The Edmonton Eskimos started out their crossover post-season path on the right foot thanks to the right arm of Trevor Harris.
The quarterback who sat out all but one of Edmonton’s last six games to end the regular season due to an injury to that very appendage, threw any and all doubts out the window — along with a playoff record-setting 22 straight passes — with a 37-29 win over the Montreal Alouettes in Sunday’s East Division semifinal.
He obviously benefitted from rest and showed no signs of rust on the way to completing 34 of 35 first-half passes on the way to finishing 36 of 39 for 421 yards and a touchdown. His only strike against came off an interception that was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
He’s back, looking better than ever and ready to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the first time this season.
The Tabbies swept the season series against Edmonton, 2-0, while Harris was out, making this week’s divisional final his first game against them since stringing together a playoff record six touchdown passes this very week one year ago, along with another record for a completion percentage of 90.6, which, by the way, he broke by 1.7 per cent Sunday.
He led his Ottawa Redblacks on to the 106th Grey Cup in Edmonton with an impressive 46-27 win over the 2018 edition of the Ticats.
But this time, the Tabbies are proving to be an altogether different breed on their way to a first-overall finish with a franchise-best 15-3 record.
Their offence is ranked first in the league.
Their defence is ranked first in the league.
They’re well rested, coming off a well deserved first-round bye.
And no one has been able to beat them at home this season, where they are a perfect 9-9 at Tim Horton’s Field. Incidentally, they also had the best road record at 6-3.
But they weren’t exactly bulletproof.
One of those away wins came from a last-second field goal that bounced in off an upright at Commonwealth Stadium after the Ticats allowed the Eskimos to come back from a 24-point deficit with 24 straight points of their own. Hamilton beat the Eskimos 30-27 that night, with Harris’s backup, Logan Kilgore, at the helm.
The Eskimos showed resiliency. But when they tried to run with the big dogs in Hamilton’s yard, they were soundly trounced 42-12, again without Harris, on the back end of an extended road trip out east — a big reason the team returned home from Montreal on Sunday night.
And now, an Eskimos squad that went 3-6 on the road during the regular season can finally beat an opponent that had a winning record coming in.
And while there is no such thing as a bad win, especially in the playoff, they have to be asking themselves is what was good enough in Montreal going to be good against Hamilton?
Sure, they won the semifinal, but only after turning Harris’s masterful performance into a one-score victory that wasn’t decided until the final minute.
The Eskimos dominated time of possession by an astonishing 12:26, won the turnover battle 3-1, the sack race 2-1, had 27 first downs compared to Montreal’s 18 and had 478 yards of net offence to 314.
And an Edmonton group that finished with the most penalties for the most yards was actually the most disciplined team on the field Sunday, getting flagged three times for 30 yards to Montreal’s four penalties for 35 yards.
But the Eskimos also allowed all three of Montreal’s red-zone visits to reach the end zone and 63 per cent conversion rate on second down. But the biggest black eye came on Edmonton’s special teams.
While they expected to struggle with primary return man Christion Jones out with a season-ending knee injury, the recently reinstated Jamill Smith actually performed well, earning 14.5 yards per punt return and 21.4 per kickoff return.
Instead, it was the cover teams that dropped the ball, allowing a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to keep the hometown crowd engaged throughout Harris’s sniper-like opening half.
It came down to, somewhat fittingly, back-to-back turnovers on Montreal’s final drives to have their comeback bid stymied by an Eskimos secondary that lost two starters to injury over the week of practice leading up. Defensive halfback Josh Johnson ended both with interceptions to finish the night with a pick hat-trick, nabbing all three of Vernon Adams Jr.’s turnovers in the game.
With the win, the Eskimos will be moving on to make their fifth divisional final appearance in six seasons.
It was by no means perfect. But it may just have to be this week if they want to avoid having their underdog playoff run fall victim to some ‘Cats.
Email: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
