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Having lost four of their last five, the Edmonton Eskimos can’t afford to lay another egg in Monday’s Thanksgiving showdown against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

But it won’t come easy, considering the game is in Regina and the Eskimos haven’t won on the road in their last four departures.

While they earned a 26-19 victory over the Roughriders in Week 8 and can claim the season series with anything less than a seven-point loss, winning is the only thing on their minds since being bumped down to fourth place in the West Division, after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the East Division-leading Ottawa RedBlacks on Friday.

But things won’t get any easier for the Eskimos in their quest to continue to occupy the home dressing room at Commonwealth Stadium when it hosts the 106th Grey Cup on Nov. 25.

And things will get interesting from here on out as the Eskimos, who close out the regular season against Saskatchewan, Ottawa, the B.C. Lions and Winnipeg, have a cumulative record of .556. Take the league-leading Calgary Stampeders out of the equation, and the rest of the West teams still vying for a home-playoff game came into the week in even deeper, with Saskatchewan facing opponents with a record of .574, B.C. taking on .612 and Winnipeg having had the toughest remaining schedule in the league at .624.

Email: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com