It’s a short week for the Edmonton Elks, fresh off their first loss of the season Saturday night against the B.C. Lions, as the Ottawa Redblacks come to town for some Thursday night action.
A short memory is needed for any professional athlete, and the Elks will have the opportunity to put that loss — where seemingly nothing went right — behind them. And they’ll do it against a team they dominated to open the season.
The Redblacks hosted the Elks in a Week 1 rainy affair, where Justin Rankin ran wild, and Edmonton went home with a 29-21 victory. It was a game the Elks never trailed in, and one where Rankin ran for 102 yards on 13 carries. Last Saturday saw a season-low seven carries, despite Rankin catching 10 passes for 100 yards, so look for offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic to try and establish the run against a Redblacks team giving up 116 rushing yards against per game, the third worst mark in the league.
The Elks will look to clamp down defensively once again after holding the Redblacks to 302 yards of offence in Week 1. Ottawa hasn’t fared much better in recent weeks, generating the fewest total yards in the league, and a 322.2 yards per game mark that ranks worst in the league.
Ottawa Redblacks @ Edmonton Elks
- Date: Thursday, July 9, 2026
- Kickoff: 7 p.m. MT
- Location: Edmonton, Alta.
- Venue: Commonwealth Stadium
- Watch: TSN
- Weather at kickoff via Environment Canada: 21 degrees, chances of showers, risk of thunderstorms. Wind blowing northwest at 15 km/h.
FIELD GOALS
Elks head coach Mark Kilam: “Five-day weeks are tough. But we’ve been through it, we know that if we put the work in, we can have a positive outcome. Guys have to do a great job on their own mentally as far as picking up the (game plan), and then physically we’ve got to make sure they’re taking care of their bodies and getting them as much back as we can … but I’ve got full belief in our leadership group that we’re going to get the guys ready.”
Linebacker Dariel Djabone: “I have high expectations for myself, personally, and as a defence, so it wasn’t good enough. We had some critical mental errors, didn’t finish stuff right, so we worked on that to get better and then hopefully we’ll have a great game against Ottawa.”
DEPTH CHARTS
Elks
Redblacks
