Edmonton Elks harsh good vibes with bad penalties in loss to Riders (& eight other thoughts)

Photo courtesy: Edmonton Elks

The Edmonton Elks had more good vibes entering Saturday’s rematch with the Saskatchewan Roughriders than a hippie at a mushroom farm, but there was no peace and love on display between the opponents as the Green and Gold fell 28-26.

Here are my thoughts on the game.

Pinch-hitter

Being the type of perceptive connoisseur of football analysis who frequents 3DownNation.com, you’ve probably clued in that this isn’t your regular Elks recap. Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict has left regular contributor Andrew Hoskins unable to provide a column, so I will step in as an untimely and inadequate replacement.

Though I generally pen these pieces about the B.C. Lions, rest assured that I am Edmonton-born and was raised in a household where supporting the Double E was an expectation. As a reporter, I obviously have no vested interest now, but this is a return to my roots.

Feel free to blame this loss on Andrew’s absence, though it should be noted that Regina-based purveyor of ‘The good, the bad, and the dumb’ analysis, Joel Gasson, was also indisposed this week. I’ll take a different tack, though in his honour, there was plenty of dumb to choose from.

Flop house

If you were frustrated by the incessant flopping and melodramatic writhing of (allegedly) grown men during the recent FIFA World Cup, the CFL offered a sharp contrast on Saturday.

Defensive end Noah Taylor was flagged for embellishment early in the second quarter after taking a swan dive during an exchange with Saskatchewan’s Jacob Brammer. The punishment for his Razzie-worthy performance? Ejection from the football game.

The necessary context behind the disqualification is that Taylor had already taken a penalty for contacting an official earlier in the game. Under CFL rules, two separate misconduct fouls committed by the same player result in that individual being tossed, regardless of the exact nature of the final infraction. It is a cut-and-dried rule that has mostly served the league well, though admittedly, this situation was pretty comical. It certainly drew the ire of Edmonton head coach Mark Kilam, who was hit with an objectionable conduct penalty of his own after giving the referee an earful.

Unfortunately, Taylor’s removal from the game foreshadowed a fatally undisciplined performance by his team. 10 total infractions for 92 yards isn’t an astronomical number, but the game’s biggest moments were marred by preventable flags.

Late in the third quarter, Edmonton appeared to have stolen the momentum from Saskatchewan when rookie Canadian linebacker Dariel Djabome made the greatest play of his young career, sorting through traffic to knock the ball out of short-yardage QB Tommy Stevens’ hands near the goal line. Kobe Williams recovered for what would arguably have been the best defensive stop of the year, but a flag flew for too-many-men. The moment was wasted, and Stevens soon scored to extend the lead.

Trailing inside of three minutes, left tackle Brendan Bordner was called for holding and put the offence in a hole they couldn’t escape, eventually resulting in a punt. The defence stepped up with what appeared to be another huge stop, allowing time for a game-winning drive, but Tomari Fox was flagged for roughing the passer. Sure, the hit was a soft one, but he undeniably came in two beats late. You just can’t do that in a situation where the game is on the line and put the result in the official’s hands.

A loss was already pretty much assured at that point, but Malik Carney sealed the result with an unnecessary roughness penalty against his former team with 44 seconds left. A forearm to the throat of an offensive lineman succeeded in choking out the clock with an automatic first down. Game over.

The battle for the West Division is going to be a heated one, and Edmonton can’t afford to keep losing their heads. Discipline needs to be a focus this week.

Searching for Superman

Through the first six weeks of the 2026 season, Justin Rankin was the clear frontrunner for Most Outstanding Player. That buzz has almost entirely disappeared after the past three games, in which the Elks’ running back has been held to just 76 rushing yards combined.

For the second consecutive game, Saskatchewan was able to hold Rankin in check. Though he powered through half a dozen arm tackles en route to a three-yard touchdown on Edmonton’s opening drive, the 29-year-old felt like mostly an afterthought on the ground. He finished with eight carries for 28 yards, producing a measly 3.5-yard average.

The dual-threat back did make a splash in the passing game midway through the fourth quarter, rolling uncovered up the seam and making a couple of defenders miss for a 51-yard gain. That play set up a key touchdown pass to T.J. Luther, which kept the Elks in it. However, Rankin was only targeted one other time, which resulted in a loss of three yards.

With all due respect to Cody Fajardo, 510-yard passing performances are not a reliable path to victory for this team every week. The passing attack was fine, as it usually is, against the Riders, but it wasn’t enough. The Elks have to find a way to get Rankin going again along the ground or in the screen game. Any week in which he doesn’t have 15 or more touches should be considered a failure by offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic.

Red dead revolver

There is an amusing trend in football where coaches have begun calling the red zone the “green zone” instead, in order to psychologically reinforce the fact that the offence shouldn’t stop there. Honestly, it’s all a bunch of hokum, but perhaps the Elks should give it a go.

Edmonton lost this game in no small part due to red zone inefficiency. Five trips inside Saskatchewan’s 20-yard line resulted in two touchdowns and three field goals, leaving at least 12 points on the field in a two-point loss.

At the end of the first quarter, a promising drive stalled out at the 17-yard line after a swing pass to Javon Leake went for no gain. In the third quarter, Kilam elected not to gamble from the Saskatchewan six-yard line after Fajardo was sacked and failed to gain it back on an ensuing scramble. Early in the fourth, they attempted another chip-shot from the Saskatchewan 15-yard line after Jonathan Edouard broke up a misplaced shot to Brendan O’Leary-Orange in the end zone.

The root causes of each slip-up were different, but had any one of those series crossed the goal line, the result would have been different.

He cannot af-Ford

On the same day that quarterback Tre Ford was benched in Hamilton, his identical twin brother, Tyrell, ensured the family name would not become mud.

The uber-athletic Canadian cornerback hasn’t gotten the same level of attention since moving to Edmonton last year, but he made a handful of memorable plays in this one. The first was an excellent punch out on a pass to KeeSean Johnson towards the end of the second quarter, which forced a punt deep in Saskatchewan territory and gave his team a prime scoring opportunity. Minutes later, Ford lowered the boom on punt returner Daniel Wiebe, proving that he isn’t all flash and dash.

His biggest play, however, was an interception at the start of the second half. With both teams ice-cold after a 67-minute weather delay, he sprinted underneath a deep shot from Harris to Johnson down the right sideline, hauling in all the momentum. Unfortunately, Edmonton quickly squandered that opportunity.

On a solid night overall for the Elks’ defence, Ford wasn’t the only Canadian making plays. Robbie Smith saw his usage increase following Noah Taylor’s ejection, finishing with three defensive tackles and another on special teams, while 2026 first-round pick Dariel Djabome had his best game of the year, amassing eight defensive tackles, a special teams tackle, and a sack.

Two-toned revival

It was fantastic to see a crowd of 31,757 fill Commonwealth Stadium for this game, forcing the team to open up the upper bowl for the first time since 2023. Most impressive was the resilience of those in attendance, as hardly anybody seemed to leave despite a thunderstorm forcing them to take shelter for over an hour. They were rewarded with an excellent finish, though it couldn’t quite live up to the bar set last week.

For as much praise as is being rightfully heaped on the Green and Gold for their complete organizational turnaround, I do feel the need to reconnect this narrative with reality. The TSN broadcast and several local media outlets have conveniently forgotten to mention the fact that when Edmonton hosted Saskatchewan in 2025, it drew an official crowd of 30,053. The Riders’ watermelon-clad diaspora is a major boon at the turnstiles, which you could see by their numbers in every camera shot praising the Elks’ turnout.

An improvement of over 1,700 fans at the gate is still laudable, and the momentum behind this franchise feels palpable. Everyone involved should be applauded, but they can’t rest on their laurels. This game was a highly impressive but predictable anomaly. The real accomplishment will be improved attendance for non-marquee matchups.

Spokesman of the Year

Saturday’s game may well be a preview of the West Final, but the most entertaining part of it came pre-game. Elks’ general manager Ed Hervey sat down with the CFL on TSN panel and delivered a trademark rant regarding his process in turning around the team, which was later re-broadcast during the weather delay.

Hervey has a well-earned reputation for being blunt and quotable, which was on full display as he walked viewers through his systematic purge of bad apples from Edmonton’s locker room. As a writer, I love the endless content he provides and wish more people in the CFL were as forthcoming. As a fan, you should love the passion and identity he’s brought back to the organization. With president Chris Morris, Hervey, and Kilam making up the core leadership group, Edmonton has something special.

With that said, none of us should be so naive as to buy his full-throated insistence that the Elks will never compromise on character in pursuit of talent. By all accounts, they’ve amassed a stand-up group of guys in the locker room, but there is no workplace in the world exclusively occupied by saints, let alone one in which your capacity for violence is a pre-requisite.

Is this not the same team that added NFL offensive lineman Isaiah Adams to their negotiation list immediately after he was arrested on gun charges? Are we supposed to believe that was a computer error or a false-flag attack by Chris Jones? Edmonton saved face by quickly relinquishing his rights, though that conveniently occurred after it was reported that Adams’ charges wouldn’t prevent him from reporting to training camp with the Cardinals.

At some point, there will be an exception whom Hervey deems worthy of overlooking red flags. There always is in this sport.

Up next

The Elks (6-2) may have recorded their second loss of the season, but they remain in sole possession of first place in the West Division. They’ll face an equally tough test next week, as they travel to Montreal on Saturday, August 8, to face the Alouettes (7-1) in a battle of divisional leaders.

Montreal has lost just one game this season, though it came in a 32-29 defeat to Edmonton in Week 3. Davis Alexander and company will be looking to exact revenge for that insult.