Eskimos can’t quite pull off a comeback, but still provide hope from a Labour Day classic

For three quarters of Monday's Labour Day Classic against the Calgary Stampeders, it seemed the Edmonton Eskimos might be heading for a disaster on par with their 52-5 shellacking in the 2010 game. Thanks to an incredible fourth-quarter comeback, though, there's a lot for Eskimos' fans to be hopeful about despite the end result (a 37-34 loss). Edmonton outscored Calgary 27-7 in the final frame, and while the loss drops the Eskimos to 1-8 on the year, there should still be a lot of hope from their fans based on today's performance—for both this season and years to come.

The key reason Edmonton fans should be optimistic is the man under centre. Mike Reilly has proven to be by far the best quarterback the Eskimos have had since Ricky Ray, and while he wasn't great through the first three quarters Monday, a lot of that can be chalked up to an offensive line that let him get drilled on almost every play and a receiving corps that made several critical drops and couldn't always get open. Reilly's stats for the day weren't overwhelming, as he completed just 16 of 35 passes (45.7 per cent) for 246 yards with two interceptions, but he did throw four touchdown passes and hung in there despite hellacious hits to give Edmonton a fighting chance despite subpar play from his offensive line and his receivers. Reilly was terrific down the stretch and turned what could have been a blowout into a game the Eskimos well could have won. This is his first season as a CFL starter, and he obviously still has work to do to be considered an elite Canadian quarterback, but he's shown much more potential than any Edmonton player at that spot since Ray's trade to Toronto. The Eskimos' offence is far from perfect, but at least they have a promising man at the helm.

It wasn't just Reilly here, though. Edmonton got plenty of key contributions from a wide cast of players, including wide receiver Cary Koch (six catches for 77 yards and a touchdown), wide receiver Nate Coehoorn (a crucial late catch on third and 20 for 43 yards) and slotback Fred Stamps (two catches for 40 yards and a vital touchdown). The Eskimos still have a long ways to go, and the way they were battered around for three quarters by a Calgary offence that had to change quarterbacks midstream (a Kevin Glenn knee injury led to Bo Levi Mitchell coming in) shows why they're 1-8 this year, but this is a team that at their best can compete with anyone in the CFL. They don't often play that well consistently, which is why their record to date is so bad, but we're only halfway through the season. There's still plenty of time for the Eskimos to turn this around, and performances like Monday's suggest they're quite capable of doing so. They still need to get everyone on the same page and perform at a high level consistently, but this is an incredibly good 1-8 team. That hasn't translated into on-field results yet, but there's still lots of room for optimism in Edmonton, both for this season and for future years.