THERE’S THE KICKER
Esks’ O’Neill has been stellar
It was another game that went right down to the final play for the Edmonton Eskimos.
And the way things have been going on the way to a 7-0 start to the CFL season, why would anyone think Thursday’s 27-20 win over the Ottawa Redblacks would turn out any differently?
Still, they had a chance to put it away with a 49-yard field goal that resulted in Hugh O’Neill’s first miss since taking over for an injured Sean Whyte a week earlier.
Perhaps the same football gods who seem to have been demanding weekly sacrifices by way of injury — defensive tackle Almondo Sewell and defensive end Marcus Howard were the latest offerings — pushed O’Neill’s longest attempt of the season wide after going six for six in the field-goal department up to that point?
“Exactly, even just going to Ottawa the way this team’s been playing,” said O’Neill. “Every kick’s going to matter, so we’ve just been trying to do our jobs the best we can.”
The distance certainly isn’t a concern.
“It’s definitely well within the range, I think it cleared the post by about 10 yards,” said the U of A Golden Bears product, who hit his four prior attempts in the game. “But it was just one of those things, I pulled it just a little bit. Definitely not what I wanted. I wanted to close out what I thought was a great game for us and to go fivefor-five would have been awesome.
“But we’ll take it. We put up the points when it really kind of mattered early.”
Still, six for seven isn’t half bad for a field-goal trio unfamiliar with one other. Not only has O’Neill taken over for the most accurate kicker in the league least year, but longsnapper Ryan King was injured in the same game, leaving David Beard snapping on field goals and Levi Steinhauer on punts. Their first in-game kick attempt together resulted in a missed point-after, but the group quickly corrected things.
“We definitely have found some rhythm early on, which you kind of have to, I guess, when you get thrown into the grinder,” O’Neill said of his second stint in green and gold, having previously played for his hometown Eskimos in 2013-14. “You get to work after practice, you work when you can and everyone’s willing to put that work in because you know how important it is.”
And not just between the uprights, either. O’Neill buried the Redblacks deep in their own end with a pair of punts, one of which travelled 54 yards and went one yard-line, leading to the gamewinning touchdown on Edmonton’s next series.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to beat that in my career,” said O’Neill, who averaged 50 yards on five punts Thursday. “You want to be able to put the guys in a good chance to go down and score. It was a big drive and it was pretty awesome to watch.”
In turn, his teammates want to put him in good situations to kick field goals.
“That last miss was more on our offence than it was on him,” said head coach Jason Maas. “We could have helped him better in that scenario, he doesn’t need to be kicking a 49-yarder at the end, he should have been kicking about a 40-yarder.
“Hugh’s done a tremendous job stepping in and playing for us. He punted the ball like crazy (Thursday), pinning them at the one yardline one time.”
IN AND OUT
LB Chris Mulumba-Tshimanga was back practising Tuesday after sitting out the previous day ... The Eskimos have signed DL Darius Allen, a six-foot-three, 240-pound Colorado State-Pueblo product ... QB Mike Reilly has been named a CFL player of the week once again for his part in Thursday’s win in Ottawa, where he completed 27 of 38 passes for 384 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 51 yards on 11 carries ... Former Eskimos receiver K.J. Male had six catches for 34 yards and a touchdown in the New England Patriots’ NFL preseason opener Thursday. The fivefoot-eight, 191-pound Minnesota product was picked up on July 30 after being released by the Eskimos a week into the regular season.