October 19, 2018

‘There’s No Second Chances Anymore’ – Eskimos Have To Win

As bleak as it may have looked during the Eskimos’ recent losing streak – the team is technically still in last place in the West Division with an 8-8 record – there are suddenly a few rays of sunlight poking through the dark clouds.

The Eskimos still have a chance to finish in second place and could possibly host the West Semi-Final at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 11.

But don’t bother mentioning that possibility to Head Coach Jason Maas.

“I don’t really care whatsoever,” Maas said. “We’re focussed on BC and don’t care what happens after that. We just want to focus on getting a win. There’s no scenario that needs to be played out more than one game this week, and that’s it.”

The Eskimos (8-8) play the BC Lions (8-7) at 8 p.m. Friday at BC Place. The Official Coors Light Watch Party is at Bo’Diddly’s. Because the teams split their first two games this season, the winner also claims the season series and has the advantage if the two teams finish the regular season tied with identical records.

The Eskimos will also be in the same situation where the winner of their final regular-season game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Nov. 3 at The Brick Field also wins the season series 2-1.

“There’s no second chances anymore,” said quarterback Mike Reilly. “We’ve burned all of those us. We’re at the point where there is no tomorrow. If you screw up, it’s going to sink your season. So, the guys took that to heart and prepared during a short week in that manner (for the Ottawa RedBlacks last week), but that has to continue over to this week, and if we take care of business this week, it’s got to continue to the week after and the week after. It’s got to be like that for the rest of the year.

“If we want to stay in control of our own destiny in terms of the post-season, we have to win this game, and that’s the reality of it.”

Besides the Green and Gold needing to win their last two games, a lot of things have to happen for Edmonton to claim second place in the West. The Eskimos will host the West Division Semi-Final if:

  • Edmonton, Saskatchewan Roughriders (10-6), Winnipeg (9-7) and BC all finish with 10-8 records.
  • Edmonton, Riders and Bombers finish tied at 10-8.
  • Edmonton, Riders and Lions are all 10-8.

The Eskimos would claim third place and a berth in the West Semi-Final if they tie Winnipeg and BC at 10-8 and drop to fourth place and the crossover playoff berth in the East Division Semi-Final if they tie the Bombers and Lions with 9-9 records.

According to the CFL, the most likely permutations of the 64 possible scenarios currently in play is that the Esks will finish last in the West (15 different combinations) while there are 10 possible outcomes during the final three weeks of the regular season that would see the Eskimos finish in either third or fourth place.

First up is the Lions. Unfortunately, the game is on the road, and the Eskimos have fared poorly away from the friendly confines of The Brick Field this year, losing six of eight games, including the last five in a row.

“It’s been odd for sure because we’ve generally been a very good team on the road,” Reilly said. “Record-wise and performance-wise, in most of those games it hasn’t been up to our standards that we’re used to.

“There’s been a lot of games on the road that we’ve had opportunities to win, and they’ve been just as close as last year in games that we won, but we just didn’t make the plays so far this year in crucial times.

“I don’t know if you just start to take it for granted when it’s just happened in the past, and then you realize how challenging it is,” he added about his success with the Eskimos at fourth quarter come-from-behind victories (21 in his CFL career). “But we have another opportunity to play better on the road, and we have to because we have to win this game. Our guys understand the importance of that and, hopefully, we’ll figure out what the mindset is that’s been different this year and get back to what we’ve been in the past.”

Basically, the Eskimos just need to pick up where they left off in last week’s 34-16 victory over the RedBlacks. After a slow start, the Esks turned it on during the last 34 minutes of the game and played as good on offence and defence as they have at any point this season.

“When you get put with your backs against a wall or into a corner, you realize what type of team and the type of people you have on this team and in this locker room,” said safety Neil King. “We have a ton of fighters. We have guys who don’t want to quit, and it all came together (Saturday) the way we were expecting and hoping it would came together.”

Reilly was one of those fighters, completing 31 of 38 passes for 369 yards against Ottawa last week despite having missed the day-before-the-game walk-through practice because he had been sick all night.

Ceresna called the RedBlacks game “a complete team win.”

“Offence, defence, special teams – we played together as a cohesive unit, so it feels amazing right now,” he said. “It was just good to get the ‘W’ again and get back in the win column.”

He said it was also good to see the offence start making big plays and scoring points again after three off-weeks.

“We all had a mindset of wanting to win,” said wide receiver Bryant Mitchell, who caught a career-high 13 passes for 190 yards in the game. “We all had the mindset that we had to do whatever it took to win.”

Mitchell just happy to be able to contribute

Mitchell became the first CFL player to catch 13 passes since the Toronto Argonauts’ S.J. Green on Oct. 14 last year.

He is also only the seventh Esks receiver ever to accomplish the feat in team history.

George McGowan set the Eskimos record of 15 catches on Sept. 3, 1973, and Darren Flutie equalled the mark on Aug. 7, 1997. Fred Stamps caught 14 passes in 2011, and Derel Walker repeated the feat on Aug. 21, 2015. And Brian Kelly (1983) and Morris Bailey (1950) each had 13 receptions.

“I was once in a place where I was released from this team,” said the 26-year-old Mitchell, who has been with the Eskimos for four seasons. “I was on the practice roster. I played seven games last year. I just want to help the team in any way that I can.”

Mitchell, who stepped into the starting lineup after Walker suffered a leg injury at the Labour Day Classic, was upset after losing the first fumble of his football career early in the Ottawa game, but more than made up for that mistake with the best performance of his 17-game CFL career.

“After that, I came off (the field) smiling, just saying it’s going to be a big game,” said Mitchell. “That’s how I felt.”

Reilly also pointed out that Mitchell learned a valuable lesson later in the game that resulted in his 75-yard pass-and-run touchdown halfway through the fourth quarter. He had talked with Mitchell on the sidelines after the receiver missed “a pressure look” the Ottawa defence had presented during the previous drive.

“He ran a good route,” Reilly said. “I was just expecting him to look quicker. He said he didn’t see the pressure. He said, ‘I’ll be better; I’ve got to see that’ and I agreed with him.”

Reilly smiled after making the comment.

“I said, ‘Hey, man, if you see the pressure, just look a little quicker. I know you’re going to make the play,’ ” Reilly said.

Sure enough, Mitchell recognized a pressure situation the next time the offence was back on the field, made the necessary adjustment and “he made them pay,” according to Reilly.

“They brought an extra guy that we couldn’t block on that 75-yard touchdown and the O-line picked up everybody they were supposed to, the running back picked up who he was supposed to and the one guy that we couldn’t get was the free guy and we had enough time because Bryant saw it and snapped his route off quick enough (for Reilly) to get the ball off,” Reilly said. “That’s 12 guys being all on the same page and making a defence pay when they’re getting aggressive. That’s stuff we haven’t done well enough in the last couple of weeks, and we’ve got to get back to that.”

Reilly prepared to run for his team’s life

Despite still being weakened by the flu last week, Reilly rushed for a season-high 72 yards against the RedBlacks.

“Late in the season, you’ve got to figure out a way to win,” he said. “All of our guys are willing to put everything on the line to do what it takes. Sometimes, that’s what’s necessary, is for me to take it and run.

“It makes for a very long season if you’re doing that for 18 weeks,” Reilly continued. “But I’ve learned as a veteran if you kind of save that up, you can save it for the end and then you’ve got it when you really need it. We’ve got, hopefully, five more football games and I’m going to use that every game if I have to. That opens up other things, too, but we’re going to attack a defence in any way that we can because we’ve got to get the job done.”

Reilly said “it would have been a rough one” if last week’s game had been on the Friday, but he “felt fine” when the game was played on the Saturday. “I was a little tired from the lack of sleep.”

Whyte recalls first CFL field goal

Sean Whyte, who kicked his 300th career CFL field goal last week, was talking about his first field goal earlier this week.

“It was 2009, and it was still grass (at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium),” Whyte said. “I remember (BC head coach) Wally Buono made me wear a six-stud (cleat) on one foot and my normal turf shoe on the other foot and I hated it.

“I came out here and Jarious Jackson, who was my coach when I got here in Edmonton (in 2015), was my holder. It was a 47 (yard kick from the) right hash in the mud, so I was not happy with it at all. I was like, ‘Man, and I might miss this.’ I was not confident, but he actually botched the hold and the ball slid out, so I never got to hit it. I was like, ‘Thank God.’ I didn’t want it.

“My very first opportunity was on the right hash, 27 (yards) going (the other) way and I made it,” he continued. “I’ll never forget that one.”

Whyte loves working with long-snapper Ryan King and says third-string quarterback Danny O’Brien perfectly fits the bill for what he wants from a holder – someone with good hands who is used to catching the ball and also likes to have fun.

Asked if there could be another 300 field goals in his career, the 32-year-old Whyte said: “I’m going to play until my leg falls off or if Edmonton doesn’t want me anymore.”

No rest for the weary

Whereas a loss “stays with you all week. You feel that and you think about it all week,” according to Reilly, beating Ottawa changes everything for the Eskimos.

“It feels good to have something to build off,” Reilly said.

“You just want to savour that (feeling) and understand that’s the reason you sacrificed all year; the reason you’ve paid the price since May is to win at this time of year,” Maas explained.

The win boosts the Eskimos confidence and provides a lighter mood around practice, but the team still had to work just as hard as when it was trying to end its recent losing streak.

“You don’t want to take it for granted and slip back to what we were doing previously,” Reilly said.

“With all the good we did in that game (Saturday), it could have been even better if we had taken care of some of the issues that have plagued us over the last month, month-and-a-half,” he said during 630 CHED’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback Show. “At this time of year, we try to stress taking care of the football, and that’s interceptions and fumbles both, and not killing drives based on penalties.”

Short yardage

  • Eskimos fans raised $21,708.35 for the Cross Cancer Institute by purchasing Green and Gold mini-cowbells or tbhe Eskimos’ “Empire Gives Back” charitable ticket initiative and by making donations at last Saturday’s game. The Cross Cancer Institute is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
  • The Eskimos will have three international players on the offensive line (left tackle Tommie Draheim, left guard Travis Bond and right tackle Colin Kelly) and four Americans starting in the secondary (cornerbacks Mercy Maston and Forrest Hightower plus defensive halfbacks Aaron Grymes and rookie Monshadrik (Money) Hunter.
  • Backup receiver/special teams player Sam Giguere returns to the lineup after missing the last game while both national players Nate Behar and Natey Adjei draw into the starting lineup for the five-receiver sets,
  • The Eskimos scored 10 points in the final 15 minutes against Ottawa, ending a streak of four consecutive games without a fourth-quarter point.
  • Reilly needs just 26 passing yards to reach the 5,000-yard milestone for the third year in a row. Only Doug Flutie (1991-94) and Anthony Calvillo (2002-05) have ever had four consecutive 5,000-yard seasons.
  • Running back C.J. Gable needs 60 yards to have the first 1,000-yard rushing performance of his six-year CFL career.
  • Middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt needs 14 defensive tackles to reach 100 for the second time in his CFL career.