EDMONTON – Lose the turnover battle and you usually lose the game.
The Elks coughed up the ball four times, and turned it over twice on downs en route to a 27-14 defeat against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday night.
“You’re not going to win many football games if you turn the football over six times,” Head Coach Jarious Jackson said. “When that happens, everything else is pretty even, but if you look at everything else as far as the passing yardage, the rushes, what have you besides the score and the turnovers? When you turn the ball over six times, winning the game is far from achievable.”
Three of those turnovers came off the hands of Tre Ford, who was making his first start since returning from a rib injury. The Canadian finished the night completing 10 of 17 passes for 131 yards against a Bombers defence intent on not letting him run. Ford did show off some of the razzle dazzle he is known for with 5:54 remaining in the third quarter. Head coach Jarious Jackson took advantage of the Elks rushing success and dialed up the flea flicker for a long 31-yard touchdown to Geno Lewis for his sixth touchdown of the year.
“You don’t want to sit out for an extended period of time, then come back and not play well,” Ford said about the performance. “So it was a little unfortunate to not play well, but you got with the pro football ups and down, so you just got to go with it.”
The Bombers leaned on their opportunistic defence and the legs of last seasons Most Outstanding Canadian Brady Oliveira to power their way to victory. Oliveira racked up 138 all-purpose yards, with 127 of them coming on 18 carries on the ground — including a pair of touchdowns — to give Winnipeg their sixth straight victory.
The Elks will get their shot at redemption in less than a week when they head to Winnipeg for a Friday night clash against the very same Blue Bombers.
RANKIN UP
Edmonton’s league leading ground game once again came to play, churning for 195 yards on 23 carries against a stout Bombers defence. Rookie running back Justin Rankin did the majority of the damage, cutting and slashing his way for 157 yards on only 14 carries — including five rips for double-digit yards.
“I can’t say enough about Rank. I mean, he’s earned the opportunity to be in there,” Jackson said. “I think he’s averaging like seven yards per carry or something like that. I mean, you see what he was able to do tonight with a few carries that he’s had.”
The Elks three-headed monster at running back has proven to be a tough unit for CFL teams to handle. The trio of Javon Leake, Kevin Brown, and Rankin currently sit seventh, ninth, and 11th in the league in rushing and have contributed 1,439 yards on the ground and nine scores.
THEY SAID
Head Coach Jarious Jackson on the Blue Bombers defence
“I think they just had a lot of guys in the secondary when Trey was there, they went more dime personnel, put more DBS back there, you know, tried to confuse him and just tried to mix up the coverages and looks.
Jackson on the performance of the Elks defence
“When you think about it, they get six more possessions than they should have gotten, right? The defense still stood on their heads as long as they could, but when you’re standing out there and you’re having to battle the offense the way that they have, they can be bruisers. That can be taxing on the body. It’s the same blueprint that we try to use at times. My hat goes off to coach Shives and the defense and how they were able to hold them to 27 points.”
Jackson on next week’s starting quarterback
“I don’t want to make a knee jerk reaction or a knee jerk decision. I’m gonna wait till tomorrow and watch the film. Then I’ll figure it out sometime this week.”
Quarterback Tre Ford on the play of Justin Rankin
“He’s a dog. You give him the ball, then you just start watching him running around and everything. He’s a tough guy to tackle. He’s fast, he’s powerful, so he can really do it all coming out of the backfield. I’m really happy for him. He played really well.”
Ford on how the Bombers defence limited Edmonton’s offence
“I thought they did a good job. When they did get us in second long, they were dropping a lot of players, closing passing lanes and stuff like that. I feel like sometimes I try to keep my eyes down the field a little too long, and then sometimes I was looking to run a little too early.”