STAMPS STOMP ESKIMOS
Green and Gold fall to 7-3
If you lose the Labour Day Classic 39-18 you can generally count on getting carved.
You can expect a very tough time from the fan base. For the next five days, members of the Eskimos will wish they were in the witness protection program.
But would that be fair this year?
When the Edmonton Eskimos took the field here Monday, the running count of players to wear the uniform so far this season hit 74. Of those, 48 players had started at least one game. Only 15 players from the 46-man opening day roster have made it through to Game 10.
The Eskimos had three starters in the defensive secondary who didn’t start last week. And there were only two players — Kenny Ladler and Odell Willis — who started the first game of the season.
You can beat the Calgary Colts with a lineup like that. But the Calgary Stampeders? Not if you show up wearing dunce hats instead of football helmets.
Beating the archrival Stampeders isn’t easy when you’re good and you’re healthy. But when you’re neither of those things and you add in stupid, you have no chance.
If you’re going to spew venom all over these guys, do it for being dummies before anything else.
“It’s what we talk about. ‘Don’t hurt yourself against Calgary.’ And we hurt ourselves,” said head coach Jason Maas, who has watched his 7-0 team turn into a 7-3 team through a combination of stupidity and the other factors in losses to Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Calgary, currently the three toughest outs in the league.
“We hurt ourselves early in this game and we couldn’t crawl back. They’re a good team and a good home team for a reason. They’ve won a lot of games in a row for a reason. We not only didn’t do enough early in this game, but we also hurt ourselves early in the second half,” he added of a second straight third quarter in which Mike Reilly was intercepted twice.
“We wanted to stop taking penalties. We took more than they did. And turnovers, as well,” he said of the two interceptions and a fumble.
“At the end of the day, our discipline needs to be better. We’re going to figure that out, come hell or high water.”
It was the sixth consecutive Labour Day Classic victory by Calgary over Edmonton and gave the Stampeders a 26-25-1 all-time lead in the annual event. It was the eighth Labour Day win in the last nine games. It was also the 15th consecutive home game won by the Stamp machine.
It was the fifth straight Labour Day game that the Stamps went wire-to-wire, leading from the get-go in putting a licking on the Esks.
The Eskimos had one chance. One hope. If they were to make the Labour Day Classic a, well, classic, the big guys wearing green and gold in the trenches were going to have to get the job done.
They didn’t. Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell didn’t feel the pressure. Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly did.
“Exactly,” said Maas. “We wanted to win the physical game and I don’t know if Bo got hit. I know Mike did.”
Mitchell wasn’t sacked once. Reilly was sacked three times and was hit after almost every throw.
Calgary had 17 pressures to five by Edmonton.
Mitchell navigated Calgary to an 11-0 lead on his first two possessions, and when Roy Finch returned a punt 90 yards to pay dirt to make it 23-3, people in the press box started searching through the record book to find the biggest Labour Day blowout of all time. For the record it was 52-5 in 2010.
There’s so much legend and lore involved in this game and the one that follows Saturday in Commonwealth Stadium, not just because of the provincial rivalry but because of the sway Labour Day has on the season.
After this contest, Calgary is three-points up on Edmonton with eight games to play.
And if the Eskimos don’t rebound and win the return match, the former 7-0 team will lose the season series and need a colossal collapse by the Stampeders to finish first.
If the Eskimos rebound, it will be a two-team race to the finish line. A third meeting on Oct. 28 in Edmonton would decide matters if the two teams matched results the rest of the way.
But after what we saw here Monday, how does Maas convince his team they have a chance to win?
“We need to be better this week. There’s going to be no pointing of fingers. It’s going to be a game to lay it all on the line and see what we’re made of,” he said.
“For the last three weeks we’ve been our own worst enemy. Until we get out of our own way, it’s hard to beat anybody, let alone the three teams playing like the three best teams in the league.”