SHADES OF HALCYON DAYS FOR UNBEATEN ESKIMOS
5-0 start to season marks only fifth time feat accomplished in team history
Diane Jones-Konihowski and Graham Smith, the two stars of the 1978 Commonwealth Games, carried in the Queen’s Baton into the 39-year-old stadium before a crowd of 32,837 Friday night.
The Baton, making a trip around the Commonwealth en route to the latest edition of the event, probably felt at home in the building the Eskimos played their first game in back in 1978 — back when equipment man Dwayne Mandrusiak was barely at 100 games not the 1,000 he reached Friday.
The Eskimos, back at the beginning of the five-in-a-row era back then, loved to throw the big play early and run up the score, especially on the B.C. Lions when Vic Rapp was coaching.
Rapp, however, wasn’t coaching. And while the Eskimos led 17-0 early on two big players including the longest touchdown in team history, insisted on making a bit of an adventure out of it.
It ended up 37-26 and a 5-0 start for Edmonton before another steep butcher bill with injuries which included kicker Sean Whyte resulting in the odd site of Odell Willis taking kickoffs.
The Eskimos, in their first four games, were the subject of substantial criticism for the quality of their game plans and their first quarter starts.
Not this night.
For the first time this season Edmonton chose to receive the opening kick off and Mike Reilly threw the home run ball to Duke Williams for 60 yards. Two plays later he was throwing a touchdown pass to Brandon Zylstra.
It was the first time this year that the EE had a converted touchdown in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, camped on their own two yard line, Reilly found Vidal Hazelton for an Eskimo team record 108yard touchdown pass previously belonging to Ricky Ray and Jason Tucker, 105-yards back in 2005.
Reilly, 16 minutes into the game had a 17-3 lead and 248 yards passing on nine completions.
The Eskimos quarterback ended up with 412-yards passing with three receivers hitting 100plus yards.
Hazelton caught eight for 159, Zylstra seven for 107 and Duke Williams four for 104 including a climb-the-ladder job on a thirddown gamble necessitated by the injury to Whyte.
The game set up as the biggest late July game in the CFL in eons as the undefeated Eskimos took on the 4-1 Lions with a fourgame winning streak with first place on the line and the season series as well for Edmonton, winners of the opening game of the season in Vancouver.
Head coach Jason Maas challenged his guys to treat this game special and the team that won the first four games by the combined total of 12 points clearly did that despite the mid-game hiccups.
“I told our guys at the beginning of the week. You put yourself in this position. So love it! Own it! Make the most of this!” he said. “Get our crowd excited about wanting to come here to watch us win! There is so much riding on this game. I want our guys to feel that energy. We have someone coming into our building trying to get into first place. I don’t want to play that game that it’s just another one on our schedule. Hell, lets own the moment. I like our chances.”
They owned the moment. They now own first place with wiggle room.
It’s the fifth time in Eskimos history they’ve gone 5-0 to open a season — 1955, 1961, 1980 and 2011. Two of those were Grey Cup years.
Actually, the win makes it seven regular season games in a row wrapping it around to last season.
The last time the EE did that was when they won the last eight regular season games en route to the Grey Cup in 2015. Prior to that was eight regular season games in a row involving the last six in 1995 and the first two in 1996.
Edmonton has now won 10-1 in the last 11 regular season games. And the Eskimos have now won their last five regular season games and are 7-1 in their last eight at Commonwealth Stadium.
They’re now 5-1 versus the B.C. Lions in their last six meetings. There’s more.
The green and gold has now won their last nine games on TSN Friday Night Football games and are 17-1 in their last 18 of them.
You get the idea. The injuries keep coming but the Eskimos keep winning. And maybe this is 1978 all over again.