Bowman earns offensive player of week

A 226-yard, 10-catch receiving performance - the best of any receiver in the Canadian Football League this season - made Edmonton Eskimos slotback Adarius Bowman a nobrainer for the league's offensive player of the week.

Bowman made big plays every time he was called upon in the Eskimos' 23-20 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Friday night's regular-season finale. He scored two touchdowns for the Eskimos to lead them to victory.

On Monday, Bowman said that he had moved past the best game of his CFL career.

"We're just focused on Calgary right now," he said, anticipating the Eskimos' playoff opponent on Sunday. "It was a great week and I enjoyed everything, but we've got to stay focused, man, it's just win. That's the only way we can stay up here now. That's the only thing we're focused on."

"He stepped up and played a big game for us," Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray said of Bowman. "Really, those first two touchdowns, to catch that long one really got the team going.

"We just weren't really doing much offensively and that was a big play for us. That (second) one where he broke a couple of tackles and got it into the end zone, that just really fires you up as a football team and you could see the momentum kind of going in our favour then. That's what you need to have. You have to have those plays to get guys excited."

When Damon Duval told Derek Schiavone the news, Schiavone thought he was being told a joke.

"Showing up 20 minutes before the game it hit. Derek, we were on the drive (to Commonwealth Stadium) and I looked at him and kind of laughed and said, 'You're not going to like this right now but you might have to play today,'" Duval recalled. "He asked what was wrong and I said, 'I think I'm getting a kidney stone.' "

Schiavone filled in well, making all three of his field goals against the Riders on Friday night, including a game-winning 27-yarder in the final minute of play to lift Edmonton to a 23-20 win. The victory secured the Eskimos their first home playoff game in seven years.

"I thought he was just joking because it was a little cold out," Schiavone said of how he handled Duval's news. "You could tell he was in pain the moment he got in here. At that instant, I started to get ready, just in case."

Duval has a history of kidney stones. The stone he passed at 4: 30 a.m. on Saturday morning was the fifth he's dealt with.

"Thanks, Dad," Duval said. "Unfortunately, these things can be hereditary and he's had over 40 in his life so far."

Duval said the pain of passing the stones is as bad as advertised.

"Have you ever been on a long trip where you had to pee so bad and they won't pull over and let you pee and it starts hurting?" Duval asked. "Well, imagine that magnified by about 100 and that's how it feels.

"There's just no letup. It's just a constant writhing that starts in the lower back and you can feel it as it starts going from the kidneys, making its way through your bladder. The good thing is once it gets in your bladder, for the most part, the pain kind of alleviates and then a lot of pressure and then just, ploop - out comes the stone.

"They give you a little strainer and you just urinate in the strainer and when you hear the ding, you know you're a lucky guy and you've won the game."

The 30-year-old father of two young boys has kept the stones he's passed to teach them what was happening with him.

"They didn't understand," he said. "I kept it so they could see what it was. The reality, it really looks like a little BB and unfortunately that little thing can bring that much pain."