Some last-minute heroics helped the Edmonton Eskimos climb back into the game as they tied the Blue Bombers 38-38 in Winnipeg on Thursday night in their last pre-season game before the regular season.
The Eskimos got off to a quick start when James Franklin hit Duke Williams with an 18-yard touchdown pass 3:49 into the first quarter to give Edmonton the 7-0 lead. It was the Eskimos first drive in the red zone in the game.
The Blue Bombers hit a field goal with 6:15 left in the quarter to cut the lead to 7-3.
But then Sean Whyte hit one of his own to extend the Eskimos lead to 10-3 to end the first quarter. It was his only field goal of the game.
The second quarter started the same way for the Eskimos, when LaDarius Perkins took the handoff from Franklin and ran 49 yards for a touchdown to give the Eskimos a 17-3 lead 4:52 into the second quarter.
But the Blue Bombers didn’t go away. Clarence Denmark caught a touchdown pass from Matt Nichols with 6:48 to go in the first half, cutting the Eskimos lead to 17-10.
Then, the Blue Bombers evened things up heading into halftime as Darvin Adams caught a pass and tied the game at 17-17 to end the half.
Danny O’Brien came in to replace Franklin at quarterback early in the third quarter for the Eskimos.
Franklin ended the night going 11/16 for 133 yards and one touchdown.
The Blue Bombers took their first lead of the night when Dominique Davis ran in a touchdown with 0:23 left in the third quarter, to give Winnipeg the 24-17 lead.
They wouldn’t stop there either. The Blue Bombers scored back-to-back touchdowns when quarterback Dan LeFevour entered the game and ran in a score to extend the lead to 31-17 just 1:37 into the fourth quarter.
Zach Kline replaced O’Brien to finish the rest of the game at quarterback.
O’Brien went 4/7 for 45 yards and one interception on the night.
Kline handed one off to Marion Grice for a touchdown with 8:23 to go in the game to cut the lead to 31-23, after Sean Whyte missed the PAT.
The Blue Bombers didn’t take long to respond though. Timothy Flanders ran one in with 5:34 left in the fourth quarter to extend Winnipeg’s lead to 38-23.
Then with 0:59 to go in the game, Marion Grice ran in another touchdown from the one yard line to cut the Blue Bombers’ lead down to 38-30.
After the point after, Sean Whyte kicked an onside kick and the Eskimos maintained possession to give them a shot at tying the game up.
And they did just that.
Kline hit Harris with a touchdown pass with 0:16 to go in the game to cut the lead to 38-36 for Winnipeg.
The Eskimos attempted a two -point conversion to tie the game up. Grice caught a pass from Kline to tie the game at 38-38.
Since there’s no overtime in the preseason, that would be the final score.
Kline went 10/17 for 127 yards and one touchdown in the game.
He said he was a little nervous at first.
“I definitely came in and tried to do the breathing techniques, all the stuff I learned throughout playing ball,” Kline said. “But there’s sometimes when you just can’t help but be a little bit antsy and want to throw the ball 100 miles an hour. The first drive I was kind of jittery, I missed a few reads. But we drove down and did well. The O-line was like ‘hey man we got you calm down.”
LaDarius Perkins led the Eskimos in rushing yards in the game with 72. Meanwhile, Larry Cobb led the Eskimos receivers with 61 yards.
The Eskimos will now have until 8 p.m. Saturday night to cut their roster down to 46 players and set their practice roster of 10 players.
Head coach Jason Maas said there’s a lot of talent on the team.
“When you have a team, and I’ve said it all camp, I think this is the deepest team I’ve ever been around,” Maas said. “I think we proved it again tonight battling against their guys. It never is easy the day after your last pre-season game, knowing you have to get down to cut down. But it’s extra tough this year with the amount of players we have in our locker room, who I believe in. Just because we don’t pick (someone) doesn’t mean we don’t believe in them. It just means we believe in another guy a little bit more.”
The Eskimos open the regular season on Saturday, June 24 in B.C. when they visit the Lions.
630 CHED will be carrying the live broadcast, starting with the Countdown to Kick-off beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The Eskimos’ first game on the Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium is Friday, June 30 against the Montreal Alouettes.
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