‘This hurts and it’s not fun,’ admits QB Harris
CALGARY Another Labour Day Classic, another loss for the Edmonton Eskimos.
A 25-9 defeat at the hands of the Calgary Stampeders in front of 32,350 at Mcmahon Stadium was nothing new, considering it was the eighth straight for Edmonton in the annual rivalry showcase.
And it was the third time this season the Eskimos fell while failing to reach the end zone, building off a 28-21 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and a 20-10 loss to the Montreal Alouettes, both of which also came on the road.
Of course, it didn’t help the Eskimos went 0-for-2 in red-zone chances, which come on the heels of an 0-for-3 outing in a 34-28 loss to Winnipeg last week as Edmonton has now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.
“Yup, a couple trips, a couple field goals and it’s not good enough,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas, whose offence has a touchdown ratio of 14-for-32 in the red zone on the season. “Like I said before, we’ll look at it, we’re of the mindset that we are going to score the next time we go down there.
“All the things we’ve done in the past, we either learn from them and get better from them, but none of them help you either. So it’s really about how you look forward.”
Calgary’s win saw the two sides swap spots in the West Division standings, with the Eskimos falling to 6-5 and moving into fourth place while the Stampeders improved to 6-4 to overtake third.
“This is a tough one. This hurts and it’s not fun,” said Eskimos quarterback Trevor Harris, who completed 27 of 35 for a season-low 216 yards, after surpassing the 300-yard mark in each of his past four games. He also threw just his fourth interception of the season, a deflection off the hands of league-leading receiver Ricky Collins Jr. that went right to safety Royce Metchie.
And with the Labour Day Rematch set for Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium (5 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED), Harris is still searching for his first victory against the only CFL club he has yet to beat, pushing his winless record against the Stampeders to 0-8-2 on his career.
“We’ve just got to be better. It’s a good thing it’s a quick turnaround,” said Harris. “I’m hurting. I’m not happy. We’ve got to flush this quick, we’ve got to turn around in five days and we’ve got them on our home turf.”
Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, playing his first game in Week 3 after suffering a pectoral injury, completed 19 of 28 for
263 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, while running back Ka’deem Carey carried 16 times for 143 yards to mark his first triple-digit performance on the ground.
After trading field goals on the way to a 7-6 lead, Calgary reached the end zone on a one-yard dive by backup quarterback Nick Arbuckle, who led the Stampeders to a
4-3 record in Mitchell’s absence, capping a five-play, 75-yard drive to go ahead 15-6 at halftime.
Swapping field goals again, Mitchell found Reggie Beggleton in the end zone for 24 of the receiver’s game-high 138 yards on 10 catches. At that point, the Stampeders had exactly doubled the 177 yards of offence the Eskimos had earned, with 354 of their own.
Edmonton’s offence came away with 265 net yards for their lowest production of the season, while Calgary finished with 461 yards of net offence for the highest total the Eskimos have allowed all year. Let’s just say it’s not good when your safety leads the way with double-digit tackles in a game.
“I don’t really have much to say, to be honest with you,” said Eskimos defensive tackle Almondo Sewell. “It is a frustrating time, but all we can do is go back and fix it because we play them on Saturday.”