October breeze

It was an "Itty Bitty" point that Winston October needed to make. There was no lack of controversy when the Eskimos put Ezra Landry, the miniature return man Hugh Campbell nicknamed 'Itty Bitty', on the practice roster after training camp and kept October, a guy who hadn't returned a punt for a touchdown in almost two seasons.

Then Montreal stole Landry from the Eskimos practice roster, and Itty Bitty had a huge game and was CFL special teams player of the week in his debut as an Alouette.

298 YARDS

The ball was in October's court.

He ran it back. Again. And again.

Try 151 yards of punt returns, 104 on a missed field-goal return and 43 more on kickoff returns.

That's 298 yards, no itty bitty total of return yardage for one tilt.

"You know, it's funny,'' said October.

"When people don't know you're coming, it's easy to have a big game. It's like when I came into the league and had a big game, Gizmo Williams said, 'Come back and talk to me in 11 or 12 years.' ''

The whole Itty Bitty deal was just one thing for frustrated fans to get lathered up about as the defending Grey Cup champions started the season 0-3.

I'm not sure you could say that last night October and the Eskimos had the last laugh, but both October and the champs put smiles on 35,728 faces as the Eskimos looked like the Eskimos for the first time this season, running up a 51-30 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

"We were not wrong,'' said Eskimos head coach Tom Higgins of the decision to keep October on the roster and leave Landry in limbo until the Alouettes took him.

"Ezra Landry did not beat out Winston October in training camp and win a position here.''

October returned a punt 101 yards for a touchdown, the first for an Eskimo in 23 months and the fifth of his career.

He also returned a missed field goal 104 yards, collapsing on the Hamilton 21 yard of total exhaustion in the 31oC heat.

"I think the heat played a big factor,'' said the speedster of the big guys dropping like flies.

The offensive linemen figure they lost as much as 20 pounds playing in the combination of heat and 56% humidity.

"The combination of heat and humidity is uncommon in Edmonton and very common in the East,'' said head coach Tom Higgins of the conditions.

But one Eskimo liked it.

"I love playing in the heat,'' said October.''

Higgins called it "a breakout game for Winston. I'm happy for him. His first run gave everybody confidence to block for him.

"I was tickled pink he made it to the endzone on the punt return. And the run on the missed field goal was even better than that.''

It was a big day for the big play. In the first quarter alone, one in which the two teams put up a total of 32 points, there were seven plays which went for 40 yards or more.

It was a good, old-fashioned CFL ring-a-ling-dong dandy as the two teams combined for 775 yards of total offence, more than 600 of them passing yards. Add almost as many return yards (including interceptions) and you get the idea.

"Tonight was a big play night offensively, defensively and on special teams. We scored touchdowns in all three phases,'' said quarterback Jason Maas.

"On offence, the great thing was that we showed what we were capable of doing. Special teams and defence had us in great field position all night. Anytime you score 51 points, it's big.''

Maas, who has only played poorly in the opening game loss in Montreal, was 13 for 25 for 297 yards with three touchdown passes against two interceptions.

He won a few more fans and took a bit more pressure off.

The Eskimos needed this game, not just for the standings, but to cool the town down.

The customers came prepared to turn on their team for the shabby start to the season. While the Eskimos didn't give them that chance as a team, a couple individuals did.

TOUGH-LOVE TOWN

Despite the fun night the Eskimos provided, despite a 33-13 score at the time and despite the fact that Sean Fleming had just registered the 2,000th point of his career in this one, the crowd booed the kicker big-time when he missed his second short field goal of the game - his fifth medium-range miss of the season. And that was before Fleming had a punt blocked and run to the end zone by Matt Petz.

As for Terry Vaughn, the receiver who has registered a record nine straight 1,000-yard seasons, he managed a grand total of one catch for 20 yards, leaving him with 17 for 188 yards a game shy of the one-third mark of the season. And now he's on the fans' radar, too.

Hey, it's always been a tough-love town.

And expectations go up when you win a Cup, not down.