Stampeders have history of dominating Esks
But that was last year, not today, team says
The Edmonton Eskimos are attempting to wipe the slate clean, pretending the Canadian Football League team’s history began this season.
It’s not a bad move on head coach Chris Jones’ part, considering that the Eskimos were a dismal 4-14 and won only one of nine home games in 2013.
“We definitely don’t like to talk about last year,” secondyear linebacker Rennie Curran said. “Last year is in the past. This is a new team, new coaching staff, a lot of new players, so we’ve got a whole new mentality, and we really don’t like to talk about last year.”
“We’re just trying to win the next football game,” said quarterback Mike Reilly. “Again, we don’t care about the past, we don’t care about 2013, we don’t even care about the first four weeks of this season. We’re looking at this as the one football game that we’re worried about.
“In that regard, we want to win this game. We’ve worked extremely hard week. All the peripheral stuff, we don’t really buy into that. We’re not concerned about history, we’re concerned about this game.”
The Eskimos,4-0, are playing the Calgary Stampeders, 3-0, at 7 p.m. Thursday at Commonwealth Stadium. It’s the first time the teams have met while both were undefeated early in the season since 1979. It’s also the eighth time Edmonton has started 4-0.
“This is a major game for us,” said Curran.
It’s also a case where the peripheral stuff, the history, is difficult to ignore; especially when it involves a team that every player wearing a Green and Gold uniform quickly learns to hate.
The Stampeders have won eight straight games against the Eskimos and seven in a row at Commonwealth Stadium. Edmonton kicker Grant Shaw had opportunities to snap both of those streaks during the first week of September 2012, but missed a 48-yard field goal into the wind at Calgary and hit the upright from 42 yards five days later at home.
“This one here is for all the marbles. We’ve got a bad taste in our mouths,” thirdyear Eskimos cornerback Joe Burnett said. “Every time we faced them previously, they came in and they pretty much won those games.
“This year, here is one where we want to come into this game, be smart but get a victory. I think we need it for the city of Edmonton. We need this one. That’s where we’re at as far as going in, being physical and outlasting them.”
Reilly said the losing streaks to Calgary “doesn’t have a bearing on what we’re doing this Thursday.”
“That’s all in the past,” he said. “We’re a totally different football team than what they’ve played against in the past, and they’re different from last year, as well. This is going to be a whole new matchup and we’re excited about it.”
Slotback Fred Stamps, an eight-year veteran, is one of 10 Eskimos who were around for Edmonton’s last victory over Calgary on Sept. 5, 2011, and one of only two players to celebrate when the Esks last defeated the Stampeders at home on Aug. 13, 2009.
The intense Alberta rivalry is responsible for Stamps frequently playing his best games against Calgary.
“That’s just the way I play,” he said. “Over the years, that’s the way I was brought up as an Eskimo, if that’s how you say it. When I first came here, I saw all those guys like A.J. Gass and Jason Tucker and that’s the way those guys prepared. I didn’t know anything about Calgary, I just knew it was a major game.
“Labour Day. Fighting, throwing this, throwing helmets. I just kind of took that mentality of those guys. That’s just how it’s been.”
Fullback Calvin McCarty, Edmonton’s other eight-year veteran, acknowledged that Calgary is a good team that’s been rolling the last few years and, “obviously, had our number.”
“But those years have nothing to do with right now. Right now, it’s an opportunity to win a game and protect this house,” he said.
The Eskimos haven’t done a good job of “protecting this house,” losing 12 of their previous 15 home games coming into the season.
“Any good team has got to win at home,” Jones said. “You’ve got to line up and you’ve got to play well and you’ve got to compete, whether it’s on the road or at home. But especially at home, you’ve got to make sure you protect your home turf.”
It’s not just about “defending our house,” Rennie said, “but giving these fans something to be excited about and giving the whole city of Edmonton something to be proud of.”