added Cory Boyd and Jerome Messam to solidify the running back situation.
"We tried something new," Charles said. "Cory got released and found a new home here and we tried that formula and the rotation was OK for a bit. Then you had Messam come and you have it in the back of your head ... you have to play these guys. We tried the formula and it just didn't quite work out."
The Jyles experiment also hasn't worked out so Joseph, who hasn't been a regular starter since 2009, will carry the team's fading playoff hopes. A win tonight is vital since the Eskimos would be fighting Hamilton for a playoff spot in the CFL's cross-over format. Both teams are 5-8.
"My main focus, to be honest, is to win this week," Joseph said of the opportunity. "I haven't thought about it anywhere beyond that. I'm just looking at this game because I know it's a very important game for us."
Joseph said stability at quarterback isn't a big issue despite the constant rotating, because the players haven't worried about who was in the position
"Whoever lines up on the field, we all play hard, we all play together so that has no effect on us," he said. "We just want to get together on the field and go win games."
But Charles said rotating the running backs was a problem.
"It keeps everyone guessing and not really knowing when their time is going to be, or what they should prepare for," he said.
"In this game there's a lot of mental process that goes through your head, whether you're playing or not, and whenever you have a guessing game, three great running backs all doing the same job, you just can't be in the same mind frame as when you know you're the guy."
On defence, the injury bug continued to hit the Eskimos with middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt, the league's top tackler, out with foot and knee problems. His replacement, Simoni Lawrence wasn't even on the roster the first two weeks of the season but is comfortable filling in.
"I'm real comfortable," he said. "The whole year you fill in, you practice, this is week 13 and I'm really comfortable with the guys, they trust you."
And the Tiger Cats, he said, aren't the type of offence that's going to try to trick the defence.
"They're one of the most basic type of offences," he said. "They do a couple of things and they do them very well. They don't try to cover things up as much. They're pretty straight forward. They're not going to try to trick you.
"That's why they're so efficient, they do a couple of things and they do them well."