Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
It was inching closer to kickoff in Calgary on Sunday, but the feeling of a playoff game was already in the air.
The Argos and Riders were getting to the late, dramatic stages of their Eastern Final clash. The game was shown on the big screen at McMahon Stadium and way up in the press box, where people were arriving and getting seated. There was a sprinkling of Esks and Stamps players on the field, stretching and throwing footballs around, while keeping an eye on the game in progress, eager to see who they’d be facing at the Grey Cup in Ottawa on Sunday.
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Marc Spector — a reporter who’s covered his share of big CFL games through a long and successful career in Edmonton — took his seat in the press box and opened his laptop. He looked out on the field and saw the back-and-forth that was unfolding in the dying seconds Toronto. He kind of laughed when he said it, realizing that anyone who’d sat up in that press box long enough has been through it.
Roughly, it was: You try and put a story together through the whole game. You’re keeping tabs on everything that happens, but it’s always the last five minutes that matter and all that anyone wants to talk about.
Just as it was happening in Toronto, it would happen a few hours later in Calgary. The Stamps are back in the Grey Cup again, looking to right their wrong of a year ago. The Stamps happily take the result, while the Esks and their fans will likely spend the winter months wondering those last few minutes and what if.
What if Jason Maas had gone for it on third down, late in the fourth quarter, his team trailing by seven and set up at Calgary’s 13-yard line? What if they’d converted, like they had earlier in the drive? What if they’d gotten the touchdown, trailed by a point and had the option to tie or go for the win?
After the game, Maas took the heat that his call generated and he explained his side of it. He said it was a belief in his entire team, a faith decision. With a four-point deficit, he thought his defence would get a stop, special teams would get the ball back for him and his offence would score.
“You could say, ‘If you felt (so confident in your team) why didn’t you just go for it on third-and-five?’ That’s a fair question. We decided to go the other route,” Maas said, “and it didn’t work. There are questions asked and consequences to it. You could lose a ballgame. It turns out, that was the case.”
There’s a small tragedy in the Esks’ season ending this way, on a call that could live on through barstool debates or rants for years to come. When Mike Reilly, an MOP-candidate quarterback, on the field, with Brandon Zylstra, the league’s top receiver finally breaking out of the bottle the Stamps had put him in all night and picking up crucial yards.
The more sensible end for the Eskimos was there all season, in an injury bug that treated the team’s roster like an endless buffet. Edmonton finished the season with 17 players on the six-game injured list. The numbers on their season are well-documented, including injuries costing the team over $1 million in salaries, when the team budgets for half of that.
In spite of the injuries, the Esks jumped out to a 7-0 start. A six-game losing streak immediately after also could have been curtains for them, but they cleaned up the little details that had hurt them, they got a little healthier — J.C. Sherritt could have been available for the Grey Cup, had they’d won in Calgary on Sunday — and ran off another six straight wins.
“I’m proud of our football team. We fought, we had a great year, battled. We did a lot of great things,” Maas said.
“Ultimately, we came up short. I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for the guys in our locker room. it really felt like we had a great shot at getting to the Grey Cup this year and any time you come up short of that ultimate goal it’s dissatisfying and I’m disappointed.
“We’ll move on and be better for it down the road. Right now you take your lumps and our team will do that with their head held high.”
