Down eight points after eight seconds, the Edmonton Eskimos dug in and turned the game completely around.
And it feels like they might be doing the exact same thing with their entire season.
The defending Grey Cup champions were a 3-4 club when they showed up to play the Toronto Argonauts late Saturday afternoon at BMO Field. Now, after a 46-23 thrashing of the Boatmen, the Eskimos have their second straight win, a .500 record and a defence that’s finally starting to do its part on a club that could always put up points.
It sure seems like the Green and Gold pieces—which were always there, but sometimes out of whack—are coming together under first-year coach Jason Maas.
“I don’t know what there was to turn around other than our record,” Maas said.
The Eskimos certainly had to reverse course quickly against Toronto (4-4). After the Argos’ Lirim Hajrullahu blasted the opening kick-off 89 yards into the Eskies end zone for a single point, quarterback Mike Reilly and his offence lined up at their own 40-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Reilly dropped back and targeted Adarius Bowman with a pass to his right. Toronto linebacker Keon Raymond sniffed out the call like it was frying at the Canadian National Exhibition outside the stadium and returned it for a major.
In the moment, Reilly shook it off by refocusing on what he had to do. After the contest, he brushed it away with humour.
“I threw a touchdown pass on the first play of the game,” he said. “That’s generally a great omen.”
And, apparently, it was.
On Edmonton’s third series, Reilly engineered a 61-yard drive, going five-for-five and hitting Nate Coehoorn with a 30-yard strike for the Eskimos’ first score. While a tipped ball led to another fortuitous Argos interception later in the first quarter, the initial play of the second stanza was a beautiful ball to the left corner of the end zone that landed safely in the hands of Bowman. The convert put Edmonton up 21-8 and the rout was on.
Naturally, the next TD pass Reilly threw was to the man who comprises the other half of Edmonton’s dynamic receiving duo, Derel Walker. But while the names Brown and Walker pepper the CFL’s leaderboard for receiving stats, both Maas and Reilly credited the other ball-catchers for their yeoman’s work running crisp routes and stretching out the Argos D to put the big boys in a positive position.
“Any time we get a matchup one-on-one with those two guys we know that’s very favourable and we try to take advantage of that,” Reilly said. “But those only happen if the other guys are working their tails off, too.”
While the offence was in full flight, Edmonton also had its moments on the other side of the ball. The defence, operating under new coordinator Mike Benevides, has struggled to live up to the lofty standards set by last year’s group. But sparked by a pair of picks from cornerback Pat Watkins, the Eskimos D limited Toronto to two touchdowns, both runs by quarterback Cody Fajardo.
“Our defence played stout tonight, which is about three weeks in a row they’ve done that,” Maas said.
Shutting down the Toronto attack has been significantly easier in the absence of starting quarterback Ricky Ray, who missed his third straight game with an MCL strain. Backup Logan Kilgore continued his wayward passing against Edmonton, throwing two more interceptions to give him nine in his past three outings. Kilgore’s ineffectiveness led to Fajardo moving under centre permanently in the third quarter, but he was forced out of the game after appearing to injure his arm while diving into the end zone for a garbage-time touchdown. Adrian McPherson closed out the contest at QB for the Double Blue, which is likely looking forward to a bye in Week 10 and the prospect of getting Ray back after that.
Edmonton, meanwhile, would probably be cool to suit up tomorrow with the vibes in that room.
“I knew we needed to have a game like this to really just kinda build that confidence, ‘cause I know we’re capable of this week in and week out,” Reilly said. “But until you finally put it all together, it’s hard to have that belief as a whole group.”
Look high and low, you won’t find many non-believers when it comes to Edmonton now.