REGINA — The Edmonton Elks refuse to go away.
After securing a 25-23 win over the Calgary Stampeders last week, the Elks head to Saskatchewan to take on the Roughriders as they try to keep their post-season hopes alive.
When they arrive, they’ll be sure to see an agitated Roughriders team after they fell 51-6 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 14.
The two teams have already met twice this season, with the Riders coming away victorious both times by a combined five points.
As the Elks search for their fourth win in their last five games, it’ll once again be Tre Ford tasked with leading the offence. Ford hasn’t faced the Roughriders this season and will test both their defensive front and secondary. He’s just 10 passing yards short of 1,000 and has also accumulated 401 yards on the ground.
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One area he’ll need to be better in is the turnover department after throwing a pair of interceptions against Calgary. With the Riders featuring a talented secondary that includes defensive back Nic Marshall, who has four interceptions, and Amari Henderson patrolling downfield, Ford needs to be more crisp in finding his receivers.
Posing the threat against the secondary will be Elks’ receivers Eugene Lewis and Dillon Mitchell who are coming off strong performances and should see plenty of targets.
Watch live. Edmonton Elks @ Saskatchewan Roughriders, Sept. 16, 03:30 CET (3:30 am, 9:30 pm Sept. 15 EDT)
While there are options in the air, Elks’ head coach Chris Jones can go to the ground game with confidence after Kevin Brown put up 143 rushing yards and a touchdown against the Stamps. Brown and Ford have become one of the better running duos in the league over the past few weeks.
It’s an area Edmonton can exploit given the Riders are surrendering 109.9 yards per game on the ground. The onus to stop the run falls on linebacker Larry Dean and his 72 defensive tackles. In front of Dean, linemen Anthony Lanier and Pete Robertson own five sacks each.
Offensively for the Riders, Jake Dolegala is looking for answers after throwing for 113 yards in his team’s loss to the Bombers. The offence ranks right in the middle when it comes to net yardage, averaging 335.4 per game, including 267.4 through the air.
To get back on track, Dolegala will lean on Tevin Jones, Shawn Bane Jr. and Samuel Emilus who rank eighth, ninth and 10th in receiving yards, respectively.
Dolegala understands how big of a game this is and knows he has to flush his previous performance.
“It’s obviously a big one,” Dolegala told Riderville.com. “We have to learn from it. All our focus is on Edmonton now and we have to go get them in our house.”
They’ll take on an Elks secondary that has been more than respectable. Defensive backs Ed Gainey and Loucheiz Purifoy have led a unit that’s giving up 257 yards through the air per contest.
With the secondary well equipped to handle the pass game, the Elks’ focus should be on shutting down running back Jamal Morrow, given they’re dead last in rushing yards against. Morrow managed just 37 yards on seven carries against Winnipeg but is fifth in the league with 634.
Applying the pressure up front on both Dolegala and Morrow is linebacker Nyles Morgan, who is second in the league with 81 defensive tackles. On the line A.C. Leonard has 10 sacks and Jake Ceresna brings seven into the game, so as bad as they’ve been at limiting yards on the ground, there’s talent there to turn things around.
Although they’re coming off another short week, Jones expects his team to be ready to compete in an important game in the standings.
“We just played on a short week,” Jones told GoElks.com. “We have to do just enough (of) what we need to do to make sure when we step on that field we’re fresh. That’s a good locker room in there. You got a lot of young guys in there but they have a lot of backbone.”
If Edmonton can make it eight of their last 10 points, they’ll crawl within two games of Saskatchewan in the West Division standings. A win for the Riders puts them two back of second place BC in the West Division.