The Eskimos still have a chance to make the CFL playoffs, but no longer control their destiny.
Finishing in second or third place in the West Division went out the window with Friday’s 42-32 loss to the BC Lions in front of 20,463 witnesses at BC Place, and all that’s left is a possible crossover playoff berth in the East Division Semi-Final.
For that to happen – and to lend any significance to Edmonton’s final game of the regular season against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium – the Eskimos, 8-9, have to rely upon their provincial rivals to do them a favour.
If the West Division-leading Stampeders, 12-3, defeat the 9-7 Bombers in Winnipeg next Friday, the Eskimos would still have a chance to make the playoffs. An Edmonton win over Winnipeg to close out the regular season would then leave both teams with identical 9-9 records, but the Esks would be awarded fourth place in the West because they would have won the season series 2-1.
“Based on how we performed in the last month, this is probably right about where we deserve to be sitting, hoping for somebody else to do something to give us a chance,” quarterback Mike Reilly said on the 630 CHED post-game show. “That’s unfortunate because prior to this game, we still had our fate in our hands and now we don’t.”
The Eskimos have lost four of their last five games since posting an exciting 48-42 victory over the Stampeders in the Labour Day Rematch game at The Brick Field.
“You’ve got to have hope,” said Head Coach Jason Maas. “There’s no reason right now for us to feel out of it because we’re not. Until next week comes, until Friday comes and Calgary loses to Winnipeg, you like Calgary’s chances. They’re arguably the best team in the league. Whether they have something to play for or not, they’re not easy to beat.
“If you believe that something good is going to happen and they happen to go into Winnipeg and get a victory, well, then it’s up to Week 21,” he continued. “Right now, I don’t feel like getting down on our team and getting down on the situation. I’m going to stay positive through our bye week until that moment comes when we’re out of it. If that moment comes, we’re going to get back to the drawing board, we’re going to work our butts off, and we’re going to go out to win a game in Week 21.”
The Eskimos failed to maintain a halftime lead for the fifth time in six consecutive road losses. Edmonton built a 22-17 advantage at the half as wide receiver Bryant Mitchell caught a 23-yard touchdown pass and Reilly scored his league-leading 13th rushing TD on a one-yard quarterback sneak.
But BC took command of the game with an unanswered 21-point explosion in the third quarter as 2017 Grey Cup MVP DeVier Posey caught three touchdown passes to give the Lions a 38-22 lead.
The Lions, 9-7, clinched a playoff berth – although where that will be is still to be determined – with a sixth win in their last seven games. They also won the season series with the Eskimos 2-1.
“Third quarter comes, and we get blasted,” Maas said. “There’s no better way to say it. They scored 21 points in the third quarter, and we didn’t score any. When that happens, it’s hard to overcome it, obviously.”
Defensive halfback Aaron Grymes briefly gave the Eskimos a flicker of hope for a possible late-game comeback with a 57-yard interception-return touchdown (the second Pick-Six of his CFL career) with 5:44 left to play to narrow the deficit to 10 points (39-29).
The Esks later opted to have Sean Whyte kick a 40-yard field goal on first down at the BC 33 with 1:56 on the clock to get within a converted touchdown, but Lions quarterback Travis Lulay completed a 35-yard pass on second down to get into field goal range and ruin Edmonton’s hopes of a last-minute march down the field for the game-tying points.
The third quarter, though, was the turning point.
“They found a couple of weak spots in our defence,” Grymes said. “One of them was a zone blitz that I remember and Lulay – a hell of a quarterback who has been around for a while – found the open guy.
“Things like that happen throughout a football game. It just sucks that it happened at the time that it did happen.”
The Eskimos jumped out to an early 12-0 lead in the first quarter on Whyte’s 47-yard field goal, a safety touch and Reilly’s touchdown, which is one short of Doug Flutie’s record for most rushing TDs by a QB in a single season (14 in 1991).
Edmonton’s early momentum was quickly nullified when BC’s Chris Rainey returned the kickoff after Reilly’s touchdown 95 yards for a major score. Two plays later, Nate Behar lost a fumble at the Eskimos 25-yard line, and the Lions suddenly had a 14-12 lead after Lulay found Bryan Burnham in the end zone for a five-yard touchdown on the last play of the first quarter.
Mitchell, who replaced Derel Walker in the lineup after the all-star receiver suffered a leg injury in the Labour Day Classic, led the Eskimos in receiving yards for the fourth game in a row. He had six catches for 110 yards, and his touchdown completed a nine-play, 82-yard drive in the middle of the second quarter to lift the Esks back into the lead, 19-14.
The teams traded field goals during the remainder of the first half, with Whyte’s second of three kicks coming from the 14-yard line. Linebacker Adam Konar’s first interception of the season at the Edmonton 52 was followed by Mitchell’s 51-yard pass-and-run play to the BC seven-yard line, but a pass into the end zone intended for D’haquille (Duke) Williams (four catches for 80 yards) was knocked down by former Eskimos defensive back Garry Peters.
“We played all right in the first half,” said Reilly. “We moved the ball a little bit, got into the end zone a couple of times, had a couple of drives I thought we should have finished with touchdowns, and we came away with field goals, so we left points on the board, which you never want to do.
“It was far from a perfect half, the first half. We turned the ball over in our end and did a couple of things like that that have been a problem all year for us. But still going into the locker room with the lead at halftime, you’ve got to come out and play a lot better in the third quarter. That was what sunk us, of course, on both sides of the ball.
“Offensively, we couldn’t get a first down, we had a bunch of two-and-outs, and then they marched down and scored a bunch of touchdowns,” Reilly added. “If you want to win a football game and get into the playoffs, you’ve got to play for four quarters, and we definitely didn’t show up in the third (quarter), and that came back to bite us.”
The third quarter was all Posey (five catches for 113 yards). The 28-year-old receiver caught seven passes for 175 yards, including a 100-yard reception for the longest offensive touchdown in Grey Cup history, with the Argos in last year’s CFL championship game. He returned to the NFL for a tryout with the Baltimore Ravens, was released on August 30th and signed with BC on Sept. 10. He has since played six games, but hadn’t scored until his impressive third quarter against the Esks when he caught scoring passes of four, 65 and 32 yards on three consecutive possessions over a span of seven minutes and 42 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Eskimos had only four yards of net offence without getting a first down in the third quarter until Behar’s 29-yard catch on the final play of the period.
“They made more plays than we did in that third quarter and got the lead and momentum and carried it over to the fourth,” Maas said.
So that leaves the Eskimos in limbo until next week’s Calgary-Winnipeg game.
“It’s going to be impossible for me to shut myself off from what the result is,” Reilly said. “I know I’ll find out one way or another, but to be quite honest with you, I probably won’t watch the game. I’m just going to watch film and get prepared to play that last game. Whether it’s to get into the playoffs or if it’s just for pride for the jersey that I wear and the city that I represent and I’m playing with my teammates, either way, in my opinion, there’s going to be a lot to play for in that last game so I’m going to make sure I do everything I can to be ready for it.
“Hopefully, we do have an opportunity to still play in the post-season with a win, but even if we don’t, Job No. 1 is to get a win,” he said. “We’re going to be playing a home game against a divisional opponent. Obviously, I would prefer for us to be playing to get into the playoffs, but even if that’s not the case, I’ll be damned if we’re going to show up flat in front of our home crowd in the last game of the regular season. So either way, to me, there is everything in the world to play for in that game. I hope that my teammates will have that same attitude and I believe that they will.”
SHORT YARDAGE: Reilly (18 of 28 passing for 268 yards) became just the third CFL quarterback to pass for 5,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. Flutie (1991-94) and Anthony Calvillo (2002-05) are the only QBs to accomplish the feat four years in a row … Lulay has won four of five starts against Reilly, his former backup with the Lions in 2011-12 … Defensive end Alex Bazzie had his fourth quarterback sack in the last three games and five defensive tackles … Middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt and defensive end Kwaku Boateng also had five defensive tackles while Korey Jones recovered a Rainey fumble on a punt return in the first quarter.