Different running back, same result for Jarious Jackson and the Edmonton Elks.
Justin Rankin ran for 108 yards and three touchdowns to power Edmonton to its third straight win, a 47-22 decision over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday night. Javon Leake ran for 266 yards and four TDs on 33 carries (8.1-yard average) over the first two wins, but was slowed by a hip ailment at Tim Hortons Field.
“I don’t know where [the rushing attack] has been but it’s here now and it’s here to stay,” said Jackson, Edmonton’s interim head coach. “When the weather starts to get cold and it gets later into the season, you’ve got to have a run game.
“Hopefully we can make it that far.”
It’s been a remarkable turnaround for Edmonton (3-7) after enduring a season-opening seven straight losses. The Elks are 3-2 under Jackson, the team’s offensive coordinator who assumed coaching duties when head coach/general manager Chris Jones was fired July 15.
Edmonton hasn’t lost since dropping a 44-28 decision to Hamilton at home on July 28 and has its first three-game win streak since 2019.
“Guys are starting to believe,” Jackson said. “They understand if they’re the more physical team on game day, then a lot of times it helps us win games.
“It’s three in a row but we’re going to keep our head down and keep taking it one game at a time.”
Rankin’s workload has steadily increased over the streak. He had nine carries for 60 yards in the Elks’ 42-31 victory over Saskatchewan on Aug. 3 before adding 77 yards on 10 carries in last week’s 33-16 decision over B.C.
“Javon got banged up and they just trusted me to be able to go out there and kind of do the same thing but in a different way than Javon does,” said Rankin. “The coaches and team in general just trust us to be able to put the ball into our hands and let us do what we do.”
Edmonton’s defence also contributed to the club’s third straight win at Tim Hortons Field. It forced four turnovers (two interceptions, two fumble recoveries) that set up three touchdowns.
Hamilton was also flagged 11 times for 100 yards in penalties.
The Ticats (2-8) suffered a third straight loss before a home gathering of 20,092, many of whom left at halftime. They also fell to 1-4 at Tim Hortons Field.
Rankin, who had 17 carries, scored his third TD from three yards out at 6:52 of the fourth quarter to give Edmonton a 39-16 advantage.
Edmonton’s McLeod Bethel-Thompson completed 15-of-23 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns. Hamilton’s Bo Levi Mitchell was 23-of-34 passing for 294 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions before giving way to Harrison Frost in the fourth.
Frost hit Shemar Bridges on a 12-yard touchdown pass at 13:34 to cut Edmonton’s lead to 39-22. But Bethel-Thompson countered with a six-yard scoring strike to Kurleigh Gittens Jr. at 13:45 before Boris Bede’s 85-yard kickoff single rounded out the scoring.
Mitchell relieved starter Taylor Powell, who completed two-of-three passes for 20 yards before going to hospital as a precaution with a head injury following a rushing play. Hamilton receiver Luther Hakunavanhu left in an ambulance with a head injury sustained on the game’s opening play.
Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich said the injuries made the loss even tougher to take.
“It’s sickening, right, it hurts,” he said. “You’ve got to work with these guys every single day and you care about them.
“To see them laying out there on the turf, it’s going to affect anybody. It’s an unfortunate part of this game and we all know what we sign up for [but] it doesn’t change the fact that we’re human, we care about these people and it hurts to see them ill.”
Leake and Dillon Mitchell had Edmonton’s other touchdowns. Bede added six converts, a field goal and two singles.
Greg Bell scored both of Hamilton’s touchdowns while rushing for 85 yards on 12 carries and adding six catches for 88 yards. Marc Liegghio kicked a field goal and convert.
Bell’s two-yard TD run at 4:53 of the third cut Hamilton’s deficit to 32-9 as the two-point convert was unsuccessful. Bell added a seven-yard touchdown catch to end the quarter to pull the Ticats to within 32-16.
Bede’s 32-yard field goal at 14:36 of the second staked Edmonton to a commanding 32-3 halftime lead as the Elks converted three Hamilton turnovers into touchdowns.
Bethel-Thompson found Mitchell on an 11-yard TD strike at 12:55. It was set up by rookie Joel Dublanko’s recovery of Jonathan Moxey’s punt-return fumble at Hamilton’s 11-yard line.
Liegghio’s 32-yard field goal at 8:07 cut Hamilton’s deficit to 14-3. But Rankin’s two-yard run at 9:00, then Bede’s 90-yard kickoff single with the wind 22 seconds later, gave Edmonton a 22-3 advantage.
Leake capped a 13-play, 106-yard drive with a three-yard TD run at 1:53 following Derrick Moncrief’s interception.
Rankin opened the scoring with a four-yard TD run at 5:03 of the first.