The Edmonton Elks’ winning streak came to an end on Monday afternoon at McMahon Stadium as the team fell 28-7 to the Calgary Stampeders.
The game was the least “classic” of the CFL’s Labour Day weekend celebrations. Neither team executed very well on offence but Calgary capitalized on mistakes, while Edmonton could not. Here are my thoughts on the game.
Defensive battle
If you like defence, this was a game you’d enjoy. The rivals combined for 13 punts on 23 drives and five total knockdowns contributed to both quarterbacks completing only around 60 percent of their passes. Heck, Vernon Adams Jr. only threw for 162 total yards.
The difference was that the Stampeders got seven tackles for loss and/or sacks, while the Elks struggled to capitalize on their pressures. We’ll get more into that in a moment.
An early Calgary touchdown had me worried this was going to be a disastrous blowout. The Green and Gold — or should I say White with Green and Gold trim — found a way to hold the fiery Stamps to three field goals the rest of the first half.
Edmonton’s front seven got into the backfield and though the pressure didn’t result in sacks, the defence disrupted throwing lanes for Adams Jr. and caused him to throw an unusually high percentage of incompletions. If not for some bumbles on the offensive side, this game would have been close at halftime.
Already down Robbie Smith on the defensive line, Jared Brinkman was a game-time decision with a shoulder injury but was deemed well enough to play. He seemed to have a lot of push up the middle despite the injury and it’s a good thing he played as Jake Ceresna, his fellow defensive tackle, went down with what looked like a knee injury in the second quarter. Calgary running back Dedrick Mills had pretty consistent success running up the middle after that.
Injuries continue to haunt Edmonton as linebacker Nyles Morgan also limped off in the fourth quarter. The status of both Morgan and Ceresna for the upcoming Labour Day rematch is unclear but I would speculate that neither player is likely to be available.
Overall, the defence only gave up 21 points to a vaunted offence. I thought it was a decent showing that got little support from the other phases of the team.
Offensive offensive line
I wrote earlier about the combined seven tackles for loss and sacks put up by the home team. There’s no doubt that Calgary’s defensive line has been hard to handle for opponents all year, but their manhandling of the Elks with four rushers — and sometimes only three — was tough to watch.
The stats sheet will say that Cody Fajardo was sacked only four times but it feels like that number should have been much higher. He needed to be picked up off the turf early and often and the Nevada product fumbled once while getting hit, too. Justin Rankin also managed only 48 rushing yards on 13 carries, so the battle at the line was not close.
I was surprised to see David Beard moved over to left guard with Mark Korte taking over at center. I’m not sure if that was to try and open more running lanes, but it definitely did not. That change could have been part of the mishap that caused the ball to be snapped into Phillip Grohovac when he was in motion behind the line of scrimmage. The fumble was recovered by Calgary and snuffed out what was a promising drive.
With all the high-priced veterans Edmonton has on the line, I’m not sure why more lanes weren’t open. Gregor MacKellar is the junior in the group and he is in his fourth year in the CFL. Offensive line coach Stephen Sorrells still has work to do to get the line to the caliber it was late last year.
“We have to be better up front,” head coach Mark Kilam said postgame. “Those guys know it. Receivers have to know what they have to do, too, so (Fajardo) doesn’t need to hold the ball as long as he can. I think it’s a combination. The coaches have to simplify it if we can’t figure it out, we have to simplify.”
Kicking away
As the last practice week started, the Elks welcomed back punter Jake Julien from his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which was a big addition with Cody Grace injured.
Julien was by far last year’s best punter in the CFL. I would suspect that most would say adding a new punter should not disrupt too much on a team but bringing him back did add just a few wrinkles.
The Barrie, Ont. native became the third different holder for placekicker Vincent Blanchard this season. They had some experience with each other last year but very limited. The flow of the group from long snapper to holder to kicker takes some time to develop.
Monday’s first field goal looked smooth. I’m not saying that the hold wasn’t in the right place, but Blanchard missed his next field goal attempt by a fair margin. I wonder if his comfort changed being in a big game with a new holder. They did clean it up for the one other attempt they had from 52 yards out.
Last year, Julien set the new CFL record for punting average in a season at 54 yards, which is a fair amount more than we have seen this year. The Eastern Michigan product hammered a 64-yard punt in the third quarter and Edmonton’s cover unit has been pretty consistently within striking range as punts have landed this season. However, this one was out of their range.
Erik Brooks made them pay with an 86-yard punt return touchdown. The unit went back to being on-point after this but the damage was done.
Receiving corps review
Steven Dunbar Jr. was placed on the six-game injured list early last week. Zach Mathis has been on that list for four weeks, so other than Rankin at running back, that leaves Kurleigh Gittens Jr. and Kaion Julien-Grant as the team’s top receivers.
Enter Arkell Smith. The Central Missouri product looked to be a big part of the corps through training camp. He has also dealt with some injuries but worked his way back to the starting rotation. He led the team with seven catches for 81 yards, 53 of which were yards after the catch — a good bounce back for him to see more time in the lineup.
At one point, Gittens Jr. went down and the group was Julien-Grant, Smith, Binjimen Victor, Tyson Middlemost, and newcomer OJ Hiliare — a massive shake-up with guys playing new positions and Hiliare only one week in to this offence.
I was surprised to not see more formations with both Rankin and Javon Leake on the field. The two are an excellent thunder and lightning combo and could keep defences guessing a bit more. With a closed practice last Saturday, I thought this is something they would put in and didn’t want out there pre-game. If Edmonton is struggling to move the ball, maybe this combo could give better deception on run/pass options.
Quarterback pressure
Despite the constant pressure that Cody Fajardo faced, he was still able to connect 64 percent of his throws for 255 yards. For a guy that is used to a high-seventies completion though, it was a tougher game. It did seem that he was just slightly off on his throws — whether that was due to the oncoming pressure or lack of familiarity with his receivers, it contributed to more overthrows than we’re used to seeing.
It would have been nice to see Tre Ford late in this game. I’m not trying to stir up any controversy, but if it was the other way around I would still make the same suggestion. Yes, Calgary put a spy on the QB position to keep Fajardo from running. Maybe that’s why the Elks didn’t give Ford a series or two.
When points are hard to come by, a change at the game’s most important position may have led to a spark. Fajardo still needs to be this team’s starter, but I would still like to see some change-of-pace packages.
There’s not a lot of time to find answers as the two teams will meet in Edmonton on Saturday. Get the bodies healed up and look to find where small adjustments can make a difference. I hope for more of a “classic” in the rematch.
