VANCOUVER \u2014 Clinging to its playoff hopes, the Edmonton Elks hit the road to take on the BC Lions at Save-on-Foods Field at BC Place on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Edmonton defeated Winnipeg in Week 19 to move to 7-9.<\/p>\n
BC was on a bye but has won its last four games.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s three keys to victory for both teams ahead of Friday\u2019s 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff, which can be watched on TSN in Canada and on CFL+ in the U.S. and internationally.<\/p>\n
RELATED EDMONTON ELKS<\/p>\n 1. SECONDARY PLAYING WELL WHEN IT MATTERS<\/p>\n Edmonton has 10 interceptions over the last five games, including two against Winnipeg from defensive back JJ Ross and linebacker Kenneth Logan Jr. It\u2019s hard to imagine them having much success this week without finding a way to shut down Lions\u2019 pivot Nathan Rourke<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. POUND THE GROUND<\/p>\n Offensively, there\u2019s an opportunity for the Elks to use the run game to their advantage. Running back Justin Rankin continues to shine and sits 24 yards away from 1,000 for the first time in his young Canadian Football League career. Meanwhile, the Lions have allowed 104.9 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n 3. DON\u2019T FORGET ABOUT DEFENDING THE RUN<\/p>\n Rourke will certainly be the focus of the Edmonton defence, but it can\u2019t ignore the threat in the run game. Running back James Butler<\/a> sat third in the league coming into the week with 1,103 rushing yards, and even backup Zander Horvath has chipped in when his number has been called. Linebacker Joel Dublanko and company have their work cut out for them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n BC LIONS<\/p>\n 1. LIONS FIRST FULL LOOK AT CODY FAJARDO<\/p>\n These two teams have met twice this season, but not since Week 6. That 32-14 Lions\u2019 win on July 13 was when quarterback Cody Fajardo<\/a> took over the Elks\u2019 pocket. It\u2019s a different-looking offence with him under centre, and Robert Carter Jr., Garry Peters<\/a> and the rest of the secondary have the responsibility of shutting down his targets.<\/p>\n 2. PASS RUSH<\/p>\n Defensive lineman Mathieu Betts<\/a>, who had a league-leading 14 sacks after 19 weeks, will try to help out his secondary by getting to Fajardo before he has a chance to make a play. Against Edmonton this season, Betts has six defensive tackles and one sack.<\/p>\n 3. TOP TALENT<\/p>\n Sometimes talent prevails, and it\u2019s just that simple. Quarterback Nathan Rourke<\/a> has targeted Keon Hatcher Sr. and Justin McInnis<\/a> a combined 234 times, a number that will likely grow this week. The trio have an opportunity to make for a long night for the Elks\u2019 defence.<\/p>\n NEED TO KNOW:<\/p>\n BC can sweep the season series with a victory.
\u00bb Depth Charts: EDM<\/a> | BC<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Game Notes: Elks at Lions<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Tickets: Edmonton at BC<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Injury Reports: Stay up to date<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Who\u2019s gonna win? Play CFL Pick \u2018Em presented by Old Dutch now!<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n
\nA win moves the Lions temporarily into sole possession of second place in the West Division.
\nEdmonton is 2-6 on the road.
\nKickoff is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. ET, and can be watched on TSN in Canada and on CFL+ in the U.S. and internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 Clinging to its playoff hopes, the Edmonton Elks hit the road to take on the BC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-218193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}