THE CANADIAN PRESS

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Eskimos head into Saturday's game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders facing the prospect of equalling the franchise's worst start to a season in 45 years.

Lose at Mosaic Stadium (TSN, 4 p.m. ET) and the Eskimos will be 0-3. That would match the start by the 2004 edition of the Esks and be the worst stretch to open a season since the 1965 team went 0-5.

Historic perspective aside, a loss will put the Esks in a hole they'll have a tough time extracting themselves from in the CFL's West Division.

"Who says the panic sets in?" said coach Richie Hall when asked about the possibility of losing three straight. "I wouldn't think so, no. There's 15 more games.

"You still control your own destiny to some degree. You still play your opponents a certain amount of times. The key thing for me is it's not if we win or lose, it's how we go about doing it."

Beaten 25-10 by the B.C. Lions to open the season, the Eskimos then blew an 11-point lead in a 33-23 loss to the Montreal Alouettes last Sunday.

"We lost the first week, but it's how we lost that concerned me because of the lack of energy," said Hall. "How we lost the second week, there was an energy, but now we have to be able to finish. We played well enough to win."

The Eskimos dictated the action for the first three quarters against the Alouettes before the wheels fell off.

Kelly Campbell and Fred Stamps dropped passes in the end zone that could have closed the deal. Ricky Ray threw two interceptions that led to touchdowns as the Alouettes scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. Now, they get the 2-0 Roughriders.

"You always expand on the things you do well," Hall said when asked if there's any positives to take from the Montreal game. "But what can we do to do the things we didn't do well and get them up to par?

"We played three good quarters and then the bottom fell out in the fourth quarter to some degree. What was that? Our concentration. Not making plays. At times, losing our composure. We've got to be able to sustain that emotional high, that emotional effectiveness for 60 minutes."

But that's easier said than done, says Hall.

"If it was easy to do, everyone would be doing it," he said. "There's always lulls during a course of a game. For us, it happened in the fourth quarter."

A mostly good game gone bad won't draw sympathy from the Roughriders, who drubbed the Lions 37-18 at Empire Field last weekend. They've scored 91 points in their first two games.

"Those are tough losses," Ray said. "Sometimes, it's better to just get your butt kicked rather than play a good game and be so close and not get the win. But, we did a lot of good things, so you take the positive.

"We can't get too far ahead of ourselves and put too much on this game. We've got to go out there and play our best game and try to make plays. You have to focus on the process. Play each play, do your job. That's what's going to take care of the result."

Containing Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant has to be high on Hall's list of things to do. Durant passed for 481 yards and five touchdowns in a 54-51 win over Montreal to open the season. He threw for 252 yards and another TD in the romp over B.C.

"The only thing I can say about trying to even slow Durant down is be fundamentally sound," said linebacker Maurice Lloyd. "Right now, he's one of the best quarterbacks in the CFL."

The other key element is the finish Hall referred to. While Ray passed for 340 yards against Montreal, five times the Eskimos marched inside the 20-yard line. Five times they settled for field goals.

"We moved the ball great," Ray said. "The thing that hurt us is our mistakes were big mistakes with turnovers and missed opportunities where we could have put them away.

"When you make some plays and put yourself in good situations, you have to take advantage of them. That's what we have to do now."

Game-planning and execution aside, Lloyd, who played for the Roughriders before joining the Esks last season, believes there's another element the Esks need to bring to the table, and quickly.

"Saskatchewan, they play for each other," he said. "What we need to do is rally behind each other and make sure that we play for each other. At the end of the day, the coaches watch and the fans watch, but we have to look each other in the face.

"When we get to a point where we know let somebody down, not the coaches but each other, we'll be a great team. Right now, we're just an average team trying to find our way with that mentality."

NOTES: The Eskimos went 2-0 at Mosaic Stadium in 2009, storming back from a 22-0 deficit to prevail 38-33 July 25, then edging the Roughriders 31-27 on Sept. 20. ...Edmonton released import receiver Efrem Hill Tuesday to make room for slotback Jason Barnes, and have signed receiver Jamaica Rector, who'd been released at the end of training camp. Both could play Saturday. ...Linebacker Mark Restelli has been lost for a minimum of nine weeks with a knee injury suffered Sunday in a collision with teammate Saleem Borhot and Montreal running back Avon Cobourne.