No easy games in CFL any more; Elks’ 1-5 record doesn’t reflect their talent Ticat say

One of them has surged into first place in their division, and the other has plummeted to last in theirs.

But the constant and self-generated reminder all around the torridly-hot Ticats this week has been that the Edmonton Elks are a better and more dangerous team than their frigid 1-5 record would imply. In other words, be careful: any team can beat any other in the modern CFL, as the upper-tier Calgary Stampeders were so rudely made aware of by the East-trailing Ottawa Redblacks Thursday night.

The Ticats fly into the Alberta capital for tomorrow’s matinee coming off only two practices this week after not arriving back from Sunday night’s gripping win in B.C. until most people with day jobs were heading toward them Monday morning. At 5-2, including four wins in the East the Cats should be feeling 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and there is definitely an air of oh-yeah? confidence in their conduct but as a group they feel that there’s a lot more they can do and head coach Scott Milanovich says the team hasn’t yet played up to their three-phase potential.

And you regularly hear variations of this theme from the coaches and the players: they’ve built and continue to build self-belief but June and July are now past and the only pertinent game is the next one. “Go 1-0 this week” is the short version. Nothing new in that mantra but doing it five times in succession adds a lot more resonance.

It’s important that the Ticats lead the league in several offensive and defensive categories, generally have resounding field position because of special teams and have the confidence that they are never out of it until the 61^st minute, but conversation after conversation eventually comes around to what they need to do better. Have more consistent coverage on kickoffs, turn pressures into sacks especially against quick-release quarterbacks,  gather better yardage on first downs, step up the run game, hem in rollout quarterbacks who buy time with their feet, treat every play as the one which could decide a game, watch ill-timed penalties.  Those are their observations, not ours, and have we mentioned they’ve won five in a row?

On paper—where they never actually play the games—the Ticats should have the advantage on Saturday.

These are a pair of teams who finished last year at 7-11 and made some big off-season changes, Edmonton more sweepingly than Hamilton, but so far in 2025 they’ve been launched in different directions. After an 0-2 start, the Cats have pocketed a string of five W’s for the first time in six years, while the Elks have only one win their half-dozen games.  Additionally, Hamilton has won five straight games in Edmonton, and Bo Levi Mitchell is a stunning 16-4 against them in his career although that was accumulated mostly while he was a Calgary Stampeder.

The Elks have had some key injuries, are giving up sacks in bunches, including eight last week against the Roughriders, can’t mount a real running game—they had only 25 yards overland last week, with 20 of those coming from quarterback Cody Fajardo, who replaced Tre Ford and threw for over 300 yards—and have the lowest per-game net offensive yardage in the league.

And they’re going against an offence navigated by Mitchell who is, at the age of 35, on a pace for career-high totals in completions, touchdown passes, yardage, and touchdown-to-interception ratio. And they’ve become one of the top second-down and red zone offences in the league. It’s early yet, but not so early that you can avoid concluding that when they’re healthy this offence is versatile and loaded.

So Edmonton’s defence, which trails the entire CFL in sacks, fumble recoveries and interceptions (just one) and has given up twice as many deep completions as Hamilton has, will be up against it.

But given the Elks’ individual talent across their defensive front six, they should be statistically better than they have been. They’ve got all-star Jake Ceresna—who has the team’s only interception—at tackle, former Ticat Brandon Barlow at one end and 2022 Grey Cup hero Robbie Smith at the other, while two-time Cup champion Jared Brinkman came west from the Argos’ strong line. And during his media discussions this week, Bo Levi Mitchell specifically mentioned the strength of linebackers Nyles Morgan, who has 14 tackles in the last two games, and all-CFL weak-side linebacker Nick Anderson, but Anderson was placed on the six-day injured list yesterday, a major blow to the Elks.

“I don’t care what the record says,” Mitchell says. “You watch these guys on film, they’ve got a great front, they’ve got good DBs in the back end that have eyes on the quarterback at all times. They play the football well. They’ve got veterans in the right spots. And they’ve got to have probably the best backers in the game who are going to give any team problems and, we’ve got to be on our stuff.”

Mitchell has definitely been on his stuff of late. He has thrown for 1,314 yards in the last four games, all wins, with 11 touchdown passes and only two interceptions, has recorded the second five-touchdown-pass game of his career and has moved to within 131 yards of Doug Flutie for ninth place on the all-time passing yardage list. He’s even run for two long drive-extending first downs.

And, outside of a handful of short-yardage situations, he’s played every minute of a season when, for various reasons, starters have played an extremely low percentage of snaps, league-wide.

Mitchell says he’s aware of that, and the necessity for him to remain healthy, so is hitting the dirt quickly to avoid injury: yet he’s also unveiled some critical roll-out escapes and those two big first down runs.

“I’ve gone through years where the starting quarterbacks have stayed healthy,” he said. “But I’ve also gone through years where you see a bunch of starters go down and it seems like that’s one of the years this year. And that’s why, when I run, I’m trying to protect myself; not going to try to run over a backer right now.”

The Ticats defence under coordinator Brent Monson has become increasingly communicative and the ultra-aggressiveness that Monson has preached has been paying off in leading the league in interceptions, the line  often forcing throws before the quarterback is ready and a visible toughness that is reminiscent of Ticat D’s of yore.

But while the Edmonton offence has struggled, Fajardo adds a different dimension and he’s a career 6-1 against the Ticats. They’ve got a big-time receiver in twice-Ticat Steven Dunbar Jr., and Canadians Kurleigh Gittens Jr. and Kaion Julien-Grant require careful monitoring. The Ticats have to force long second downs, which hasn’t been the Elks’ forte, and make sure their running game behind Justin Rankin and primo returner Javon Leake doesn’t pull out of their doldrums.

And, as always against a team desperate to win and perhaps due for one, the Ticats can’t let the Elks get a toe-hold and a little confidence. They’ve got examples in their own history of what that can lead to: when Edmonton came into Hamilton and walloped them last year, and when they got their own first win this term and haven’t lost since.

The Ticats are relatively healthy and, have made no roster changes, given the short week coming up, two long road trips on back-to-back weekends and, of course, the winning streak. Offensive tackle Jordan Murray, defensive lineman TyJuan Garbutt and all-purpose Ante Litre remained on the injured list for this trip.

It’s the second weekend of a brutal 22-day stretch which sees the Cats play three of their four longest road trips, wrapped around only one home game and that one is on very short rest next Thursday in the Wall of Honour Game against revenge-motivated B.C. By the time they come back from Regina in two weeks they’ll have flown 16,000 kilometres in just three weeks plus a day and have played four games in four different cities.

Milanovich said the crammed schedule “doesn’t change anything” other than a bit of load management for players this week and next.

Mitchell adds, “Anytime you’re playing on short weeks, you have to understand the process. But luckily, we’ve got a guy up top in our organization who understands what we’re going through right now. Scott’s taking care of us mentally but also physically. And it’s our job to make sure that we reward him and be prepared.”

“You have to be that much more locked into film, your playbook, the game plan. You’re not getting the physical reps as much. But I think we’re doing a good job locking in.”

And while it’s demanding mentally and physically to go back-to-back-to-back with long road trips, this odyssey can actually prove advantageous from a team-bonding perspective and to an outsider, it already has been. Winning helps, naturally, but it’s like a mid-season injection of the kind of camaraderie and energy antibodies which happens in the 24/7 atmosphere of togetherness at training camp. Only this is happening with the team already chosen, not with 45 extra men who soon weren’t going to be around.

“I think that’s a big part of it,” Mitchell says. “We’re able to hang out, we’re able to grab dinner together, we can spend more time together. The more time you spend with somebody the more you care about them, right?  Obviously, we already cared about each other, we’re a family in this group, but to be able to spend that much kind of time together you get more time to communicate about the game, and usually more time to get your mind off the game and talk about life.

“We get to spend a lot of time together over these three weeks and it’s pretty beneficial.”

And the positive reinforcement of a long winning streak doesn’t hurt that bonding either.

CATS CLAUSES: Ticat DB Destin Talbert leads the CFL in pass knockdowns with 7, two more than a group tied for second, including S Stavros Katsantonis … Hamilton LB Brian Cole ranks third in CFL special teams tackles with 10, three short of the lead. LB Ryan Baker has 6 … There will be two sets of brothers in this game: QB Tre Ford and twin brother CB Tyrell Ford for the Elks, and Hamilton DE Owen Hubert, and his younger brother, Edmonton rookie DL Silas Hubert. It’s possible they will play head-up on each other on some special teams. It will be the first time they’ve ever played against each other… Cat K Marc Liegghio has made all 18 of his field goals this year and has hit on 33 in a row, the fourth-longest success streak in CFL history. No. 3 is Rene Paredes’s 39 straight over the 2012-13 seasons … Kiondré Smith’s 14 catches last week in B.C. tied, with nine others, for the 12^th most all-time and tied for second among Canadians with B.C.’s Justin McGinnis, one back of Andy Fantuz’s 15, the homebrew single-game mark in 2016 … the Ticat offensive line was selected to the CFL’s monthly Honour Roll for July with Coulter Woodmansey, Liam Dobson and Brandon Revenberg getting the highest Pro Football Focus (PFF) rankings. Bo Levi Mitchell was honourable mention as QB behind Saskatchewan’s Trevor Harris, and DE Julian Howsare received honourable mention for defensive player of the month behind winner Damon Webb of Calgary. Howsare, Woodmansey and returner Isaiah Wooden Sr., made the monthly Honour Roll for their respective position groups. Wooden leads the CFL with 1011 all-purpose yards. No one else is within 200 yards … in the weekly Honour Roll for last weekend’s games, the offensive line was named the league’s best and individual positional honours went to QB Mitchell, KR Wooden and RG Dobson … Hamilton has scored 96 fourth-quarter points, 33 more than anyone else … the Cats have allowed only seven sacks, tied with B.C. for fewest in the league. They are also ranked no. 1 in punt coverage but will be facing an Elks team whose 15.1 yards per return is among the league leaders … the Tiger-Cats added DL Maalik Hall to the practice this week. He was with the Cats in training camp before being released and previously spent time with the New York Jets and the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions after his college career at Div II Southeastern Oklahoma State … DL Kyle Samson, the Hamilton native, was released this week …the Ticats plus-6 turnover rate is just one off the league lead … Since 2017 the Ticats have seven wins against Edmonton, which has five against them … Elks’ WR Tyler Middlemost grew up in Dundas and played at Mac. Former Ticats on the Elks include DE Brandon Barlow, WR Steven Dunbar Jr., and C David Beard … former Ticat LB Nic Cross is a football ops assistant for Edmonton. GM Ed Hervey who was Ticats GM, has former Cat football ops personnel Spencer Zimmerman, Spencer Boehm and Rich Massaro on his staff.

See below for the team’s depth chart and roster for the game: