GREY CUP DREAM SLIPPING AWAY FOR ESKIMOS
Dominant Saskatchewan defence sends Reilly & Co. packing in Turkey Day tussle
Dead last.
OK. Not dead.
But last.
And damn near dead. There has been a long list of Grey Cup host cities that watched their teams, good teams, gag on games down the stretch and not get there.
But has there been one like the Jason Maas-coached Edmonton Eskimos are proving to be?
With a 19-12 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Monday in Regina, Edmonton has now lost three in a row, five of their last six and seven of their last nine.
This is a team viewed by most throughout the first half of the season as the No. 2 team in the league. But suddenly they find themselves sporting a 7-8 win-loss record, fifth in the West behind the fourth-place B.C. Lions (7-7) and third-pace Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-7).
Saskatchewan is now sitting at 10-5 and looks like it can start planning on hosting the Western semifinal.
Meanwhile, the Eskimos just waved goodbye to a home playoff game. Only one of their 14 Grey Cup championships have managed to come without at least one playoff game at home.
The Toronto Argonauts losing to the Lions on Saturday ensured a West Division crossover for a record third year in a row and the 14th time in CFL history. And not once has a crossover team made it to the Grey Cup.
All was going well in the Eskimos’ world when they defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 26-19 at Commonwealth Stadium in Week 8.
Since then, the Riders have gone 7-1, while the Eskimos are 2-6.
Coming off a 30-3 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, their most lopsided defeat at home in the last 61 games, the Eskimos were actually leading this one until quarterback Mike Reilly threw a 49-yard pick-six to former Eskimo Willie Jefferson with less than two minutes to go and leading 12-9. The fatal play came on a second-and-five situation that, considering everything we had seen to that point, most football people would have insisted on calling a running play.
It was Reilly ’s third interception of the game and fifth in the last two games.
The Eskimos are a minus-12 on turnovers over the last three games. Two of those three in the Thanksgiving turkey shoot came in field-goal territory and effectively took six points off the board, while the last one put seven up for Saskatchewan. Ball game.
The Eskimos haven’t scored a point in the fourth quarter in four straight games, haven’t scored a touchdown in the last two, and have only one major in their last three outings.
This is a team with the league’s all-star quarterback, who was all but handed a second straight CFL most outstanding player award six weeks into the season and was trending to breaking a Doug Flutie touchdown record and have a 6,000-yard passing season.
Suddenly, since he led the Eskimos to their trumpeted win over the Calgary Stampeders on Labour Day, Reilly has been sacked 11 times in the last three games, including five times on Monday.
And yet, it says here, Reilly was almost heroic on Monday.
He led Edmonton to 335 yards of offence, rushing for a team-leading 57 yards himself.
Yes, he was just 13-for-27 passing for 222 yards and the three interceptions, but the fact is, he was under unbelievable pressure on virtually every play.
At the front end of the season, the Eskimos offensive line was arguably the best in the CFL.
Now the offensive line can’t block a stiff breeze. It has turned into Swiss cheese.
And on the occasion when Reilly had time to get off a pass that didn’t quack like a duck, the receivers couldn’t catch the ball.
This offence has stalled since Derel Walker was injured and now Duke Williams is playing injured.
The biggest problem for the Eskimos, who play Ottawa at home on Saturday, B.C. on the road and then Winnipeg here on the final week of the season, is where do they find hope?
Who would have ever thought that Mike Benevides’ bend, bend and bend defence would be the closest thing they had to it. The defence, led by the nine-tackle performance of J.C. Sherritt and two-sack effort of Almondo Sewell, enjoyed its best game of the season. It was wasted.
In the year when the 106th Grey Cup game will be staged in Edmonton, the Eskimos have become a sorry story.
With a 19-12 loss to the Roughriders on Monday in Regina, Edmonton has now lost three in a row, five of their last six and seven of their last nine.