Football: Digesting Week 7 — Brannagan goes into the books, Windsor gets the stage hook

Very quiet Turkey Day weekend, with only two OUA games and the QUFL taking a week off. Nevertheless ...
  • No. 3 Calgary got into shootout with Manitoba. The Dinos won 35-24 after blowing a 23-point lead.

  • Anthony Parker should get some player-of-the-week awards. Calgary's Mr. Everything scored three TDs. Calgary's go-ahead-for-good score was set by Parker's 43-yard kickoff return and a 52-yard catch moments later.

  • Manitoba slotback Stu Schollaardt had a 100-yard day and doubled up on defence, where he forced a fumble to keep the Bisons in the hunt.

  • Queen's QB Dan Brannagan set the OUA passing yardage record, throwing for 347 yards in the Golden Gaels' 43-21 waltz over Waterloo to give him 9,989, topping former McMaster star Ben Chapdelaine (9,974). Brannagan has an 112-yard edge over Western's Michael Faulds (9,877) heading into their teams' ramp-the-dementia-to-11 matchup next weekend in Kingston.

  • Queen's defence saw its no-touchdown streak snapped at 269 minutes, 50 seconds (they allowed a special teams TD vs. Windsor on Oct. 3). Waterloo's Steve Lagace did the honours with a TD catch in the final minute of the first half.

  • Windsor outscoring Laurier 20-4 in the final two quarters and Waterloo playing Queen's even in the second half are Webster's-worthy definitions of "low leverage," to borrow of favourite team of baseball geeks. Good on the Lancers (2-4) for not pulling the chute, but from Sept. 19 until halftime Saturday, they were outscored 184-20.

  • Huskies Football Outsider has some post-game observations on Saskatchewan's 44-7 romp over UBC.

    CIS does not have specific position awards like the NCAA, but the Huskies' Grant Shaw would warrant a long look if there was one for kickers. He was 3-for-3 on a snow-covered field, with a 50-yarder, and recovered an onside kickoff. (Good on the U of S coaches for on-siding. It was a good call with UBC likely rattled after being in an early 14-0 hole.)

  • One of the commenters on CFRC 101.9, the Queen's campus station, said Laurier's win over Windsor might get them back into the Top 10. "That could do it, if Guelph and Mac lose." Not to be a jerk who insists on facts and research, but Guelph had already played and lost to Ottawa — which beat Laurier.
No. 3 Calgary 35, Manitoba 24 — The Dinos drove the field in the fourth quarter, going 100 yards in just four plays on a TD drive that put the game away with 2:31 remaining.

It is tough to characterize a game where one team gives up a 23-point lead and then shrugs it off to put together two scoring drives in the fourth quarter. This might have been a trap game for Calgary (5-1), which did have a few breakdowns, including two Erik Glavic fumbles (one turned into Manitoba points and the other, in the red zone, which Glavic fell on) and another cough-up, along with a blocked field-goal attempt. Matt Walter was also contained (12 rushes, 62 yards).

Calgary has the talent to get away with that, between Glavic (399 yards total offence), Parker (234 all-purpose yards, including 128 receiving).

Manitoba (2-3) takes a "moral victory" (Ken Wiebe, Winnipeg Sun). The Bisons, tied with Alberta for the final Can West berth at 2-3, are still in a decent spot. They have the tiebreaker over the Golden Bears and 4-4 is doable, with games left vs. also-ran UBC and a home tilt vs. Simon Fraser in the final week.

No. 4 Queen's 43, Waterloo 21 — The Golden Gaels scored touchdowns getting off the bus, you could say.

A bus breakdown delayed Queen's from arriving at Warrior Field, then it scored three touchdowns in a span of 2:55 in the first quarter to decide the issue early. It was 27-0 before the game was 22 minutes old.

Kyle Macdonald and John Miniaci, Queen's first-year starters at defensive tackle, have done yeoman's work as part of a rebuilt line. Western losing Vaughn Martin to the NFL and Mike Van Praet to a season-ending broken fibula stand out more, but Queen's turned over three-fourths of its D-line after last season. The M&M boys have filled in well, letting Osie Ukwuoma and Shomari Williams do their thing off the edge.

From a Queen's perspective, the score was eerily similar to last season's Waterloo game (41-21), which foreshadowed what has been described as their annual "playoff flameout." What Waterloo did after the issue was decided doesn't seem relevant to what happens next week vs. Western. It really does not.

Brannagan passed for 347 and Marty Gordon rushed 24 times for 214 yards for Queen's. Defensive halfback David Rooney had a interception-return TD.

Evan Martin passed 32 times for 332 yards for Waterloo (1-5), but he started 1-of-7 with two picks. Dustin Zender had game highs with nine receptions for 174 yards and two TDs, both in the final quarter. Waterloo does have some decent skill-position people, especially Matt Socholotiuk, the rookie tailback.

A cynic might snipe about Joe Paopao's Waterloo offence reprising the old Ottawa Renegades' trait of substituting gimmickry for game-planning. There's nothing wrong with a trick play, but it is far better to have good players executing within a creative concept. When Paopao coached in Ottawa, his offence would struggle, they'd pull off some trick play and the media would talk his creativity.

Waterloo fell behind 27 points and then start pulling stuff out of various orifices — a fake punt, a Music City Miracle-style throwback on a punt return, a flea-flicker. All three worked (the fake punt got enough for a first down before the ball was fumbled back to Queen's). It's irritating when a team does that once it's well behind in the game. It's irrational to think Waterloo would concern itself with this, but Queen's was on that no-touchdown streak, so one is reminded of the baseball taboo of bunting when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter. Try to earn it, eh. It's like Glengarry Glen Ross, coffee is for closers and gadget plays are for teams which have learned the straightforward run and pass plays.

OUA

Laurier 37, Windsor 20
Dillon Heap totalled 284 all-purpose yards to help Laurier shoot out to a 33-point halftime lead.

Evan Pawliuk passed 17 times for 202 yards and three TDs, so he was pretty efficient. Mike Montoya (207 yards) Jim Martyniuk (83) were a pretty good 1-2 punch.

It says a lot about Windsor that you credit them competing in a game where it still lost by nearly 20 points. Sam Malian pitched a complete game, passing 44 times for 276 yards and a TD to Jordan Brescacin.

Laurier, Ottawa and McMaster (each 4-2) are tied for third place. Their common opponents are Western, U of T and Waterloo. Mac is plus-56 in those three games, Ottawa +39 and Laurier +25.

Ottawa is playing the best football of the three at this point.

(Fun fact: Queen's got TDs from grads of four Kingston high schools — Gordon from La Salle, Rooney from Regiopolis-Notre Dame, wideout Scott Valberg from Bayridge and backup QB Thomas Howes from Sydenham. A couple other schools were well-represented, since slotback Devan Sheahan went to Holy Cross and starting offensive tackles Matt O'Donnell and Derek Morris went to Frontenac and Napanee District.)
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1 comment:

  1. Just wondering if Anthony Parker is the son of former CFL great James "Quick" Parker?
    I know he had a son Stephen Parker who played on Alberta's CIS championship basketball team in 2002.

    ReplyDelete