Special teams a bright spot for struggling Elks

Think the streak that hasn't seen the Edmonton Elks win a home game since 2019 is long?

How about the one they've been on since last taking any sort of kick return back for a touchdown? For that one, you'd have to look all the way back to Chris Jones' first time as a head coach in Edmonton, during the 2015 Grey Cup championship season.

Since then, the Elks return game has looked like it's been, as one member in the Bryan Hall Media Centre once put it, held together by duct tape and the shadow of the legendary Henry (Gizmo) Williams.

But while special teams had been lagging behind the other two phases, it's safe to say it's caught up to the offence and defence during the two years the Elks have been buried at the bottom of the West Division.

And it has apparently taken hitting rock bottom for the return units to be able to rebound, which we have been seeing during the past month, to the point where punt returner Christian Saulsberry came up with gains of 34 and 35 yards on back-to-back efforts to put Edmonton's offence in position to score late in last week's 25-18 loss to the Montreal Alouettes.

“Special teams has been great, especially over the past five, six games,” said Elks quarterback Taylor Cornelius. “Saulsberry coming in, he's provided a different spark to that return unit. He's been unbelievable, putting us in easy field position stuff, coming away with points.

“We've got to be better, even when he puts us in those situations. You can't turn the ball over and just get it in the end zone.”

“Christian's done a real nice job, he's got all kinds of talent,” said Elks head coach and general manager Chris Jones. “The last three weeks, we've had some explosive plays in our return game and we need him to continue to do that.”

To Jones' credit, he also found a promising returner in fellow rookie Dillon Mitchell, who has since been plucked by the offence amid injuries to some receivers, which could go to show it's as much about the system finally being put in place as it is the one returning the ball.

“It's huge. The punt return and kickoff return unit can not only flip the field, as they say, but also flip a game in one's favour,” said Mike Scheper, who is the latest in what's been a revolving door of special teams co-ordinators that has seen five different ones come in during the last three seasons. “And in our case, we're very fortunate with that recently emerging. And that's a testament to, I believe, us as a staff and with our players working as one, cohesively. Identifying the right guys, not only the returners, who've done their part very well, especially in our last few outings, but also the right blockers that are in front of him, that make up our kickoff return and punt return unit.

“There are, gladly, some core pillars that are starting to emerge on our recent film over the last number of games. And the biggest things that are jumping out are fanatical effort and will outweighing sheer skill.

“Everybody in professional football's a skilful, talented player, but our will is starting to show itself in both those sets of our return units.”

Saulsberry sits in the CFL'S top five among regular returners with an average of 11.6 yards per punt. Not bad for someone who was cut by the team at the end of the pre-season.

“I came back around Aug. 17 after being out for two months getting cut from camp,” said the 5-foot-8, 188-pound West Alabama product. “With the situation and how the season's going, they wanted a guy to come in and be that spark on special teams.”

As for bringing one to the house, Saulsberry said his last touchdown return happened in his final season of university football in 2019.

“Yeah, I've been seeing a couple of articles about it,” Saulsberry said of the drought. “It's been one of my goals. I'm a guy that accepts a challenge, I'm not going to run from any opportunity that's thrown my way because there's only so many you're going to get in this lifetime.”

There's still time left in the season for Saulsberry to help end a couple of streaks, should he score a touchdown to end the home losing skid.

“It will feel good definitely, most definitely,” he said of scoring a touchdown return. “But I definitely want to win at the home stadium, too.”