The Edmonton Elks host the B.C. Lions in the CFL Western Final on Saturday, November 7 at Commonwealth Stadium, with a place in the 113th Grey Cup on the line. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. ET. Edmonton running back Justin Rankin, one of the league’s most productive backs all season, goes into the game chasing the one defence that shut him down twice this year.
Edmonton finished first in the West at 13-5 to earn home-field advantage and a bye through the semifinal round. B.C. finished second at 10-8 and advanced by beating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 33-26 in the Western Semi-Final last weekend. It is Edmonton’s first playoff game since 2019 and the first playoff game the city has hosted since 2015.
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The One Defence That Stopped Rankin
Rankin rushed for 1,170 yards at 5.7 yards per carry over 17 games this season, second in the league in rushing. Against B.C., the numbers flipped. The Lions held him to 19 yards on seven carries in a 36-24 B.C. win on July 4, and to nine yards on seven carries two weeks later in Edmonton’s 19-17 victory. That is 28 yards on 14 carries across two games, against a season average that made him the engine of the Elks offence.
Elks offensive-line coach and running-backs co-ordinator Stephen Sorrells addressed the matchup directly at practice on Tuesday, after the team returned from its bye week.
Their two interior guys are as good as you’re going to find. They’ve got really good players, and they do some good things schematically on defence. We feel like we have answers this week.
Sorrells made clear the fix is partly about volume. Rankin carrying the ball only 14 times in two games was not the game plan, and he compared abandoning the run early to abandoning the pass after one incompletion. A successful run game, he said, needs opportunities and attempts to get established, especially with backs who can go the length of the field on any touch. Rankin can also shift to receiver when the running game stalls, giving Edmonton a different look without taking him off the field.
Rankin Puts The Team First
For his part, Rankin said the Lions did a good job plugging the middle and leaving him few holes, and that Edmonton needs to block better in front of him. But his measure of Saturday is not personal.
If it’s zero yards and we win, that’s fine. The biggest thing is that we’re winning games regardless of whether the run game is hitting or not. Obviously, we want to be able to run the ball; we want to be able to dominate the line of scrimmage, but when it’s not going our way, we still have other avenues.
Those other avenues are real. Cody Fajardo threw and ran Edmonton to first place, and his 517 rushing yards made him the league’s best rushing quarterback this season, which forces a defence to account for a second runner on every snap. If B.C. loads the middle to repeat its regular season work on Rankin, Edmonton can attack the edges with Fajardo or use Rankin as a receiver out of the backfield. The Lions’ plan worked twice, but it has never had to work with a Grey Cup berth attached and a rested Edmonton line in front of it.
How Both Teams Got Here
B.C. arrives hot. The Lions started the season 1-5, then won nine of their final 10 games to clinch a playoff spot, and kept rolling in the semifinal. Nathan Rourke threw for 366 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions against Saskatchewan, and four B.C. receivers finished with 50 yards or more. The Lions have not reached the Grey Cup since their win in 2011, and they carry an 0-5 record in recent Western Final appearances into Saturday.
The clubs split the season series 1-1 and have not met since July, and Rourke missed one of those games through injury, so the July tape only goes so far. In the seven previous Western Final meetings between the teams, Edmonton has won five and B.C. two, most recently a B.C. win in 2011. Edmonton is 39-16 at home in the Grey Cup playoffs, while B.C. is 11-28 as the visiting team. Saturday’s forecast at Commonwealth Stadium calls for temperatures around 10 C with cloudy skies and light winds, conditions that should not limit either offence.
The Prize In Calgary
The winner travels to Calgary for the 113th Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium on Sunday, November 15, against the winner of Saturday’s Eastern Final between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Montreal Alouettes in Montreal. For Edmonton, a win would complete a turnaround from six straight years out of the playoffs to a Grey Cup appearance in a home province final. For B.C., a win would end a 15-year wait to return to the big game.
It may turn on the matchup this preview started with. If Rankin runs for anything close to his season standard, Edmonton controls the clock, keeps Rourke on the sideline and defends a lead the way it did all year, going 11-0 when leading after three quarters. If the Lions plug the middle a third time, the Western Final becomes a duel between two Canadian quarterbacks, Rourke and Fajardo, with the Grey Cup one drive away. Either way, Saturday night in Edmonton decides it.
