Franklin leads Esks to romp over Argos

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Eskimos may have finally found a quarterback who can fill Mike Reilly’s shoes until he returns from injury.

Rookie quarterback James Franklin threw a touchdown and ran in another as the Eskimos beat the Toronto Argonauts 38-15 on Friday.

The win moved the Eskimos (6-3) back into a first place tie in the CFL’s West Division with the Calgary Stampeders. Edmonton was coming off a 49-20 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last week.

“It’s a win,” said Franklin, who was making his first career CFL start. “The guys were doing a great job catching the ball and Kendial [Lawrence] did a pretty good job sparking us with that punt return. I was very fortunate things were going well on all sides of the ball in my first start. It definitely helped me out. It made me feel a lot more comfortable out there.”

Eskimos coach Chris Jones said Franklin did everything required of him.

“I thought he did a real nice job getting us in and out of the huddle, getting our plays called and executing,” said Jones. “When he had to get out and run, he did that in a good manner and protected the football. “He’s a good quarterback.” Toronto saw a three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 6-3 on the season.

The Argos have come from behind in every victory this season, including four wins where they trailed heading into the fourth quarter.

“We started bad, but battled back into it like we have most of the season and got to within two points,” said Toronto head coach Scott Milanovich. “We have to own this loss just like we own the wins. I thought we got outcoached, outplayed on offence, defence and special teams. That’s generally not a good combination.”

Reilly, Edmonton’s regular No. 1 quarterback, has been out since Week 1 after suffering a knee injury against Toronto. Franklin, starting in place of Matt Nichols, engineered a 92-yard opening drive before capping it off by eluding a tackle and scrambling 18 yards into the end zone for an early 7-0 lead.

Franklin hit Derel Walker with a 53-yard pass, setting up a 23-yard Grant Shaw field goal on Edmonton’s next drive.