The Edmonton football franchise finally won its first home game since rebranding itself the Elks. .The team beat the Ottawa Redblacks 30-20 for their first win since Oct. 12, 2019, a span of 1,415 days. Edmonton is 2-9 with its consecutive wins since Tre Ford became the starting quarterback..“Yeah, that’s definitely been a long time, but it was definitely overdue,” said Edmonton quarterback Tre Ford, who completed 15 of 18 passes for 317 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions..“It was pretty good, I thought we executed offensively. Lots of running around for me, not a ton of stuff on timing but sometimes it turns out like that. I mean, a win’s a win.”.Ford also rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown on ten rushes as he led the team to its second-straight victory overall in his second consecutive start..The Sunday win was the team’s first back-to-back victory since the 2021 Labour Day Classic. Edmonton is only one win behind Calgary going into this weekend’s tilt..Edmonton coach and general manager Chris Jones had gatorade poured on his head before 23,825 fans..“I’m just so proud for the guys after last week with the Hamilton win,” said Jones. “We did what we had to do, it certainly wasn’t pretty. But we did what we had to do to win the football game..“Tre’s given us a spark, he played some really good football. He accounted for nearly 400 yards of offence. He’s taken care of the football, didn’t have turnovers."."That’s probably one of the biggest indicators that the offensive line’s playing at a high level right now. We ran the ball decently effectively and we’ve played pretty good defence.”.It will be hard to secure a playoff crossover spot even if the Elks leapfrog the Stampeders with two straight wins. Hamilton is third in the East Division with a 4-6 record, ahead of the 3-8 Redblacks, while Edmonton is 2-9 with just seven games left..At halftime, Terry Vaughn joined the Edmonton Wall of Honour as Ricky Ray and others from the 2003 championship team posed with the Grey Cup at a halftime celebration..Eugene Lewis, the cover athlete for the 2023 CFL Guide and Record Book, and the league’s highest-paid receiver, made a spectacular return after coming off the six-game injured list. He had a game-high 112 yards and one touchdown on three catches. .Ottawa opened the scoring with a single point on a 74-yard punt by Richie Leone..In the second quarter the Elks had a nine-play, 79-yard drive that ended with Ford running eight yards into the corner of the end zone for a touchdown..Redblack Lewis Ward kicked a 46-yard field goal to make the score 7-4 with eight minutes left in the half. Elks kicker Dean Faithfull’s 17-yard response made it 10-4, but the half was not over and out..Redblacks receiver Shaq Evanshad made a 35-yard reception at the three-minute mark, but Ward’s 34-yard field goal attempt resulted in only a single..Edmonton ended the half ahead 17-5 thanks to a scrambling Ford. On a broken play, he found Lewis, who prevailed over cornerback Brandin Dandridge on a contested catch and ran for a 66-yard touchdown..Ford followed up on the first snap of the second half, finding Gavin Cobb wide open for 68-yard catch and run. Backup quarterback Taylor Cornelius ran in the ball to give Edmonton a 24-5 lead..The two teams traded field goals, then Ottawa got a touchdown on a 23-yard run up the middle by DeVonte Williams. A missed two-point conversion left the score 27-14..Edmonton had field goals from 45 and 37 yards nullified by penalties on separate drives. When the latter put the team in a punting situation, Ottawa received a contacting-the-kicker penalty on the ensuing play, keeping the Elks’ drive alive. A 29-yard field goal put them on top with three minutes left..In the final minutes, Dustin Crum put together an 11-play, 59-yard drive to the end zone, but the two-point convert failed. Crum completed the game with 17 of 26 for 172 yards.
