MAAS DECISION UNDER CRITICAL REVIEW
Eskimos coach opts to kick late field goal rather than putting game in Reilly’s hands
Last week in Winnipeg, a failed third down gamble by Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea early in the third quarter turned out to be the decision that changed the game.
“I feel like I let the guys down,” O’Shea said at the end of the day.
Jason Maas wouldn’t say the same thing about his highly questionable call to go for a field goal on third and four from the 13-yard line with 1:56 left on the clock in the West final.
Kicker Sean Whyte connected from 20 yards out, but the Edmonton Eskimos didn’t need three points. They needed seven.
Maas has the ultimate comefrom-behind quarterback in the league in Mike Reilly, who was already well in the process of bringing the Eskimos back.
And he took the ball out of the hands of the likely CFL Most Outstanding Player.
The idea was to get the ball back on a two-and-out and go down and win the game, instead of tie it and take your chances in overtime. But Edmonton couldn’t stop the run all afternoon, so why in the world would you expect them to do it with the game on the line?
There were 24 seconds left when the Stampeders finally punted. Jamal Smith fumbled the football. Game over. Calgary 32, Edmonton 28. The Stampeders are headed to Ottawa for the Grey Cup. The Eskimos are headed to the off-season to spend the next six months and maybe the rest of their careers and lives wondering what could have been.
“There was a minute and something left on the clock when we decided to kick the field goal. I figured we had a time out. Our defence gets a stop. We’d have a minute to go down and score a touchdown and beat them. That was the mindset,” Maas said. “It didn’t turn out that way. You always look back with hindsight about whether you made the right decision or not. I’ll stick to my belief.
“I have belief in my whole football team that the defence was going to get the stop and special teams was going to get the stop and that the offence was going to go down and score. Ultimately it didn’t turn out that way.
“When it doesn’t work, ultimately there are questions to be asked and there are consequences in terms of you could lose the ball game. It turned out that was the case.
“Do I regret the decision? I don’t. Will I look back on it and wonder? Maybe. But I won’t ever regret it because I have faith in our football team. That’s what it was. It was a faith in our football team decision.”
This is a football team that gave up 182 yards rushing.
Roy Finch ran for 81. Jerome Messam rambled for 71.
Asked if he was surprised by the Maas decision to go for the field goal, Stampeders coach Dave Dickenson dodged the question.
“Decisions are always going to be questioned,” he said. “Every coach has a reason. I’ll let their guys answer that question.”
Eskimos quarterback Reilly dodged it, too.
“I put faith in our coaching staff to make the right decisions. I’d never question that,” he said.
“Me, personally, I’d have liked to go for it,” said receiver Vidal Hazelton. “But I believe in our coaching staff. And whatever call they make, we’re going to run with it.”
In the beginning, the Eskimos did exactly what they hoped to do against the Stampeders, the team that went 13-1-1 to start the season, then with first place and a bye to the West final clinched, finished up with three straight losses.
The question was whether the Stampeders, after flipping the switch to off, could turn it on again. They started by taking penalties and surrendering big yardage as Reilly engineered a 67-yard touchdown drive, finishing up with an eight-yard run by C.J. Gable. He followed that up by finding Derel Walker wide open for a 69-yard touchdown.
But the Stampeders showed what they’re made of after those first two series. They didn’t panic, and worked their way back, while Eskimos receiver Adarius Bowman dropped pass after pass.
All of a sudden it was 30-15 for Calgary and the Stampeders had not only turned the engine back on, they were driving a steamroller.
“To me, it was a classic,” said Dickenson. “To start they took a very big chunk out of us, and looked like they were going to run away with it. Then our players came back and I felt like we were in control. Then all of a sudden it came down to the last play.
“They looked like they had our number. We just said, ‘Let’s fight. Let’s make sure we fight.’ I thought we could come back. I think you saw our real team in the last three quarters, and it’s a good team.”
There’s no taking away from the Stampeders. But that call by Maas on third and four from the Calgary 13-yard line is going to live forever in Edmonton Eskimos history.