The Edmonton Elks’ ineptitude has hit yet another historic milestone and head coach Chris Jones believes penalties were a critical factor in his team’s 37-29 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Thursday night.
“13 penalties, 163 (yards), I mean that equates to around 12 points analytically,” Jones told the 630 CHED post-game show. “Anytime you’re that undisciplined, I’d like to apologize to everybody within earshot of this that we were an undisciplined football team tonight. It’s the very first time that that’s kind of reared its head this year, but unfortunately, that’s what happened tonight. We had too many turnovers in the second half and too many penalties.”
The coach has good reason to apologize, especially given that the official box score actually credited his team with 179 yards worth of infractions. Starting middle linebacker Nyles Morgan was also ejected late after committing three major penalties.
Despite jumping out to a 6-0 lead and starting the second half with a 54-yard touchdown from Kyran Moore to go up 13-10, the Elks collapsed after a baffling pick-six thrown by quarterback Taylor Cornelius with his non-dominant hand. The 27-year-old signal-caller was pulled for the second time this season in the fourth quarter after completing 11-of-20 passes for 177 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions.
The game marked Edmonton’s 20th consecutive defeat at Commonwealth Stadium, tying the MLB’s 1953 St. Louis Browns for the longest continuous home losing streak in North American professional sports. It also dropped the Elks to 0-6 on the season, the first time an Edmonton football team has started that poorly since 1938 — 11 years before the current CFL franchise was founded.
Despite the sad reality of a team that has not treated their home fans to a victory in 1,371 days, Jones still believes the solution lies in patience, not overreaction.
“It’s certainly not to just hammer ’em and be negative and that type of thing. We’re always going to try to find the positives,” he stressed.
“We’ve got enough good young players that we’re going to have to continue to lean on them and I think if you fall into that negativity, it can really tear your team apart. We’re going to continue to coach them just like it’s day one. We’re going to come up with good game plans for them and then I’ve got to make sure that we’re doing enough work without overworking them.”
Rookie Jarret Doege, who started in the team’s Week 4 loss to Ottawa, took over for Cornelius at quarterback, completing 14-of-21 passes for 201 yards and a touchdown. The benching of the team’s franchise pivot once again raises questions about a quarterback situation that seemed settled when Cornelius reclaimed his job in Week 5, though Jones would not commit to a future starter.
Even though the team’s current slump pre-dates his tenure as head coach and general manager by several years, the 56-year-old is under increasing pressure to deliver immediate results. Somewhat uncharacteristically, he insists he won’t get them by making sweeping alterations to the roster.
“We won’t make wholesale changes. I’m not saying that there won’t be changes because there will be changes I’m sure, but we’re not going to sit there and just wholesale change,” he insisted.
“We’ve got good kids in the room. The game was again close at halftime, and then just too many mistakes in the second half. Either one of those Saskatchewan games could have gone either way, so we’re going to continue to battle this thing and continue to try to look for the right ingredients.”
The Elks do not have their first bye of the season until Week 9. They next visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday, July 20, before hosting the B.C. Lions on Saturday, July 29.
