Courtesy: CFL.ca
For the second week in a row, the Edmonton Elks kept the game close with one of the top teams in the league. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats did what they have been good at over the last few weeks and found the last touchdown drive to win 28-24.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Costly errors
No game is won or lost on one specific play, but there were a few glaring mistakes that really contributed to the Elks loss.
The first was allowing a huge return on the opening kickoff. Isaiah Wooden ran back 75 yards, negating the 74-yard kickoff by Vincent Blanchard. The Cats did not waste the opportunity and were up seven points less than a minute and a half into the game. It was an early gimmie, but there was lots of time to recover.
The second issue came in the second quarter when they were unable to push the ball in from the one-yard line twice.
Rookie quarterback Cole Snyder was in to do the short yardage. His first attempt seemed to score, but the review showed he was down before crossing the line. A second crack was thwarted on a great play by Ticats Dashaun Amos. Instead of the Elks being up seven, it remained a tie going into half. As has been the case, though, every point matters to this Edmonton team.
After an enormous play by Cody Grace to recover his own punt, the offence went two-and-out. Only being able to get three points in that situation was crushing. Any momentum gained on the big play was lost.
The final error came with 1:11 on the clock. A beautiful 45-yard pass from Cody Fajardo went through the hands of Kaion Julien Grant in the end zone. It was right on the money. KJG had a yard to the sidelines. It just dropped through. It summed up what has been a frustrating few weeks for the Green and Gold. Theyre so close, but cant find the finish.
I think its the hardest one of the year by far, Cody Fajardo said about the loss. We felt like we had that one. We felt like we were the better team tonight. We felt like we did a lot of things on this field, that we were better. Thats a team that has a lot of momentum, and they understand how to win football games late, but we let that one slip through our hands.
Return of the run
After two weeks of seeing the running game on wanted signs, balanced play calling made a return. Edmonton finished with 120 yards on the ground and a balance of 24 run plays to 25 pass plays. Usually, that is the winning formula for this team.
Justin Rankin led the charge, putting up 69 yards on the ground. The sophomore back was dominant on a number of plays, running over defensive players and pushing for extra yards. The Ohio native led in targets, rush attempts, and yards in both passing and rushing categories for the Elks. He also led the way in touchdowns with one receiving and one on the ground. Hes a massive weapon that needs to be used like this more often.
Javon Leake put up 26 yards on four attempts to support the cause. I like seeing the balance of the two. Both had runs over 15 yards and provided different looks for the defence to solve.
Im a groove guy, Rankin said. Once is get in the groove, I start feeling good. Its kind of hard to stop. The more touches I get, the better I am feeling. I think thats with anybody. The more you are getting the ball, the more you are making plays. Confidence goes up. Youre feeling good. Youre feeling unstoppable.
Defensive Shuffle
There was a step forward last week for the defence. Keeping the opponent under 30 points has been a challenge. That being said, I was surprised to see the switch this week of Chelen Garnes going back to safety and Kenneth Logan Jr. going to strong-side linebacker. Edmonton was already down their star linebacker in Nick Anderson, so making more changes seemed counterproductive.
Last years first overall draft pick, Joel Dublanko, stepped in for Anderson and led the way in tackles with nine. The Cincinnati product continues to grow in the game and showed why he went number one. Edmonton also rotated newcomer Brock Mogensen at the middle linebacker spot. I think these changes made it a challenge for the defence to really find their way.
There were some great plays with a sack from Logan Jr., a brilliant knockdown by Kordell Jackson, and Noah Taylor doing his best Willie Jefferson impression with a knockdown at the line. Those are all overshadowed by the constant bubble pass success for Hamilton and the inability of the line to get to Bo Levi Mitchell. On a side note to that, I have no idea what the Elks need to do to get the benefit of a holding call. Mitchell is good at getting out of pressure, but there was plenty of help this game. In the end, the Tiger-Cats had four scoring drives, but they were all touchdowns, including one on the opening drive and one to finish it off.
It is confounding to me how Edmonton could spend so much on defensive talent and not have stats to show for it. Robbie Smith made his return in this game and had one tackle. Jared Brinkman has flashes in games of power and pressure, but had one tackle listed. That we are seven games in and only have one interception by a lineman, no less is shocking. This loss isnt on the defence, but there is a distinct lack of sudden change plays.
O-line steps up
The hot topic last week was the eight sacks surrendered to the Riders. A full week of reps with Fajardo at the helm seemed to turn that around. Only one sack given up against a good Hamilton line is a stark improvement.
It was very nice to see the line getting the chance to be the hammer on more run plays, which seemed to pay off. The time seemed to be there for Cody to throw as well. There were some blunders, like the goal line miss, but overall a good bounce-back game.
From that, Fajardo was able to go 17-for-17 in completions to start the game. A great start that Cody wanted to give his teammates credit for.
You cant go 17-for-17 without receivers catching the football and offensive linemen blocking, he said, Everybody wanted to talk about eight sacks last week. Today, we had one. I knew everyone was kind of blowing that out of proportion. The offensive line is incredibly talented. We ran the ball really well. Ive got all the faith in the world with those guys up front. They did a great job protecting me all night. I just hope people can stop talking about it. Those guys played really well tonight.
Best play of the game
The punt recovery by Cody Grace in the fourth quarter was one of the best plays I have been able to witness live. It is rare to see a punter take off after the kick and be able to get to the ball. When he kicked it, you could tell he knew it was going short, and he burst into a run. The ball bounced back, and Grace recovered it 24 yards from the original line of scrimmage. That awareness and hustle needs to be recognized.
Edmonton has little time to worry about what might have been, as they now travel to Montreal for a game on Friday. Its a big test to see if they can find a way to overcome the errors and finish a game.
Im tired of talking about being close, head coach Mark Kilam said. We have to make these plays at the end of the game. Thats why we work so hard during the week, to put ourselves in a position to do that. Eventually, we have to be able to make them.
That they do.
