A more perfect example of a comedy of errors might be hard to find in the CFL this week after the fiasco that was the meeting between the Eskimos and the RedBlacks in Ottawa tonight.
Turn-overs and penalties. Turn-overs at the goal line. Turn-overs in the red zone. Turn-overs following turn-overs. Fun to watch if you weren't a supporter of either team. The look on Chris Jones face was priceless - I almost thought I saw smoke rising from his ears after back-to-back majors were called.
At one point in the game, the Esks were 1rst and goal. The hand-off was fumbled. The RedBlacks recover the ball and Hank throws an interception with his first pass that is taken into the end zone for an Edmonton TD until ...........oh, oh..........a penalty nullifies the TD and the penalty yards get Ottawa out of the shadow of their goal posts. In the next two plays, Ottawa is the recipient of 25 yards thanks to major penalties by the Esks and yet nothing comes of the drive.
Edmonton learned absolutely nothing from any of the tape they watched of the Rider vs Bomber game. They managed to rack up even more penalties than the Riders last week and again, many came from veteran players - who one might think would know better by now.
But just like the Riders, the true depth of the team came through in the dying seconds of the final quarter when Mike Reilly moved the team to within field goal range. With the score 8 - 7 for Ottawa, Shaw put the Esks ahead by 2 and the win.
I saw a lot of improvement in the Ottawa defence as was evidenced by the Eskimos inability to score a TD until the last minute. Ottawa had the lead for 59 minutes in the game and still lost. Won't be much solace to the fans who again included the PM, but the team showed improvement in several areas. Still they struggle in the red zone unable to get a major and that is their undoing.
