Elks encouraged by 4th-quarter performance against Alouettes with Blue Bombers up next

Montreal Alouettes' Lorenzo Burns (right) tackles Edmonton Elks' Steven Dunbar Jr. during second half CFL action in Edmonton, on Thursday June 19, 2025.

When is garbage time not garbage time?

When one of the Canadian Football League’s best defences isn’t letting up with last week’s game in hand, says the Edmonton Elks’ starting quarterback.

“Some people are going to call it garbage time, but if you go back and you look at Montreal’s defence, they’re playing (man-to-man), they did Cover Zero (a type of man-to-man coverage that accounts for all eligible receivers while administering maximum blitz pressure.) They were running the regular defence,” Tre Ford, who led his team to 22 fourth-quarter points of Thursday’s eventual 38-28 loss to the Montreal Alouettes, said Sunday after practice at Commonwealth Stadium.

“It’s not like they dropped off and we were just throwing short stuff down the field the entire time. We got some deep shots up, which I thought was good.”

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Down 28-6 heading into the final 15 minutes of the game that saw the Elks drop to 0-2 on the young 2025 CFL season, two of the Elks’ three touchdowns came courtesy the arm of Ford, who tossed strikes of 33 yards and 51 yards to receivers Kurleigh Gittens Jr. and Kaion Julien-Grant while running in another himself.

The visiting Alouettes put up a field-goal and a TD in the frame for the final score’s 10-point difference.

After Week 3 action, the Alouettes’ defence sits first in net offence allowed per game (308 yards), second in average points allowed per game (18.7) and third in touchdowns allowed (six) among several other statistics that have them in the Top 3 among CFL teams.

For the Elks to be down by more than three converted touchdowns by the fourth quarter to begin with is something that head coach Mark Killam said.

Starting fast is “the focus,” and had been before and has been after Thursday’s game, he said.

“(It) starts with our prep, starts with coming out with the urgency that we need to have,” Killam said Sunday. “I think our guys understand that.”

One thing the Elks managed to do on offence is establish a run game early in the game, with Ford and running backs Justin Rankin and Javon Leake rushing for 100 of their 148 yards in the first half. Outside of four first-down run plays in the first half of the Elks’ season-opening loss on June 7 in Vancouver – on three scampers by Ford and one by Rankin – the running game was limited against the B.C. Lions.

“If you go back two weeks ago, we were talking about getting it going. We made an emphasis in practice last week about it,” Killam said.

“I thought our receivers did a great job blocking (against the Alouettes.) We’re starting to figure out the things that we’re trying to do as an offence, and we’re only going to get better the more that we play together.”

Ford said the strides taken in the second half against Montreal are positive building blocks but that the Elks have work to do to improve with a trip to Winnipeg on Thursday against the perennial powerhouse Blue Bombers next on the Elks’ schedule.

“When we were put in a situation where we have to throw the ball again, we were able to get some shots down the field against a really good defence,” Ford said. “We were also able to hit some short, more intermediate stuff. It was good for us to take that next step in the pass game.

“I thought it was overall pretty good but not great. We could definitely get better.”