The Eskimos have borrowed a three-finger salute from The Hunger Games movies as they continue to build momentum for the CFL playoffs.
“We’re all just trying to stay alive,” slotback Brandon Zylstra said after flashing the sign to teammates in the Edmonton locker room following Saturday’s 29-20 victory over the Calgary Stampeders in front of 30,601 spectators at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
It was the Eskimos’ first win over Calgary since 2015, their first triumph over a West Division team other than the last-place B.C. Lions this season, and their first victory against a team with a winning record this year.
“It was good to get a win at home against them,” said quarterback Mike Reilly (18 of 27 passing for 284 yards and three touchdowns). “We’ve had chances the last two years to beat them in this stadium and we’ve come up a little bit short.”
“It looks a lot like a few years ago,” veteran slotback Adarius Bowman said, referring to the 2015 season when the Eskimos won each of their last 10 games – including two games over Calgary in their final eight games of the regular season – en route to winning the Grey Cup.
“I’ve been over here in this Battle of Alberta for a few years now and, hands down, it’s tough to come by those wins,” Bowman continued. “But when you do, you’ve definitely got to feed off it. It’s good for the community, it’s good for the team, it’s good for us heading into these playoffs.”
While Bowman had two majors, giving him five for the season, Zylstra also scored his fifth touchdown on the second offensive play in the third quarter to spark a 21-point second-half outburst as the 11-6 Eskimos won their fourth straight game to remain in contention for second place in the West Division and a chance to host the West semi final.
Zylstra’s season-high 77-yard pass-and-run play helped him break the club record with his 10th 100-yard receiving game of the season, giving him bragging rights over Bowman (2016), who previously shared the record with Brian Kelly (1981).
“That’s impressive, particularly with the high-calibre receivers who have come through Edmonton,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “He was quiet for most of the night (only three catches for 101 yards), but … he makes the most of his opportunities.”
“I’m more excited about the win,” Zylstra said. “That’s my first win over Calgary (in five games over two seasons in Edmonton), so that’s pretty exciting.
“It’s all about momentum at this time,” he continued. “All three phases (offence, defence and special teams) looked good tonight.”
The game started out as a defensive battle, with Calgary’s Rene Paredes opening the scoring with a 17-yard field goal at the 6:57 mark of the second quarter.
The teams had exchanged punts for each of the first nine series before the Eskimos lost a third-down gamble for one yard at the Edmonton 47 four minutes into the second quarter. The Esks defence was up for the challenge after the turnover and kept Calgary out of the end zone, although defensive halfback-cum-strong-side linebacker Brandyn Thompson suffered a serious leg injury in the process.
A 45-yard strike to Derel Walker at the Calgary five led to Bowman’s first touchdown catch in the back of the end zone.
Paredes pulled the Stampeders within a point by kicking a 44-yard field and Eskimos punter Hugh O’Neill closed out the first half with a 47-yard punt that bounced into the end zone for a single point and an 8-6 halftime lead.
O’Neill added another single with an 87-yard kickoff after Zylstra’s TD in the third quarter. Calgary responded with a nine-play touchdown drive, then Jamill Smith, who was re-activated Friday with the hope he could provide a breakaway threat in the kick-return game, had a 64-yard kickoff return to the Stamps’ 32. The Esks capitalized on the field position when Bowman caught the ball at his ankles with Reilly under pressure before sprinting 12 yards through a seam in the Calgary defence for the end zone and his second touchdown.
“I was just locked in,” Bowman said. “We needed that win. I knew Mike was going down and I just had to be there for him. That’s something that we’ve built over the years.”
Defensive tackle Almondo Sewell said the defensive players “studied a lot of stuff this week, so it paid off” after the Eskimos limited Calgary’s running game to 49 yards and mostly contained Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell (seven completions in 15 pass attempts in the first half for 92 yards and three consecutive two-and-out series in the first quarter).
“We shut down (Jerome) Messam early,” said Sewell, who had two defensive tackles and a quarterback pressure. “He’s going to have to get his 1,000 yards against some other team than us this week.”
Messam had only 38 rushing yards on eight carries and is still 14 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark.
“We put them in passing situations,” Sewell pointed out. “Bo Levi is a great quarterback. You can’t give him any mistakes out there. He’s going to throw the ball, he’s going to make his receivers look good.”
Mitchell passed for two TDs in the second half, but the second one came with only two minutes left in the game.
Even though Calgary had allowed the fewest quarterback sacks this season, Eskimos defensive end Phillip Hunt and Euclid Cummings both sacked Mitchell while rookie Kwaku Boateng (three) and Odell Willis (one) also had quarterback pressures.
For a change, the Eskimos had to protect a lead in the fourth quarter rather than try to mount a comeback.
“It’s a totally different scenario,” Reilly admitted. “We’ve been used to being on the flip side of things where you have to go down and score and you can’t afford to make a mistake.
“It’s a different mindset when you have the lead, but the goal is still the same – to stay on the field. But you’ve got to go about it a different way. You’re not going to throw the ball as much. When you do, you can’t really can’t afford incomplete passes because it stops the clock. Whereas, when you’re on the other side of things, incomplete pass is not the end of the world.”
Reilly ran three times for 26 yards while running back C.J. Gable had two carries for 13 yards as the Eskimos used up five minutes and 57 seconds on an 11-play, 61-yard drive before boosting their lead to 26-13 with Swayze Waters’ 15-yard field goal at the 10:55 mark of the fourth quarter.
“It would have been nice for us to finish that drive off with a touchdown,” Reilly said. “That would have put (us up) 17 points instead of 13. But at the end when we got the ball, to be able to milk the clock down and get the field goal to put the game out of reach, that was huge as well.”
After Calgary scored to close within six points (26-20), Vidal Hazelton recovered the onside kickoff and the Eskimos used four carries by Gable and a 14-yard catch by Zylstra to get down to the Stampeders’ 31-yard line before Waters (who also kicked three converts for a nine-point outing) clinched the game with a 38-yard field goal.
“All sorts of learning experience,” said Reilly. “We haven’t been in that situation a lot this year, so it was good to have that.
“Ultimately, your main job is to milk the clock down and give them no time. We were up by six. If you can’t milk it all the way down, the next thing is to get down where you can kick a field goal. That puts it at nine. It’s a two-score game and the game is over at that point.”
Reilly had seven carries for 48 yards, overall, showing Calgary a different look on short yardage with an 11-yard option run in Stampeders’ territory in the fourth quarter.
“At the end of the day, we’ve changed our M.O. (modus operandi) a little bit with him and we’re not afraid to run him,” Maas said. “He’s good at it and it’s something that helps our whole offence, so that’s something we’ll continue to do. He’s got to be smart about it, obviously, and tonight he was.”
Gable ran 18 times for 82 yards while Bowman had five catches for 49 yards, Walker was four for 75 and Hazelton caught four passes for 51 yards.
“Everybody was pitching in tonight and that was great to see,” said Reilly. “It’s going to take all of us (to keep winning).
“This late in the year, if you’re relying on one guy to make all the plays, you’re going to get stuffed by a good defence and that’s a great defence that we played against (Saturday). The only way to have success against them is to distribute the ball out and spread it around.”