Post-Pre-Season Game #1

Last night at 7:30 PM the Calgary Stampeders hosted the Edmonton Eskimos at McMahon Stadium for their first pre-season game of the 2007 season.

To make a long story short, we absolutely crushed the Eskimos 28-3 last night. The defense only played 7 snaps the entire first quarter while the offense put up 17 points without breaking a sweat. The crowd of 25,877 was, from my recollection, more than twice the size of the largest crowd I've ever played in front of. That was just a pre-season crowd...

With guys still scrapping over spots on the team, the defensive line coach only allotted one quarter to each of the 4 DEs. I was fortunate enough to 'start' and play the first quarter, which the coach claimed to be no indicator of things to come... take it as you will. Unfortunately this also meant that I only had 7 defensive snaps the entire game! I never thought I'd find myself complaining about my team playing too well on offense, but last night I was a little disappointed with the number of reps I received. I graded out well and forced the QB to fumble on the first snap of the game, but never really got a chance to get into a rhythm rushing the passer. Oh well... not much to be done about it. The other DEs played 17, 13 and 17 snaps each. I ended up with the most production points per snap, however, which was reassuring (0.42 vs 0.35, 0.23 and -0.52 respectively).

It was really a lot of fun to have full pads back on for the first time in over 18 months. Winning might have been even better, although it was just a pre-season game. I think I've missed the camaraderie and the football environment more than I thought upon entering camp. Playing out in front of so many people with all the pressure on you is really a rush. I can't wait for the next game.

I was lucky enough to have Dad and Lynne fly all the way up to visit and see the first game. They also took me out to dinner afterwards, which was the first real meal I've had in a while. It was very nice to see them after being isolated in camp for over 2 weeks.