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Mo Mann, for one, manned up.
"With the game on the line, I dropped the pass," said the receiver who had the hero-to-goat experience within a week, going from an unforgettable 68-yard touchdown to beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the final minute last week to dropping another potential game-breaker with just over a minute to play against the Riders at Commonwealth Stadium yesterday.
"I blame it on me. There are no excuses. I don't care about the weather. I don't care if it was sleet or if it was snowing," he said, spitting the words out with emphasis.
"I don't care if I saw double coverage at the start of the game. I had to get used to it. I had to make plays. And I should have made the play. I didn't do that."
The play in question was a sideline pass to him with 1:31 to play which, if he hadn't dropped it, would have put the Eskimos in position to win the game they lost 23-20.
It was a massive game in front of the most massive crowd in Edmonton's regular-season history: 62,517.
"It was on me," Mann said.
When he was finished beating himself up to the media, receivers coach Jason Tucker sat down beside him and had a long talk.
"Mo has done a lot of great things this year. There's always a game you can't do anything right. You remember the bad ones more than you remember the good ones," said Tucker.
"I'm sure he's frustrated. I didn't get him involved in the game. We're all frustrated in here," said QB Ricky Ray.
Indeed. For one player to hang this on himself is ridiculous.
This one was a team effort. They all should have been sitting there and beating themselves up like Mann was.
Maybe you just file it under, 'What the football gods give, they take away.'
But seldom is a team given such an opportunity in the standings and in the stands.
The huge crowd eclipsed the old mark of 62,444 set in a 38-0 win over the Calgary Stampeders on Sept. 5, 2003.
With the Eskimos selling standing room tickets on field level behind the Saskatchewan bench -- a first -- it was a strange scene when winds gusting to 50 km/h in the first half chased some of the fans away.
After a season with so many spectacular games featuring fantastic finishes, it was criminal that the Eskimos served up such an empty effort in a game that meant so much.
With a win, the Eskimos could have put the Roughriders in their rear view mirror -- quite possibly for the season.
Instead, they lost to Saskatchewan for only the second time in the last dozen games here and now find themselves two points back of front-running Calgary and Saskatchewan and in danger of being caught by the B.C. Lions.
The bottom line is that the Eskimos blew an opportunity to make a statement with back-to-back games against both Calgary and Saskatchewan this month.
We know that Richie Hall doesn't like stats. He's definitely not going to like these.
The Eskimos lost the battle of first downs 22-10 and field position was 35:49 to 24:11. They wasted two interceptions (one for a touchdown) and one sack by T.J. Hill.
Ray, coming off his most effective game ever with 20 consecutive completions in Regina last Sunday, was 15-for-29 in just about his most ineffective game.
If it wasn't for one 63-yard pass to Kamau Peterson on the first play with the wind in the second quarter, Ray would have had 59 yards net offence in the first half.
"I had some bad reads and some bad throws. There were opportunites to make plays and a chance to win and I didn't get it done," said Ray. "There were plays to make and we didn't do it.
"It was such an awesome crowd. We should have given them more to cheer about."
A lot more.
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA