Many felt the Edmonton Eskimos were built to make a deep run in the 2019 CFL season.
They did — reaching their fifth division final in the last six seasons on Sunday — but fell short, losing to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Eastern Division Final by a score of 36-16.
On Monday, the Eskimos met as a team for the final time this season before heading off to their off-season destinations.
General Manager Brock Sunderland says this isn’t the way a team wants to end their season.
“It’s still fresh. We’re disappointed,” Sunderland said.
“You go into a final game like every other team, you think and you know this is a possibility, but we expected to be packing for Calgary (home of the 107th Grey Cup game).
“That’s not taking away anything from Hamilton; they’re phenomenal and 16-3 now for a reason, but we have belief in ourselves. Every time you go into a game like that, your focus is on getting to the next step and we didn’t.”
Listen: Eskimos G.M. Brock Sunderland reflects on an 8-10 season and the future of Jason Maas
The Eskimos finished the 2019 regular season with an 8-10 record and were the crossover team into the Eastern Division.
They beat the Montreal Alouettes 37-29 in the Eastern Semi-Final to advance to their third Eastern Final appearance.
Last year, the team finished out of the playoffs with a 9-9 record.
Jason Maas’ future as head coach was in question last season. He was brought back and the same questions remain about his future. Sunderland was non-committal about Maas’ future on Monday.
“Like every other end of the year, we’re going to sit down and do our due diligence and do exit interviews with players,” Sunderland said.
“We’re going to meet, roll our sleeves up and get on the same page and go from there.”
Maas has one year left on his current contract but knows his job isn’t guaranteed yet for the 2020 CFL season.
“I don’t control my future. I know what I signed up for. I know I have another year left on my contract,” Maas said.
“I think everyone that knows me knows that I’m an Edmonton guy who’s lived here for over 20 years. My family lives here. I love Edmonton. I love coaching here.
“I chose to come back to Edmonton even though I had a very good thing going somewhere else that I was very proud of and happy… but Edmonton drew me back here. Nothing over the last four years has changed my mind whatsoever of wanting to be here.
“I want to be here but that’s not my decision.”
Listen: Eskimos head coach Jason Maas on his future and a disappointing end to the 2019 CFL season
The Eskimos, for the second-straight season, started fast and at the halfway point, were sitting with a 6-3 record.
The Eskimos went 2-7 in the back nine of the season, which included losing their starting quarterback in Trevor Harris for the better part of five games because of a injury to his throwing arm. Maas says two straight second half collapses is an area he needs to take a look at closer.
“I want to look at and analyze everything because I know this year our offence played four times more in games than our defence, as far as the amount of plays we ran so I don’t know if we wore guys out,” Maas said.
“I don’t know if we need to work on practice differently. Obviously we’ll analyze our play-calling, our schemes in the second half, to compare it to the first half, but there’s obviously something.”
Sunderland says despite having a reasonably good finish, an 8-10 record isn’t good enough. Despite reaching three division finals in his four seasons, Maas says better regular season success would potentially lead to better playoff success, like hosting a home playoff game.
The Eskimos face an uncertain future at the moment which, according to quarterback Harris, makes a day like Monday extremely difficult.
“You just don’t know. Some guys you’re confident they’ll be back, their contracts are up but you’re not sure,” Harris said. “That’s the nature of the business.”
Listen: Eskimos quarterback Trevor Harris says the day after a season-ending loss is more painful
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