Quarterback Mike Reilly and the Eskimos offence have spoiled their fans with so many miraculous last-minute comebacks over the last few years, and it’s actually shocking when it doesn’t happen.
Twenty-one times Reilly has rallied the Eskimos in the fourth quarter when all looked bleak, including twice this season. He also helped Edmonton manufacture five come-from-behind wins when trailing at some point in the first three quarters this year.
“Since I’ve been here, I feel like this team has always been like that,” said kicker Sean Whyte, who joined the Eskimos for the Labour Day Classic against the Calgary Stampeders in 2015.
“Especially in 2015, when we were always losing going into the fourth quarter, we were saying, ‘We’ve got these guys right where we want them.’ We always had that confidence that we’re going to come back and win.
“Even now, I always have that confidence,” he added. “We obviously didn’t show that the last game (a 25-24 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on a last-second field goal). I thought we could finish the job; it was just a mental lapse at the end of the game, really.”
Once a team has succeeded in a late-game comeback scenario a few times, the odds of a good result in future rallies are “probably higher because of that confidence,” Reilly said.
“Once you need a drive to win the game at the end and you do it, the next time you’re in that situation, it feels less stressful, less pressure because you’ve already done it so guys calm down and they probably play a little better,” he explained. “Then you do it again, and then you’re in it the third time, you’re like, ‘This is no big deal. We’ve been here and done that.’ ”
That’s when it starts to feel like magic like they’ve pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
“It’s kind of hard to describe,” Reilly continued. “The more that you do it, the more often that feeling occurs.
“There are certainly times when you’re standing on the sidelines, and there’s not a doubt in your mind that things are going to work out, that guys are going to go out there and make the plays that need to be made. You don’t know how, you don’t know which play it’s going to be or who’s going to do it, but you know something good is going to happen, and it does.
“That’s a good spot for your team to be in, but you don’t want to test that too often because whether you feel great about it or not, it’s still extremely challenging to accomplish the feat.”
Reilly remembers what it was like to be on the wrong side of those close games when he joined the Eskimos in 2013 and players started to think, ‘Man, here we go again’ every time they got in tight situations at the end of games.
“We lost a lot of games, but a lot of those games were close and down to the wire,” he recalled. “Once we had lost our fourth or fifth one by a single score when we had an opportunity at the end of the game, we didn’t have any confidence in those scenarios.
“Right now, with the team that we have, there’s plenty of guys in this locker room who were on the team last year who know what it takes to win at the end of games. We’ve done that in a couple of situations this year. We started the season in Winnipeg and needed it and took care of business.
“This team is certainly capable of it, but being in the scenario a couple of times this year and not having it happen shows how challenging it is so we don’t want to put ourselves in that situation if it can be avoided.”
Offensive centre Justin Sorensen is a 10-year CFL veteran who has played on teams where he was worried they might not win even when they held a lead late in the game. He doesn’t worry about that with the Eskimos.
“With this team, it’s like every game you’ve got a chance,” Sorensen said. “You feel that on the sideline. You always have a chance of winning no matter what the score is.”
Part of that confidence comes from having an offence featuring Reilly and a talented group of receivers and running backs. Reilly, who leads the league in passing yards (3,296), passing touchdowns (22) and rushing TDs (eight), was named a CFL Player of the Month for August. It’s the sixth time he has been honoured this season and second time as a player of the month.
The Eskimos also have two of the league’s top three receivers in D’haquille (Duke) Williams, 947 yards, and Derel Walker, 875 yards. Both players have 51 catches, Williams averages a league-high 18.6 yards per catch and Walker leads the CFL with eight receiving majors and 332 yards after the catch (YAC).
In addition, running back C.J. Gable ranks third in league with 631 rushing yards.
“We always know we can score points,” Sorensen said. “Whether we’re up or we’re down late in the game, we know we have the firepower to score and come back or to keep the lead.
“We just need to work on our killer instinct when we’re up in games because we’ve given up (the lead) in the last two losses.”
How does a team develop a killer instinct?
“It’s just a mindset,” Sorensen said. “It’s just everybody has to get in that mindset to finish football games when you’re up.”
The Eskimos seemed to have had everything under control when they took a 14-point lead to the locker room at halftime against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last week. But the offence couldn’t convert second-down plays (one of its strengths this season) or score any points during the final 30 minutes, and the defence surrendered several big plays in the fourth quarter.
“That was abnormal for us,” veteran defensive tackle Almondo Sewell said about the defence’s failure to execute plays the way they were drawn up. “We caused that stuff on ourselves – busted coverages, busted missed sacks, not rushing up field in the right gap, not tackling the running backs, whatever the case.”
All of that will have been forgotten by 1 p.m. Monday when the Eskimos (6-4) visit the Calgary Stampeders (8-1) in the Labour Day Classic at McMahon Stadium.
“One of the most important parts of being a professional is approaching the game the same every week,” said Esks middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt. “You prepare the same. It’s not like I’m going to prepare harder or less no matter what happens.”
“We take each game so individually,” quarterback Mike Reilly pointed out. “We really look at it in a vacuum. That’s the only way you can.
“It’s a long season, and there’s so many ups and downs. Just because you played great in a game prior doesn’t mean anything about the next game. And if you struggled in the last game, it doesn’t have any relevance to the next one you’re going to play. We’ve seen that this year with our team. We’ve played extremely well in one game and then came out a little bit flat in the next game. And then there’s been times where we had a down game and came out in the next one and were lighting the world on fire.
“You want to find and then maintain some consistency, of course, but what’s been really good about this team is the resiliency to come back the next week after a poor performance. When we haven’t played up to our standards the week before, we generally play a lot better the following week. Certainly, I would have liked us to have played better last week and won the game against Hamilton, but our guys are always really hungry when they feel like their performance wasn’t up to standards. So, hopefully, we’ll have a lot of hungry guys playing in this Labour Day game.”
Sewell, who is the last Edmonton player to sack Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell on Labour Day (fourth quarter in 2015), will definitely be hungry.
“I’m not taking anything away from Hamilton, but that’s not even supposed to happen right there,” he said about last week’s loss. “We had them last minute. They kick a field goal to win. We can’t be losing games to these teams like that.
“Beat the teams you’re supposed to beat and then you can build the momentum for these hard teams. We’ve got Calgary right now. They’re sitting on top of the mountain right now. You’ve got to go and take it over.”
Sewell said the Eskimos have to build some momentum on Monday and the best way to do that is “to make sure that you’re on top of all your plays and you’re not making any mistakes.”
“With momentum comes confidence,” he added. “As you build momentum, your confidence starts coming back.”
Sherritt doesn’t lack any confidence in this Eskimos team.
“Individually, I’ve always felt like I was going to win, no matter what,” he said. “I could be down 40, and I think there’s a shot. We’ve just got to make a play here and there, and we can get it. I’ve thought that since I was little.
“As a defence, when bad things happen, you just rally around each other,” he continued. “Same as good things. When good things happen, you keep the momentum rolling, you celebrate, and you keep it rocking.”
Experience helps when it comes to handling adversity or dealing with a tough loss, he said.
“The best teams I’ve been on just know how to respond,” Sherritt said. “They know how to come together and support each other. Everybody gets beat, everybody gives up a play, but it’s how you bounce back, how you respond the next play that defines you.
“The worst thing you can do is start to press, or you think ‘Oh, no, I have to make a big play now. We just gave up a score.’ You learn that all you have to do is do your job. Come back as a D and just do exactly what you’re supposed to do and good things usually will happen.”
The Eskimos have led from start to finish in only one game this season – against the Montreal Alouettes at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium in August.