It can be difficult to appreciate when you are in the middle of something good in your life.
So often we look back fondly at ‘the good ol’ days’ but it’s tricker to acknowledge a positive moment as it’s happening.
I bring up this obvious point about the human condition because we are in the middle of a damn fun CFL season. Remember how difficult the 2021 season was?
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COVID had wiped out 2020 and as a result we went through a lot of not-so-great games filled with rusty offences. You really couldn’t blame the league; it was expected to be disjointed with no football for a year prior. It felt like everyone was out of sync and there were far too many teams scoring in the single digits.
What is going on right now is the exact opposite and I think it is important to stop, look around and enjoy a football season where it seems like every game is decided in the final three minutes and the Edmonton Elks cannot catch a break.
I was given free reign to rank my favourite games of the 2024 season so far. I am going to practice proper restraint and limit this list to just seven games in chronological order.
WEEK 1 | SASKATCHEWAN 29 EDMONTON 21
This would be the first of so many Elks games that would end with everyone wondering “how did Edmonton lose this one?”
Everything was going so well for Edmonton until a Javon Leake fumble kick started a furious fourth quarter Roughriders comeback that saw the road team score 21-straight points.
This game had so many heroes along the way. The obvious one was Shawn Bane Jr. and his three touchdown catch, 125 receiving yard-performance but what about linemen Bryan Cox Jr. and his late game defensive hat trick of not only sacking McLeod Bethel-Thompson but also recovering the fumble that he forced? That play not only ended an excellent scoring opportunity for Edmonton, but it led to Bane’s final touchdown of the game pushing the lead to 29-21.
What I loved about that touchdown was the Riders could have played it more conservative. Up by one with just over a minute left on a second and long, Trevor Harris could have elected for the safe throw but instead went deep right in the face of a seven-man blitz. The aggressive call paid off with Bane being wide open for an easy score. Full credit to Edmonton as they just kept coming.
A Bethel-Thompson interception with less than 40 seconds left on the clock should have ended the game but their defence forced an AJ Ouellette fumble giving the home side one last chance. The desperation final heave from MBT to Malik Flowers was incomplete but only by several inches.
This game had a massive comeback, a near miracle moment and stellar quarterback play from two veterans both with much to prove. Finally, congratulations to Harris who passed 30,000 career passing yards in this game. All and all a great way to start 2024.
WEEK 2 | SASKATCHEWAN 33 HAMILTON 30
The late game magic for Saskatchewan continued in Week 2!
This game was done, it was over! The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were up 30-20 with under five minutes to go, and there was no way they were disappointing the home crowd on this Sunday night.
Flash forward to under 40 seconds to go, game is tied at 30-30. There was no way this was ending in regulation, we’re heading to overtime!
And then Bo Levi Mitchell threw a simple out pass to the 2023 CFL receiving leader Tim White and inexplicably the ball bounced off his helmet right into the hands of C.J. Avery for the textbook ‘right place/right time’ interception. Moments later Brett Lauther kicked a game-winning 37-yard field goal leaving all of us in shock.
For the second week in a row Saskatchewan saved their best for the end, outscoring Hamilton 16-3 in the final quarter. This was a great game if you’re not a fan of defensive backs being in the proper position to make the correct reads. There were wide receivers open all day all over the field as Trevor Harris and Bo Levi Mitchell combined 770 passing yards and five touchdowns.
Having said that, there were so many eye-popping moments from Kian Schaffer-Baker’s early 24-yard touchdown catch to Mitchell scrambling out of danger and hitting Kiondre Smith with a laser 38-yard touchdown strike.
Finally, a shoutout to second year receiver Jerreth Sterns who made several tough catches including getting blasted by Stavros Katsantonis on a second-and-17 reception that resulted in a first down and was the pivotal play that led to the Riders tying the game at 30 with 46 seconds left to play.
WEEK 3 | BC 26 WINNIPEG 24
We all knew this was going to be a classic four plays in when Vernon Adams Jr. hit Alexander Hollins for a 71-yard touchdown. The number one storyline was Hollins going for 215 yards and two scores and his quarterback torching the Blue Bombers defence for nearly 400 yards. The lasting image for Adams Jr. was standing in the pocket in the face of a Bombers blitz hitting Hollins for a 63-yard reception against safety Brandon Alexander.
What made this game so memorable had more to do with the losing team.
At kickoff ,Winnipeg was down defensive linemen Celestin Haba and Miles Fox to injuries from the previous week. During this contest they lost two receivers including one of the games best Dalton Schoen along with Keric Wheatfall.
Despite all the walking wounded, Winnipeg was in the game right till the end and were an inch away from a possible last-second win. A deep pass to Nic Demski was an inch away from a completion that would have given Zach Collaros a first down at the Lions 30-yard line trailing by two with just over two minutes left.
WEEK 3 | TORONTO 39 EDMONTON 36
Re-watching this game I feel so bad for McLeod Bethel-Thompson who was throwing darts all over the field completing 28 passing on 38 attempts for 342 yards and four touchdown passes to four different receivers.
This was a fun game not just because of the 75 combined points scored. I love a good contrast in battle style and this one was about two teams that were built to beat you offensively in such differing ways.
Edmonton did it through the air with Bethel-Thompson hitting an array of talented targets while Toronto was all about this fierce ground game churning out 186 rushing yards on 29 attempts.
This three-point win by the Argonauts also gave us the always compelling revenge angle with Kurleigh Gittens Jr. tying the game at 29-29 with an eight-yard touchdown catch against his former team while the former Elks linemen Jake Ceresna finished with a sack and three tackles.
As a general rule any game that ends with a walk-off, game-winning field goal is probably making this list and this one came down to a Lirim Hajrullahu’s 37-yard field goal with the clock showing nothing but zeros. This would not be the first time Edmonton lost a game in such a gutting fashion.
WEEK 4 | OTTAWA 24 HAMILTON 22
In many ways this was an ugly one. There were so many field goals and dropped interceptions on this windy Sunday night in Ottawa.
Going into the fourth quarter, this was a rather non-descript skirmish with Hamilton leading 13-12. Then came a 21-point final quarter with the Tiger-Cats looking like they had come away with the win after Bo Levi Mitchell found Shemar Bridges in the end zone giving the Tabbies a 22-21 lead with 28 seconds left.
Much like the Edmonton Elks, the early story of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats has been finding ways to lose games late and this night at TD Place Stadium was another chapter in this cruel story.
Dru Brown’s two clutch completions led to yet another walk-off, game-winning field goal, this time a 46-yarder by Lewis Ward. I considered omitting this from my list but it had been over 2,000 days since the REDBLACKS had defeated the Tiger-Cats, so it deserves to be here.
WEEK 5 | MONTREAL 30 CALGARY 26
While this game did not end with a field goal as time expired it did have a (near) walk-off touchdown run by Walter Fletcher with a minute left in the game giving the Alouettes a lead they would not relinquish. Go back and watch Fletcher’s 31-yard winning score, it was this perfect mix of patience and speed as the Montreal tailback crosses up Tre Roberson early in the run as he is coming around the corner then runs past Rodney Randle Jr. for six points.
The Cody Fajardo to Tyson Philpot connection was cooking as the Canadian receiver finished with 134 yards while the 2023 Grey Cup MVP rallied Montreal back from a second half, double-digit deficit putting up 374 yards and leading his team to 18 unanswered points.
On the other side, it was a joy watching Tommy Stevens barreling over everyone, even if it was in a losing cause.
WEEK 6 | WINNIPEG 41 CALGARY 37
The national nightmare finally came to an end, Zach Collaros threw a touchdown pass. The city of Winnipeg shall rejoice.
The bigger story wasn’t Collaros finding the end zone, it was who caught that pass. Anyone who tells you they knew rookie receiver Ontaria Wilson was going to explode for a 200-yard receiver day is a no good, dirty liar.
Wilson entered the game with 85 career yards, but with injuries all over Winnipeg’s roster the 24-year-old was given a chance to contribute, and he went absolutely bonkers on the Stampeders defence. This game had fantasy heroes all over the place with Collaros and Jake Maier both going over 300 yards and tossing two touchdowns each and the running backs Brady Oliveira (109 yards) and Dedrick Mills (131 yards) both exceeding the century mark.
Usually, a memorable game is all about what happens late, but in this one the second quarter is what kept you glued to the action. There was a steady stream of big plays from that Wilson 30-yard touchdown, a 55-yard interception return by Deatrick Nichols, Mills turning a botched handoff with Maier into a 50+ yard run and it all ended with another rookie, Calgary’s Eric Brooks hauling in his first CFL touchdown.
Once you had a moment to collect yourself, you looked up and it was 23-23 at the half. There was still plenty of action left for the second half with the game-winning touchdown drive courtesy of a Nic Demski touchdown concluding a 102-yard drive. For a game filled with so much offence it was a defensive play, a Jake Thomas sack, that thwarted any late game heroics from Maier and company.
WEEK 6 | OTTAWA 37 EDMONTON 34
I promise this article is not about reminding Edmonton about the number of times their team found themselves on the losing side of an exciting back-and-forth affair, but, well, it happened yet again.
This loss to the REDBLACKS would mark the third-straight time Edmonton would taste defeat as the result of a last second field goal, this time courtesy of a 38-yarder by Lewis Ward.
The easy headline was the Boris Bede squid kickoff that went out bounds putting red hot Dru Brown and the Ottawa offence at their own 50-yard line. There is no doubt it was either a mistake or just bad execution and it gets more attention because Edmonton had battled back late in the game with a couple touchdown drives to tie the game at 34. It was a gut punch moment for an Elks team that deserved a victory.
But don’t let that one special teams miscue cloud your memory of a wild night at Commonwealth Stadium.
You had Bethel-Thompson with the prettiest deep shot to Hergy Mayala in between two defenders to a 39-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The Elks season is a great argument about why you need to be wary of measuring how good a quarterback is by his team’s record. McLeod has done so much right this year; it’s shocking he has yet to be on the winning side of a game. That late drive that tied the game was filled with the Edmonton quarterback (And Eugene Lewis!) doing his job and converting some clutch third downs.
On the winning side, this game will be remembered for Dru Brown’s passing (480 yards) and the absurd speed of yet another rookie wide receiver Kalil Pimpleton. There are different levels of football speed. From creating separation speed to deep threat, take the top off of the defence speed. Then there is the highest level, the ‘I don’t care what angle you take I’m still going to run past you mere mortals’ speed. We saw that from the REDBLACKS rookie on his 70-yard touchdown in the third quarter where he just ran away from everyone.
I’ll conclude this summary by again imploring you to not just focus on the squid kick mistake. What gets lost is the winning field goal never happens if not for Brown finding Pimpleton in tight coverage for the 29-yard gain setting up Lewis Ward.
That was a tough pitch and catch between a quarterback looking to prove he can guide his own team and a rookie receiver trying to make a name for himself in a year filled with so much young talent.