Defensive end John Chick may not be putting up the numbers he used to during most of his outstanding eight-year CFL career, but by raising his hands Saturday night, he helped the Eskimos clinch a playoff berth.
The 34-year-old veteran deflected a Ricky Ray pass to middle linebacker Korey Jones for an interception with 22 seconds remaining to secure a 30-27 victory over the Toronto Argonauts at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
“You do that every time and most of the time you miss,” Chick said about throwing his hands in the air when the opposing quarterback is about to throw the ball. “This time I got him.
“We needed to keep them out of field goal range; they were trying to tie it up,” he continued. “It was nice to get it done and over with. It was just nice to get that win. I’ll have a little more fun (Saturday night).”
Chick called it his first win with the Eskimos since he was acquired in a trade with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 20. He doesn’t count the team’s victory last week over the Montreal Alouettes because he was a healthy scratch for that contest.
“I need to buy that man dinner,” said Jones, who was playing for the first time since Aug. 17 after missing six games with a foot injury. “I did the easy part.”
It was Jones’ first CFL interception in 42 career games with the Eskimos, B.C. Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders over four seasons.
“It felt great to get back out there and try to contribute a little something to a win,” said Jones, who stepped into the starting lineup after J.C. Sherritt ruptured his Achilles tendon in the season opener at Vancouver. “Personally, by my standards, I didn’t play great throughout the game, but I made a play when it counted and got out with a win. That’s really all that matters to us right now.”
Jones played about half of Saturday’s game because of how the Eskimos are using their ratio of Canadian players. In order to have three Canadians in the defensive lineup, the Esks have been rotating middle linebacker Christophe Mulumba-Tshimanga and defensive end Kwaku Boateng for the third spot, meaning that Jones only played when Boateng was on the field.
Jones had three defensive tackles against the Argos while Mulumba had two. Boateng had a defensive tackle and a quarterback pressure.
“Korey was playing at a high level before he left us halfway through that Winnipeg game,” Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said. “The previous seven games, we had won with him as our middle linebacker. He’s capable of making big plays.”
Meanwhile, Chick registered his first quarterback sack in six games with the Eskimos, dropping Ray for a 10-yard loss in the third quarter and forcing the Argos to attempt a 47-yard field goal, which Lirim Hajrullahu missed for a second time in the game.
“At the end of the day, you like the numbers,” said Chick, who had double figures in sacks four times during his CFL career. “When they’re not there the way you’d like, it’s a little more frustrating.”
Maas explained that Chick was scratched from the lineup against Montreal and Odell Willis was a healthy scratch against the Argos because “we have three really good ends and you can only play two of them, so we had to do a rotation.”
“Odell was questioning why he should be the one out (Saturday) and I just wanted him to be healthy down the stretch,” said Maas, who didn’t see the point of having Willis play with only a four-day break between games that included a long flight home from Montreal when Chick was rested “and (Phillip) Hunt hadn’t played two games in a row all year.”
“We had made that plan three weeks ago and the guys bought into it,” Maas said. “Now we’ll just decide who we want to play from here on out.”