The Edmonton Eskimos are the hottest team in the CFL right now with six straight wins and their preparations for the CFL West Final are well underway.
The team will face the Calgary Stampeders on Sunday from McMahon Stadium for the right to represent the West in the Grey Cup game in Ottawa.
Many areas of the Eskimos’ game have improved over the course of the season, but perhaps the two greatest areas of improvement have been in penalties and turnovers.
In the first 10 games of the season, the Eskimos’ turnover ratio was minus-seven. Over the last nine games, including the win in the West Semi-Final on Sunday, the Eskimos have recorded a plus-seven turnover ratio. In the area of penalties, the Eskimos averaged 10 penalties per game for 97.1 yards in their first 11 games. Over their last eight, the Eskimos reduced that number to an average of 6.5 per game for 58.3 yards.
For head coach Jason Maas, the credit needs to go the players who took it upon themselves to become a much better disciplined team.
“I saw in our last 10 weeks, and particularly during our losing streak, our guys finally said ‘enough’s enough, we’re fed up with this crap’ and they started to fine each other. We started to do the push ups, and we started to do extra stuff,” Maas said.
“Our last six games, if kept track of it, I’m pretty sure we’re right up in first, second, or third in penalties and turnover ratio in our league and ultimately we’re 5-1 in those last six games.”
LISTEN: Jason Maas talks about his run game being much improved with C.J. Gable
The Eskimos will practice Thursday and Friday before heading down to Calgary on Saturday morning. They will play the Stampeders in the West Final on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. from McMahon Stadium.
630 CHED will have live coverage of the game starting with Countdown to Kick-off at 1 p.m.