Eskimos lick their wounds after defeat.
Week 1 of the Edmonton Eskimos’ season can be summed up with two words. What the …? New starting quarterback Mike Reilly had 35,869 fans at Commonwealth Stadium filling in the blanks in their own way, even if half of the CFL crowd was cheering for the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders when he failed to take a knee on a broken play at the end of the first half of Saturday’s eventual 39-18 loss.
On his own 12-yard line in the final seconds of the half, Reilly felt the pressure of the Riders’ defence closing in. He held on his first look and opted for a short pass up the middle of the field instead.
The ball was snagged by Saskatchewan linebacker Renaud Williams, who ran it in 19 yards for a deflating touchdown that sent the Eskimos into halftime down 22-1 in a game that, up to that point, could have already been considered a disaster.
The loss can’t be pinned on the quarterback, but it was the play that will stand out on a day that the team failed from top to bottom.
The Riders ran overtop of an Eskimos’ defence that needs to be the backbone of the team this year. The offensive line was overwhelmed trying to protect Reilly (17 of 35 passing for 259 yards, three interceptions and one touchdown), the run game was forgotten and, overall, the team racked up 15 penalties for 90 yards.
“We did not execute very well,” Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed said when finally made available to the media, long after players began streaming out of the lockerroom. “Penalties, obviously, were our nemesis. We definitely did not tackle as well as we wanted. We lost the game in all three phases and we just did not execute very well.”
Korey Sheets also did a good job in the nemesis role, running 17 times for a career-best 131 yards and a touchdown that came 4:13 into the game on the Riders’ first drive. Darian Durant (14 of 22 for 171 yards and three touchdowns) came back out for the team’s second drive and put together a 10-play, 94-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a 13-yard pass to receiver Taj Smith. Chris Milo’s converts made it 14-0 at 13:55 of the first quarter.
Trailing the Riders 15-1 late in the second quarter, thanks to a Ricky Schmitt single, Reilly threw the costly pick-six.
“We made a mistake in terms of the execution and that’s something we definitely have to look at,” Reed said, admitting that the player should take a knee in that situation.
“You would want to (take a knee) in many respects and make certain that guys understand this is a situation where you go in and work from halftime and be down 14. Just bad decisions.”
Reilly put the blame for the play on himself.
“I didn’t mind the play calling,” he said. “They’ve got faith in me to make a better decision than I did. That’s obviously a decision that you can’t make. You’ve either just got to burn it 10 rows deep into the stands or you know, tuck it and get two yards and go into halftime with a two-score game instead of three. So that one’s on me.”
Durant helped put the game away early in the third quarter with a pair of quick touchdown drives. After a four-play, 53-yard touchdown drive, Durant was back on the field just seconds later when Sam Hurl recovered a fumble from rookie kick-returner John White. Two plays led to six more points and Milo’s convert stretched the game into embarrassment territory, putting the Riders up 36-1.
Reed kept Reilly in through the majority of the fourth quarter and his starter continued pressing. He found slotback Fred Stamps (six catches, 125 yards) for a 19-yard touchdown pass at 13:36 of the fourth quarter.
Grant Shaw made three of his four field goals for the Eskimos and a safety conceded by Schmitt at 12:19 of the third quarter rounded out the Edmonton scoring.