Edmonton Elks shoot themselves in Boris Bede’s foot, fall to 0-5

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There are three certainties in Canadian Football League life.

Death, taxes and the Edmonton Elks finding new and inventive ways to lose football games at Commonwealth Stadium.

The team that came out of the bye week with 17 days rest between games, put together an absolutely monstrous effort to give themselves a chance to win for the first time this season.

Instead, they suffered yet another walk-off field-goal loss Sunday — their third in as many games, if you can believe — to remain painfully winless at 0-5 on the season, with a 37-34 defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Redblacks.

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The Elks blew a 15-3 lead only to turn around and get outscored 28-4. Then they came back from trailing by 12 points in the fourth quarter to tie it 34-34 with eight seconds left, only to lose on a 38-yard field goal by Lewis Ward as time expired.

But this one shouldn’t have gone this way.

It was supposed to be the Elks recharging their batteries and reloading their roster over a 17-day break between games to capitalize on back-to-back weeks against the lowly Ottawa Redblacks.

You remember, the same team that came into Edmonton last summer to finally end the North American record 22-straight home losses that will forever be a blemish on the franchise.

Beating Ottawa in this home-and-away series could very well have (somehow) put the Elks right back into the playoff picture, potentially tied with the rival Calgary Stampeders for third place in the West Division, had things panned out in Edmonton’s favour.

But things simply don’t pan out in Edmonton’s favour these days.

Instead, it was more of the same around here. And by same, I mean the Elks finding new and inventive ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

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On Sunday, the foot belonging to kicker Boris Bede, who booted a line drive of a kickoff that bounced illegally out of bounds, setting up the Redblacks at their own 50 yard-line, which was all the rope they’d need to hang the Elks.

Making his CFL debut, Kalil ‘The Thrill’ Pimpleton — don’t worry, it will be a household name by season’s end — made a 29-yard reception to set up the final nail in Edmonton’s coffin. He was one of three Redblacks receivers with triple-digit yards, as Dru Brown put the cap on a 480-yard performance through the air, passing 26 of 38 for two touchdowns and an interception.

While it would be easy to hang this one all on the kicker, hold on. The Elks had plenty of chances to turn their fortunes around ahead of any would-be overtime and avoid the same ol’ fate.

In fact, Bede could have avoided the whole situation of needing to reach overtime in the first place had he not missed wide left from 31 yards out to open the fourth quarter.

OK … maybe you can put it all on him?

But that doesn’t change the fact they allowed the very next snap to go 68 yards to the end zone, complements of Justin Hardy, to extend Ottawa’s lead to 28-19.

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The Elks responded by allowing back-to-back sacks amid cries of, “We want Trey,” from the sparsely populated stands. As in, Canadian quarterback Trey Ford, who put the end to that horrendous home losing skid a season ago.

He’s fun. He’s young. He’s athletic. He’s talented. He’s unpredictable. And he’s buried on the depth chart. But perhaps most importantly, he’s exciting — something that’s been sorely lacking in the value-added department by anyone still buying tickets to see the Elks.

Until the final few minutes of Sunday’s game, anyway.

And it was McLeod Bethel-Thompson at the wheel, putting together a pair of drives that ended with short-yardage quarterback Dakota Prukop punching it in from the one-yard-line to even the score in the final minute.

He completed 26 of 35 for 272 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Another fine performance from just the type of veteran American quarterback Chris Jones had been pining for since becoming the Elks head coach and general manager back in 2022.

The pivot came into Sunday’s game averaging better than 300 passing yards per game and was an obvious instant upgrade at the sport’s most important position after Elks fans mercifully bid farewell, once and for all, to the recurring frustration that was Taylor Cornelius.

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But while the offensive numbers have been impressive, the end results are still the same as the Elks appeared to be doing their best impression of an Edmonton Oilers team that tanked early in the season, only to rebound all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

Then again, there is a stumbling start, and then there is the full-on free fall the Elks currently find themselves circling.

Just how they remain winless is a real head-scratcher. After all, this isn’t the same bumbling band of buffoons that got flushed out onto the field each of the past three seasons, combining for all of 11 wins in 50 tries — just two of which have come at home.

They’ve lost all five games by a league-low average of four points.

And where has Gino Lewis been? Edmonton’s top-paid receiver combined for just 177 yards and a touchdown in those first four games before coming up with a dazzling one-handed grab in tight coverage to kickstart the Elks’ fourth-quarter comeback.

But it was on the defensive side where the Elks got some significant reinforcements over the bye week.

While the rest of the players and coaches on some much-needed (if not quite well-deserved) R & R, Jones was spending sleepless nights in the front office to bring in a couple of veteran pieces and patch up some leaks.

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One-time EE coverage linebacker Derek Moncrief was brought back into the fold, along with towering former Toronto Argonauts defensive lineman Shawn Oakman.

Put all the pieces together and it wasn’t surprising the Elks looked well in control to start this one. And to finish it in fine fashion. Right before the plot twisted on them.

Once they’re done kicking themselves over this one, they get to turn around and muster up the energy to do it all over again next week in the nation’s capital. Wherever their motivation comes from, it’s probably not from 1-5 looking better than 0-6.

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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