Elks' Ellingson says team will shake off slow start and be `dangerous'
Anyone can have an off day.
But Greg Ellingson is far from just anyone.
In fact, if you go by his stats over the past five years played, the Edmonton Elks slotback stands alone as the Canadian Football League's preeminent receiver, with no one earning more than his 6,036 receiving yards in that span.
He has managed to hit the 1,000-yard milestone in each of those five seasons. And if he hopes to push it to six in a shortened 2021 schedule, the Elks offence needs to bounce back from a shaky 0-2 start.
“It's not a surprise; I've been here before,” said the 6-3, 197-pound Florida International product. “Been in a place where you lose a couple games and it's really just getting in a rhythm and getting in a roll, and once you get that and start rolling downhill with that, we'll build up speed and know that we're going to be dangerous.”
After making just one catch for one yard last week, Ellingson sits 28th overall in receiving with a total of 53 yards on six catches. After leading the Elks in his first season in green and gold in 2019 with 1,170 receiving yards, he came out of the gates in the first two games this year ranked fifth on his team, behind running back James Wilder Jr. — who, to his credit, has opened strongly out of Edmonton's backfield.
But the point is not to aim any blame solely at Ellingson for Edmonton's offensive woes. Everyone knows what the 32-year-old native of Tampa,
Fla., is capable of. In fact, his rather un-ellingson-like numbers just happen to serve as an example of what's been going wrong, so far, in Edmonton.
“I think the concerns are we just need to be playing better as a football team and playing together,” he said. “Not focusing on just ourselves but how doing our job and doing it well affects others around us.
“We've just got to keep chugging away and not be afraid of a little hard work.”
After all, Ellingson didn't get to this point in his career by focusing on what the team can do for him, rather what he can do for the team.
“I don't think I, myself, or
Derel (Walker) or any other receiver on this team thinks that way,” Ellingson said. “We think of executing our jobs and let the defence dictate where the ball goes. If they want to double somebody, then it's going to leave someone else open, whether it's me, Derel, whether it's Armanti (Edwards), whether it's Tevaun (Smith), whether it's Shai (Ross), whether it's one of the backs we have. Wilder showed that in the first game that if they want to drop back in coverage, he can beat you with the catches out of the backfield and gain yards that way. He's a tough person to tackle.”
It's the pick-your-poison option the Elks envisioned opposing defences having to face after bringing the talented Walker back into the fold over the off-season.
And, to an extent, it's been working.
Quarterback Trevor Harris leads the league with 566 passing yards, while Wilder sits atop the entire pack with 174 rushing yards and averaging a personal best 5.8 yards per carry to go along with his aforementioned receptions out of the backfield.
Yet they head into Vancouver on Thursday still seeking their first win.
“It's good to be dynamic as an offence where we can attack different ways,” Ellingson said. “We've just got to get more consistent and definitely finish the ball when we get toward the red zone.”
In six trips inside the opposing 20-yard line over two games, Edmonton has just one touchdown — their lone major of the season after going through their first 28 possessions without one.
“I think we just have to execute better,” Ellingson said. “You watch the film; we had our opportunities. The tough part of offence is you have one guy who messes up a little bit and it kind of affects the whole play.
“So, we just need to be better as a team and make sure that we can come together and execute this week. Forget the past and just focus on what we've got right in front of us.”
What they've got is a Lions squad that earned four interceptions on the way to a 15-9 win over Calgary and looking to make it a clean Alberta sweep early on that would see them improve to 2-1.
“We've got to focus on us,” Ellingson said. “We can't worry about what they've done in the past. It's about who comes out Thursday night prepared and who has that edge.”