Eskimos’ winning streak at three
CFL: Home-field Alouettes serve up a Thanksgiving turkey for grateful Edmonton
MONTREAL — It was a Thanksgiving Day game that just kept on giving for the Edmonton Eskimos. And giving, and giving. A 40-20 win over the Montreal Alouettes in front of 20,512 at Percival Molson Stadium saw quarterback Mike Reilly hit the 5,000-yard mark in passing on the season, running back John White rush for 145 yards and two touchdowns and two receivers hit the 100-yard mark in the game, including rookie Brandon Zylstra, on the way to scoring his first CFL touchdown.
If it sounds like a lot to take in, imagine how the Alouettes felt suffering their sixth loss in a row in games against the Eskimos to fall to 4-10 on the season and sit last in the East.
But at least their playoff hopes aren’t utterly extinguished, which is more than can be said for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who sit 4-10 in last place in the West and watched their post-season chances end with the Eskimos victory.
“I think we just played our brand of football,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas, whose squad improved to 8-7 on the season to remain in the hunt for a playoff spot in the West Division while securing their stranglehold on a crossover spot in the East, where no team has even a .500 record right now. “We were able to make some big plays on offence and then our defence just stood tall the whole game.
“That’s a good combination — being able to run it, being able to control the line of scrimmage and then come up with some big plays throughout. Usually, the score will be in your favour when you do that.”
It was the third time this season and second in as many weeks the Eskimos hit the 40-point mark in a game, as they came back from an early 8-3 deficit, as Alouettes running back Brandon Rutley found the end zone on a three-yard rush to open the second quarter in his first action after sitting out five games.
But it was all Edmonton the rest of the way, beginning with a 29-yard touchdown reception by Zylstra, an NCAA Div. 3 product, who ended up with six catches for 104 yards for the best outing in his first three CFL starts.
Reilly also found Chris Getzlaf on an eight-yard strike to open second-half scoring on the way to completing 25 of 34 passes for 346 yards, an interception and a three-yard rushing touchdown, becoming just the fourth player in Eskimos history and first since Ricky Ray in 2008 to pass for 5,000 yards in a season.
While they were kept out of the end zone, Eskimos receivers Adarius Bowman (112 yards on six catches) and Derel Walker (96 yards on five catches) both added to their league-leading tallies.
Montreal quarterback Rakeem Cato completed 20 of 31 passes for 268 yards, an interception and a 26-yard touchdown to Samuel Giguere, which was the Alouettes’ only offensive output of the second half before Reilly rounded out the scoring with a two-point safety concession.
Sean Whyte was two-for-two in field goals, but missed a conversion kick in his first game back in Montreal since being released by the Alouettes last season, while Anthony FERA missed his first of two fieldgoal kicks before briefly heading to the locker-room to be examined by trainers.
Edmonton will spend the rest of the week on a bye in the schedule. GModdejonge@postmedia.com twitter.com/SunModdejonge