August 20, 2021

Elks see room for growth after snagging first win

Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca

VANCOUVER — It had been a long time since he’d had that feeling, but Trevor Harris recognized it as soon as it presented itself.

He was on the Edmonton Elks’ sideline at BC Place, watching his defensive teammates gradually shut the BC Lions down. Edmonton held a five-point lead and was heading back on the field. Like a shark sniffing out blood in the water, Harris felt a win coming his way.

“Before the last drive, I went over to Aaron Grymes. I said, ‘Championship offences stay on the field and finish games.’ I said, ‘You got to do this for me, because we’re going to finish this game on the field. Why don’t you get that water cooler. And when it strikes zero I want to see (Jaime Elizondo) drenched in cold water.'”

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The Elks’ 21-16 win is just one positive result out of 14 tests they’ll face this season. Harris, Elizondo and the rest of the team will quickly focus on the next one, but that doesn’t diminish the significance of their Week 3 win in Vancouver. It was the first for Elizondo as a head coach and it was the team’s first in three tries this season, after two offensively anemic performances.

Harris (26-31 passing, 296 yards, one touchdown and one interception) played the type of efficient and productive game he’s come to be known for. Greg Ellingson (nine receptions, 148 yards) broke out of his early-season slump and James Wilder Jr. (22 carries, 127 yards and 33 receiving yards) continued to be the most consistent part of Edmonton’s offence. It was the best look we’ve had thus far of what this star-studded offence can be capable of.

“I know this is this has been a tough process for Jaime with the early struggles for us and I couldn’t be happier for him,” Harris said.

He was also elated for Ellingson, who was coming off of a one-yard game in last week’s loss to Montreal and with just 53 total yards through two games. With five seasons over the 1,000-yard mark and 7,466 yards in his eight-year career, it was only a matter of time before Ellingson got back to his stat-stuffing ways.

“Just five hours ago people were wondering what’s wrong with Greg and what’s wrong with our connection and it’s done, the layoff hurt it,” Harris said.

“I was trying to tell people to just slow their roll. This is Greg Ellingson. This is guy that’s going to be giving his hall of fame speech one of these days for the CFL. He’s going to be a hall of fame wide receiver and a Tier I wide receiver here for years to come, just because of who he is and his work ethic.”

Elks’ rookie d-lineman Thomas Costigan (right) stepped up with a strong performance in the absence of Kwaku Boateng (Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca)

As happy as Elizondo was with the offensive showing, he was just as happy to see the work his defence did. The team lost one of its star defensive linemen in Kwaku Boateng to COVID protocols this week. Twenty-three year-old rookie Thomas Costigan slid into Boateng’s spot and made his presence felt all over the field, particularly in the first half while the Elks clamped down on Michael Reilly and the Lions offence, holding the team to four first-half points.

Costigan had four tackles and a sack. He also pounced on a fumbled ball before the play was called back.

“It was a tone that defence set, hitting (Reilly) early,” Elizondo said.

“I think that makes a huge, huge difference. To lose a guy like Kwaku Boateng and still put that pressure on, we’re really proud of the defence. What I asked the team to do this week was to come in with an edge, come with a little bit more of an attitude, like we own this field. I thought they responded in that way.”

Elizondo, Harris and Wilder all said that there was still room for improvement with this team. It may have taken some of the criticism it heard over the last two weeks and used it to fuel the fire. From Almondo Sewell’s comments about Harris’ toughness last week, to a player like Wilder that had been written off by some after he left the Argos, there’s plenty of motivation for the group and still plenty of room to grow in all three phases of the game.

“Nobody flinched when we took those losses,” Wilder said.

“We got in the film room and we just broke it down…it’s really us (making mistakes). I’m not trying to act like we’re the greatest team of all time. But we’ve been shooting ourselves a lot.

“Even after the losses, you kind of still get excited. We’re excited to continue to get better every day. I’m excited to get back to my laptop here in about the next hour and start watching film to see how we can get another win.”

“I think this is a type of team, by Week 5, 6, 7, 8…somewhere in there we’re going to see a team that is playing and starting to hit on all cylinders,” Harris added.

“We’ll just keep growing and getting better.”

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