Eskimos’ disappointing season ends with a hollow win
Grey Cup hosts have an entire off-season to ponder the team’s historic second-half collapse
EDMONTON — It was a sad, sorry scene at the site of the 106th Grey Cup on Saturday as the Edmonton Eskimos went into CFL history like they almost certainly never have before.
While at least they could tell themselves they won their last game and ended up with a .500 record at 9-9, seldom has there been a victory in the 70-year history of this team as hollow as this one.
It ended up 33-24 over something less than a reasonable facsimile of the playoff-bound Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The Eskimos became the first team to win nine games and not qualify for the playoffs.
In the entire history of the CFL since the league went to the 18-game schedule, it was only the second time a team had started the season 6-3 and failed to play in the post season.
As they did so, fans watching on TSN, including many who owned season tickets and decided to stay home, were shown Edmonton fans sitting in the stands wearing paper bags on their heads.
During the national anthem, there appeared to be fewer than 6,000 fans in the stands at Commonwealth Stadium.
In other words, it looked like they’d cleared snow off the other 50,000 seats for no good reason.
It was like a pre-season game, except that there were fewer people in the pews. The pre-season game here had a head-count of 28,374. You could have counted feet yesterday and not come up with that many.
And it was, at least on one side of the field, like a pre-season game.
The Bombers, for starters, sat seven starters including their quarterback, two receivers, an offensive lineman, a kicker, a return man and two players from defence.
Then, on Winnipeg’s first possession, running back Andrew Harris ripped off a 36-yard gain. He got up, saluted the crowd and headed to the Bomber bench. He’d secured the league rushing title on the play.
Winnipeg substituted like a team playing a pre-season game from the first quarter on.
The Eskimos on the other hand, coming back from a bye week to play the meaningless match as the only Western Division team out of the playoffs and only the 11th edition of the storied 70-year history of the Edmonton franchise, played everybody.
It would have been interesting to see if receiver Derel Walker, eligible to come off the injured list, would have played if the game if it had meant something.
But it meant nothing. Edmonton’s Duke Williams had the league receiving title wrapped up before the game, but put an exclamation on it with a 17-yard reception to move him into a tie for TD catches with 11.
Williams ended up with 45 yards for the day that left him with an impressive 1,579 for the season. That made it three years in a row in which an Eskimos receiver led the league in pass receiving, and the fourth time in the last five.
It was quarterback Mike Reilly’s 30th TD pass of the year and made him the third Edmonton quarterback to throw for 30 or more touchdowns in a single season, the other two being Warren Moon and Tracy Ham.
Reilly also secured the passing title by completing 29 of 35 attempts for 320 yards to leave him with 5,562 yards for the season. In the previous game, he joined Doug Flutie and Anthony Calvillo as the only QBs to have three consecutive 5,000-yard seasons.
C.J. Gable scored two touchdowns and recorded his first 1,000-yard rushing season. He ended up with 112 yards rushing for the day and 1,063 yards for the year.
But all empty triumphs when you end up being part of a pathetic scene like the one they played in Saturday.
You have to wonder how the sad scene might affect season ticket sales for next year. And will it affect the decisions that must be made in the off-season?