Eskimos thump Redblacks 46-17; what do both teams take from this?

The Ottawa Redblacks entered Thursday night's game undefeated, while the Edmonton Eskimos came in without a win, but neither condition remained by the end of the night. The Eskimos demolished the Redblacks 46-17, and looked much better than they had to date in the process. Meanwhile, Ottawa's lacklustre play left significant questions about this team going forward. Given how one-sided this was, it will be interesting to see where both teams go from here; can Edmonton build on this win, and can Ottawa recover from this loss?

The Eskimos entered this game with big issues, as they lost their first game of the season 26-11 to Toronto and lost starting quarterback Mike Reilly for 10 to 12 weeks in the process. That game saw them put up some horrific offensive performances, too, posting just 178 passing yards from their quarterbacks and 33 rushing yards from running back Chad Simpson. Edmonton had a Week Two bye to think about what went wrong, though, and they found some answers.

Matt Nichols wasn't lights-out in the passing game Thursday, throwing for just 212 yards with a pick-six (plus another interception that was nullified by a penalty) and a 57.1 per cent completion rate, but he did connect on three touchdown passes. He also showed good chemistry with star receiver Adarius Bowman, who had five catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. Kendial Lawrence carried the load on the ground, posting 78 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, an impressive average of 6.5 yards per carry, while Calvin McCarty added a 20-yard carry and four other Eskimos combined to chip in 24 further rushing yards. It was a good night for Lawrence in general, as he also had four catches for 25 yards and a touchdown. Overall, the Edmonton offence was far from dominant Thursday, and the Eskimos got some breaks from a struggling Ottawa defence, but this was still improvement from what they showed in their first game.

The victory was really about the Edmonton defence, though, which looked to be in the remarkable form we saw in 2014. The Eskimos completely shut down the Redblacks' ground game, holding Ottawa to 25 total rushing yards, with running back Chevon Walker only collecting 16 of those on six carries (2.7 yards per carry). They also did well against the passing game, keeping Redblacks' starting quarterback Henry Burris to 162 passing yards with a 55.6 per cent completion rate and an interception. Danny O'Brien and Thomas DeMarco also appeared in relief for Ottawa, but didn't do much, with O'Brien completing six of 11 passes for 34 yards and DeMarco only attempting two passes, one of which fell incomplete and one of which was picked off. A lot of that was about an impressive defensive performance from Edmonton, but it also raises questions for the Redblacks. Still, if the Eskimos play like this on defence, they should find success even against tougher teams.

Ottawa will have a lot to work on in the wake of this debacle, as this looked like the Redblacks' team that struggled to a 2-16 finish in their expansion season last year, not the one that started this season 2-0. Burris in particular will have to answer questions; he'll need to be much more efficient to find regular success, and while he was very good in Ottawa's first two games, this will give his critics some ammunition. Another big issue for the Redblacks is the ground game, or lack thereof; Walker was fine out of the backfield, catching five passes for 36 yards, but they need more rushing production to open holes for the passing game. Ottawa's discipline was also lacking Thursday, especially when the game got out of hand. The Redblacks probably aren't as bad as they looked in this game, but this does throw some cold water on their hot start to the season. This could still be a great year for Ottawa, but not if they turn in performances like this.