Anthony Calivallo led the way with four touchdown passes, as the Montreal Alouettes knocked off the Edmonton Eskimos 38-25, at Commonwealth Stadium. Recently acquired Cory Boyd, saw little action, with three touches for a total of nine yards, in his Eskimos debut.

PHOTO CREDIT - MontrealAlouettes.com

Edmonton - August 18, 2012 - Heading into last night's battle between the Edmonton Eskimos and Montreal Alouettes, it looked as though the surprising home side were poised to give the Al's all they could handle. Unfortunately, the Esks forgot to show up for this one until late in the second quarter and spotting the visitors an early twenty-eight point lead.

Anthony Calivallo led the charge, connecting on four touchdowns, en route to a rather convincing 38-25 victory. Quarterback Steven Jyles struggled for much of the night, throwing for just 173 yards, while recently acquired Cory Boyd, saw little action, with three touches for a total of nine yards, in his Green and Gold debut.

In what had been a perfect 3-0 start to the Eskimos home schedule at Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton appeared less than interested in trying to push that mark to 4-0 on Friday night. After allowing Montreal to score on four of their first six possessions and picking up just one first down during their first four "drives", this one was over long before the half.

For a defence that had allowed the opposition to pass the twenty point barrier on only one occasion during the Eskimos first six contests, Calivallo and company made it look rather elementary . Outside of an early interception from J.C. Sherrit, which Jyles promptly gave back on the very next play, Edmonton's league leading D looked out of sorts throughout the first half.

Early season standout Joe Burnett, was victimized all night by the veteran pivot, as the Alouettes looked to be toying with the Eskimos highly touted defence. While they still managed to pick off Calivallo twice on the night, the Canadian Football League's all time leading passer did not seemed fazed in the least. The soon-to-be forty year old, went 22/32 for 327 yards, marking the sixth consecutive game he has cracked the 300 yard barrier. A far cry from the performance delivered by his counterpart.

In what has been a roller coaster season for the Esks starting QB, Jyles was completely out of sorts until late in the second quarter, which was, as previously mentioned, far too late. In his defence, Edmonton's offensive line were frankly awful from start to finish, giving their quarterback little chance to try and find his side back into what was a rather one sided affair. While the twenty-nine year old struggled to find his game, this was about as complete a team collapse as you will find. From top to bottom, the Eskimos were not good.

Perhaps they had read too many of their own press clippings, as they hardly resembled the side that had been the surprise story of the early CFL season. Not exactly the effort head coach Kavis Reed was expecting from his troops, who now sit with a 4-3 record on the season.

In hindsight, this butt kicking might just be the wake-up call this team needed, heading into the final two-thirds of their season. Maybe some in that dressing room feel they are far better than the actually are but with the toughest part of Edmonton's schedule on the horizon, including a return engagement against Rick Ray on August 27th, they have guaranteed themselves absolutely nothing to this point.

While no one could have questioned the Eskimos efforts to during their first six games, that was definitely not the case against the Al's. In all likelihood, this was nothing more than just one of those games but one that can not be repeated moving forward. Sherritt summed it up best, in describing what he thought of the performance by he and his teammates, "Embarrassed, our fans deserve better". That they do and hopefully the Eskimos will use this game as a bench mark of sorts, moving into what should be an all out dog fight to make the playoffs.