Roar of the Rings: Brad Jacobs completes dominant sweep of field, turns to world stage

Brad Jacobs will curl for Canada at the Winter Olympic games in Sochi. It wasn't even close. Coming into the tournament, Jacobs was among those top six skips that had a reasonable shot to win the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings and the chance to represent Canada. With his powerful front end, his ability to avoid tactical mistakes and overall shot-making helped him not only beat John Morris in the gold medal game Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg, but also complete his sweep of the tournament field.

What's more incredible is that Jacobs, and his team of Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden, become the first team to complete the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials without dropping a single game. He went 7-0 in the round robin, clinching his spot in the final Thursday night with a final shot victory over 2010 gold medalist Kevin Martin. Despite a full day off the ice Saturday, while Morris got to play his own game against Martin, Jacobs had no trouble reading the ice Sunday. He jumped up to a 2-0 lead and cruised to the victory, making a big shot in the 9th end to spill two Morris rocks and effectively punch his ticket to Russia.

Morris called a very good game against Jacobs, but put his last rock of the decisive 9th end in a spot where he was sure Jacobs wouldn't attempt a double takeout. "He won't try for the double if we put it here," he had yelled across the sheet at Jim Cotter, the former skip of the team, throwing the fourth stones. Though Cotter's rock came to rest perfectly where they wanted it, the double is Jacobs' speciality, and they've missed few (if any) all week. Jacobs not only did he make the takeout, but he had two rocks in the rings as well, giving him a 7-4 lead into the final end. From there, it was a matter of running Morris out of rocks.

In a post-game interview with TSN, Jacobs was asked the obvious. Was he going to try for the double regardless of where the shot ended up?

"Well, you have to go for it. It's basically a shot to win the game and we all felt confident in it, kicked out real nice and threw it up the stick, and threw it right."

After making the shot, Jacobs let out a hard, instinctive fist pump that may have registered a small earthquake in Winnipeg. If his team of buff Sault Ste. Marie boys look like Olympians, they look like a throwback tug-of-war team. "I'm kind of glad this week's over now. It's a relief," said Jacobs. "I really feel like we were the best team all week, and you have to go out and prove it in the last game and we did. We're so happy to be wearing that maple leaf again, you know, it's a short span in between, and it's just amazing."

Best team of the week? Likely. All four members of Jacobs' team curled over 90% in the final against Morris. Jacobs was second to Martin among skips in the round robin, but Martin's mistakes against Morris proved to be the difference in the Semi. As a team, Jacobs' group was third, behind Martin and Glenn Howard, with the Jacobs' second Harnden posting comparable numbers to more well-known seconds Marc Kennedy and Brent Laing.

The Olympics will come a little under a year after Jacobs & Co. represented Team Canada at the World Championships in Victoria. Though Jacobs made the final in that tournament, he lost to Sweden's Niklas Edin. The majority of the top men's teams in the world are Canadian, but there's some parity once you restrict every nation to one team. Edin proved a tough test for Jacobs, beating him twice in Victoria, but then there's also Norway's Thomas Ulsrud, known for his team's flamboyant pants, and Scotland's David Murdoch. The three are Olympic veterans, all having represented their countries in the 2010 games, while Jacobs is a relative newcomer to the world stage. At 28, he is one of the youngest skips among the top men's teams in the game.

But his rise has been noticeable. He qualified for his first Brier at age 24 and won it at age 27, and he swept his first appearance at a Canadian Olympic Curling trials. While the week saw the last chances of some of the veteran skips like Martin, Glenn Howard and Jeff Stoughton, who likely all won't be around come 2017, Jacobs made his mark this week. He was cool and confident and never let himself play from behind. It was about as dominant of a performance as we could have expected from any one competitor, though he only made the field thanks to qualifying through the pre-trials tournament, needing to beat 2006 gold medalist Brad Gushue to qualify as the eighth and final team in Winnipeg. But less than a year removed from knocking down all the Canadian giants, Jacobs now turns to the world.