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1. THE GOOD

The second half was a wall-to-wall free for all where most of the scoring happened, including all 18 of Edmonton’s points. The Eskimos put up 373 of their 401 net yards of offence in a game where they allowed just 220 net yards by the Nick Arbuckle-led Stampeders. Ricky Collins Jr. opened the throttle wide early in the third quarter with an 83-yard long bomb for a touchdown, and added another to open the fourth quarter on a 26-yarder into the end zone. It was a pretty clean half for the Eskimos too, committing just three of the 10 penalties that totaled a season-low 78 yards in the game.

2. THE BAD

The first half, on the other hand, saw the Eskimos post a grand total of 78 yards of offence while the 26,597 in the stands yawned their way through a scoreless first quarter and three Rene Paredes field goals to close out the second. With all that didn’t go right, the Eskimos still gave themselves one final chance in the red zone to win it at the last second. The question is why can’t the Eskimos offence find the same urgency at the beginning of the game? And how much more motivation did they need than having the game suddenly become for a share of first place following an upset victory over the league-leading Winnipeg Blue Bombers by the previously winless Toronto Argonauts two nights earlier?

3. THE UGLY

Special teams failed the Eskimos down Saturday. Four minutes into the third quarter, they tied the score 9-9, only to see Stampeders return man Terry Williams add to his league-leading combined-yards total with a 103-yard kickoff return touchdown to regain the lead. Edmonton responded with a 35-yard missed field goal before fumbling a punt return that led to Calgary’s lone offensive touchdown of the game, giving them a 21-9 lead that was all they would need to stave off a fourth-quarter Eskimos rally. To top it all off, Eskimos return man Martese Jackson suffered an upper-body injury on the fumble, leading to the Eskimos trading seven-year veteran receiver Kenny Stafford to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Monday in exchange for kick returner Christion Jones. The one glowing part of Edmonton’s special teams this season has been Hugh O’Neill, who came into Saturday’s game averaging a career high 45.6 yards per punt, which he added to with a 48.7-yard average on a busy nine-punt night.