September 5, 2009
Eskimos entertaining, need energy

For the past six weeks the "EE" on the Edmonton Eskimos helmets has stood for Excellent Entertainment.

They've been TSN's favourite team. They've provided terrific television.

They've supplied comedy, action and drama.

The Eskimos open with the drop of doom, spotting the other team a bunch of points early, get into a real mind- bender roller-coaster tilt-o-whirl, then finish with a thrilling log-ride splash at the end with every game -- usually going down to the last play.

It's been great!

Now stop it!

As the Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders prepare for the annual Labour Day Classic -- this year in prime time for the first time --fans around the nation can't wait to see if the two teams can come close to a replay of the greatest regular- season game of the year, three weeks ago at Commonwealth Stadium.

Down by 22 points in Saskatchewan to start this high- wire act after losing 50-16 to Montreal and 40- 22 to B.C. the two previous weeks, the Eskimos have been down 2-0, 8-0, 16-0, 22-0, 6-0, 7-0 and 13-0 in games so far this season.

They've been shut out three times in the first quarter, and in the other games have managed just two touchdowns and two field goals in the opening stanza.

Tristan Jackson has been a big part of this show with several sensational returns, including the big one in the final minute against Calgary.

"We've been such an exciting team to watch because we keep getting off to a slow start," said the return man.

"It's been great because we have some great athletes in this room.

"If we do fall behind, we feel we'll find the way to put it together. We feel we're the most dangerous team in the CFL."

Problem is, they're as dangerous to themselves as they are to the other guys.

Head coach Richie Hall likes the happy endings but says the coaches and players are a failure at finding a way to fire out of the starting blocks.

"It hasn't worked for eight weeks now," he said.

"We don't know how to set the tone and take the crowd out of the game. We don't want to keep playing Russian roulette at the end.

"I think we're a great team facing adversity. The question is, can we be a good team facing prosperity?" he said.

It's fun until somebody loses an eye.

"We still want to be entertaining, but we wouldn't mind if the entertainment ended a little earlier," said kicker Noel Prefontaine, who booted a last-minute 47-yard field goal to beat Hamilton last week.

"It's fun to play for a team that can come back and score points in the end. The way we've won has given us a lot of confidence," added Prefontaine.

The Eskimos are heading to Calgary having won four of their last five.

"I'm getting too old for this," receiver Kamau Peterson said of all the cliffhangers.

"We've had a good way to end these games, but I'd find it real exciting and entertaining if we put a real hurting on somebody."

Fred Stamps, who caught the winning touchdown pass on the last play against the Stampeders in the 38-35 thriller, says this last-minute stuff has got to stop even if it's making him a household name.

"For the fans it's good, but the players don't want to keep having to win every game this way," he said.

Receiver Mo Mann said the first real boring win will probably represent a turning point for this team, but in the meantime, enjoy the fun.

"If you have to choose between exciting and boring, you'd pick exciting. It's fun to watch a lot of good athletes running around making big plays to win football games.," said Mann.

"But the big blowout is what I'm waiting to be a part of here. And that will come as soon as we start playing consistent for four quarters.

"When that finally happens, I'm going to feel sorry for the other team."

Quarterback Ricky Ray, the perfect person to have at the helm to engineer the comebacks with his unflappable manner, would just like to win a first quarter.

"We've had a lot of close games," he said of the 5-3 Eskimos. "You're going to have a lot of close games in this league. Good teams find a way to win those close games.

"We won a lot of close games when we won the Grey Cup in 2005. We're winning those close games again and I think that shows what kind of team we have.

"But we still haven't shown we're the kind of team that can take the lead and then take over.

"It's time for us to start doing that."

TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA


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