Blue and Gold left in Eskimos’ dust

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This article was published 15/10/2014 (4067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Understand this first — doubling your team’s victories from one season to the next is a difficult and noteworthy achievement on its own.

And so even as the slumping 6-9 Winnipeg Blue Bombers — losers of six straight and eight of their last nine — go through the motions of what now looks almost certain to be yet another CFL season with no playoffs, it is worth remembering the six victories this team has recorded this year are double the three they recorded last year.

But here’s the other thing — as CFL turnarounds go this season, the Edmonton Eskimos have left the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the dust.

With the Eskimos locking up a playoff spot Monday with their 10th victory of the season — a 41-9 thrashing of the Bombers at Commonwealth Stadium — it would be easy to forget this Eskimos franchise was in the same deep, dark pit as the Bombers last year.

While Winnipeg had the worst record in the league in 2013 at 3-15, the Eskimos had the second worst at 4-14. And there can be little doubt about which of the two clubs has had the more complete and quicker turnaround.

How much more improved are the Eskimos than the Bombers? Leaps and bounds by just about any measure you’d care to use, including the two meetings between the teams this year.

Consider: If you add Edmonton’s 26-3 victory over the Bombers at Investors Group Field in Week 4 to Monday’s 41-9 shellacking at Commonwealth, Edmonton outscored the Bombers 67-12 in the two meetings between the two teams this year.

So, before anyone in the Bombers front office dislocates a shoulder patting themselves on the back for doubling the number of victories this season, it might be worthwhile to take a look at how and why Edmonton’s rebuild has been so much more complete and effective.

To be sure, Edmonton had some advantages over Winnipeg coming into 2014. For starters, there’s the starters: Edmonton QB Mike Reilly had last season to work out the kinks as a first-year starter, while Bombers QB Drew Willy had his starter baptism this year.

While Willy has done an admirable job this season — and you could argue he is the very least of the Bombers’ problems right now — there’s no denying having an extra year of service under his belt has made Reilly the more complete and polished quarterback right now.

Eskimos GM Ed Hervey also had the advantage this year of a full season in 2013 under his belt, while Bombers GM Kyle Walters is essentially in his rookie year as a CFL architect. It’s shown. Hervey has settled into his job nicely after a tumultuous 2013, while Walters has made a number of rookie mistakes. (Kory Banks? The O-line? Was import receiver Nick Moore really the best place to lavish $185,000 this season?)

Aside from that, you could argue the Bombers and Eskimos headed into this year on roughly equal footings — new head coaches taking over lousy defences, questionable special teams and offences with gaping holes.

So again: How come Edmonton’s turnaround under new field boss Chris Jones has been so complete, while Winnipeg’s under head coach Mike O’Shea has been so spotty — and regressing, judging by the current six-game losing streak?

The most obvious starting point would appear to be on the offensive lines. You could argue the only offensive line in the CFL last year worse than Winnipeg’s was Edmonton’s (honourable mention to Hamilton). And yet flash forward a year and the Eskimos now have one of the best O-lines in the league, while Winnipeg’s is worse than ever and on pace to giving up the most sacks by any team since 2005.

How did the Eskimos do it? It certainly wasn’t by making wholesale personnel changes — the Eskimos began this season with four of the five starters that finished last season. And they changed their O-line coach, just like Winnipeg did.

So why is one O-line so much more improved than the other this year? Eskimos centre Justin Sorensen — the former Bomber who signed in Edmonton as a free agent last winter — would seem uniquely positioned to offer an assessment.

But even Sorensen says he’s not sure why, only that he knows it’s been key to Edmonton’s success this year.

“A good offensive line goes a long way,” said Sorensen. “As you guys know, this league is run by the offensive line and defensive line… If teams want to rush four and you can shut them down, then you’re going to win. If you’re forcing them into blitzing every play and leaving guys open, that’s how you win in this league.”

Reilly gives much of the credit to Edmonton’s turnaround this year to his improved protection — and to Jones and Hervey. “It’s a new mentality around here for sure. I think coach Jones and Ed Hervey have tried to bring a new mindset, where we expect to win every time we’re on the field. And to play with some of that swagger and confidence you have to have to be successful,” Reilly over the weekend.

“It’s all mindset –I honestly believe that. We don’t have a ton of changes in personnel. But the guys we do have that are new have stepped up and played extremely well because they bought in to what coach Jones’s mentality is.”

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And Jones? He says this year’s turnaround has been all about the men in the locker-room.

“There’s some talent in that room — but it’s more than just talent,” Jones said. “They’re good football players and they’re good people. Football matters and they’ve worked extremely hard. They’ve won a lot of close games in the fourth quarter. And I think the work they do in the weight room and the conditioning aspect has helped us in the fourth quarter.”

Jones said when he took the Edmonton job last winter, he believed a complete turnaround was possible and a slow rebuild was never in the cards.

“I try not to ever set guidelines. I think that kind of harnesses you. I think you go in expecting to win every game and go out expecting to win every down. And if you go at it in that way, then you have a chance to compete every single week.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek