Red-hot Esks off to West Final: again!
Stampeders own home-field edge, but Esks go into West Final with momentum
The idea was to begin to find the focus upon landing in Edmonton. But it happened before takeoff in Winnipeg on Sunday evening,
It took the Eskimos less than an hour to put their playoff triumph here behind them and fastforward to facing the Calgary Stampeders in Sunday’s West Division final.
“We’ll celebrate on the flight home, but as soon as the wheels touch down, it’s all about Calgary,” said quarterback Mike Reilly.
Then Reilly decided he couldn’t wait that long.
His teammates had all showered and dressed and climbed on the team bus waiting to head to the airport while their QB not only entertained a variety of questions on the get-to-the-Grey Cup game in Calgary but dealt with each in detail and at length.
The victory here set up the 12th edition of the West Final featuring the Battle of Alberta, including the third in the past four years. Last year, the Eskimos lost in the East Final to Ottawa after being the crossover team.
The road to the Grey Cup has gone through Calgary on a regular basis since 1990, the last time Winnipeg won a Grey Cup. It’s the 14th time in that span Calgary has finished first and played host to the division final.
“In my time here, we’ve played them twice in the West Final, once at home and once on the road and both times the home team has won it. We have to figure out how to flip that. They’re a great football team and have been for some time,” said Reilly.
While they only have two Grey Cups to show for it in the last decade, it can be argued the Stampeders have been the CFL’s most dominant team.
From 2008 to 2015 under head coach John Hufnagel, Calgary had a 102-41-1 regular season record, the best winning percentage among coaches with at least 100 games to their credit.
Hufnagel’s Stampeders reached double digits in wins every season. Replacing himself as coach while remaining GM, Hufnagel promoted Dave Dickenson to the head coaching job in 2016. Dickenson went 15-2-1 last year and 13-4-1 during the regular season this year, losing their final three games in the process.
“It’s kind of weird to say that in the last three games they haven’t won, but it’s been an interesting scenario. Their games haven’t mattered nearly as much, so I don’t put any stock in that,” said Reilly.
“I know the Calgary defence is the best defence that we played against over the course of the year, and we played them three times. So, from an offensive perspective, we have a lot of work to do. But I like where we’re at with this team. For the last month, our guys have had good focus.
“Once we’d secured the playoff spot, it was to make sure we were playing our best football and to make sure we were playing with momentum going into the playoffs. That’s where we’re at in all three phases: offence, defence and special teams. We’re playing with a lot of confidence, and that’s where we want to be.”
The Eskimos had lost 12 consecutive games to the Stampeders when Reilly returned from a knee injury to lead Edmonton to victory in the Labour Day rematch two years ago, again in a late-season game and finally in the West Final en route to a 10-game winning streak that was culminated with a Grey Cup win, the 14th in franchise history.
This year, after starting the season at 7-0, the Eskimos lost six straight including the Labour Day doubleheader 39-18 and 25-22. But three weeks ago, Reilly led them to a 29-20 win over Calgary, and you had to go back to Games 2 and 3 of 2012 to find the last time the Stampeders lost two consecutive games.
The Eskimos take a six-game winning streak against Calgary’s three-game losing streak into Sunday’s showdown.
“I think we’re a totally different team than we were for those two Labour Day games,” Reilly said. “We have a lot of healthy weapons back that we didn’t have during that six-game losing streak. We have Aaron Grymes and Derel Walker back from the NFL and C.J. Gable from the trade with Hamilton. We have Brandon Zylstra, Vidal Hazelton and Adarius Bowman healthy. Our offensive line is healthy. And the defensive line is getting after the quarterback.”
It’s understandable Reilly found his focus going forward before he had even left Investors Group field here Sunday evening. He had the same focus three weeks ago going into the Calgary game in the second-last game of the regular season and that ended well.
Speaking of the injury total that ended up at 346 man games lost by the Eskimos resulting in 88 different players dressing for at least one game and 54 players to get at least one start, Reilly said, “If we can finish this thing off the right way, I don’t know how there will be a story to top it.”