That momentum the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had after last weeks impressive road win in Hamilton -  it's long gone after the Edmonton Eskimos left Investors Group Field with a 20-16 victory on Thursday night.

"Too many penalties to beat a good team - that's the bottom line," said Winnipeg head coach Mike O'Shea who watched his team get flagged 14 times for 136 yards. "Special teams we took a bunch of penalties. We've been very clean on teams up until this game and offensively we took a pile of penalties to so. That's tough to take. It's very hard to beat good teams when you're always either starting deep in your own end or you're behind the sticks - first and 20 is tough."

Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Cory Watson with three seconds left in the first half and also hooked up with Derel Walker on a 74-yard catch and run for a major on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Reilly completed 32-of-45 passes for 465 yards.

Adarius Bowman caught 10 of those passes for 185 yards.

"With a tight game like this we almost have to be mistake free," said Blue Bombers lineback Ian Wild who had seven tackles Thursday night. "I know that's tough in football - there's going to be a mistake on almost every play but games like this we got to take our opportunities. We had opportunities to sack him in the backfield, Reilly got out of them and made some plays, some nice plays. Tip your hat to him, he's a good player but we got to get him down whenever we have the chance."

Winnipeg quarterback Drew Willy, who threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Rory Kohlert early in the second quarter which gave the Bombers a 10-0 lead, said they didn't get the job done on offense when they had the chance.

"We had penalties. Obviously I turned the ball over twice. We didn't get points when we had opportunities in the kick zone. We got good field position a couple of times and only got three points. That's not good enough. Just have to keep working, learn from our mistakes and get better."

Weston Dressler caught seven passes for 67 yards and Andrew Harris ran the ball nine times for just 22 yards.

Justin Medlock was good on three-of-four field goal attempts.

The Blue Bombers (1-3) next game is Thursday, July 21st against the Calgary Stampeders at Investors Group Field.


photos courtesy Merle Peters