Surviving QBs Week 1’s big winners

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This article was published 29/06/2015 (3755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wow, what a difference one weekend made to the landscape in the CFL — and to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ chances of playing in the Grey Cup game they are hosting in November.

While it is always a mug’s game to try to read too much into what happens in Week 1 of an 18-game season, the opening weekend of the CFL campaign wasn’t any ordinary week of football.

In what Twitter dubbed ‘#QBApocalypse’, four quarterbacks were sidelined with serious injuries in Week 1, with two gone for the season (Saskatchewan starter Darian Durant and Montreal backup Dan LeFevour) and the fate of a third very much up in the air (Edmonton starter Mike Reilly).

Toss in a separated shoulder for Montreal starter Jonathan Crompton that is going to cost him at least one start and the biggest winners in Week 1 were the handful of CFL quarterbacks who are actually still upright this morning.

It’s not a coincidence the three teams who lost their quarterbacks also lost their games — Montreal was upset at home by Ottawa, Edmonton was stunned in Fort McMurray, Alta., by the Toronto Argonauts and the Riders lost at home to the Bombers for the first time since 2004.

The CFL has always been a quarterback-driven league and what Week 1 illustrated in spectacular fashion was just how fickle life in this league can be when your team’s fortunes are built upon the health and well being of one player.

And it’s precisely for that reason — there but for the grace of God goes my quarterback — the Bombers were doing no gloating at Mosaic Field Saturday night after a game that saw Winnipeg end Durant’s season for the second year in a row.

“You just hate to see that — whether they’re your best friend or your worst enemy, you hate to see injuries like that,” Bombers defensive tackle Bryant Turner said of watching Durant get carted off Saturday night.

Bombers QB Drew Willy — who must have felt like he won the lottery Saturday night when he took bodily inventory and found everything more or less intact — said his heart went out to a former teammate and mentor.

“To see Darian go down, that’s like my big brother,” said Willy. “You wish those guys the best. You always pull for other quarterbacks just because you know what it feels like to be down like that — it’s no fun.”

Making matters worse for the Riders, their injury problems don’t end with Durant. They also lost three key non-imports to injury: middle linebacker Shea Emry, slotback/returner Nic Demski and DB Keenan MacDougall.

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It wasn’t immediately clear what was wrong with Emry, but Demski, the former University of Manitoba Bisons standout and sixth overall pick in the 2015 draft, was reportedly spotted leaving Mosaic Field with his arm in a sling, as was MacDougall.

The Riders are suddenly reeling and the Eskimos are in huge trouble without Reilly, while the Bombers head into Week 2 tied for first place in the West Division at 1-0 with the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders. (The B.C. Lions, who have QB health issues of their own, had the bye on opening weekend).

Yes, it’s very early. And yes, if we learned nothing else from Week 1 in the CFL it is how quickly a team’s fortunes can change.

Still, the Bombers have a win and a healthy starting quarterback this morning. And after a wild Week 1 in the CFL, that puts them in the driver’s seat.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek