Eskimos hope continuity pays off against Argos

The Edmonton Eskimos and Winnipeg Blue Bombers have both struggled this season, each recording only one win to date, but their approaches have been very different. The Bombers have fired their CEO and their general manager and rotated their starting quarterbacks twice, and they continued their dramatic changes Sunday with the firing of offensive coordinator Gary Crowton. By contrast, the Eskimos have taken a stay-the-course approach thus far, extending head coach Kavis Reed's contract (for an unspecified length of time, though), sticking with quarterback Mike Reilly as their starter and keeping offensive coordinator Doug Sams and defensive coordinator Greg Marshall in place. Neither approach has really worked thus far, though, and if the Eskimos can't turn in an impressive effort Sunday night on the road against Toronto (7 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3), they'll face mounting pressure to start making more drastic moves.

Based on what they've done all year long, the Eskimos don't stand much of a chance. Heading into this weekend's action, they were last in the CFL with just 21.3 points per game, and they've proven particularly unable to find success through the air. Their completion percentage of 57.3 per cent was the league's worst mark through seven weeks, as was their 106 completed passes, while their 230.2 passing yards per game and 7.5 yards per pass were both third-worst. The ground game has been a little better, with Edmonton picking up 5.6 yards per rush (fourth-best in the CFL entering this week), but the team has fallen behind by large amounts so frequently that they've often abandoned the run. The defence has its own problems too, conceding a league-high 144.8 rushing yards per game and allowing middle-of-the-pack numbers in most other categories. Add all that up, and it doesn't bode well against a good Argonauts team that's effective both on offence (32.3 points per game, third-best in the league) and defence (23.5 points allowed per game, the CFL's second-best average).

However, Edmonton does appear to be trending slightly up. While they've undergone some brutal defensive attrition during this bye week thanks to injuries to J.C. Sherritt and Aaron Grymes, the Eskimos looked substantially better on offence in their last game, putting up 29 points against Hamilton and almost coming away with a win. Yes, there were still plenty of problems on display there, but it was a better effort than just about anything they'd done to that point (except for their win in a monsoon in Guelph over that same Hamilton team). Perhaps most importantly, that much-maligned passing offence finally showed some sparks against the Ticats, with Reilly completing 21 of 32 attempts for 311 yards with a touchdown and a 65.6 per cent completion mark. If they can build on that, they might just have a chance against the Argonauts.

A key question for the Eskimos is just how patient they're willing to be if things go badly Sunday. It takes time to build a rapport with a quarterback and an offensive coordinator who are both new to the team this year, but a blowout loss might increase demands to axe Sams, bench Reilly or both. It also would turn up the building pressure on Reed and general manager Ed Hervey. A win or even a good effort might show that the team's continuity-based approach has some merit, though. This could be a pivotal game in terms of endorsing or refuting Edmonton's stay-the-course plan, and what happens Sunday may say a lot about what they decide to do next.