The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 29

41 Pages 29-40: General news The Citizen, Ottawa, Monday, November 22, 1982, Page 29 sr- 1 I J'' yt? I The Rough Riders left Carl Brazley one-on-one with Argos' Terry Greer. On this play, Greer caught Brazley with his back to the ball and outstripped him for a touchdown Ottawa defence left RIDERS 0VE1WHEL MED tattered and torn by Argonaut excellence a 4 I Eddie MacCabe TORONTO It was not surprising Ottawa Rough Riders were so poor, because they have demonstrated that at regular intervals all season. The surprise was in the degree of Argonaut excellence. They looked poised and smart and tough and that brings us to the old chi-cken-and-the-egg situation: were the Argos that good because Ottawa was so bad, or, were the Riders so bad because the Argos were so good? But since Ottawa had beaten the Ticats in Hamilton, when they weren't supposed' to, and since the Ticats had measured the Argos twice during the season, hopes were born. The Rough Riders, however, haven't figured out yet how to defence that run-and-shoot offence of the Argos.

When Toronto drummed, upon the Riders in Ottawa earlier in the month, Rider defenders got all tangled up in their zones. So yesterday, they committed the ultimate absurdity of trying to go man-to-man and by the time they figured out they couldn't do that, they had been blown out of the park. "I couldn't believe they'd go one-on-one with Terry Greer," Argo QB Condredge Holloway said. "On that first touchdown, that was supposed to be a screen, but i looked over and it was covered and I saw Terry way down field, one on one, so i let it go. We thought we'd see how good he (Carl Brazley) was, and he wasn't very good on that one." Greer said: "Whenever they cover me one-on-one, anybody, I believe I can beat them most of the time.

Other teams have tried it all year, but just for a short time. But they (Ottawa) stayed with it for the whole first half. I loved it." I I down Skip Walker and the rider running despite the fact they lost their feared Zac attack when Henderson injured a knee in the first five minutes of the game. "Henderson plays a big part in our defence against the run," Argo linebacker Tim Berryman said, "and when we lost him so early, we just pursued, swarmed to the ball. He (Walker) broke a couple of runs, later in the game, but it didn't matter much then." So the Riders finished the season in disarray, the offence blaming the defence and the defence blaming the offence, and neither unit bore any resemblance to the bully boys of a week ago in Hamilton.

For the first few minutes of the game, Ottawa gave small evidence of making it an argument. The Riders took the kickoff and ran up three consecutive first downs before they were forced to punt. And then Gerry Organ punted to Jan Carinci on the Toronto nine-yard line. He was tight to the sideline, boxed in, nowhere to go, and the Ottawa tacklers eased up. Carinci stepped down the sideline to the Ottawa 43 and that tore it.

From that point on, Ottawa didn't get a sniff. The Argonauts did as they pleased, even adding the insult of blocking a punt in the Ottawa end zone. The Rough Riders could not be faulted for lack of effort. They gave it what they had. Wayne Cuddington.

Citizen Harold Woods (8) and Tim Berryman make a sandwich out of unfortunate Ottawa running back Skip Walker 'It would- have taken a miracle' Toronto 44, Ottawa 7 And why wouldn't he? The Argos were in front 29 to 0 by the half. Holloway had completed 16 out of 22 passes for a whopping 350 yards, and Greer had caught six passes for 154 yards and The point is, they didn't have much to give. The lines, offence and defence, are solid, but the so-called skill people are below standard. Coach George Brancato said: "We were never even in the game never. A nd even if we had played up to our full capability, we couldn't have beaten them the way they played.

And, we didn't play up to our capability Chris Isaac took over from Star-key just before the half ended and he could do no better. Argos stayed in a zone defence but the Ottawa receiving corps didn't show the skill to find the openings and when they did, the ball was late arriving. Riders didn't penetrate the Toronto 50 until the third quarter. Though Skip Walker had 87 yards on 19 carries he never was a factor. Walker, who scored Ottawa's only major on an eight-yard run, stood out more for not catching some easy; passes' and he didn't have to con--tend with Argo free safety Zac' Henderson.

The East's top defensive player this season had to leave the game early in the first quarter with strained knee ligaments. "Whatever the game plan was, it was excellent," said Ottawa guard: Rudy Phillips. "They stopped us cold." Isaac was good on 10 of 23 passes but had one intercepted which Jo Jo Heath returned 53 yards for a touchdown. To add insult to injury, Joe Barnes hit reserve receiver Geoff Townsend with a 73-yard TD pass late in the fourth quarter on his' first pass. So it's back to the drawing board (Related story, page 31) two touchdowns.

Holloway said: to start at quarterback his second start as a pro. He began sharply and tapered off. On the opening drive he marched Riders from their own 16 to the 53 and Gerry Organ punted the ball to the Argo nine but Riders fell asleep on the coverage. So Jan Carinci raced 58 yards down the sideline on the return. It was the turning point of the ball game and it was less than five minutes old Argos took control.

Two plays later Toronto quarterback Condredge Holloway, showing his savvy, saw that Riders had covered a screen pass to Bob Bronk. So he went deep and hit wide receiver Terry Greer, who was one-on-one with Ottawa cornerback Carl Brazley, with a 53-yard touchdown pass. It was a sign of things so come. Greer finished the half with six catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns and Brazley was the victim as the Argos built a 29-0 half-time lead. "I couldn't believe they were prepared to cover Terry one-on-one no one has been able to do it all year," said Holloway.

In past games, Brazley has had help in covering the talented Greer. In the second half Brazley got that help and Greer caught only three passes for 30 yards. "I felt I was being picked on but I did the best I could," said Brazley. "They kept coming at me but I said to myself: 'let them come and I might surprise But it was never meant to be. The receiver has the advantage my back is to the ball and all I can do is play the man." With the exception of the first series of downs, the Ottawa offence did little in the first half 100 yards compared to Toronto's 350 leaving the Ottawa defence crowded by its own goalline.

Ottawa tried to be more reckless to get after Holloway but he coolly chewed up and confused them, completing 16 of 22 passes for 350 yards. "I had a feeling we would be ready because we've had two super weeks of preparation," said Argos' head coach Bob O'Billovich. "The key to our victory was our execution we executed." But the Ottawa defence did come up with some big plays stuffing an Argo drive on the one, but three plays later Organ had a punt blocked for a Toronto safety touch. Then early in the second quarter, defensive tackle Doug Seymour, who played well as did the entire front four, blocked a Dean Dorsey field goal. The next play Starkey had a pass picked off by Merv Walker on the Toronto six.

By Tom Casey Citizen staff writer TORONTO No more miracles. Toronto Argonauts overwhelmed the Rough Riders 44-7 Sunday afternoon before 43,432 fans at Exhibition Stadium to win the Canadian Football League's eastern di-visioochampionship. Argos made Riders look what they really are a 5-11 club. So Argos will now advance into next Sunday's Grey Cup game against the Edmonton Eskimos. The Riders were flat but it didn't really matter.

"If we had played our best I don't see how we could have beaten them the way they played today," said Ottawa head coach George Brancato. "They're a strong football club and they've beaten us handily all four times this season. It would have taken another miracle to beat them." Offensive backfteld coach Perry Moss said the big difference between the two clubs was the quality of the people at the skill positions. "We've got young players and they had problems they're inconsistent." Brancato assigned Kevin Starkey "They (the Otta wa secondary) didn't know what to do back there and then they started to fight among themselves, yelling at each other, and that didn't help. And so everything we wanted to do, we did, exactly to the game plan." Neither Brazley, nor likely anyone The Riders went from almost winning the Grey Cup last season to that shabby outing yesterday, and the Argos went from a two-and-14 season last year to that parade of excellence.

Coach Bob O'Billovich was sitting with a bottle of sparkles when else in the league, can cover Greer one-on-one, but even so, Brazley did endure a most wretched afternoon. The first time he Eskimo victory gives Moon the shivers got burned, the ball was under- Condredge Holloway thrown and Greer ton's offence and give the Bombers enough chances to win the game. Three times the Bombers got into field goal position but all they managed was two singles on wide attempts. While the Bombers' offence had the ball and the opportunities, the Eskimos defence stubbornly refused to yield. "Our defence played super all afternoon," said Moon.

"And they were superb when we needed it." Both teams were unusually quiet after the game. Although Moon had a few comments, he was tight lipped. Winnipeg quarterback Dieter Brock refused to talk at all. Several of the Eskimos also refused to talk to reporters, telling at least one Edmonton reporter to leave the main dressing room. The win sends Edmonton to the Grey Cup game for the sixth GM Ralph Sazio arrived with the Dixon Trophy, emblematic of the Eastern championship.

Sazio, the almighty grand poobah who exorcised all the demons and devils from the haunted old Scullers' barque, embraced O'Billovich and said: "You did a great job Bobby, a great job." And O'Billovich replied: "Well, thank you, but all the coaches did a great job. We were well prepared." For Toronto, it is on to the Grey Cup next Sunday, a date they haven't had since 1971. The Argos, finally, are in the ascendancy. Ottawa has had two consecutive 5-11 seasons. Last season's exercise in mediocrity was obscured by the post-season heroics.

Time, now then, to take a look at where they are, and what they have. Because the product offered this season just won't do. EDMONTON (CP) It was more than the freezing temperatures that had Edmonton quarterback Warren Moon shaking after the Eskimos had struggled to a 24-21 win over Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League Western final Sunday. "I was shaking in the final minutes," Moon said moments after his 343-yard passing attack had contributed to the Eskimos' victory. "I've never been involved in anything like this before." "This" was the final eight minutes of the game that saw a costly rough play penalty against Winnipeg's John Helton lead to Edmonton's winning touchdown.

"We took too many penalties," admitted Winnipeg coach Ray Jauch later, "This" also was watching the Winnipeg defence tie up Edmon Winnipeg's touchdowns. Kennerd converted those two, added three singles on missed field goals and was good on a 34-yard try. Bob Cameron added another single. Germany's touchdown, at 7:22 of the final quarter, erased a 19-17 Winnipeg lead and came after the 10th Winnipeg penalty of the The Bombers, who were plagued by their own mistakes throughout the freezing cold afternoon the temperature hovered about minus; 19 degrees intercepted a Moon pass on the play. But the interception by Charlie Williams was wiped out when Helton was called for roughing Moon after the pass.

-That gave Edmonton first down on the Winnipeg 41 -yard line and after Neil Lumsden caught a 16-yard pass and then ran for 17 more yards, Germany highstepped over the middle into the end zone. (Winnipeg, page 31) came back to the ball, made the catch and stepped over the defender for the score. Then, too, while the Ottawa secondary came apart, it has to be remembered that the Rider offence did precious little to gain field position or give the defenders a chance to rest. Where Kevin Starkey had a hot hand in Hamilton last week, he reverted to old faults yesterday and was throwing the ball too late. Receivers would be open on their cuts and the ball wouldn't be there.

Then when the defenders recovered and gained position, the ball would arrive. Starkey was tentative and uncertain and after winning the job in Hamilton last week, he lost it in the first half yesterday and young Chris Isaac came in. But he couldn't throw it on time either. To compound Ottawa's offensive miseries, the Toronto defence shut The Eskimos, who have won the last four Grey Cups, struggled all afternoon to contain the Bombers, who saw their hopes for an upset die with the erratic kicking toe of Trevor Kennerd. Twice in the final seven minutes Kennerd missed field goals from inside the 45-yard line and, in the end, those missed points were the margin of victory.

Edmonton's offence was also erratic but quarterback Warren Moon threw 47 yards to Brian Kelly for one touchdown and handed off to Neil Lumsden and Jim Germany for three-yard touchdown runs. Dave Cutler converted all three and added a 48-yard field goal. Rick House caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Dieter Brock in the first quarter and William Miller stepped over from the two in the fourth quarter to account 'for.