Eskimos’ coaching staff under gun as ship sinks
Jason Maas and Mike Benevides have been put in a position of walking the plank before the final cannonball sinks the ship. And that’s just for starters. What an awkward week it’s going to be for the Edmonton Eskimos.
What an awkward month ahead in the Grey Cup host city, as well.
When the gun sounded to end the 42-32 debacle in Vancouver on Friday that put the Lions in the playoffs, it not only left the Eskimos in last place and with their fate out of their own hands, as projected by this column, it left head coach/offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas on a spit roasting like a pig along with defensive co-ordinator Mike Benevides.
The two, your correspondent wrote, were completely outcoached, especially in terms of halftime adjustments as has been the case most of the second half of the season, as the Eskimos have lost four of the last five and seven of the last 10 after a 5-2 start to the season.
‘Dead Men Walking ’ was the headline.
Now more flags are being thrown including at least one from inside the dressing room.
Postmedia beat writer Gerry Moddejonge dropped the following: “There are indications Maas is losing his locker-room, if it hasn’t happened already. One Eskimos player called the approach in the second half … ‘the definition of insanity.’ ”
On the 630 CHED post-game show, ex-Eskimo offensive lineman and current broadcast analyst Blake Dermott didn’t try to tiptoe around the obvious.
“This is a team that didn’t make adjustments or enough adjustments at the half to be successful. How do you explain that it’s a different team that shows up in your uniforms in the second half ?
“I don’t want to make this comment lightly and say that they were out-coached but when you see that kind of discrepancy, and it’s happened over and over again, how many times do you say ‘Man, I don’t know if the coaching decisions are that good?’”
The Eskimos have the bye week well aware that only a sporting miracle could put them in the 106th Grey Cup on Nov. 25 in Commonwealth Stadium now. And that wouldn’t change the awkward position in which they’ve left their fans, one of which is now a virtual reality:
Fired by the Eskimos, Ed Hervey returns as general manager of the B.C. Lions, winners of six of their last seven games partially as a result of mid-season player acquisitions made by Hervey. And that’s not to mention exEskimos Odell Willis, Otha Foster, Joel Figueroa, Shawn Lemon, Gary Peters and Cory Watson and featuring ex-Eskimo board chairman, three-time Grey Cup co-chairman and retired CEO Rick LeLacheur, who came out of retirement to return to work with the Lions.