The Tre Ford question

If I’m Tre Ford I would have been oh-so-tempted to have joined the chorus of boos from the Edmonton

Elks fans, and there weren’t many of them – 17,079 – Sunday afternoon at Commonwealth Stadium, midway through the third quarter. Ford’s frustration level must have reached a new pinnacle. The winless Elks were down 28-8 to the almost-but-not-quite winless Ti-Cats. In 36 minutes of football the Edmonton offence had not scored a touchdown, and Ford, the razzle dazzle quarterback we saw last year, was riding the pine. Sitting on the bench, baby.

Edmonton continued their dismal play and went down further: 34-8. In the last few minutes of the third quarter, fans yelled “Ford, Ford, Ford” hoping something — anything — would nudge the Elks coaching staff to make the quarterback change. Because Elks starter McLeod Bethel Thompson — remember, the off-season signing of the 36-year old continues to be, in a word, a bust. Elks coach Jarius Jackson in what could, arguably, be a mercy McLeod Bethel-Thompson mercy pull: Elks paraded Ford onto the field with 9:46 remaining in the game.

With the creative and gritty combination of a draw play, pass over the middle, a run, incomplete pass, a pass interference call, another incompletion and then a touchdown toss to the deep left side end zone — with the sun in his receiver's eyes.. It was the celebrant cursor for two more — a total of three touchdowns in the remaining time: one touchdown every three minutes. An impressive 10-for-15 in passing for 121 yards, in 9:46 of playing time, compared to Bethel-Thompson’s 10 of 22 in passing for 85 yards. And, oh yes — Ford had three rushes for 19 yards.

Let’s stop to adequately consider just what a feat that is. Mentally. Ford must have been frustrated, on the west sidelines, with the Elks playing first and foremost — taking one for the team, right?— and then his own frustration of not touching the football not once Sunday. He parked that in a parking lot near Commonwealth Stadium, and locked both those feelings out of his mind. He was put in the game to make a difference. Let’s look at it another way — if we take three unconverted touchdowns a quarter, and if we multiply that (18) times four … 72? Really? Let me double check that. Yup — 72. Wow! Imagine if … .

Ford showed urgency. Creativity. Energetic. Unpredictable. Fun and many more things. The Elks crowd would have wandered home grumpy, frustrated, angry, ripped off, give-me-my-money-back and other words we can’t use on this family-orientated journalistic effort … if Ford had, in fact, not played the way.

The Elks showed promise early — really early, scoring — a field goal — not only on their first possession, and had, don’t look Grandpa — a 6-0 lead eight minutes into the game. Hamilton answered with a field goal of their own a few plays later to cut the lead, right down the middle of course, before tying the game on the first quarter’s last play. With 2:31 left in the first half the Ti-cats went up 14-8 after blocking an Edmonton punt and had prime real estate for an end zone extravaganza toss, and then converted. Hamilton took over at that junction and was in the driver’s seat for the remainder of game.

The 0-7 Elks now travel to Regina Saturday against the Roughriders. If Tre Ford doesn’t start their eighth game of the season, there’s a major problem within the Elks culture. We’re typing major again because it is. We’re hearing, potentially, a private owner will be announced by Labour Day. Hopefully, he will be a hands-on owner that knows football. If not, the misery will unfortunately continue.