EDMONTON — The Edmonton Eskimos will host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday at Commonwealth Stadium.
The Tiger-Cats are the best in the East with a 5-2 record, identical to the Eskimos. Hamilton, though brings a potent offence that has scored 124 points in the last three games alone.
“You have to get better every day this week because we’re playing a great opponent,” said linebacker JC Sherritt. “If you don’t come with everything you got, you’re going to be left behind.”
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The defence understands the challenge ahead. But the excitement over the matchup is radiating through the team. These are the two stingiest defences in the Canadian Football League.
“These are the type of games you want to play in,” said Willis. “I mean, you’ve got Ted Laurent, Johnny Sears, Simoni Lawrence, Rico Murray; you’ve got those guys playing lights out on defence and you got us playing lights out on defence.
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“You’ve got the best of the best and, like I say, these are the games you live for because this is where you see where your good players become great and your great players become legends.”
“An amazing bar,” adds Eskimos slot back Adarius Bowman. “I mean, we know where we at but it’s good to go out there and see the work that we put in all week and go out and execute.
“I think it’s about that time. Our team’s feeling a lot better just with the team chemistry and I think that’s very big in professional ball. Once you can kinda get that rhythm, things can kinda flow a lot better and I think we got it.”
Tiger-Cats quarterback Zach Collaros leads the league in passing with just over 2,000 yards so far. He’s also thrown the second most touchdowns at 14. Collaros is coming in with a world of confidence, which is dangerous.
“With the way Zach is playing, his confidence is through the roof, and I think the whole team feeds off him and how he’s been playing,” said Sherritt.
“We’ve got to contain him and give him some different looks and make him see different things and we’ve gotta tackle great.”
“They’ve got weapons all over the field,” adds Eskimos head coach Chris Jones. “They’ve got tremendous speed, they’ve got a very capable running back who can run or catch passes and that’s not to mention the guy throwing it.
“It’s gonna be another big challenge for us defensively.”
The Eskimos offence has sputtered of late. The green and gold didn’t score a single point in the second half against the B.C. Lions in week seven. Last week against Montreal, the team scored just 15 points but did get the win.
“It’s just being more consistent,” said quarterback Matt Nichols. “The games that we’ve come out and put drives together early, I think that we’ve kind of stayed on pace the entire game.
“You can’t come out and have a couple turnovers and give them a touchdown when you’re on offence. Those are the types of things you can’t do.”
Kick-off Friday at Commonwealth is 7:00 p.m. Global Edmonton will have all the highlights and post-game reaction on News Hour Final.
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