They’ve struck a balance, and it paid off on offence for the Edmonton Elks. The Canadian Football League club found traction in both their passing and rushing attacks, gathering 273 yards through the air and another 111 on the ground in a 28-20 win last Friday over the visiting Toronto Argonauts. And the Elks hope – nay, expect – the trend to continue this Friday against the Redblacks in Ottawa. “We want to be a balanced attack – the screen game, a quick gain to him is an extension of the run game as well,” Elks head coach Mark Kilam told media on Monday, ‘him’ referring to Justin Rankin. The second-year running back led the Elks offensively for the second straight game against the Argos, tops on the team in both rushing and receiving yards for the second straight game. Quarterback Cody Fajardo, too, is making a difference in the Elks’ on-field fortunes. The 33-year-old signal-caller leads the Canadian Football League in pass completion percentage (77.5) after Week 11 and has guided Edmonton to a 2-2 record in his four games as the starter since taking over from Tre Ford on July 25. Elks receiver Steven Dunbar Jr. said Tuesday the chemistry between Fajardo and the offensive unit “is growing.” “He’s definitely taking charge of the offence,” Dunbar Jr. told media. “He’s taking real good charge of the huddle, communicating to us really well, so it’s easy to get your job done when you’ve got somebody doing that for you.” Edmonton has won its last two games, including last week’s win over the Argonauts and a 23-22 victory in the dying seconds the week before in Montreal over the Alouettes. Fajardo said getting the running game going, while it’s “never going to win you football games” as the CFL is a three-down, pass-driven league, is important because “it’s going to close out games and it’s going to keep you on the field.” “The fact that we had that kind of performance with running the ball (against the Argos), if we get into some meaningful football games late October, and hopefully into November, we understand we can get it done running the football,” said Fajardo, a nine-year veteran who’s spent the bulk of his CFL time in Saskatchewan and Montreal, winning the Grey Cup with the latter squad two years ago. “Also, we understand if teams take away our running game, we can drop back, and we can throw him the ball and find ways to get him implicated in the game plan.” There’s that ‘him’ being mentioned again, Rankin. Fajardo is a big fan of the 28-year-old arena-league refugee from Ohio who played U.S. college football with Kent State and Northwest Missouri State. “He’s just such a dynamic player,” Fajardo said. “Football IQ-wise, he’s the smartest running back I’ve ever been around. He’s in the quarterback meetings. He’s in the receiver meetings. He’s listening to their splits, depths, and he’s really taking in all the coaching.” Side-lines
