Edmonton's desire for a home win won't get any easier as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers travel to the Alberta capital to start out the CFL week.
The Elks have lost 12 straight overall and 21 at home since 2019.
The green and white travel well and Montréal is beautiful in August. The Roughriders will be at Molson Stadium on Friday night. This would have been the return of Trevor Harris to Montréal except for his injury. Cody Fajardo will take on his old team for the first time.
Calgary looks to revenge its Week 1 loss to the BC Lions. This time the game will be in Vancouver on Saturday.
The Argonauts get to play a home game in Toronto taking on their Eastern Ontario rivals from Ottawa on Sunday night.
CBS Sports Network has the Thursday and Saturday games for those in the States.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats get a well-deserved break to enjoy the summer.
CBS Sports Network
Thursday
Winnipeg @ Edmonton, 9p
Saturday
Calgary @ BC, 7p
TSN
Thursday
Winnipeg @ Edmonton, 9p
Friday
Saskatchewan @ Montréal, 7:30p
Saturday
Calgary @ BC, 7p
Sunday
Ottawa @ Toronto, 7p
Bye week: Hamilton
Winnipeg at home after a bye is a tough battle for any team, even the BC Lions. A 50-14 thrashing sets up a third game on October 6 in Vancouver to decide bragging rights and the tiebreaker. Dominque Davis got some playing time for BC at quarterback, filling in for the injured Dane Evans. Vernon Adams Jr. should be back for the Lions as they welcome Calgary to BC Place.
Kenny Lawler hasn't been back for long but hasn't missed a step. Lawler had 200 receiving yards for the Blue Bombers. Imagine his contrast to 2022 when he played for the Edmonton Elks.
2023 CFL Week 9 preview
Hamilton was the dominant team Saturday night against the Alouettes. The problem is the Tiger-Cats got to 14 points in the 3rd quarter and didn't score again. Montréal had 18 points in the 4th quarter and made a close game look like more of a blowout.
Given how close the 3 East teams are that are not Toronto, Montréal has the tiebreaker over Hamilton. Hamilton has the tiebreaker over Ottawa. We already know these tiebreakers and we haven't hit Labour Day.
Not sure how you hold the offensive coordinator with a 3rd-strong quarterback, yet the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and offensive coordinator Tommy Condell reached a "mutual decision" on his dismissal. Scott Milanovich, who joined the team during the offseason as a senior assistant coach, will take over the play-calling duties.
Milanovich's hire might have been the beginning of this transition. Edmonton needed to jumpstart its offence way more than Hamilton did. The Tiger-Cats could use a stronger quarterback.
CFL in Halifax: 2023 Touchdown Atlantic observations
Toronto Argos fans can be disappointed that the team suffered its first loss and that Chad Kelly got hurt. In hindsight, this might be the best thing for the Argonauts. We noted the ridiculous nature of going from Halifax to Calgary.
The loss in Calgary takes off the pressure of being an undefeated team. They lost on the road to a West Division opponent. The Argos got to see what Cameron Dukes has at quarterback.
The offence was a little sluggish in Halifax but won on defence and special teams. Playing in the Eastern time zone will help out Toronto get back to its proper form. Chad Kelly will likely be fine.
As for Calgary, Week 9 was the first time an Alberta team won at home this season. The Stampeders got some much needed momentum and confidence.
3-5 is slightly better for a team with some odd luck. The Calgary schedule is rather tough being in Vancouver this weekend, hosting Winnipeg, and then traveling to Toronto on August 25. The Stampeders have a 17-season playoff streak the team would like to keep intact.
2023 CFL Week 8 preview: Touchdown Atlantic finally comes to Halifax
Touchdown Atlantic 2023 preview: CFL finally comes to Halifax
Mason Fine was better because he had time to throw deep for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Ottawa finally got a touchdown, though on defence.
Getting the first win as a starter has to be huge for Fine. Helped when Ottawa kicked an 8-yard field goal late instead of going for the touchdown.
TSN showed footage of kids riding on sheep, either ewes or rams. All the more reason to go to see a game at Mosaic Stadium. There also was coverage of the Queen City Exhibition, which is next door to the stadium in Regina.
We're proud to unveil our new Indigenous logo, which was created by Conrad Plews – a local Metis artist of Cree background.
— Edmonton Elks (@GoElks) August 2, 2023
Our new logo debuts August 10th for our Indigenous Celebration game vs. Winnipeg.
DETAILS | https://t.co/lmvCdpY5H9#OurTeamOurCity #GoElks #CFL pic.twitter.com/SKwc9qUzjn
CFL loves the whole diversity is strength approach. Love how the league celebrates diversity. This will look cool in Edmonton. Maybe if the Elks win, fans will want to keep this design until they lose.
You get the impression that Jarious Jackson truly picked Canadian quarterback Tre Ford to start at home against Winnipeg. Chris Jones went out of his way to not play Ford in 2023, even for a down. Jarret Doege will be the backup QB with former starter Taylor Cornelius in on short-yardage duties.
Ford is the first Canadian quarterback to start or even see action in the CFL in 2023. Ford started in Week 4 in 2022 in a win over Hamilton, the first by a USports quarterback since 1985. Ford started again the next week against Calgary but suffered a shoulder injury. He had another late season start against BC in mid-October.
Jackson replaced Stephen McAdoo as the Elks offensive coordinator after Edmonton started 0-8.
On the Indigenous level, we missed that Mason Fine and Dane Evans were the first 2 North American quarterbacks with Indigenous blood to go head-to-head in a CFL game when BC was in Edmonton on July 22. A significant accomplishment worth noting.
Rule of thumb for #CFL+. When @CFLonTSN is on the air, @CFL should show us all of that.
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) August 4, 2023
CFL+ should be stronger in coming back from breaks than ESPN+ ever did. Yet the opposite is true. CFL+ went into the 3 minute warning in Calgary on Friday night. We saw about 2 seconds of the panel halftime preview before the feed was lost. We missed about 102 seconds of game time, including a key interception. Clue to CFL+: when TSN is back, you can show us what is happening.
ESPN+ certainly had its issues but CFL+ has been surprisingly bad in what the audience can't see. Pay those people more and give them more energy drinks so they can stay awake.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
Dustin Nielson and Duane Forde with John Lu called what was supposed to be the best game of the week in Winnipeg on Thursday night. Nielson reunited with Glen Suitor in Calgary with Farhan Lalji on Friday.
Marshall Ferguson and Forde were with Matthew Scianitti in Hamilton on Saturday evening. Ferguson went from Hamilton to Regina on Sunday along with Suitor and Brit Dort.
Jim Barker and Paul LaPolice filled in on the CFL on TSN panel. Henoc Muamba, currently injured for the Argos, made his CFL on TSN panel debut Saturday night. Smart move to get current players some practice on the air. Muamba did pretty well in his debut. Milt Stegall, in his what to watch preview, joked that his right eye would be on Muamba in the studio.
I do agree with Joel Gasson of 3 Down Nation in that there is a difference between an active player providing playoff analysis after his season is over versus a literal active player on the injured list during the season.
Rod Smith, Davis Sanchez, and Matt Dunigan got the weekend off.
logo credit: CFL
Twitter captures: @GoElks; @canadian_xing
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