The Eskimos’ philosophy is to get better every game, but how do you improve upon perfection?
The Edmonton defence may never again have a fourth quarter like it did against the BC Lions last week.
“I don’t know if anybody’s better, or capable of playing any better, than they did the last five or six minutes of the ball game,” Eskimos Defensive Coordinator Phillip Lolley said about the defensive line.
Here’s the highlights of what Head Coach Jason Maas called “a big-boy effort” after the game:
- Five quarterback sacks, including sacks on three consecutive plays (one was wiped out by a roughing the passer penalty), and a pass knockdown by defensive end Nick Usher (three defensive tackles, two sacks) in the fourth quarter alone.
- Limiting BC quarterback Mike Reilly to one completion on six passes for only nine yards and two first downs (one by an Edmonton penalty).
- Forcing the Lions offence to move backwards with minus-17 yards of net offence during the final 15 minutes. (BC actually had -2 yards of net offence after taking a 17-3 lead five minutes into the second quarter).
“I’ve been here three years,” said defensive tackle Mike Moore (two sacks, two defensive tackles). “I don’t remember when we came that hard, but that’s how we want to play every game.”
“I still think we’ve got another level to go,” offered veteran defensive nose tackle Almondo Sewell (one sack, one tackle).
The Eskimos defence, which is playing without four injured international starters (defensive end Alex Bazzie, linebackers Don Unamba and Jovan Santos-Knox plus cornerback Anthony Orange), finished last week’s game with a total of seven sacks by five different players, but also five roughing the passer penalties. It will attempt to achieve a similar performance – but without the penalties – in Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. game (TSN, 630 CHED) against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Investors Group Field. The Official Coors Light Watch Party is at Kelly’s Pub.
“We know what we’re up against going to Winnipeg,” Maas said. “We know it’s going to be a tough, difficult game. It’s hard to win on the road in the CFL against the great teams, especially; the guys who have been in the playoffs and haven’t had much turnover and have great (coaching) staffs.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us, but I like where we are right now, and we have to be confident going into the game that we can pull out a victory there.”
It’ll be Edmonton’s first road game after winning its first two games at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
“We want to try to be consistent with our play,” Lolley said. “The thing we keep stressing is to win a championship, it is a process, and it is a weekly process. You get patted on the back one time, and then you get hit in the back with a pair of scissors the next.
“Whether you win or lose, it’s still we’re getting better, learning to do some things better. So we’ve been concentrating this week on things we didn’t do well.”
Lolley wants the Eskimos to carve out a defensive identity of always hustling to the football and never to stop pursuing whichever player has it.
“It’s our job to put it on the ground,” he said. “We try to maintain that attitude and keep stressing it.”
In the last game, Lolley said the Eskimos “started out on a bang (rookie linebacker Vontae Diggs had a quarterback sack on the first defensive play of the game) and then the penalties kinda set them back because then they started thinking, ‘Can we hit him?’
“We told them to settle down, play within the rules, go tackle the way we teach you to tackle, don’t be scared to go tackle the guy.”
Defensive Line Coach Demetrious Maxie pushed his players during the halftime break to get after the BC quarterback – “He’s sitting back there. He’s not going to run,” Sewell said they were told.
“The first half didn’t go our way,” admitted defensive end Kwaku Boateng (one tackle). “We came back out in the second half and said, ‘Screw it. We have the potential in here to win a Grey Cup.’
“You saw that big difference in the second half. It’s no surprise to me that what we did happened and that’s going to continue to happen. We’re here to win games. We trust one another to a point where, even if we fail individually, we’re going to bring one another back up.”
The Eskimos don’t always have to get a sack or even hit the quarterback to create problems for the opposing offence. Sometimes, just getting pressure on the QB can create enough havoc to make a difference.
“We want to affect the quarterback,” said Maas, who pointed out that the Eskimos front seven (defensive linemen and linebackers) affected 25-per-cent of the Lions’ offensive plays last week.
“Our front seven definitely controlled the line of scrimmage in that game,” Maas said. “It basically affected Mike in a lot of different ways.”
Meat feast for O-line
Quarterback Trevor Harris said he was treating the Eskimos offensive linemen to a meal at “a Brazilian steak house” this week after back-to-back games without allowing a quarterback sack.
“That’s what you do, right?” he said. “The protection has been outstanding. I can’t thank them enough.
“I know in football you’re going to take hits, but those guys have been awesome,” Harris continued. “They’ve been working their tails off and, not only that, and they’ve been taking care of CJ (Gable at running back), as well.
“We’re doing a great job of mixing things up, helping them out as well, so it’s just been a total team effort in terms of the protection.”
Asked how much the meal with the O-linemen would cost him, Harris shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t really worry too much about it. My wife might watch this (interview), so we’ll just leave it at that.”
- Wide receiver Greg Ellingson became the third Eskimos player to be named a CFL Player of the Week after his 174-yard, two-touchdown performance on nine catches last week. He already has 14 receptions for 240 yards after two games. Harris and running back CJ Gable were CFL Players of the Week after the first game.
Lineup changes
- The Eskimos activated international offensive lineman Travis Bond from the one-game injured list to start at left guard, with national O-lineman Jacob Ruby being placed on the one-game injured list. Bond will make his 2019 debut after missing the first two games.
- With Bond back on the field, national safety Jordan Hoover also makes his first start of the season to give the Eskimos the minimum number of national players (seven) in the starting lineup. Monshadrik (Money) Hunter, who started the first two games at safety, becomes the only international backup in the secondary.
- National defensive lineman Mark Mackie is added from the practice roster to serve as a backup on the D-line. It’ll be his first game of the season.
- Rookie linebacker Jonathan Walton, 24, who spent a few weeks on the Eskimos practice roster at the end of the 2017 season, was also activated off the practice roster to replace veteran Korey Jones, who was released earlier this week, as the backup international middle linebacker behind Larry Dean.