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The last time the Edmonton Eskimos came into Week 3 off of a bye week with an 0-1 record, things turned out pretty well.

It was only last year, in fact, when they proved the old adage that it’s not how you start but how you finish, having gone on to win their final 10 games in a row and parade the Grey Cup around Sir Winston Churchill Square.

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So they can hardly be blamed if it looks like they’re coming out of the gates using last year as a template here in the early goings of 2016. After all, it proved to be the formula for success, despite the slow start.

“Yeah, it did. And the reason for that was, it kind of opened our eyes a little bit that it wasn’t going to be easy and we needed to clean a lot of things up,” Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly said. “I think we had a lot of penalty issues early last season, as well, and that was something we addressed head on.

Photo by JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“So we clean that up, we’ll be just fine. But it’s a long season and it’s not won or lost in Week 1, but you certainly don’t want to dig yourself a hole so it’s imperative that we come out and play well.”