It never rains, but it pours.
The Eskimos can relate to the Li’l Abner cartoon character Joe Btfsplk, who always walked around with a small, dark rain cloud over his head to represent his bad luck.
Just when the Eskimos appeared to be on the verge of winning for the first time in more than four weeks, a 49-yard interception-return touchdown by former Edmonton defensive lineman Willie Jefferson turned the tide..
Jefferson’s TD with 97 seconds remaining in Monday’s Thanksgiving Day CFL game at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium propelled the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a come-from-behind 19-12 victory over the Eskimos, who have lost six of their last eight games to fall into the West Division basement with a 7-8 record.
“It’s a loss, and it sucks, and we’ve got to get better,” Eskimos Head Coach Jason Maas said afterwards on the 630 CHED post-game show.
The Eskimos don’t have much time to regroup. The Ottawa RedBlacks, 8-6, visit the Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium at 3 p.m. this Saturday.
“That’s probably the best-case scenario for us to be quite honest with you,” Maas said. “We’ve got two short weeks coming upon us, three games in 11 days. I don’t think you could ask for anything better for us. We need to play football. We need to play fast. Stop worrying about everything else and just focus on the task at hand, which is very difficult, but it’s manageable. We can do it. We’ve got to play better than what we have been and stick together.
“The games are coming up quickly for us, and you don’t have a lot of time to dwell on this. You’ve got to move on fast, flush it and get a win at home.”
The Eskimos also play the BC Lions, 7-7, in Vancouver on Oct. 19 and wrap up the regular season after another bye week with a home game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 8-7, on Nov. 3.
“With it being a short week, it’s going to be all mental reps (for preparation),” said defensive end Alex Bazzie. “Guys are going to have to take advantage of that. Watch film and take it easy on your body, so you’re able to rest up.”
Despite losing each of their last three games and five in a row on the road, the Eskimos can still control their own destiny by winning their final three games of the regular season. Beating both the Lions and Bombers – the two teams the Eskimos are competing with for the final playoff berth in the West Division and the crossover playoff berth in the East Division – will also give Edmonton the season series over both teams and the tiebreaker advantage should they finish with identical records.
Another strong defensive performance almost carried the Eskimos to victory on Monday. The Green and Gold limited the Roughriders to six attempted field goals (Brett Lauther was successful on four of those kicks) and two punts on nine trips into Edmonton territory. Second-year cornerback, Mercy Maston’s second interception of the season, stopped the other drive and gave the Eskimos the ball at their 33-yard line with three minutes to play.
Defensive tackle Almondo Sewell had two quarterback sacks while Bazzie knocked down a swing pass within a span of four plays to stop the Riders after they reached the Edmonton eight-yard line on their opening series of the game.
“I’m mad at myself because I had an opportunity to pick off a ball, but instead got a bat-down,” said Bazzie, comparing his knockdown to Jefferson’s Pick-Six that enabled Saskatchewan to win the game. “Little things like that matter.”
Bazzie also forced a fumble when he sacked Riders quarterback Zach Collaros to set up one of Sean Whyte’s four field goals (32, 18, 42 and 45 yards) near the end of the first half.
Middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt had a team-high nine defensive tackles and knocked down a pass while defensive back Aaron Grymes made six tackles, and weak-side linebacker Adam Konar had five defensive tackles and a fumble recovery as Edmonton limited the Roughriders to only 281 yards of net offence and just 32 rushing yards. Defensive halfback Forrest Hightower and safety Neil King had the Esks’ other knockdowns.
“They were awesome,” Maas said about his defence. “If they continue to play like that, we’re going to have a chance to win every game. They’ve just got to keep doing that, and our offence will be better. We’ve got to stop turning over the ball offensively. That’s been our Achilles heel for the last three games. We’re minus-12 in turnovers because of it.
“As great as our defence is playing, it’s not like we’re getting three or four turnovers a game for us, so our offence cannot turn over the ball,” he continued. “That’s first and foremost. We’ve got to stop doing that.
“We’ve been great with the penalties (the Eskimos have had fewer than six penalties in four of their last five games), playing great defence, our return game is not getting anything, but we’re not giving up anything either. That’s huge. That was a hard-fought battle. They’re a great specials team, team.
“If we can play with a great defence and cover people and get return yardage that’s there and then run the ball and make some plays, but not turn over the damn ball, we’re going to be a hard team to beat.
“On top of it, we just need to start making plays. I’ll call (the plays) a little bit better. It comes down to just ‘Let’s make a play or two.’ ”
The Eskimos, who held the lead for the first time in three games, were in good shape after Maston’s interception, needing only to protect a three-point lead while running down the clock. Quarterback Mike Reilly started with a 13-yard completion to wide receiver Bryant Mitchell and a five-yard run by running back C.J. Gable. But Reilly’s next pass was picked off by the six-foot-six Jefferson, who played with the Esks when they won the 2015 Grey Cup.
Maas dropped a challenge flag to question roughing the passer on the play because Reilly took a high hit and was also crunched into the ground, but the appeal was turned down by the CFL command centre.
The Eskimos still had a chance to march the ball down the field with 1:32 to play, but their struggling offence lost four yards over three plays and turned the ball over on downs, leading to Lauther’s fourth field goal (from 38 yards to go along with successful kicks from 23, 39 and 43 yards).
With time left for only one more play after the ensuing kickoff, Reilly unloaded a desperation Hail Mary toss that Mitchell caught at the Saskatchewan 14 after it bounced off a Riders defender’s hands, but he was tackled at the eight-yard line to end the game.
“We shot ourselves in the foot plenty of times in this game,” Maas said. “We had an opportunity on our second drive if we get out of the break and connect in the end zone, it’s a touchdown. Instead, we settle for three (points). Then we throw two picks (in field-goal range). And the last one, we’re up 12-9, looking like we’re hopefully going to get a couple of first downs and run the game out. That was our opportunity, and we throw a Pick-Six. It’s just frustrating.”
While the offence hasn’t scored a touchdown in the last nine quarters and only 30 points over the last three games, there were signs that it was coming out of its recent funk.
“It didn’t feel like last week,” Maas said. “It didn’t feel like we couldn’t do anything. This week, it felt like there were things there. We ran the ball well – not every time – but we ran it well a lot of times. We threw the ball when guys were open and other times we just couldn’t hit them.”
Reilly rushed for almost as many yards (50) as he passed (60) in the first half. He finished the game with only 13 completions on 27 pass attempts for 222 yards, but 71 of those yards came on the Hail Mary pass on the game’s final play.
League-leading receiver D’haquille (Duke) Williams, who is playing with a banged-up shoulder, caught six passes for 78 yards, including a 30-yard catch in the first quarter, while Vidal Hazelton hauled in a 40-yarder down the sidelines in the fourth quarter for one of his two catches on eight targets and Mitchell had three catches for 93 yards to go over the 1,000-yard mark in his Eskimos career. Gable also ran 12 times for 56 yards.
“Watching it on the iPad on the sidelines, we weren’t perfect,” Maas continued. “There were miscues (when receivers ran the wrong route) when there shouldn’t have been. We can’t have that, particularly when we’re not operating at a great level. We need to be able to stay on the field by great execution and guys doing their jobs.
“The fight there. The execution at times isn’t. The guys are working hard. They’re doing a lot of little things right. It’s just when the opportunity arises, and we’re not making the play. We’re not able to rise to the occasion.
“I’ll take the blame,” said Maas, who is also the offensive coordinator as well as head coach. “I’ve got to do my part as a coach and get our guys to execute better and then when the play is there to be made, we’ve got to make it. And we’ve got to start protecting the ball a whole lot better.”
SHORT YARDAGE: Veteran centre Justin Sorensen was dressed but not in Monday’s starting lineup after being limited in practice last week. Right guard David Beard shifted one position to his left to make his second start of the season at centre while backup offensive lineman Jacob Ruby played right guard … The Eskimos converted only four of 19 second-down opportunities into first downs … Reilly surrendered three interceptions in a game for the first time since 2015.