Jun
Esks 31 Leos 19
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
If Richie Hall and the Edmonton Eskimos’ hierarchy are to evaluate their offence on its first-half, first-team performance on Tuesday, they’ll likely want to burn the video.
It’s a good thing for them football is a 60-minute game, and the defence stood tall.
The Esks’ O was downright offensive for the first 25 minutes of its second pre-season outing, yet the Green and Gold held on for a 31-19 win over the B.C. Lions at B.C. Place Stadium.
Strange but true.
“Not very good. I was off my game tonight,” admitted Ricky Ray, who struggled mightily through the first 25 minutes. “I didn’t make very good throws there to start the game. We had a couple of good drives. Along with the bad throws I missed a few reads here and there that could have been touchdowns. I just have to get better.”
The first-quarter offensive evaluation amounted to six plays, no first downs and just 13 yards, all of which came from Jesse Lumsden; 10 on the ground and three through the air.
The Ray-led unit actually didn’t see the field until the 8:54 mark, courtesy of a spectacular 113-yard touchdown run by return man Tristan Jackson off a missed Paul McCallum field goal. Jackson went the distance for a 7-0 lead just 4:50 in.
“I’ll take that, if we can return ones for touchdowns. I’ll sit on the sidelines as long as I have to. But, yeah, you do get anxious. You try to stay warm and wait for your opportunity to get out there,” added Ray, who was just six of 10 for 91 yards and a TD in the opening half. He was also sacked three times. The Esks recorded five first downs in the opening 30 minutes, but none in the first 15 and the possession time favoured the Lions by 5:30 by the midway mark.
“It’s not like we had a ton of snaps in the first half. We started the game off with four two-and-outs,” said coach Hall.
It wasn’t until late in the second quarter that Ray finally got something going as he found Andrew Nowacki on a 27-yard TD strike at 12:43 to make it 18-2. It came after Prefontaine recorded a 50-yard punt single and a 35-yard field goal for an 11-2 advantage.
The defensive highlights included picks by Jonte Buhl and Scott Gordon on a pair of deflected passes and a fumble recovery by Kelly Malveaux after Mark Restelli forced the ball loose deep in Edmonton territory late in the opening half.
“The reality is we were pitching a shutout in the first half, which doesn’t happen too many times against the B.C. Lions,” Esks GM Danny Maciocia said of his defensive crew.
Offensively, it was hard to blame any one thing as Ray and Co. waited for a period of time before even taking the field. Ray finished 12 of 18 for 139 yards on the night before Jason Maas came in and completed three of four for 24.
The Esks totalled 253 yards of offence to B.C.’s 499. But 280 of that came in the second half with Jackson and newcomer Travis Tulay moving the ball.
Tulay combined with Emmanuel Arceneaux on a 32-yard TD pass with 4:19 to play in the fourth. But the Esks responded with a five-yard TD run by Arkee Whitlock, who also scampered 20 yards the play previous, after an Xzavie Richardson interception off a Shaun Richardson deflection.
Whitlock finished with 68 yards on eight carries. Interestingly enough, the Esks left fellow American running back Ciatrick Fasson at home, which may or may not mean a thing.
Buck Pierce went 16 of 24 for 170 yards for the Lions, but with two picks in the opening half in which they scored just the two points.
The Lions’ offence finally got on the scoreboard with a two-yard pass from Jarious Jackson to Martell Mallet with 3:32 left in the third. McCallum added a 36-yard field goal at 4:34 of the fourth.
EXTRA POINTS: Tristan Jackson had 181 return yards in the opening half. … The Esks did not bring injured players Mathieu Bertrand, Justin Cooper, Dante Luciani, Jim Davis, John Comiskey, Garrick Jones, Lenny Williams and Bradley Robinson on the trip.
