ESKIMOS FACING DIFFICULT TASK
Coach knows meaningless season finale is test of character for non-playoff team
Saturday will mark an anticlimactic end to a cataclysmic Grey Cup-hosting season where expectations far outweighed results.
But the last-place Edmonton Eskimos will take to the field at Commonwealth Stadium one final time in 2018, knowing they prepared for a regular-season finale — that’s as exhibition as it gets — in exactly the same way they did for their 17 much more meaningful games previous.
Because, really, what other option did they have?
There is no motivation to secure a playoff spot. And even less to try to play the role of spoiler against a Winnipeg Blue Bombers squad that, during last week’s bye, the Eskimos watched come up with a win over the Calgary Stampeders and knock Edmonton out of post-season contention. Winnipeg will finish third in the West Division, win or lose Saturday, and travel to either Calgary or Regina for next week’s semifinal.
The Eskimos now will step onto the field against the Bombers (2 p.m., TSN, ESPN+, 630 CHED) without any proverbial carrot hanging over their heads, and not expecting a consolatory pat on the back because of one simple fact: They have a job to do.
“You can say whatever it is but when your whole job is about winning — and winning a championship and that gets taken from you, and you have a bye to come home to and come back to work one last week with not a whole lot at stake — when you’ve done that for 17 straight weeks and a whole training camp and whole off-season to get to this moment so that Game 18 matters to go to the playoffs and you’re not in it, it’s very difficult and I don’t care what profession you’re in,” head coach Jason Maas said.
“So it takes something within you — and maybe that’s why they’re professional athletes because they have that within them — so I don’t take it for granted but, I mean, it’s great when it shows up.
“It still speaks volumes of what we have in this locker-room that every single player — I didn’t see one player not show up like that — and that’s something to be happy for.”
Maas has taken plenty of heat for the 3-7 stretch his team is currently on, after opening up with a 5-2 record that looked every bit as much like a crew boasting league-leading passer Mike Reilly — the reigning Canadian Football League most outstanding player — as well leagueleading receiver Duke Williams, the top-producing yards-netting offence in the division and a defence that sits one sack and one interception off the league lead heading into Saturday.
But even with all those pieces, the one stat that hasn’t followed is wins. Many in the Eskimos fan base question whether or not Maas will be back next year.
“I haven’t been told that, but I have a contract for the next two years,” said Maas, whose Eskimos are 8-9 on the season after going 22-14 under him on the way to reaching the divisionalfinal round the past two years. “My job is to coach this football team and not worry about those things.”
With Maas at the helm, the Eskimos have gone 2-2 in postseason play, including a 39-32 win over the Bombers in Winnipeg during last year’s West Division semifinal.
So it can been seen as almost poetic the Bombers are the ones who technically ended things for the Eskimos this time around, even before they take to the field Saturday.
“That game’s not what knocked us out of the playoffs. The games we lost over the course of the season did,” said Reilly, who will go into the off-season as a free agent. “That’s why you don’t ever leave it in somebody else’s hands. You take care of your own business and we didn’t do that.
“It doesn’t matter who we were playing tomorrow. You just want to go out and at least have something to feel good about after you walk off that field.”
Whatever the circumstances surrounding the game, or not, in this case, the Eskimos are still playing for the teammate next to them.
“I’ll tell you, our veteran leadership has shown up, they’ve definitely kept the room going,” Maas said. “I think our coaches have done a fantastic job at coaching our players in the positions that they coach and from Day 1 (this week), we came back on a long week so we had an extra day of practice and our guys were ready to play after that long bye week.
“It just speaks to the character we have on our team, the desire to play football and the desire to go out strong, together. It’s the last time this team is going to play together and to go out on a positive note is important to them — and they’ve shown and proved that this week.”
It’s the last time this team is going to play together and to go out on a positive note is important to them — and they’ve shown and proved that.