Stampeders down Eskimos, making Ed Hervey’s actions even more questionable

After a week that saw their general manager publicly go after their offensive line, their offensive coordinator and their defensive coordinator, the Edmonton Eskimos came out fired up at home Friday against the provincial rivals they narrowly lost to Monday—and played even worse than they had before. The Eskimos fell 22-12 to Calgary this time around, a performance that dramatically reduced the momentum they seemed to have picked up from Monday's 37-34 loss. It wasn't a good showing at all for Edmonton, now 1-9 on the season, and it raises the question of what's next for this beleaguered franchise and for its general manager in particular.

The offensive line that had been the key focus of GM Ed Hervey's ire? Well, they sure didn't seem to play better in the wake of his benching and blasting of guard Simeon Rottier, allowing seven sacks on the night and putting quarterback Mike Reilly under pressure countless other times. Edmonton's line did look better than usual in the ground game, paving the way for John White to collect 89 rushing yards and a touchdown on 16 carries (5.6 yards per carry) and Reilly to add 54 yards of his own on five carries. They didn't clear the way for the passing game at all, though, and that was an important factor in Reilly's 16 for 26 showing (61.5 per cent) and his 194 passing yards, a performance well below what he's seemed capable of lately. Of course, other players made bad mistakes too, including Cary Koch's early fumble on a punt return and White's late drop of a touchdown pass, but the line in particular appeared to take a step back in the passing game.

Some of that may be on the playcalling too, though, which certainly didn't seem noticeably better after Hervey ripped offensive coordinator Doug Sams and sent mixed messages about who was in charge offensively. Sams, Reed, Hervey: whoever was making the decisions, they clearly didn't seem to assemble a coherent game plan. The Eskimos couldn't keep the chains moving consistently, and plenty of promising early runs by White to set up second-and-short situations were soon followed by long drops that either saw Reilly sacked or him heave a low-percentage deep ball deep down the field. The defensive playcalling was at least somewhat better under coordinator Greg Marshall, another victim of Hervey's ire, as the Eskimos' defence did well against the pass, holding Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell to 175 passing yards with one touchdown, one interception and a 73.1 per cent completion rate while sacking him four times. However, they remained vulnerable to the run: Jon Cornish collected 131 rushing yards on just 14 carries Friday, giving him a stellar average of 9.4 yards per carry.

What really put the Eskimos out of this one, though? Well, a decision directly attributable to Hervey definitely didn't help. Hervey wasn't confident enough in kicker Grant Shaw handling field goals, so he brought in Hugh O'Neill after the B.C. Lions released him and recently gave O'Neill that part of the kicking job. O'Neill singularly failed in that respect Friday, though, missing two of his three field goal attempts, including one from inside 25 yards. Those field goals didn't wind up being the difference in the end, but they gave the Stampeders larger leads and made Edmonton more desperate to catch up, leading to some of the Eskimos' worst mistakes. Unfortunately for Hervey, it doesn't look like there's anyone else he can really yell at there.

Where does Edmonton go from here? Well, that's hard to say. A week ago, this looked like a team on the upswing. Despite the 1-8 record, they'd played well consistently for three straight weeks against some very tough opposition, and their passing game in particular looked to be clicking despite the offensive line's ongoing struggles. Moreover, last Monday they seemed like a team that was rather united, rallying together around their players, around Reed and around the coordinators. Hervey may have undone much of that with his meddling and criticizing this week, interfering with his coach, his coordinators and his offensive line and making the Eskimos' camp seem like a house divided. We all know those cannot stand, so the question is who will be left standing when it falls.

In most other circumstances, Hervey would receive the benefit of the doubt. He's a first-year general manager taking over a team that was in rather dire straits following the Ricky Ray trade and a 7-11 season, and they've made some notable improvements on his watch already, including acquiring a quarterback who looks like the real deal. The blame would usually fall on players, coordinators and coaches in that order, and Hervey's job itself would generally seem safe until at least the end of the year. However, his attempts to point fingers at everyone else have often appeared juvenile and unprofessional, and they've certainly undermined the idea that this is a team ready to turn the corner. They also seem to have destroyed much of the momentum this team appeared to be building. It would be surprising to see anything happen to Hervey just yet, but his bosses have to be looking at him with a more questioning eye this week. For a guy who said "this business is about accountability" Tuesday, he definitely hasn't accepted much of that, and all the fingers he's attempted to point at others now appear to be reflecting back at him.