Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

A lot of jobs were saved on Friday night when the Eskimos beat the Lions in the Basement Bowl.

EDMONTON -- This is why we watch sports. Why 32,281 people come out to watch their 0-4 team play the 1-3 visitors, on a night when the heavens opened up over Edmonton causing a 40-minute rain and lightning delay and fans were ordered to leave their seats for cover.

It was a Paul Bunyan game for the winless Edmonton Eskimos, and everyone knew it. One more loss and the axe would be swinging. The team president as much as guaranteed it when he told the media on Monday, "There are a lot of players playing pretty soft. There's just no excuse for being 0-4. They have 60 minutes Friday to show how they can play."

It all came down to the final three minutes, as Canadian Football League games so often do. And as luck would have it, the Eskimos unit charged with saving this 28-25 victory -- and the job of head coach/defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall -- was his own defence.

Every inch of it could be erased, or at least put away for a week: 0-4; the job insecurity of coach Hall and GM Danny Maciocia; an embarrassing 0-5 in E-Town; wholesale changes of the roster. All of it could end, at least for now, if the group of Eskimos who are nearest Hall's heart could make a stand and save his ass.

"We needed it. We had to have it," said Kai Ellis, the Eskimos defensive end who recovered a fumble by quarterback Travis Lulay that plunged the stake into the Lions' heart. "We knew we could get the job done, that we HAD to get the job done.

"It was that kind of a game we've had before, where a lot of people would be saying. ‘Uh, oh. Here we go again.' But not us. We knew we would get the job done. That someone would get the job done."

These are clearly the two worst teams in the West Division, collective winners now of just two of their first 10 games in 2010. But if you can forget the records for just a moment, this was one of those moments that can take a rainy night and make you remember it for a while.

Surely the Lions will remember it, for completely different reasons.

Lulay had patiently driven the ball all the way to the Eskimos' 39-yard-line, where he dropped back on second-and-10 needing only to protect the ball, and perhaps pick up a few yards to draw his kicker closer to the goal posts.

But the rookie got caught in the pocket, held the ball too long, and then realizing that a sack would take the Lions out of field goal position he lifted the ball up to throw it away. Kenny Pettway caused the fumble that Elis recovered, and Lulay walked out of Commonwealth Stadium with his own defining moment.

It couldn't be much more sour than this.

"You're in field goal range," said B.C. head coach Wally Buono. "If it's not there, you've got to be smarter. You've got to take a quick look and throw it. If you don't…"

Lulay looked like he had points in B.C.'s pocket the previous week in Toronto, until DB Byron Parker baited him on a wide side out, grabbed the interception and took it to the house for the winning points.

It was a lesson learned for Lulay. Looks like school's not out yet.

"The reality of our offence is, we make too many mistakes," Buono said. "And our quarterback is too inconsistent."

Lulay had his moment. He blew it.

The Eskimos defence had theirs, and after letting two games slip away earlier this season, they finally found a way to seize one on a wet Friday at Commonwealth.

That's sports, isn't it?

"We overcame an interception for a touchdown. We overcame a (kickoff) return for a touchdown, both in the fourth quarter," said defensive tackle Dario Romero. "That was our goal. To fight, and fight all the way to the end. We had it, and we weren't going to let anything else happen."

Next Friday the Toronto Argonauts come to town, stinging from a Thursday thrashing in Montreal. By then, the one win under the 1-4 Eskimos’ belt won't seem so glorious.

But Richie Hall will still be working, and so will a number of his players who were poised to be replaced.

It's only one day, but it's a good day. And there haven't been many of those in these parts this far in 2010.