No professional men’s team in North America has lost more consecutive home games than the Edmonton Elks..The Elks lost 37-29 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats July 13, recording their 20th consecutive defeat at home. The loss tied the record first set in 1953 by the St. Louis Browns of Major League Baseball..The loss dropped the Elks to 0-6, their worst start in franchise history. They also lost the final four games of the 2022 season..The game started with promise for the Elks..Hamilton’s Tyler Ternowski fumbled the opening kickoff and Jordan Reaves recovered the ball for Edmonton..Kicker Dean Faithfull kicked a 24-yard field goal on the drive for the first quarter’s only scoring. A 40-yard field goal with less than four minutes to play in the second quarter put Edmonton ahead 6-0..Then Hamilton stormed back with a 54-yard pass from Matthew Shiltz to Tim White. James Butler ran the ball eight yards for a touchdown..A 49-yard run by Edmonton’s Kevin Brown took the ball to the Hamilton 13-yard line. Edmonton quarterback Taylor Cornelius was intercepted by Javien Elliott on a third-down gamble. Hamilton marched the ball back to enable a 28-yard Marc Liegghio field goal..Edmonton entered the second half down 10-6, but soon gave itself false hopes with an impressive 54-yard passing touchdown to Kyran Moore. However, Hamilton’s Tyreik McAllister returned the kickoff 46 yards. Shiltz concluded a successful drive with a four-yard touchdown run..Cornelius soon irked the few Elks fans in the stands by desperately throwing the ball to avoid being sacked. Stavros Katsantonis intercepted the ball and ran it 33 yards to give Hamilton another touchdown..“What is he doing? What is he doing, he throws it away!” announced Dustin Nielson. “What is happening? The Ti-Cats strike again.”.Hamilton literally added insult to injury to pad its lead. Shiltz clutched his left knee after a hit and left the game, only to be replaced by Taylor Powell. His first CFL pass found White in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown..Jarret Doege took the helm for Edmonton, leading the Elks to a successful drive concluded by a two-yard TD run by Brown..Hamilton’s Liegghio kicked a 22-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Doege threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Steven Dunbar Jr. Edmonton recovered the ball after an onside kick and finished the game with a 45-yard field goal by Faithfull..Last week in Regina, the Elks snatched defeat from the jaws of victory following a game no one seemed to want to win..In the dying minutes, Saskatchewan scored a touchdown following a 10-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass. The game was tied at 11 following a successful two-point convert by Saskatchewan..With one minute left, Edmonton rookie CJ Sims let the ensuing 80-yard Saskatchewan kickoff go into the end zone and conceded a single point. Saskatchewan intercepted the ball with 26 seconds left to seal its 12-11 victory..The last time the Elks won a game was September 16, 2022 in Regina. They were still called the Eskimos during their last home victory, Oct. 12, 2019 against BC..Following the Elks’ latest loss, TSN host Jay Onrait hoped the team would stay in the Alberta capital..“We hope they don’t move to Red Deer or something like that,” he said..Coach Chris Jones has been Edmonton’s coach and general manager during its current futile streak, despite helping the team win in past seasons..He led Edmonton to a 12-6 record in 2014 and a Grey Cup win in 2015, following a 14-4 season. He coached Saskatchewan to records of 5-13, 10-8, and 12-6 over the next three seasons..He started his second tour as coach and GM for Edmonton on Dec. 21, 2021, but led the team to a 4-14 record in 2022..Led by coach, then general manager Hugh Campbell, the Edmonton Eskimos made the playoffs 34 straight seasons until missing the playoffs in 2006. The club won 14 Grey Cups after their founding in 1949.
