CALGARY -- The Edmonton Eskimos could have come home to a community with a confirmed case of Grey Cup fever from here last night.
But to do it, they would first have had to show up.
You can't have a seizure at the time you're supposed to be seizing the moment.
Twice this season the Eskimos have teased the town with a return to being the type of team they were when they made the playoffs for 34 consecutive seasons.
WIN STREAK SNAPPED
But for the second time this season the Eskimos had a chance to win three games in a row since they last won the Grey Cup in 2005 -- the last year of the 34-season streak --and a record Labour Day Classic crowd of 40,724 watched the Stamps take their place in the race.
"A couple of times this year we've had the opportunity to grab some prosperity and we failed to do it," said rookie head coach Richie Hall, whose eyes were red from perhaps rubbing them in disbelief that his team could come to this much-hyped game and be there in uniform only.
"I've said it before. We're a great team at overcoming adversity but we're not great at dealing with prosperity. We could have created some separation in the standings to take back home to really put some pressure on them and we didn't do it," Hall added of the blown opportunity.
Quarterback Ricky Ray took the indictment even further.
"We had an opportunity to take that next step as a team and take control of the season. It seems like we can't get past that next level."
After the game Henry Burris referred to as "the regular season Grey Cup" the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders left the Eskimos still undisputed second bananas in the Province of Alberta.
It was a game where the Eskimos could have made a statement about returning to become a reach for the top team.
Instead the statement that was made here was by the Stampeders who officially could be diagnosed as having recovered from their Grey Cup hangover with the 32-8 win.
It has long been said that the CFL season officially begins on Labour Day and if that's the case, count Calgary back in. The result left Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatchewan tied with 5-4 records as they make the turn at the halfway mark of the schedule, the B.C. Lions a game back at 4-5.
"We played a big game in a big game," said head coach John Hufnagel. "We need to continue to do that."
The Eskimos getting their helmets handed to them the way they did here yesterday makes it a little more difficult for Edmonton fans to get giddy with the prospects of playing host to their first home playoff game since 2004 or of coming back here for the Western Final and booting the Stampeders out of their dressing room and winning a third Grey Cup in Calgary.
"They came to play and we didn't," said running back Arkee Whitlock, who returned to having dropsy and runs of one and two yards.
"I didn't play well. I didn't play well at all. Those guys were really ready to play and we were just flat. They came out a lot harder than we did."
Defensive lineman Dario Romero said the Stampeders dictated the game by winning the battle in the trenches and by running the ball with authority.
"We let them have it," he said and then corrected himself. "No. They earned it. We got our asses kicked. That was a poor performance by our defence.
"You'd think everybody would come here to win ....
"Man, I don't know what to say."
1-3 ON THE ROAD
The loss brings a focus on Richie Hall's team ability to perform on the road where they are now 1-3 this year.
"We're a different team on the road," said Ray.
"We make momentum for ourselves at home but we can't gut it out on the road. We have to be able to be the same team on the road as we are at home."
Hall, whose eyes were red after the game, said it was an old-time football beating as the Stampeders had 200 yards on the ground and 285 in the air and were obviously prepared to come to the park and play exactly the way they played.
"If you control the line of scrimmage and run the football like that, you're going to win the game. That's what they did. They took it to us."
Back to the pack. And back to the drawing board.
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA
