Season-opening streak gone but not forgotten
Eskimos haven’t lost that winning feeling and it shows during practices
Besides the obvious ramifications in the standings, what else did the first place Edmonton Eskimos get out of their first 7-0 start to a season since 1961?
That streak came to an end with Thursday’s 33-26 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And while they weren’t able to get much separation from the pack in an ultracompetitive West Division — in which they sit just two points ahead of the third place team — Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said there is more to stringing together wins early in the season than just getting off on the right foot.
“When you coach football and you play football, it’s different from every other sport,” said Maas, who has guided the Eskimos to 12 wins in their last 14 regular-season games since starting out 5-7 as a rookie CFL head coach last year.
“In every other sport, you play more than you practise, so I think the biggest factor in (the streak) is that we hadn’t lost in all of July, we feel pretty good, we’ve been able to practise so many days, play so many games, and for all of July, we had a good state of mind because of winning.
“And I think that’s what happens.”
And it sure beats the alternative: Not winning for stretches.
“When you lose a lot and you haven’t won, you’re constantly at practice, it’s gone days, now weeks, now a month before you have tasted victory,” Maas said. “And trust me, we try to preach here that, if you only get satisfaction out of winning, you’re doing the wrong things, because you should enjoy practising and grinding and working hard.
“But at the same time, that gets very difficult when you’re not winning as well, because then you start questioning things and wondering about how you’re doing things and you want to start changing. That’s human nature.”
One loss won’t change the way things are being done around Commonwealth Stadium these days.
“The fact that we just work and we do things and we’ve been doing it now for a year and a half here and it’s been working out, you feel good about the process and about coming to work every day and not having to question anything,” Maas said. “And you get buy-in from all the guys.
“So, the consistency you get, the good feelings you get from winning as much as we have this year, that’s the benefit you get from (a win streak) more than anything.”
For the majority of the Eskimos’ locker-room, it was the first loss since the 2016 East Division final.
“Yeah, it’s been a while,” quarterback Mike Reilly said. “This is certainly not the first time I’ve lost a game, so it’s not uncharted territory, but it is disappointing every time. But that’s how football goes.
“I don’t think anybody in this league has ever gone undefeated, but we don’t look at that massive big-picture thing, we look at it one week at a time. So last week was not good enough.”
IN AND OUT
Offensive lineman Jean-Simon Roy’s rookie season is finished after he sustained a torn right anterior cruciate ligament during Thursday’s loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
On Tuesday, the Eskimos also announced that long-snapper Ryan King is done for the season with a torn right ACL suffered on July 28, while confirming defensive end Marcus Howard is done for at least the season with an Achilles injury. The trio makes a total of six Eskimos making an early exit in 2017, joining linebackers Cory Greenwood, who injured his ACL on Day 2 of training camp, and J.C. Sherritt, who suffered a torn Achilles in the season-opener. Running back John White’s season was finished three weeks in due to an ACL injury.
But that doesn’t change anything for an Eskimos squad looking to extend a four-game unbeaten streak at home on Friday (7:30 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED) against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“That just shows what kind of team we have here,” said King. “You bend, you don’t break. Each of us plays a special role on this team. If you’re on the practice roster, if you’re active, guys are getting moved around a lot because some unfortunate injuries are happening.
“That’s football, that’s life.” RT Colin Kelly practised Tuesday after sitting out Day 1, while LG Danny Groulx sat out Tuesday’s session.
That just shows what kind of team we have here. You bend, you don’t break. Each of us plays a special role on this team.