July 14, 2018

Resilient Eskimos Bounce Back To Split Series With Argos

Lessons learned.

The Eskimos corrected a lot of mistakes from last week to turn the tables on the Toronto Argonauts in a rain-soaked CFL game Friday night at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.

The Esks were able to “finish” on a winning note – by a narrow 16-15 margin in front of 31,057 witnesses – because quarterback Mike Reilly and the offence maintained possession of the ball for nine plays covering 61 yards during the final two minutes and 23 seconds.

This time, the Edmonton defence shut down Argos running back James Wilder Jr. and stopped Toronto’s offence when it had to, rookie running back Jordan Robinson scored his first CFL touchdown in the second quarter and slotback Duke Williams caught an 11-yard TD pass in the third quarter as the Eskimos once again controlled the middle of the game.

“We did what we wanted to do, man – we finished!” said Eskimos middle linebacker Korey Jones, who played most of the second half after J.C. Sherritt was injured early in the third quarter. “That’s what we spoke about all week.”

“No matter how it starts, no matter what goes on in between, just finish the game,” Esks head coach Jason Maas said. “It was awesome to do that at the end of the game, to finish it out on offence.

“But the way our defence played tonight gave us that opportunity, the way our special teams (played), but our offence at the end of the day had to grind it out, and they did it. The finish was exactly what we needed.”

With their fifth straight win over the Argos at home and their fifth consecutive victory at home on Friday the 13th, the Eskimos split the home-and-home series and improved their record to 3-2 heading into a bye week.

Edmonton, which trails the 4-0 Calgary Stampeders in the West Division, will return to action with a road game against the Montreal Alouettes at 5:30 p.m. MDT on Thursday, July 26.

“For whatever reason, we match up tough against them, and they match up tough against us because both games were pretty similar in the sense of late in the fourth quarter either team could win it,” Reilly said. “Last week, we could have come away with the win, but they did enough to get the job done, and this week, we were the team that finished it.

“It was a little bit tough out there,” he added. “That ball was like a greased pig half the time, but that happens. You’ve got to be able to play through it.”

Reilly said the wind was swirling inside the stadium at the start of the game before heavy rain started falling in the second quarter. Other than easing off during the halftime break, the heavy rainfall continued throughout the second half until late in the fourth quarter.

“And then at the end, I thought I saw a sunset in the corner of the end zone,” Reilly said. “I’m like, ‘What’s going on around here?’ ”

It’s the third time in five games that the Eskimos have had to deal with adverse weather conditions. Their season-opener featured rain and two lengthy delays because of the threat of lightning in the area while the start of Edmonton’s home opener was delayed for the same reason.

“The weather is not going to get any easier as the season progresses,” Reilly pointed out. “We all know how it is in October and November. It’s good for us to get these games in and learn how to deal with the adversity.

“I thought we did a nice job for the most part. I thought Toronto did, too. I think it made the game a little more sloppy for both teams than it otherwise would have been, but it was still a good football game.”

Once again, the Argos opened the scoring – this time with a 42-yard field goal by Ronald Pfeffer – and then the Eskimos dominated the scoring to build a 15-4 lead by the 12:02 mark of the third quarter.

The Eskimos finally got on the scoreboard at 10:53 the second quarter on Robinson’s 30-yard scamper to the end zone on an unusual screenplay. The 23-year-old out of Sacramento State followed veteran fullback Calvin McCarty in a pre-snap loop around the quarterback before dashing towards the sideline and accepting a short pass from Reilly.

“Calvin made a great block on that play, as did Derel (Walker),” Reilly said. “That’s basically a long handoff. It’s the guys up front (the offensive linemen) who get it started and the guys downfield (the receivers) who spring it for the big one. Both units were doing a good job on that play.”

“First one,” Robinson said about the touchdown. “Hopefully, many more to come.”

Hugh O’Neill scored the first of his two punt singles (65 yards) late in the first half to give the Eskimos an 8-3 lead at the break.

Toronto got that point back when Pfeffer missed a 43-yard field goal attempt early in the third quarter before Williams scored his third TD of the season.

“To be quite honest with you, that was the same play that we ran at the end of the game last week when it was second-and-10, and we were trying to get into field goal range,” Reilly said. “He ran his route and got tripped by the outside receiver’s defender, and I ended up not being able to throw and had to reset.

“We wanted to have another opportunity to run it, and Duke made them pay on it. He ran a good route and made a nice catch.

“You learn from your mistakes,” Reilly continued. “We learned from being too close to the DB (defensive back) last week. This time, we had a little more space, and it paid off.”

After catching the touchdown pass, Williams sat down in the end zone, pulled a towel out of his pouch, tucked it into his collar and pretended to eat.

“It’s a feast,” he said. “I was hungry, and I just decided to eat right there. I had my Gatorade on the side, a good cooked meal. I was having fun. That’s all it was.”

Williams’ fun cost the Eskimos a 10-yard objectionable conduct penalty on the ensuing kickoff. Edmonton was then penalized for a horse collar tackle (Chris Edwards) on the kickoff to give Toronto the ball at the Esks’ 46-yard line and a roughing the passer penalty against defensive end Gerald Rivers helped the Argos get down to the 15-yard line. Three plays later, Wilder scored on a three-yard TD run to narrow the Argos’ deficit to 15-12 at the end of the third quarter.

The teams traded two-and-outs early in the fourth quarter before O’Neill collected a 66-yard punt single. While his intention would have been to try to pin the Argos deep in their own zone, it ended up being the game-winning point after Toronto rallied with a 10-play drive to the Edmonton 21. Pfeffer kicked a 28-yard field goal that ricocheted in off the left upright.

Williams, who caught nine of 17 targets in the game for 123 yards, posted his fourth consecutive 100-yard performance despite the rainy conditions to push his league-leading totals to 31 catches and 556 receiving yards.

“For any receiver, that’s a nightmare playing in the rain knowing that we’ve got to catch the ball,” he said. “We just had to focus and look the ball in, but it was very tough catching the ball tonight.”

Having said that, Williams didn’t blame the rain for dropping a couple of passes he probably should have caught.

“That’s our job – to catch the ball in the rain, in the snow,” he said. “That’s my fault. I should have come down with it.”

Williams also made a key 14-yard catch on a third-down gamble at the Toronto 42-yard line to extend the drive that ended with his touchdown.

“I knew I had to come through for our team and that’s what I did,” he said.

Defensively, Sherritt was having a big game with six defensive tackles before he suffered a lower-body injury. Four plays later, outside linebacker Christophe Mulumba-Tshimanga was injured while tackling Wilder short of a first down at the Edmonton 23.

Fortunately, Jones and Blair Smith have both started at middle linebacker and outside linebacker, respectively, and were prepared to step into the lineup.

“We’ve been together for a few years now,” Jones said. “We all prepare like starters in the event that something like that happens.”

Eskimos defensive end Alex Bazzie, who is in his first season with the team, was impressed with the play of both Jones and Smith.

“To be able to come in and not miss a beat, that shows that their hard work (in practice) transfers over on game day,” he said. “We appreciate those two guys, especially on special teams when they have to bust their tails and then come play a defensive snap.”

Smith finished the game with four defensive tackles and two special teams tackles while Jones had two defensive tackles and a special teams tackle.

“They made some great plays at the end of the game to limit (the Argos) when they were running the ball,” Maas said.

Edmonton’s defensive line also had a strong game, with defensive tackle Almondo Sewell and Bazzie getting back-to-back quarterback sacks to force Toronto to punt on the last play of the first half.

“It’s always good to get that monkey off your back,” Sewell said about his first sack of the season. “I wish it were earlier in the year, but once you get one, the floodgates open, so it’s time to go.”

“It feels amazing to be able to get my first one, said Bazzie, a four-year veteran with the B.C. Lions who was getting so anxious during last week’s game at Toronto about not having a sack that “I had a couple of busted plays that helped them get downfield to score the last touchdown.”

He changed his mindset during the past week to concentrate on playing disciplined football and not worry about sacks.

The Argos successfully gambled on third-and-one at the Edmonton 42 late in the first quarter but got stopped on a third-and-six gamble at the Edmonton 10 a few plays later when Edwards, the Eskimos nickel back, caught a deflected pass for an interception.

With Edmonton’s D-line bringing a lot of pressure before the two quarterback sacks late in the first half, the Argos adjusted their offence to keep an extra player or two in to protect former Eskimos quarterback James Franklin in the second half.

The D-line ended up with 12 defensive tackles – Sewell and Nick Usher with three each, Jake Ceresna and Rivers with two each, and Bazzie and Mark Mackie with one each.

“Coach Benny (Mike Benevides) put a big emphasis on stopping the run this week,” said Sewell. “(Wilder) had over 100 yards on us last week. Our whole game as a defence is not to have anybody run over 100 yards on us. We had to get him back.”

Wilder ran for 190 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown, and caught seven passes for 67 yards for a 257-yard performance against the Eskimos in his first CFL start last year. He had 120 rushing yards (72 of them during Toronto’s final two drives in the fourth quarter) and 27 receiving yards in last week’s game.

On Friday, Wilder was limited to a total of 88 yards, including 62 receiving yards on six catches.

For Franklin, it was the first time he has lost in four starts involving an Eskimos-Argos game. He won the first two times with the Eskimos in 2015 and 2016 and last week with the Argonauts.