Esks riled up to take on competition
Training camp comes to a close, leaving coaches with tough decisions to make
The best thing about training camp is the end of training camp.
So there were nothing but smiles, and a few punches, as the Edmonton Eskimos wrapped theirs up Thursday with a scrimmage at Clarke Field.
Tempers got a little hot at the end, as is often the case in live-fire situations, but for the most part the players are glad the three-week audition is over.
“Camp is always great to get started and even better to finish,” said quarterback Mike Reilly, one of the few players who has a guaranteed place on the roster. “It was a good camp. But it was a weird schedule playing two games right at the beginning and not having a game to finish. Guys get tired of hitting each other and we’re ready to see some other colours.”
That much was obvious by the buildup of aggression in the scrimmage. Things were becoming so heated that head coach Jason Maas decided to shut the game down early after another fight.
“I’d rather see discipline because we talked about it all camp,” said Maas. “They need to understand that fighting is one thing, controlling your emotions is another. On game day, you have to be able to do that.
“Getting testy and having emotions boil over, I expect that when you’re fighting for your livelihood, but they have to be smarter and more disciplined. If they want to keep fighting, they can keep fighting, they just won’t do it in practice.”
Otherwise, Maas thought the defence owned the final day and it wasn’t really that close.
“There was a lot of fight on the defensive side; the defence showed up,” said Maas. “The offence, for lack of a better term, took more of the day off. We did still make plays on the offensive side, but I thought the intensity on defence was ratcheted up a notch.”
Reilly admitted the offence wasn’t quite up to speed and will have to tighten a few things up before the season-opening game June 14 against Winnipeg.
“I think the defence brought a little more intensity than we did, especially early in practice,” said Reilly. “We got things going later, but we have a lot of things to clean up before the game.”
But he also believes this will be a very strong finished product when the cuts are done and the team starts gelling.
“I’ve seen throughout camp for the last three weeks that with the ability of our offence and our defence and special teams, we have the potential to be a very good team — but I’m sure the other eight teams feel that way, too.”
Now comes the hard part for the coaches. Maas left the vast majority of his cuts until the end, so he’ll be up to his elbows in tough decisions while the players get a couple of days off.
“Our guys gave all they could give and we have some tough choices to make,” said Maas, who always hates this part of the job. “This day sucks. It’s the worst day in football, cutting down. You have high hopes for everybody and you let it all play out. We never pencil in anybody.
“There are times when a guy cuts himself, just with his actions or the way he doesn’t fit in or doesn’t work or he just can’t get things right or can’t make plays. I just don’t see that from any of the guys out here. They all did their part. It’s going to be tough.”
The players will now get a couple of days off to recover before returning to practice on Sunday.
“Just resting and trying to get the body back,” said Reilly. “It’s three weeks of non-stop go. With quarterbacks, the arm starts to hang a little bit just like wide receivers’ legs are probably starting to get a little heavy. We’ll take these couple of days to get fresh and watch film.”
NO NICHOLS
The Eskimos won’t be facing Winnipeg’s No. 1 quarterback in the season opener after Matt Nichols went down in practice with a knee injury that will keep him out for at least a month.