The hometown team goes into tonight's game in the same boat as the Boatmen. What we're dealing with here are two teams who are both playing for second place in their conference with six weeks remaining this CFL season.
Situation normal for the Toronto Argos.
Not so normal for the Edmonton Eskimos.
Mike 'Pinball' Clemons says it's all an illusion. The team his Argos face tonight is, he insists, the normal Eskimos.
"The record says that the Eskimos are 7-6. But, really, they're 7-3. They just had an extended pre-season,'' said Clemons.
"It's often hard rebounding after winning a championship. And in the first three weeks, because of last year and with all the injuries on defence, they got off to a 0-3 start,'' he said of the Fabian Burke era.
"Now we see the team we expected to see,'' he said of the club, which made it to the Grey Cup with 13-5 records the last two years, finished first three years in a row and topped the tables all but 13 of the last 30 seasons.
"They'll be there at the end of the year. The most important thing is to be playing your best at the end of the year.''
UNFAMILIAR POSITION
The thing is, though, the Eskimos are not used to playing for second place with six weeks left in the schedule. There is a fear here that losing the overtime game, when Sean Fleming's 51-yard field goal hit the crossbar, could result in a letdown for a team having to downgrade its goal.
"It could,'' said Eskimos head coach Tom Higgins of his team which lost three, won three, lost two, won four and then lost one, and he figures it ought to aim to win five to finish off the pattern that's in there somewhere.
"It's not silly to think we can win five in a row.''
The thing about it, he admits, is this: "All five games are winnable and all five are losable,'' he said of the remaining schedule of Toronto at home, Hamilton on the road, Montreal at home, Saskatchewan on the road and Winnipeg at home prior to having the bye on the final regular-season weekend.
First is still a mathematical possibility.
"It would be a fluke now,'' said Higgins.
"We have to get some wins together again to even have a chance of finishing second.''
Higgins says the Eskimos have to readjust their aim and make sure they get a home game for the semifinal against the charging Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who go into this afternoon's game in Montreal two points back of the Eskimos with a 25-14 win over Edmonton in the bank.
You don't want to go down to the last game of the schedule against Winnipeg needing to beat the Bombers by a dozen points.
Putting the B.C. game and the end of the run for first behind them is a concern.
"Our players are still having recurring nightmares,'' said Higgins of the number of plays which could have meant victory instead of defeat in Vancouver last weekend.
"No one is feeling sorry for the Edmonton Eskimos,'' he added.
"The rest of the regular season is going to test the mental toughness of this team. We came back from 0-3 and showed we had character. We came back from 3-5 and showed we had character again. Now we have to do it again. It's just the way this season has been for this team.
"We have to go out and take care of business now. We can't let games get away. The challenge is right in front of us.''
Quarterback Jason Maas says some seasons are meant to test a team more than others.
"This has been a strange season, to say the least. It's just been the kind of season where nothing has been meant to be easy for us all year," he explained. "We've been behind the 8-ball all year.''
The thing it's taken everybody time to adjust to, he says, is the fact that it's a different team. The Esks couldn't just pick up where they left off after winning the Grey Cup last year.
"I'm different,'' he said. "I'm not Ricky Ray. Mookie Mitchell is different. We have two rookie Canadian running backs instead of a veteran like Troy Mills. Our receiving corps has been hit by injuries this year. We don't have Bruce Beaton on the offensive line this year. The shovel pass was a big play for us last year but not this year...''
FOCUS STRAIGHT AHEAD
Maas says the focus ought to be straight ahead, not the big picture it tends to be around here.
First things first.
"This is a game between two teams who are both sitting in second place and both need a win. If we lose this one, we're going to be in tough,'' he insisted.
Win this one and he says they can next think about putting their playoff position away.
"When we start the year our first goal is to make the playoffs and continue the 32-year streak of making the playoffs every year,'' he said. They're four points up on Saskatchewan going into this weekend.
Then you concentrate on finishing second and winning home-field advantage for the semifinal. The Eskimos, you should know, have had a home playoff game in 25 of the last 30 seasons.
Maas says the next five games aren't going to be the drive down the stretch in a fight for first like usual. But they'll be just as important.
"The next five games should show our identity and our character,'' he said.
