Picking up the slack

I don’t know if you guys caught this in the Banjo Bowl or not, but yours truly got to go in on defense and play a little defensive tackle on short yardage. If you missed it let me set it up for you: First John Chicks finger breaks and pops through his skin, so he’s out of the game (and the next 3 or 4). We are down to 4 D-linemen. Luc Mullinder turns his ankle and has to sit out 3 plays. Then the Bombers get a third and inches play at mid-field and go to their “jumbo” package with 2 extra O-line and 2 Fullbacks that means we need some big bodies that can match up against their big bodies. Luc and Chick are out so coaches start yelling “We need an O-lineman…NOW!!!” Once I heard this I looked around and no one seemed to be moving, so I jumped up, threw my helmet on and ran on the field just in time to line up across from my good friend and former Renegade Alex Gauthier who when he saw me said “Abou??” and stared to giggle. His giggling got me giggling and then I think Kevin Glenn, my teammate for 2 years, said “Abou?!” and audible to a run play to the opposite side I was on (or so I think he did). All I could think was “don’t go offsides,” and “I just want to knock the gold off Gauthier’s helmet.” The ball was snapped and both of my goals were fulfilled, however I forgot to think “don’t let them get a first down” because they did and I had to RUN off the field.

So now I have filled in on defense for every team I have played for. It always fun to play a position that you don’t practice. When I play O-Line I am expected to make the play on every play, but on defense nothing is expected of me, I don’t know what I’m doing. I can only rely on my God given football instinct to get the job done. No coach is going to say “what the hell are you doing here??!!” Playing OLine is my job, defense is fun, although I could not and would not play defense full time. There is WAY too much running. I’m not really built to run, I’m more or a pusher or a ‘get in the way” kind of guy. I actually don’t even like to use the word ‘run,’ it just sounds like it was meant to be a nasty 4 letter word.

My filling in was nothing spectacular but it is how we are getting the job done during this unprecedented injury filled season. One guy goes down, the next guy jumps up in his spot and does the best he can. We have so many injuries we only played 40 guys last week. We did dress the mandatory 42 players but Cory Grant was injured and the other guy was so new to the team that there is no way he could have learned the playbook, I don’t even know his name. In fact there are a lot of guys in the locker room right now that are known only by their numbers. Like number 16, or 43, I think I even saw an 86 out there today. Everyone was calling number 80 “Narcisse” until he made THREE catches that gave us a shot to win the golden banjo, now we call him Walker…Luke “sky” Walker, because to make that catch he had to be using the force.

All these guys are picking up the slack until Flick, Dominguez, Chick, UWO alums Leron Mitchell, and Fantuz, Belton Johnson and the rest of the MASH unit return from action. When you have so many guys down you have to ask guys to go above and beyond themselves. You have to ask them to do things that they wouldn’t normally do. Obviously Wes Cates and the O-line has carried most of the burden but guys that don’t get as much praise as they should are Weston Dressler, Seante Williams and Henri Childs. Dressler, a rookie, should be in for about 20 snaps a game being used as a return specialist as well as a 5^th receiver to take advantage of mismatches against a linebacker. This season though Dressler is one of our most experienced starting receivers seeing about 90 snaps a game. Seante Williams was on the practice squad but when he got his chance he defiantly took advantage and it will be hard for the coaches to take him off the roster when Chick returns. But probably the guy who goes unnoticed the most is Henri Childs, a career running back who now plays every skilled position on offense. He starts at receiver (the Fantuz spot), he plays tightend, backs up Cates and Szarka, as well as returns kick offs. For those of you non-football people: That’s a lot! A lot to remember and a lot to accomplish but thankfully he has answered the call and has greatly helped us to our 8-2 record.

So now the back to back with Winnipeg is over and we enter one with the BC Lions. I can’t believe that these two teams are having so much trouble in the win-loss columns given the strength of their defensive lines. For us as an O-Line it will be a huge challenge this week to contain their front four. Good thing we got the tried and tested recipe for winning in BC…all you can eat sushi at Tan Po Po, cupcakes from the cupcake shop and milk shakes from FatBurger….if you don’t know, now you know.