The Edmonton Elks’ bye weeks this season come in Week 2, Week 13, and Week 18.
What do teams do in a bye week? They do 3 things: rest, self-scout, and game plan.
What can the Elks self-scout from only one game?
With the rainy conditions in Ottawa, this gives great feedback of not only what the on-field product was but the off-field product as well.
What did the Elks do well?
Offensively:
- The Elks got on the scoreboard first
- Redzone Control (Five redzone trips)
- Won the time of possession in each quarter
- Clean execution (No fumbles, zero turnovers, highly efficient 2nd Down Conversion rate 11/26 42 per cent and going 100 per cent on short yardage)
- Dominant ground game: 100+ rushing yds & 7.8 yds/rush for Justin Rankin
- Had four receivers with 6+ targets
Defensively:
- Created four turnovers
- Had five 2-and-outs and one, one play drive with a fumble
- Limited the Redblacks to one pass over 30 yards
Special teams:
- Blanchard made all five FG’s and two Converts with a career high of 17 points
- Lavon Leake with 154 yds in kick returns (111 punt return yards, 43 kickoff return yards)
- 9 separate players with special teams tackles
Miscellaneous:
- Footwear, gloves and towels seemed appropriate for the conditions
What can the Elks do better?
- Offensively: Convert in the red zone. Only one TD in 5 trips. FG’s of 12, 18, 11 and 27 yards
- Defensively: Squeeze a couple more of those interception opportunities
- Special teams: Clean up the penalties
Game Planning for Montreal
The Elks will need every bit of that self-scouting time to prepare for Week3, because the defending Eastern Conference champion Montreal Alouettes are flying into Commonwealth Stadium – led by a quarterback who simply refuses to lose regular-season games. After Week 1, Davis Alexander is still perfect as a starting QB in the CFL regular season at 12-0. He throws the ball around at a 71 per cent completion clip while using his legs to keep the play and drives alive. He has a 2:1 TD to Interception ratio and comes up clutch when the game is on the line.
Alexander is helped out by having the most accurate kicker in Alouettes history, Jose Maltos and two dynamite (T’nT) receivers in Tyson Philpot and Tyler Snead.
Defensively, the Elks face a Grey Cup-tested bunch in Tyrice Beverette, Lorenzo Burns, Najee Murray and Wesley Sutton. This fearsome foursome had 282 tackles, 12 special teams tackles, 9 sacks, 9 forced fumbles 11 interceptions, and 22 knock downs last year.
The Maas Mystique: To win Week 3, Edmonton doesn’t just have to beat the Alouettes – they have to break the Commonwealth curse of their own former coach. Jason Maas has coached 13 games in this Edmonton-Montreal series. He was 7-1 as an Edmonton head coach and 4-1 as the Alouettes head coach. He has never lost in Commonwealth Stadium, going a perfect 7-0 in this series. The one thing the Elks have going for them is that Mark Kilam has a one-game winning streak against this Maas lead Alouette team.
Is it Week 3 yet?
