ARGOS HAND ESKS THEIR FIFTH STRAIGHT LOSS, 34-26

Canadian Press

TORONTO – The Toronto Argonauts extended the Edmonton Eskimos’ misery Saturday, riding a big man and several big plays to a 34-26 victory.

James Wilder Jr., ran 11 times for 190 yards and one touchdown, collecting 67 more yards on seven passes. Martese Jackson returned a missed field goal for a 125-yard touchdown. And Matt Black, doing his best Undertaker imitation, buried Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly on a blitz that ended a late Edmonton comeback.

The Eskimos scored 11 unanswered points late in the fourth – and had a TD called back – to make it interesting.

“We’re involved in a major transformation of trying to find out who we are as a team,” said Toronto coach Marc Trestman. “We found a little bit more out tonight.”

Down by eight points, the Esks had the ball at their own 37 with 2:12 remaining and Reilly hit Bryant Mitchell for 60 yards after a Toronto defender tripped. Facing a third and seven at the Toronto 10 after Edmonton lost a pass interference challenge, Reilly was hammered into the ground by Black.

“It felt like a clean shot,” said the defensive back, who was cut and then brought back earlier by the Argos this season.

Edmonton coach Jason Maas disagreed, calling it a blatant head-on-head hit. But he had run out of challenges.

It’s been a cruel reversal of fortune lately for the Eskimos (7-5-0), who opened the season with seven straight wins. Edmonton last lost five straight in 2013.

With a bye week coming, Maas told his player afterwards they had gone 6-0 in the first third of the season and 1-5 in the second.

“I told our guys ‘Enjoy your families, enjoy your time off. And the only question I want you to ask is what is the third six going to look like?’ It is going to look more like the first six or is it going to look more like the second six?’

“And my money’s on the first six … We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us.”

It marked only the fifth win by an East team against the West in 26 outings (4-21-1) this season. Coming into the game, Toronto (5-7-0) had lost two in a row and five of its last six. And the Argos were 0-5 previously against the West.

Only 13,182 were on hand at BMO Field to see a wild late-afternoon game on a warm Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation Night.

(Canadian Press)