Quarterback Mike Reilly believes the Eskimos wild n’ woolly season had the potential to be turned into a movie.
There were plenty of ups and downs – seven wins in a row, six straight losses, then six more wins. There were a ridiculous number of injuries at almost every position, which resulted in 83 players playing a minimum of one game and 54 different starters.
The Eskimos had a great team led by Reilly – the West Division’s nominee for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award and one of only two starters on the team to play every game this season – and a talented receiving crew headed by Brandon Zylstra, Derel Walker, Adarius Bowman and Vidal Hazelton.
They had to overcome so many different challenges, from all the injuries to the trying to stop the losing streak to manufacturing six come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter to trying to become the first CFL team since the 2005 Eskimos to win the Grey Cup without a home playoff game.
All the Esks needed was a storybook ending, which didn’t happen when the Calgary Stampeders held off another late Edmonton rally to post a 32-28 victory on a windy day in the West Division final on Sunday.
“That’s hard to accept and it’s disappointing for sure,” said Reilly, who got up Monday morning ready to start preparing for the next game.
Reilly explained that the Eskimos season “felt like it was something they would have had to make a movie about or write a story about because you lose so many of your key pieces to season-ending injuries – (running back) John White, (middle linebacker) J.C. Sherritt, (defensive end) Marcus Howard, guys who lost their entire seasons – and other guys who were out for six, eight, 12 weeks.
“You play a game where you lose your kicker, who at the time was the highest-percentage kicker in the league and had done so many things to help us win games. You not only lose him, but now your long snapper goes in and kicks off and you lose him for the season on that play,” Reilly continued. “And you have your all-star defensive end kicking off and you can’t even kick a field goal or punt. You have to go for it on third down and go for (two-point converts) in a game that you’re winning because you don’t have a kicker. Just crazy stuff you can’t even make up and we still fought through it.
“And then you have a six-game losing streak and it feels like you don’t even remember what it feels like to win. And every day you’re on the phone with your wife and you’re venting to her about how you don’t know how you can possibly work harder than you are right now to try to figure out how to win – and I know everybody else is doing the same thing – and we’re still not winning. I didn’t even know what to do.
“Then to all of a sudden flip it around and go on a six-game winning streak and be back to feeling like, ‘Holy cow, we finally got some pieces healthy, we’re finally playing great football and it’s at the perfect time – it’s going into the playoffs – it really did feel like it was a storybook ending to get to the Grey Cup and win it,” Reilly said. “And then it doesn’t happen. That sucks. It’s like getting punched in the gut, but that’s the reality of pro football.
“It wasn’t the ending that we wanted. But I do believe if you approach it properly, when things don’t work out, you learn more from it and you can turn your weaknesses into strengths and this is a scenario where we have an opportunity to let that burn deep inside and use that to fuel the fire so next year we’re not sitting here talking about this. We’re talking about getting to play a Grey Cup in our stadium.”
Edmonton will host the 2018 Grey Cup, which should be just one of many reasons to motivate the team next season “to not be in a situation where we have to feel this way again,” Reilly said.
“I know this from 2015,” he added. “We were the West champions from the West final, so we spent that entire week sitting in Winnipeg’s locker room. I can’t even picture a scenario where somebody is sitting in my locker next year during Grey Cup week, getting ready to play this game.
“It’s going to be me sitting in my locker ready to play in that game. The only way that happens is if we win the West final next year so we’re going to do anything and everything to make sure that happens. I can’t even picture a different scenario at this point.”
For now, the Eskimos have to grieve Sunday’s loss because every time a team finishes a season with a loss “it feels like a death because that same exact group of guys will never get the opportunity to play together again,” Reilly said. “That team really is dead and you start a new team. You don’t start from scratch. A lot of those pieces will be back (next season) and it’ll be a very similar team, but it’s not going to be the same team. That’s always hard to come to terms with that.”
Eskimos General Manager & VP of Football Ops. Brock Sunderland said it’s too early to predict which players will or won’t return next year. He said the team has a “pretty lengthy” list of free agents, but he has been busy negotiating contracts and has agreed to deals with several players for next season, although they weren’t announced so the players could focus on the playoffs.
“Barring anything very unforeseen,” runningback C.J. Gable, who proved to be a valuable part of the offence after being acquired from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in early October, is one of the players Sunderland expects to have in Green and Gold again next season.