The Edmonton Eskimos failed to advance to the Grey Cup, after falling to the Calgary Stampeders 32-28 on Saturday night – and a controversial call may be to blame.
“I felt like, if we got the field goal, we would have enough time based on how…if our defence got the stop — a two and out — we’d have over a minute basically to play with, with good field position,” head coach Jason Maas explained. “And I felt like our offence, our defence, our special teams would be able to do that.”
The Eskimos were third and four on the Stampeders 13-yard line with 1:43 left in the game when Maas elected to kick a field goal, instead of going for it.
That cut the Stampeders’ lead to 32-28 and they were able to take time off the clock with their next series.
The Eskimos comeback attempt was foiled when Eskimos kick-returner Jamil Smith fumbled the ball and the Stampeders recovered the ball on the Eskimos 34-yard line which clinched a third Grey Cup appearance in the last four seasons.
The Eskimos started out strong, scoring on their first two drives.
C.J. Gable punched in an eight-yard run to finish the Eskimos’ first possession and put the Eskimos up 7-0 with 8:55 to go in the first quarter.
Then after getting the ball back, Derel Walker pulled in a 69-yard pass from Mike Reilly to put the Eskimos up 14-0 with 6:05 left in the first quarter.
Fast forward to the second quarter, and that’s where things started to go wrong for the Eskimos.
The Stampeders opened the quarter strong, as Marquay McDaniel ran in a 10-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 14-7 just 1:01 into the second quarter.
Then the Stampeders did it again. Marken Michel ran in a touchdown in from 13-yards out to tie the game at 14-14 with 3:23 to go before halftime. The Stampeders out-scored the Eskimos 22-1 after falling behind 14-0.
The Eskimos had to settle for a rouge on the next drive, after Sean Whyte’s 35-yard field goal attempt went wide. It was 15-14 for the Eskimos with just 1:06 to go in the second quarter.
They were hoping that would hold up heading into the break, but that wasn’t the case.
The Stampeders’ Roy Finch ran in a 50-yard touchdown to give the Calgary their first lead of the night. The Stampeders hit the two point conversion as well to give them a 22-15 lead going into halftime.
After the break, it was the Stampeders coming out strong again.
Off the ensuing kick-off, Calgary put one through the end zone, and took a 23-15 lead.
Almost nine minutes later, it was Jerome Messam for the Stampeders running in a 14-yard touchdown to extend Calgary’s lead to 30-15 with 5:53 to go in the third quarter.
A 34-yard field goal from Sean Whyte would cut the lead back down to 30-18 for the Stampeders with 4:16 left in the third quarter.
The Stampeders settled for a rouge, after missing a 52-yard field goal to end the quarter with a 31-18 Calgary lead.
In the fourth quarter, the Eskimos struck back.
Reilly ran one in from one-yard, after a 30-yard catch from Vidal Hazelton brought the play down to the Calgary zone, to cut the lead to 31-24 for the Stampeders.
A Calgary punt into the end zone with 5:01 to go in the game would extend the Stampeders’ lead to 32-25.
That led to the controversial call from Eskimos head coach Jason Maas.
Whyte ended up kicking a 20-yard field goal instead to cut the lead to 32-28 for the Stampeders.
And that would be it for the Eskimos’ season.
Reilly ended the game going 22 of 38 for 348 yards and one touchdown.
“Their game plan was a little different then what they’d done all season,” Reilly said. “They weren’t bringing as many all-out pressures as they had over the course of the season. They were dropping a lot more guys into zone coverage. They did do a nice job against the run for a good majority of the game.”
Walker and Hazelton both had strong games as well. Hazelton hauled in seven catches for 113 yards, while Walker caught 6 passes for 112 yards and one touchdown.
“The first quarter, if you ask me, was like a nice spring day,” Hazelton said. “The weather was beautiful and then, I don’t know, the people in Calgary must have flipped the switch or something and we came out and that thing was windy — it was starting to get cold. But that’s not an excuse. Calgary did a great job of stopping us on the plays that they had to, and that’s just what it is.”
Calgary was 2-0 versus the Argonauts in the 2017 regular season with wins of 23-7 and 41-24 in August.
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