It’s hard to tell where the Edmonton Elks have been worse this year — on the field or off it.
The CFL’s only winless team at 0-9, Edmonton has lost a professional sports record 22 straight home games, dating to 2019, and just canned its president on Tuesday.
With that as their backdrop, the Elks try to give their suffering fan base some good news on Thursday night when they travel to Hamilton for a matchup with the Tiger-Cats.
Edmonton looked like it might end its winless year and its home losing streak when it raced out to a 22-0 second-quarter lead on Aug. 10 against West co-leader Winnipeg. But the Blue Bombers rallied and eventually captured a 38-29 decision.
The fallout happened in the front office when the team fired president Victor Cui, ostensibly over low attendance. The team claims to average around 23,000 per game but local reports indicate actual attendance isn’t close to that figure.
As for the product on the field, quarterback Tre Ford showed promise in his first start of the year, throwing for 189 yards, rushing for 50 and accounting for two scores.
“We’ve played sporadic good football against a very good football team,” Elks coach Chris Jones said of the latest defeat.
Meanwhile, Hamilton (3-5) is unlikely to have much sympathy for Edmonton and its litany of woes. The Tiger-Cats are coming off a 27-14 home loss to Montreal on Aug. 5, when they led 14-3 early in the third quarter before a second-half collapse.
“We gave up too many explosions on defense,” Hamilton coach Orlondo Steinauer said. “We took penalties at inopportune times and that doesn’t bode well for winning. Any time you’re not playing well enough, you’re always going to take a deep dive, see where we’re at … and where we’re at is not good enough.”
The Tiger-Cats’ quarterback room has been decimated by injuries. Starter Bo Levi Mitchell and backup Matthew Shiltz are on the injured list, leaving Taylor Powell to do the job. He threw for 202 yards against Montreal but tossed a pair of costly picks in the second half.
Hamilton took a 37-29 win at Edmonton last month in the teams’ first meeting of 2023.
–Field Level Media