Edmonton done in by plague of bad penalties

It’s not the first time the Edmonton Eskimos shot themselves in the foot early on this season.

But they kept pulling the trigger on the way to Saturday ’s 20-17 loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

After another first-touch fumble led them to surrender backto-back touchdowns on their opponent’s first two drives for the second week in a row, Edmonton bounced back to score 17 straight points.

While it was a fourth-quarter touchdown by their former backup quarterback, James Franklin, that ultimately did them in, the Eskimos didn’t do themselves any favours along the way with 12 penalties for 126 yards — half of which were considered preventable.

“We need to be better, executionwise, on offence and score more points,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “I felt like we were moving the ball down the field on them, and all of a sudden, we took penalties in the red zone, which we haven’t been doing.

“We’ve been very good in the red zone, and all of a sudden, in this game we just couldn’t get out of our own way. And that ultimately led to part of our demise.”

A holding call against Eskimos fullback Alex Dupuis negated an eight-yard touchdown run by C.J. Gable with the Eskimos trailing 12-4 with 5:42 left in the half.

It was the third of four straight holds committed by Edmonton in a second quarter that saw them dominate time of possession 11:38 to 3:22, yet score just two field goals.

The Eskimos still gave themselves a chance for one of Mike Reilly’s patented last-minute comebacks by getting him the ball with three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“We could have, would have and should have, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Maas, whose side fell to 2-2, while the defending Grey Cup champion Argos earned their first win of the season, despite having starting quarterback Ricky Ray sitting this one out with a neck injury.

By comparison, the Argos were much more disciplined without their on-field leader, committing seven penalties for 75 yards.

It should be noted Edmonton’s defence accounted for only five yards of the visitors’ total.

The Eskimos offence was the big culprit, getting flagged seven times for 62 yards on the way to netting 426 yards of offence compared to Toronto’s 353 yards.

“I thought our defence played great all night” said Reilly, who completed 28 of 40 passes for 370 yards, a touchdown and an interception “I thought, offensively, when we were doing our thing properly, we were moving the ball well.

“But it seemed like every time we got onto a roll, we just shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers.”

Cornerback Maurice McKnight recorded his first CFL interception, which was just the second one ever thrown by Franklin, who amassed an impressive touchdown-to-interception ratio of 12:1 with the Eskimos.

Eskimos defensive lineman Mark Mackie earned the game’s lone sack in his first game back since getting cut at the end of training camp.

In the three times Edmonton and Toronto have played when Franklin started the game at quarterback, he has come out on the winning end: Twice with the Eskimos and once with the Argos since being traded in December.

It’s a trend the Eskimos will look to break in a Friday rematch (7 p.m., TSN, ESPN+, 630 CHED) at Commonwealth Stadium.

It seemed like every time we got onto a roll, we just shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers.