Red-hot Eskimos beat Blue Bombers
West semifinal romp in Winnipeg sets up showdown with provincial rival Stamps
Any time you have a 100-yard rusher and a 300-yard passer, I think you do your job of controlling the line of scrimmage.
The Edmonton Eskimos have now run the gamut, defeating all Canadian Football League opponents to find themselves one win away from their second Grey Cup final in three years.
A 39-32 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in front of 27,244 at Investors Group Field on Sunday has earned the Eskimos a trip to Calgary to face the first-place Stampeders in next week’s West Division final.
They’ll bring with them a sixgame win streak after dispatching a Bombers squad that was the only team the Eskimos couldn’t beat in the regular season, having been swept in the two-game season series.
Those results sandwiched a stretch that included all of Edmonton’s losses this year on the way to a 12-6 record. They handed homefield advantage for Sunday’s West semifinal to the Bombers, who also finished 12-6 to host their first playoff game since 2011.
But the Eskimos ruined the homecoming party with a 334yard, three-touchdown performance through the air by quarterback Mike Reilly, 156 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight catches by league-leading receiver Brandon Zylstra and 107 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries by running back C.J. Gable.
“Any time you have a 100-yard rusher and a 300-yard passer, I think you do your job of controlling the line of scrimmage,” Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said. “Ball security was paramount for us and we won that battle.”
Edmonton forced three turnovers without giving any back to a Bombers squad that was 0-5 in the regular season when they turned the ball over more than the opposition. Considering Winnipeg led the league with 166 points off turnovers, ball protection was key for the Eskimos, who came up with a fumble and a pair of turnovers on downs.
The biggest one came on a punt fake. A direct snap to Timothy Flanders on third-and-three from Winnipeg’s 42-yard line resulted in a two-yard loss on a tackle by Eskimos receiver Cory Watson.
“Probably the letdown was the fake punt,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said of what started out as a tight defensive game. Edmonton led 11-10 at that point, just three minutes into the third quarter.
“It kind of let the wind out of our sails a little bit just for that moment in time. That was enough for them to get a couple of plays on us that we had to climb back out of.
“We got the look we wanted, we had a change and there was a little confusion. Maybe I should have called a time out. I feel like I let the guys down, absolutely.”
At no point did the Bombers give up, taking a 10-7 lead back after Edmonton scored on a 17-yard touchdown reception by Adarius Bowman, his first of two scores on the night, to mark the sixth time this season the Eskimos found the end zone on their opening drive.
Matt Nichols, who played the entire game despite a calf injury that limited his practice time during the same week that saw the birth of his second daughter, completed 35 of 48 passes for 371 yards and three touchdowns.
But it was Gable’s first of two rushing touchdowns — one that involved him trucking 15 yards through tackles before his offensive line pushed the pile over the goal-line, while the other saw him hurdle a defender into the end zone — and a 30-yard touchdown toss to Zylstra that saw the Eskimos pull ahead to take a 25-16 lead into the final frame.
An Eskimos team that was outscored in each of the first three quarters all season long benefited once again from a strong finish, having outscored opponents 213116 in fourth quarters and overtime over their 18-game schedule.
They added to those totals as Reilly and Bowman connected on a 42-yard touchdown pass ahead of Gable’s second trip to the end zone, which followed a fumble by Bombers receiver Weston Dressler, to lead 39-16.
While Nichols responded with three straight TD passes over the final eight minutes, it was too little, too late against an Eskimos team that came up with perhaps their cleanest outing of the year.
“On penalties, we were the most disciplined team out there,” Maas said. “They had five penalties, we had four penalties, so I was very proud of the fact that things we talk about in our locker-room as being important to us, we showed tonight that we are able to win ball games when we’re able to do all of those things.” Extra points: Temperature at kickoff was -8 C. … A moment of silence was held to honour soldiers killed in the line of duty before the signing of the national anthem.