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“We’ve been very good in the red zone, and all of a sudden, in this game we just couldn’t get out of our own way. And that ultimately led to part of our demise.”

A holding call against Eskimos fullback Alex Dupuis negated an eight-yard touchdown run by C.J. Gable with the Eskimos trailing 12-4 with 5:42 left in the half.

It was the third of four straight holds committed by Edmonton in a second quarter that saw them dominate time of possession 11:38 to 3:22, yet they had just two field goals to show for it.

All said, the Eskimos still gave themselves a chance for one of Mike Reilly’s patented last-minute comebacks by getting him the ball with three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“We could have, would have and should have, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Maas, whose side fell to 2-2, while the defending Grey Cup champion Argos earned their first win of the season, despite having starting quarterback Ricky Ray sitting this one out with a neck injury.

By comparison, the Argos were much more disciplined without their on-field leader, committing seven penalties for 75 yards, though it should be noted Edmonton’s defence accounted for only five yards of the visitors’ total.

The Eskimos offence was the biggest culprit, getting flagged seven times for 62 yards on the way to netting 426 yards of offence compared to Toronto’s 353 yards.

“Credit to Toronto, they won the football game. They made the drives when they needed to,” said Reilly, who completed 28 of 40 passes for 370 yards, a touchdown and an interception to fall to 2-6 in starts against the Argos. “I thought our defence played great all night. I thought, offensively, when we were doing our thing properly, we were moving the ball well.