A sixth straight loss – including three in a row at home for the first time since 2013 – has the Eskimos reeling, but not defeated.
Once upon a time, they were sitting pretty at the top of the CFL standings with a perfect 7-0 record. Now the Eskimos are in a scramble for their West Division playoff life after falling into a tie for third place with the Saskatchewan Roughriders at 7-6 while the B.C. Lions sit only one win back at 6-7.
The Calgary Stampeders, 12-1-1, have already clinched a higher placement than the Eskimos while the red-hot Winnipeg Blue Bombers can do the same thing with only two more wins. The Bombers are 10-3 after winning eight of their last nine games, never trailing in each of their last six victories.
“I believe in this team,” Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly said after Saturday’s 28-19 loss to the Bombers in front of 30,524 spectators at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
“I’m certain that’s there people out there who don’t believe in this team anymore, but that’s fine,” Reilly continued. “We’ll let them celebrate with us once we get this thing rolling in the right direction because there’s belief in this locker room and there’s ability in this locker room. It’s just a matter of going out and playing better football than we have and playing what we’re capable of playing.
“Right now, it seems like it’s been pretty much every week there’s flashes of it where we sustain it for a bit, but it’s not often enough throughout the course of the football game.”
Eskimos head coach Jason Maas asked his players last week to treat the remaining regular-season contests like playoff games.
“We’re fortunate. We’re lucky. We’re still in the playoff hunt,” Maas said about his message to the players after Saturday’s game. “The reality will be you won’t go home after it, but that’s the lucky part for us. We get five more weeks of this, but we’re going to take it one (game) at a time.
“We’ve got to figure things out,” he added. “We’re not good enough right now to win ball games. So we’ve got to get back to work and that work starts Monday.”
Mass thought there was “basically an atmosphere of playoff football” in the game. One of those plays came courtesy of defensive halfback Aaron Grymes, who popped the ball loose with a big hit on Winnipeg receiver Julian Feoli-Gudino early in the second quarter. Linebacker Adam Konar, who had a game-high 10 tackles, recovered the fumble to stop a Winnipeg drive at the Edmonton 21-yard-line.
“I’ll always play with confidence, but when you can make a play like that early in the game to help your team out to light a spark, those kind of things help out a lot,” said Grymes, who was playing his first game with the Eskimos since the 2015 Grey Cup.
Grymes recently rejoined the Eskimos after spending most of the last two years with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
“The first quarter, I was just so amped up and ready to play, I had to calm myself down on the sidelines, so I took a few deep breaths,” he said. “But I caught my second wind and I felt good, I didn’t cramp at all. None of that kind of stuff that you usually get in your first game back, so I felt great.
“I felt like I had a pretty good game. I’ve got to get my lungs back in me, make sure I can bring energy all four quarters, not just the first two or three or one and two and the fourth.”
The Bombers missed two field goals (from 54 and 40 yards) in a scoreless first quarter and Justin Medlock also missed a third one from 32 yards, but still managed to open the scoring when the ball went through the end zone for a single point at the 5:50 mark of the second quarter.
“We were fortunate Medlock had an off-night on his standards and kept us in the game in the first half,” Mass said about the Winnipeg kicker, who also missed a convert after Winnipeg’s third touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The Eskimos were shut out in the first half for the first time this season, starting each of their first four drives between the seven- and 21-yard lines. They only crossed midfield once in the first half and didn’t have anything to show for it when new place-kicker Swayze Waters hit the upright on a 51-yard field goal attempt.
“We were in tough the entire first half,” Reilly said about the Eskimos putting up only 105 yards of offence.
The Bombers finally hit paydirt when quarterback Matt Nichols threw a six-yard scoring pass to Clarence Denmark with 17 seconds left in the first half to take an 8-0 lead after Medlock’s convert.
“First half, we didn’t do enough to stay on the field offensively,” Maas said. “Defensively, we battled the whole half.
“Second half, I thought the offence came alive. The defence still stood strong when it needed to; special teams, as well. Offensively, we just ran out of gas and one big turnover down here changes the whole complexion of the game.”
Reilly posted his 10th 300-plus-yard passing game of the season thanks to slotback Brandon Zylstra’s spectacular effort – nine catches for 152 yards (all but 13 yards in the second half). He rallied the Eskimos with two touchdowns and field goals of 31 and 42 yards by Waters on their first five series of the second half to close within two points, 21-19, after wide receiver Derel Walker’s 21-yard over-the-shoulder TD catch five minutes into the fourth quarter.
“We were able to move the ball pretty effectively for most of the second half,” Reilly said. “If we had played it that way in the first half, we would have been in a better situation at the end.”
Still, the Esks had a chance to finally end their losing ways when they got the ball back with just over three minutes remaining, although a holding penalty on the punt return moved the ball back to the 17 from their 35-yard line.
“It felt like we were going to go right back down the field and score and win the game,” said Maas, who was hoping Reilly could rekindle the magic of his four game-winning TD drives in the fourth quarter earlier this season.
But it wasn’t to be. Winnipeg cornerback Chris Randle stepped in front of Walker for his fifth interception of the season and ran 37 yards for a touchdown to boost the Bombers advantage to nine points and secure the win.
“Missed a little bit on the throw and the guy made me pay,” Reilly said about the pick-six. “(He) made a great play, but I’ve got to be more accurate on the throw, too.”
“It should never have even come down to that, anyway,” said Zylstra, who did his part to power the Eskimos’ scoring drives in the second half with some great catches and big plays, as well as returning punts and a missed field goal during the game.
“A little bit of everything,” he said. “I got pretty tired, but the more I can do, the happier I am.”
Zylstra, who had three punt returns for 18 yards and a missed field goal return for 26 yards, returned kickoffs for three years in college, but only handled punt returns for a few games in his sophomore season.
“Punt returns are fairly new to me, but I feel really comfortable back there,” he said. “I always feel like I’m going to catch the ball, no matter where it is.”
The Eskimos finally got on the scoreboard when fullback Calvin McCarty made a one-handed catch to score his first touchdown of the season early in the third quarter.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help us win, and if I have to catch it on my back, then I’ve got to catch it on my back,” he said. “We’ve got a confident group of guys in here and we’ve got to keep our confidence up and go out and prove it.”
The Bombers dominated the Esks with 38 first downs and zero two-and-outs when the teams met in August, but they were limited to 20 first downs and had four series last only two plays on Saturday. Winnipeg scored TDs on back-to-back series in the third quarter/early in the fourth to keep pace with the Eskimos, but were forced to punt on their other five possessions in the second half.
Edmonton also limited Nichols to only 238 passing yards, although Andrew Harris, who is making a bid for a 1,000-yard rushing and receiving season, still caused problems by running for 54 yards and a major plus catching nine passes for 81 yards.
“He’s a physical runner, a downhill runner, and he’s got great guys blocking for him,” said defensive tackle Da’Quan Bowers.
Defensive tackle Almondo Sewell had the Eskimos’ only quarterback sack while fellow defensive tackle Euclid Cummings (two), Sewell, Bowers and defensive end Kwaku Boateng all had QB pressures while defensive end John Chick batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage.
The Eskimos took only seven penalties for 67 yards, including a roughing the passer infraction charged to Cummings after Winnipeg challenged his quarterback sack in the second quarter.
SHORT YARDAGE: Linebacker/special teams captain Blair Smith left the game in the first half with a lower-body injury while running back/punt returner Travon Van (11 carries for 47 yards, five catches for seven yards, a punt return and a missed field goal return) was injured in the third quarter … Zylstra’s performance pushed him into second place in the league behind Ottawa’s Greg Ellingson with 1,134 yards on 75 catches … Reilly, who completed 31 of 46 passes for 311 yards, leads the CFL with 4,260 passing yards … Reilly also had 32 yards rushing while Pascal Lochard added 46 yards on five carries … Walker made seven catches for 82 yards.