Courtesy Winnipeg Free Press:

It was the kind of nightmarish development that had Edmonton Eskimo faithful convinced hell had not only frozen over, but the Earth had slipped off its axis entirely.

The Green and Gold missing the Grey Cup tournament not once, but two years in a row? What the…?

Given that shocking collapse — the Esks hadn’t missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons since the disasters of 1962-65 — folks in the Alberta capital must have been ecstatic to witness what unfolded over the winter. We’ll call it ‘Extreme Makeover: Eskimos edition’ in which the clubhouse doors were rumoured to have been replaced by a turnstile.

No doubt feeling the vise squeezing, football boss Danny Maciocia not only set to rework his roster, but his coaching staff as well (Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans will be interested to note that Rick Worman is the new offensive co-ordinator while Mike Kelly is the club’s new receivers coach).

Gone are some familiar names while arriving are lineman Fred Perry, John Comiskey, Dario Romero and Garrick Jones as Maciocia concentrated on improving Eskimo offensive and defensive line play that was simply atrocious last year — third last in QB sacks and second last in sacks allowed.

“A lot of football games are won on the line of scrimmage,” stated Maciocia in the Eskimos ‘State of the Franchise’ conference call on Tuesday. “I don’t think we can ask our quarterback to throw off his back. I don’t think we can ask our tailback to average 5-5 1/2 yards a carry if you’re not dominating at the line of scrimmage.

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