After going through a six-game losing streak, the Edmonton Eskimos are now a two-game winning streak. The Eskimos were on the practice field on Tuesday as they began preparations for the B.C. Lions on Saturday in Vancouver.
Last Saturday the Eskimos rallied back to win 30-27 over the Toronto Argonauts.
Quarterback Mike Reilly engineered his CFL-leading fifth game winning drive when he connected with receiver Derel Walker for a six-yard touchdown with 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The defence forced an interception with 31 seconds left as linebacker Korey Jones corralled a batted ball by defensive end John Chick.
The Eskimos had four game-winning drives during the 7-0 start and head coach Jason Maas said now his team is making key plays again to help them win.
“I’ve been feeling like we’ve been playing some really good football over the past five games, two of them have gone in our favour the other three haven’t,” Maas said.
“I’m very happy with our production and how we’re doing things, it’s just you would like to have more plays. I think the last two games we’ve made plays when we needed to and made enough of them to win both games. Obviously in that seven-game stretch we were doing that more often than not.”
The win clinched a playoff spot for the Eskimos for the fourth straight year and guaranteed them at least a crossover spot in the Eastern Division. The Eskimos are currently two points up on the Saskatchewan Roughriders for third place in the Western Division. Reilly says now is the time for his team to start playing their best football.
“Having that feeling of calm and execution in big moments is how we need to play because October and November football is generally very close at the end,” Reilly said.
“You look at pretty much all of the games this past weekend — I know the Calgary-Hamilton game and Saskatchewan-Ottawa, our game — all of the them were coming down to the end.”
Expect receiver Vidal Hazelton and defensive back Arjen Colquhoun to return to the lineup on Saturday in Vancouver, both players are coming off the six-game injured list. Offensive lineman Joel Figueroa (lower-body) and defensive back Chris Edwards (lower-body) didn’t take part in practice on Tuesday. Defensive lineman Da’Quan Bowers practiced after missing last week’s game while running back Kendial Lawerence and offensive lineman Simeon Rottier practiced, both are due to come of the six-game injured list soon.
Kick-off on Saturday from B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver is at 8 p.m., 630 CHED will have Countdown to Kick-off at 6:30 p.m.
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