ESKS IN THE PLAYOFF HUNT
Five things we learned from Edmonton’s victory over the Alouettes on Thanksgiving Day
The Edmonton Eskimos won. Those four words hadn’t been written in 59 days — nearly two full months — since the Canadian Football League team started the season 7-0. A 42-24 win over the Montreal Alouettes on Thanksgiving Monday put an end to the sixgame losing streak that followed, drawing them into a tie for third place in the West Division with a Saskatchewan Roughriders squad with whom they share an 8-6 record.
While it keeps the Eskimos in a playoff hunt that’s been slowly slipping from their grasp, the Alouettes shuffle off into a bye week knowing their post-season aspirations are officially finished. Here are five things we learned from the game:
1 Weather factor
This time of year, weather can wreak havoc on football teams. Whether it was wire-to-wire rain like Monday’s Turkey Bowl at Percival Molson Stadium, or colder, whiter precipitation Mother Nature has in store, game plans better be flexible enough to allow for less-than-perfect conditions. Just ask the Eskimos what it was like getting buried under a blizzard in last year’s East Division final in Ottawa. The problem is you can’t construct bad weather out of thin air in order to practise in it. But you’d certainly better be mentally prepared to battle the elements at the drop of a hat, or whatever you happen to be carrying. Especially if it’s the football.
2 Slow starts
The Eskimos may have finally found a way to alter the result, but the means to that end didn’t begin any differently. For the seventh game in a row, the Eskimos failed to hold the lead after the first quarter. Of course, it didn’t help that Montreal jumped out to a 12-0 advantage on Edmonton’s fourth offensive snap of the game. A blocked punt resulting in a touchdown, followed by a fumble return touchdown, led to a 15-7 Alouettes lead after 15 minutes, but the Eskimos turned the tide from then on with the help of one set of hands in particular. Oh, and speaking of ...
3 Zylstra’s the real deal
He might not have an impressive pedigree or alma mater behind him having come out of NCAA Division III’s Concordia College (Minnesota), but what Brandon Zylstra does have is the attention of the entire Canadian Football League. With 18 games under his belt after joining the three-down loop last year — he spent the first 12 games of 2016 on Edmonton’s practice squad — the 6-foot-3, 220-pound native of Spicer, Minn., has now earned 1,843 career yards, one-third of which (618) have come after the catch. That’s averaging slightly better than 100 yards a game, an already impressive figure he doubled with 201 yards on seven catches Monday. While others were having trouble hanging onto the slippery pigskin, the 24-year-old was busy putting up career numbers.
4 C.J. run
See ... C.J . ... C.J. Gable run for 111 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, while adding another trip to the end zone on a nine-yard catch in his Eskimos debut. But the glory of a story didn’t have a pretty start to it, with his very first carry in green and gold resulting in a 56yard fumble return touchdown by Montreal. See No. 1: Weather was most definitely a factor and to compensate, Gable realized he had to change his running style as the slippery surface didn’t allow him to lower his shoulder on would-be tacklers. Only he hadn’t figured that out before Branden Dozier popped the football out with his helmet. Veteran savvy kept Gable’s head in the game for an impressive bounce-back performance.
5 Turnovers tell the tale
Mike Reilly went down and Edmonton’s defence stood up. With the Eskimos starting quarterback sidelined after the third quarter by a sore leg that began affecting his accuracy, Edmonton’s offence got a boost from a 73-yard interception return touchdown by cornerback Chris Edwards, before Montreal’s ensuing drive was dismantled when linebacker Adam Konar forced a fumble he then recovered. He also made the tackle on their next possession that led to a turnover on downs before a final Eskimos field goal. It was a dominant defensive close that resulted in Edmonton outscoring Montreal 16-9 in points off turnovers in a game that was closer for a lot longer than the final score suggests.