As if seeing Thursday night's 50-16 loss to the Montreal Alouettes wasn't tough enough the first time.
After returning home yesterday, offensive co-ordinator Rick Worman and the rest of the Edmonton Eskimos coaching staff are pouring through the game tape to figure out exactly what went wrong.
'EXECUTION'
"I haven't watched the film yet, obviously, but it's execution," Worman said. "We had opportunities and we had some chances to score early and we didn't."
His offence earned a combined 385 yards against the Anthony Calvillo-led Alouettes' 461 yards. Calvillo threw for 343 of those and a pair of touchdowns himself in the first three quarters before his running backs, special teams and defence took over in the final frame to add 31 points to the board.
"(There were) situations where we didn't protect the quarterback and it makes it pretty hard for him to do his job," said Worman.
Ricky Ray was sacked five times and took another hit as he was about to throw that ended up a fumble that was recovered by the Alouettes.
"Everybody up front wasn't on the same page so we've got to go back to the drawing board and look at it and correct the mistakes and realize that we've got another 16 weeks to play," said Worman.
Of course, there was also the less-than-marquee debut of running back Arkee Whitlock, which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons: dropping two passes in the endzone; fumbling the ball away; and having a pass bounce off his shoulder pads and straight into the arms of defender Cory Huclack - whose regular duty is long- snapping when his team isn't already ahead by 34 points - for a seven-point interception.
"We tried to put him in situations where he could have some success. It's just unfortunate, I feel bad for him," said Worman.
It would be easy to pin the 50-16 loss squarely on the shoulders of Whitlock, but head coach Richie Hall isn't about to blame an entire game on some missed potential points.
"I think it's part of it. We made a lot of little mistakes, not converting some second-and-shorts and not being able to get off the field defensively, especially early in the game," he said. "I know it's glaring and people will look at those other plays, but that (loss) is a combination of a lot of plays.
"It was just unfortunate. I thought for the most part the guys played hard. We have to be able to execute. Effort is one thing but execution is also another thing."
To be clear, Hall's referring to the execution of plays, not of Whitlock. At least, not yet.
"He just didn't play well," Hall said. "He had some opportunities, especially early in the game and against good football teams, you've got to take advantage of your chances. We didn't and by the fourth quarter, the dam broke and we just couldn't stop the momentum.
"It was a decision that we went with and I know Arkee, he's very disappointed in his performance but he's a professional. He's going to bounce back. It's just one of those situations."
Whitlock finished with 29 yards on 12 carries and eventually earned his first CFL touchdown at the end of the game.
'LONG SEASON'
"It's a long season. Things like that are going to happen, maybe not as bad," Whitlock said. "It's good to get it out of the way, now it should be a little motivation for us. We need to capitalize on a lot of opportunities we have. I put the onus on myself: two dropped balls and I've just got to be more professional.
"I catch the ball every day in practice. You can ask any of the guys, I actually don't drop any balls in practice. It's kind of weird."
GERRY.MODDEJONGE@SUNMEDIA.CA
