The 106th Grey Cup will be played on The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 25 — but the Eskimos won’t be playing there.
The Green and Gold could only sit back and watch as their 2018 playoff dreams came to an end after the Calgary Stampeders fell 29-21 to the Blue Bombers on a misty field in Winnipeg Friday night.
It was the first time Winnipeg has been able to beat Calgary at home since July 2009, with Matt Nichols throwing for 358 yards and two touchdowns.
The Eskimos needed the Stampeders to win in order to have a shot at making it to the Grey Cup by securing the crossover playoff position.
Instead, the Esks will be playing for pride when they take on the Bombers in the final game of the regular season at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 3.
Speaking after their last matchup, quarterback Mike Reilly said if they found themselves in this situation there was no way they were just going to roll over and die.
“I’ll be dammed if we’re going to show up flat in front of our home crowd in the last game of the regular season.” Reilly said. “So, either way, to me, there is everything in the world to play for in that game and I hope that my teammates will have that same attitude and I believe that they will.”
It’s a tough blow for a team that was full of promise at the start of the season with dreams of winning the Grey Cup in front their hometown fans, but it just wasn’t meant to be.