{"id":26277,"date":"2025-07-26T20:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/26277\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T20:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T20:30:09","slug":"opinion-edmonton-elks-benching-tre-ford-predictably-backfires-in-saskatchewan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/26277\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Edmonton Elks benching Tre Ford predictably backfires in Saskatchewan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Dale MacMillan\/Edmonton Elks<\/p>\n

The timing of the Edmonton Elks\u2019 quarterback switch ahead of Friday\u2019s loss in Saskatchewan<\/a> raises serious questions about just how thoroughly their decision was thought out.<\/p>\n

To be fair, no quarterback who put up the stat line Tre Ford did in his last outing \u2014 four-of-12 passing for just 34 yards and an interception \u2014 deserves to complain about being benched.<\/p>\n

Cody Fajardo, Ford\u2019s replacement<\/a>, did some really good things in the Elks\u2019 21-18 defeat at the hands of the Roughriders in Week 8, when he and his teammates wrestled the squad with the CFL\u2019s best record in their own park.<\/p>\n

Though not high scoring and at times lacking in energy, the outcome was in doubt until the very last play, usually good enough for a moral victory for cellar-dwellers like the Elks these days.<\/p>\n

But before we all congratulate Fajardo on his 346-yard, two-touchdown pass, interception-free return to Regina, let\u2019s consider the following: Tre Ford has a track record of burying the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their own backyard. That\u2019s something Fajardo and most other active CFL quarterbacks do not.<\/p>\n

To back this up, I could rehash Edmonton\u2019s 42-31 victory in Saskatchewan last summer, which fully entrenched the Riders into what would become a seven-game winless skid. Or we could go through the Riders\u2019 36-27 loss to the Elks the year before that, which dropped Saskatchewan below .500 and contributed to then-Roughrider head coach Craig Dickenson losing his job.<\/p>\n

On both occasions, the Elks left their hoof-tracks all over the Mosaic Stadium turf, rushing for 276 and 265 yards, respectively. Tre Ford was the ringleader, spooking the Riders\u2019 defence with some help from Javon Leake and Kevin Brown. This was particularly evident in 2024, when the unimpeachable Corey Mace had his defence twisted into knots by the athleticism of a dangerous running quarterback.<\/p>\n

It was a formula, though tried just twice, that the Roughriders had yet to produce an answer for. And it all begs the question, if the Elks needed to make a quarterback change, then why couldn\u2019t they have waited an extra week to try and capitalize on Tre Ford\u2019s proven track record of silencing the melonheads in Saskatchewan?<\/p>\n

And what about Mace? Did the Riders\u2019 head coach suffer any dread about having to solve Tre Ford or relief when he found out he wouldn\u2019t have to?<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ford) brings a completely different dynamic. He can make you pull your hair out with some of the things he can do to create,\u201d Mace admitted. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to take anything away from what Cody\u2019s able to do. I thought their offence was efficient. He still went for (almost) 350 yards. That\u2019s good quarterbacking, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the rationale for the switch can be pinned on the Elks coming off a bye week, which is usually ideal for making such a change. But even so, the coaching staff came out of the break not entirely sold on Fajardo being the better option. In fact, the first team reps were reportedly split between the two quarterbacks all week until Cody took over on the final day before leaving for Regina.<\/p>\n

If the bye week wasn\u2019t enough time for the coaching staff to make up their mind, then one might ask why the change happened at all.\u00a0Was this not supposed to be the year that Tre Ford would get to develop<\/a> and make his mistakes without constantly having to look over his shoulder?<\/p>\n

If the Roughriders\u2019 players had any thoughts on which quarterback they feared having to face more, they weren\u2019t telling us, aside from a joke by defensive tackle Micah Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a fat boy, I\u2019m like \u2018Good! I don\u2019t have to chase Tre around,\u2019\u201d he chuckled after a two-sack night. \u201cBoth of them bring something different to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malik Carney also dressed along the Rider defensive line that fateful August night last season when Ford ran roughshod. Like Johnson, he sacked Fajardo twice in this game and wouldn\u2019t speculate on the Elks\u2019 quarterbacking decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Cody. I get a lot of sacks on him,\u201d Carney grinned. \u201cThat\u2019s their department. They felt like they made the best decision for them, and I\u2019m going to let them handle that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, Carney has now sacked Cody Fajardo nine times in the seven games they\u2019ve faced each other, including the playoffs.<\/p>\n

There were eight quarterback sacks surrendered by Edmonton in this game alone<\/a>, with one of them fittingly coming on the final play of the game. We all saw the best and worst of Fajardo in this game, with his weakness being that he takes more hits than almost any other QB in the league. It was almost like Cody\u2019s entire three years in Saskatchewan<\/a> all wrapped up into a single game.<\/p>\n

Scoring 18 points won\u2019t win you much in the Canadian Football League. But through it all, Elks head coach Mark Kilam sounded like he\u2019s committed to the new guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCody\u2019s the starter moving forward,\u201d Kilam said. \u201cWe did some things at times, but we totally turned off at times. I\u2019m just going to watch the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t good enough for Edmonton this time. Maybe even worse for the Elks, it was a missed opportunity to continue their own odyssey to develop someone who might be a franchise quarterback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Playing it safe didn\u2019t work out for the Elks\u2019 last head coach, Chris Jones. History can often provide a roadmap through situations like these, which is something Kilam and today\u2019s Elks should consider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Dale MacMillan\/Edmonton Elks The timing of the Edmonton Elks\u2019 quarterback switch ahead of Friday\u2019s loss in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-26277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26277","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=26277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}