Eskimos Look to Return to Their Winning Ways at Home

The Eskimos (6-4) split the Labour Day home-and-home series with a big win in Calgary, followed by Edmonton's first loss at Commonwealth in five home games this season. The Stampeder win moved them into a second place tie with Edmonton in the West Division.

Hamilton (2-8) is coming off a loss to the BC Lions and is tied at the bottom of the East Division with Winnipeg. On Monday they announced Offensive Coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille will take over from Charlie Taafe as the team's head coach.

These two teams met in Hamilton back in July with the Esks taking home a 19-13 victory.

The Eskimo receivers should be seeing a lot of action on Saturday night. The Esks currently lead the league in passing with 332.6 passing yards/game, while the Tiger-Cat defence is last in the league in passing defence.

"We've got to take their record and toss it out the window. We better not get caught up in numbers," says Eskimo Head Coach Danny Maciocia. "We've got to get ready to play and play them tough. It's going to be a physical battle because that's the way they've always played. And we've got to win that battle."

The Eskimos have signed receiver Maurice Mann this past Wednesday. "I'm not sure how quickly we can get him activated. The question is how much he can pick up here in the next little while," says Maciocia. "Once he's ready to go I want him on the roster because I want to see him play." Mann recently attended the Washington Redskins training camp where caught 11 passes in the NFL preseason - second-most on the Redskins roster - but was cut on the final day of training camp. Mann will be a vital addition to the already strong receiving corps.

Notables

§ Ricky Ray needs one TD pass to tie Warren Moon for 1st in career TD passes in Eskimo history (144)

§ This is game 1 of 4 consecutive games vs. East Division opponents for the Eskimos

§ The Eskimos are 7-4 on this date (2-0 at home)

§ Noel Prefontaine needs 70 punt yards for 60,000 punt yards in his career. He would be the 9th CFL player to do so.

§ Andrew Nowacki needs 75 yards for 1,000 receiving yards in his Eskimo career

The Eskimos host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday, September 13 at 5:00pm. Buy Eskimo tickets online at ticketmaster.ca or call 451-8000. For more information on the Edmonton Eskimo Football Club please visit our website at www.esks.com.