November 3, 2018

Eskimos Still Have Plenty Of Incentives To Play Hard

Canadian linebacker Adam Konar opted to re-sign with the Eskimos as a free agent this season instead of returning to Vancouver to play in his hometown because he liked what was happening in Edmonton.

“Yeah, it crossed my mind,” the Eskimos’ 2015 third-round draft pick said about playing at home, “but at the end of the day, this has ended up feeling like a home as well after being here for a few years now, so it wasn’t a hard decision to make to come back.

“It was just because of the culture that I feel we’ve built here the past few years, the players along with the coaches,” Konar continued. “I felt comfortable in this situation, and I really didn’t want to go anywhere else. I’d rather be here with the team I know. I know we can grow and develop together.

“All the linebackers, we’ve been a pretty consistent group throughout the past few years … and I enjoy the team we have. It’s been a lot of fun. Obviously, this year didn’t go as planned, but we thought we were going to do a lot better than we did and be fighting for the Grey Cup. It’s unfortunate we aren’t.”

The Eskimos, 8-9, will conclude the regular season at 2 p.m. Saturday against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium knowing that the outcome won’t change anything. Edmonton has been already relegated to last place in the West Division while the Bombers will finish in third place and play in the West Semi-Final at either Calgary or Regina.

“It’s definitely tough getting that same motivation that you’d have for a game that really had some meaning behind it,” said Konar, who missed seven games this season after suffering a concussion in the season-opener. “I mean, every game has some meaning. But it doesn’t have as much meaning as if we were fighting for a playoff spot.

“We’re having fun at practice and stuff, which is good to see, so it hasn’t been too rough of a week.”

The Eskimos still have some very important reasons to play well on Saturday, though.

“The way pro football works is this is the last time ever that this team will be together top to bottom and we want to send everybody out the right way,” said middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt.

“Our fans pay hard-earned money to come and watch us play so whoever shows up at that game, we want to make sure we give them a show and we play the best that we can,” quarterback Mike Reilly said. “When I put the jersey on, the Green-and-Gold jersey, I know the history of this franchise and how this city feels about this team. There’s been a lot of guys who have come through those doors and played before us who took a tremendous amount of pride into building this franchise into what it is. For all of us who step on the field tomorrow, it’s going to be no different.”

Reilly said the Eskimos will do the only thing they can do in this situation and that’s “play to the very best of our ability on this field one last time and, hopefully, give our fans something to cheer about during and after the game. That’s what we’re focused on.

“I think the guys had a great week of practice, everybody was locked in and the energy was positive out there for the three or four days that we were on the (practice) field. The guys came ready to work. There wasn’t anybody hanging their head or feeling sorry for themselves. They knew that we earned our non-trip to the playoffs. We earned that. We have to wear that. We have to own it, and we do.

“But the guys know this is not a throw-away game for us. We have an opportunity to play in front of our home crowd, and we want to play the best that we can and walk away with a win.”

Milestones & achievements

The Esks could have the league’s top passer and possible Most Outstanding Player for a second year in a row in Reilly (5,242 yards, 29 touchdown passes and a career-high 13 rushing TDs) while Duke Williams (1,534 receiving yards, 10 touchdowns) has a chance to become the third consecutive Eskimos receiver to lead the league in receiving yards.

With 25 yards, Williams could finish with the club’s ninth-best single-season performance, but his placement in team history could go as high as third with 153 receiving yards to tie Brandon Zylstra’s league-leading performance of 1,687 last year.

Reilly is only the third CFL quarterback to record three consecutive 5,000-yard passing seasons (Doug Flutie, 1991-94, and Anthony Calvillo, 2002-05 are the others) and is one rushing touchdown off of Flutie’s CFL single-season record for a quarterback (14).

He also needs one passing TD on Saturday to become the third Edmonton QB to throw for 30 or more touchdowns in consecutive seasons (Tracy Ham, 1989-92; Warren Moon, 1981-82).

In addition, running back C.J. Gable needs 49 rushing yards to reach the 1,000-yard mark in a season for the first time in his six-year CFL career.

Meanwhile, Sherritt is nine defensive tackles shy of reaching the 100-tackle mark in a season for the second time in his eight-year career.

The defence also has a chance to lead the league in quarterback sacks. Defensive linemen Kwaku Boateng (nine), Alex Bazzie (eight), Jake Ceresna (seven) and Almondo Sewell (seven) have helped the Esks drop the opposing QB 44 times, just one sack behind the league-leading Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions.

 Playing for pride

“We have an opportunity to finish 9-9,” said head coach Jason Maas. “I know that’s not the greatest record, but that’s kind of how our year went. To finish strong at home – 7-2 is a good record and something to be proud of – but (it’s important) to finish the year out on a positive note for everybody. We worked really hard this year. There’s no doubt about that.

“You always want to see a strong finish to the end of your season. When you’re out of the playoffs finally, and it’s Week 18, but yet you come to work like our guys did, that’s pride. I was excited to see that.”

Reilly said he always plays for pride.

“I don’t care if it’s pre-season, regular season, post-season, Grey Cup. When you put on the jersey, and you step on the field, you’re representing yourself, your family, your team, your city, all those different things and it doesn’t change (Saturday). It’s the same thing.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re not going to get to extend into the post-season, but you still have an opportunity to play a professional football game in the CFL and that opportunity is limited,” he said. “There’s not that many people who get the chance to do that.”

Lineup changes

* Defensive back Brandyn Thompson will make his season debut at Aaron Grymes’ defensive halfback position on the boundary side of the field (short-side). Thompson hasn’t played since injuring his Achilles tendon late last season.

* Grymes will shift over to start at boundary cornerback for the first time in his CFL career. Forrest Hightower will be back at defensive halfback on the field (wide) side while Arjen Colquhoun starts at field corner.

* Offensively, Vidal Hazelton starts at wide receiver in place of Kenny Stafford, who goes on the one-game injured list after making 17 starts this season. Newcomer Kevin Elliott (six-foot-three, 213 pounds) will make his Eskimos debut at slotback.

 

They said it

* “I’ve always been a fan of the CFL growing up, so I’ll still watch (the Grey Cup), but definitely not really cheering for anybody at this point. I can’t pick a team to cheer for, to be honest. I’ll just watch and be a fan.” – Adam Konar

* “There’s a whole season worth of things we could have done better. We need to own that, and we need to address it, we need to get better and make sure it never happens again.” – Eskimos General Manager and Vice-President of Football Operations Brock Sunderland

* “Things just didn’t roll our way this year. We didn’t play our best when the moments mattered, it seemed. We were in a lot of games. Right now, 15 of 17 we had leads in those games late in games and couldn’t close them out or couldn’t come back. That’s been one of our strengths the last couple of years.” – Head Coach Jason Maas