Masoli makes a statement with big game versus Esks
EDMONTON — Jeremiah Masoli didn’t get much in the way of looks during his brief time with the Edmonton Eskimos.
But he made sure they were sick of seeing him on Saturday.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback engineered four unanswered touchdown drives in the second half to mount the biggest comeback win in club history after falling behind by 25 points. Hamilton won 37-31.
And he completed 23 consecutive passes along the way, surpassing the former CFL record of 22 set by Eskimos current head coach Jason Maas.
“We just locked in every play,” said the 5-foot-10, 228-pound Mississippi product. “It has nothing to do with me, individually. Guys were just getting open and our O-line was blocking. All I had to do was throw and catch, that’s what we were doing.
“I don’t think it has really set in. I’m not really focused on records or things like that. I just want to win and get back to the championship.”
Step 1 involved beating the defending champs Saturday in a game where the Ticats made a statement.
“I don’t think I have ever seen anything like what happened tonight,” Masoli said. “It just feels awesome to come from behind the way that we did.”
Masoli spent his entire rookie CFL season on the Eskimos injured list in 2012 before being traded to Hamilton along with linebacker Simoni Lawrence and Greg Wojt, in exchange for linebacker Nathan Kanya and offensive lineman Carson Rockhill.
“He’s a great guy and I’ve always seen potential in him,” said Eskimos slotback Adarius Bowman, who spent plenty of time on the injured list that year, too, having suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2. “He was our third quarterback so he wasn’t getting as many reps, but he’s a guy who was in his playbook, studying.
“We knew about him in college, just in terms of talent.”
But it was a new level of talent that was on display for all to see Saturday, with Masoli completing 31 of 38 pass attempts for 391 yards and three touchdowns. And once he got into a zone, there was no getting him out of it, as Maas could attest to when he set the consecutive-passing record against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on July 30, 2004, in the very same stadium he watched it get broken on Saturday.
“Shoot, I’m sure Benny went through the Rolodex of everything to try,” Maas said of his defensive co-ordinator, Mike Benevides. “The biggest thing I noticed is they were in second-and-short, second-and-medium a lot. A pass here, a pass there that gets knocked down, or if he’s errant on a pass ... but he was accurate it seemed like the whole night in the second half.
“When a quarterback’s hot and he’s got weapons to use, it’s tough. Particularly when your defence has been out there all the time.”
The Eskimos will face another member of their former quarterback stable when Matt Nichols gets the start for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Thursday at Commonwealth Stadium.