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.
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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.