A spirited effort by quarterback Mike Reilly and another solid defensive performance helped the Edmonton Eskimos defeat the Toronto Argos 46-23 in the team’s most dominant outing of the season.
After giving up a pick-six to Toronto’s Keon Raymond on the game’s first offensive play, Reilly tossed three TD passes and plunged in for another.
The Eskimos won a second straight game, improving the record to 4-4, looking impressive in posting the biggest margin of victory this season.
“It was good to play an offensive game where we didn’t hurt ourselves with penalties and turnovers and our defence continues to build and get better every single week,” said Reilly, who completed 26 of 31 attempts (83.9%) for 362 yards, posting a 126.1 quarterback rating.
“It was a total team effort. That’s what we’re capable of and we just have to continue to improve.”
“Those guys are always going to be the biggest part of our offence, they’re so dominant,” said Reilly. “We have a lot of other guys who work their tails off every single play and they’re not necessarily going to get the highlight catches. (Chris) Getzlaf, (Nate) Coehoorn and (Cory) Watson stepped up and played. John White and Calvin (McCarty) are talented players. If they want to take away our big two weapons, we have a lot of other weapons. It was great to see that everybody stepped up and played well.”
With the help of Edmonton’s Canadian content, the Eskimos put up 24 unanswered points.
Coehoorn caught his first TD pass of the year, a 30-yard effort, to cap a 95-yard drive that started the offensive outburst.
McCarty plunged in from two yards out after Pat Watkins first of two interceptions got the ball to Toronto’s six.
“It’s a team effort,’ said McCarty, who produced 99 combined yards. “Offensive line was great. The defence stepped up with some big turnovers. It definitely feels good but glory to my teammates. Some games are going to be ugly. You’d like them all to be like this, but they’re not all going to be like that.”
Early in the second quarter, a 70-yard reception by Watson set up a 25-yard catch by Bowman.
Walker replied with a 19-yard catch after Toronto quarterback Cody Fajardo plunged in on an Argos drive aided by two pass interference calls as the Eskimos took a 33-14 half-time lead. Fajardo ran in for another TD in the late going.
“If we don’t give up those two plays, it’s a pretty dominant performance,” said head coach Jason Maas about the interference calls. “We played at a high level in all three phases, controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, made big plays when they were there to be made. On special teams, we were solid. It was a great effort. I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“You’re thankful to have Mike in there at quarterback because nothing bothers him. He can play through anything. He shrugged that (pick-six) off and continued to execute the plays that were called. I thought Mike did a good job rebounding mentally from there and letting things come to him.
Sean Whyte added field goals of 27, 38, 16 and 45 yards.