DROWNED IN A SEA OF GREEN
Esks fall 19-12 to Roughriders
The Edmonton Eskimos’ playoff hopes were drowning in a sea of green Monday.
The Eskimos and losing have become as synonymous as Thanksgiving Day and football and it was their turn to get carved up by the red-hot Saskatchewan Roughriders, winners of seven of their last eight following a 19-12 victory in front of 31,335 at Mosaic Stadium.
Not an offensive touchdown was to be seen by either side, as the Roughriders improved their second-place record to 10-5.
But it’s becoming a trend for the Eskimos, who despite having the league’s leading passer in Mike Reilly and league-leading receiver in Duke Williams, have now gone nine quarters, five minutes and 25 seconds since their last touchdown on Sept. 22.
“Yeah, it’s been two games, hasn’t it?” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “We haven’t done well enough. We’ve got to figure it out and be better. It’s going to take points down the stretch to win ball games and we’ve got to figure it out fast.”
Edmonton has now lost five of its last six games and dropped its fifth road game in a row as it fell below .500 for the first time this season. At 7-8, the Eskimos are now alone if fifth place in the West Division behind the B.C. Lions, who are 7-7 with a game in hand.
That puts Edmonton on the outside looking in at the playoff picture, as they will now need some help to improve their rank in the standings as they close out the regular season at home to Ottawa, in Vancouver and then on a bye before hosting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 21.
“Our backs are against the wall now,” said Maas, who watched a 5-2 start to the season turn into a 2-6 tumble. “We can’t dwell on this loss. I mean, it hurts, it sucks. We’ve got to keep fighting.
“We’ve got three games left, they’re all important now and I don’t want them to be too down. They battled hard all game and you hope it would have gone the other way. It didn’t.”
Not after former Eskimos defensive end Willie Jefferson came up with the game’s only touchdown, returning an interception 49 yards to the end zone with 2:16 left in the fourth quarter.
It was the third interception of the game by Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly, who completed 13 of 27 passes for 222 yards and a wildly uncharacteristic pass-efficiency rating of just 30.2. It was the league-leading seventh defensive touchdown the Roughriders have scored this season.
“It’s the one defensive lineman in this entire league that can make that play,” Eskimos linebacker J.C. Sherritt said of the six-foot-six, 240-pound Jefferson. “It’s just a bad break and you’ve got to tip your hat. It’s an unbelievable play by the guy.”
Zach Collaros finished with a pass efficiency of 74.3, completing 25 of 38 passes for 259 yards and an interception.
Bryant Mitchell finished with a game-high 93 yards on three catches, 71 of which came on a long bomb on the game’s final play, coming up with a Hail Mary catch that ended up eight yards shy of the end zone. Edmonton finished with 313 yards of net offence, compared to 281 by Saskatchewan, which fell 26-19 to Edmonton in their only other meeting of the season on Week 8, before the Roughriders went on their current run of 7-1.
The Eskimos next host the Redblacks on Saturday (3 p.m., TSN, ESPN+, 630 CHED).