East semifinal notebook thing for sunday nov. 9

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2008 (6463 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Walls goes public

with privates matter

BOMBER defensive end Gavin Walls might not have gotten in Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray’s face as much as he would have liked, but neither did he like it when an Eskimo lineman grabbed him.

“I got tackled and he (Esks offensive lineman) grabbed my privates,” Walls said after the 29-21 loss in the East semifinal. “They didn’t call it. If somebody tackles me and grabs my balls I’m going to take a penalty every time.”

Walls, the club’s sack king with 10 in 2008, didn’t stop there.

“It’s obvious those refs don’t like Winnipeg, simple as that. We get no love here and we know that. If that’s how they want to carry it, just to see us out of it without calling penalties and stuff that is blatant — I guess this is how this league is made up.”

Score one for the offence,

but only one

THE Bomber defence surrendered only two TDs to Ray and the Esks offence. But Bomber QB Kevin Glenn was able to guide his offence to only one major score and he gave up seven the other way.

“You have to stop them from scoring and you have to score points,” said Bomber DT Jerome Haywood. “If you stop them but you don’t score points, you lose. Like we did today. It’s been that way the whole season.

“It’s the CFL. Usually if you hold the offence like our defence did, you win. But you have to score some points.”

Thunder, Lightning

not very frightening

FRED Reid and Joe Smith — the Bombers’ Thunder and Lightning running back duo — didn’t have the impact expected. They combined for 119 yards on 19 carries, but most of that came in the second half. They were 10 for 26 in the first 30 minutes.

“It’s that old secret — gap cancellation,” said Esks head coach Danny Maciocia. “Everybody’s got a gap… make sure they don’t displace you. We knew coming into this football game that if we did not stop the run, we wouldn’t have a chance. And that’s where the focus was for our club.”

Perry’s big play key

to Bombers’ demise

IT was 12:41 of the second quarter, a little more than four minutes after Winnipeg’s Jason Armstead broke a 93-yard, club-record punt return TD that gave the Bombers a 15-10 lead.

That’s when Eskimos’ defensive end Fred Perry stuck his arm up and batted Glenn’s attempted pass into his own arms, then ran 31 yards for a TD that gave the Esks a 20-15 lead they’d never relinquish (Noel Prefontaine sandwiched a field goal in between the two big plays).

But Perry said stopping the Bombers’ run game was the key.

“We knew coming into this game we had to shut it down and make Kevin try to beat us with his arm. And once we got him to moving around in the pocket, after that, we took over.”

chris.cariou@freepress.mb.ca