There have been many sports teams with particularly awful losing streaks, but the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Elks are now in a league of their own at home. On July 13, the Elks lost their 20th consecutive CFL home game, falling 37-29 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and tying a home loss record streak last reached by MLB’s St. Louis Browns (who promptly moved to Baltimore the next season) in 1953. On Saturday, their next home game, the Elks lost 27-0 to the B.C. Lions, giving them their 21st straight home loss and moving them past the Browns.
The Elks' loss to the BC Lions breaks the North American Pro Sports Record. pic.twitter.com/NsuHPTTEGl
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 30, 2023
The Edmonton Elks have done it! They’ve set the all time North American sports record for most consecutive home losses. They lost to the BC Lions 27-0. pic.twitter.com/Z3pbW02jan
— 🇸🇲 Sickos Committee 🇸🇲 (@SickosCommittee) July 30, 2023
Interestingly enough, Edmonton’s last CFL home win came against the Lions. That was a 19-6 win on Oct. 12, 2019, 1,386 days before Saturday’s game. And that was two name changes ago: the team was known as the Edmonton Eskimos then, then switched to the Edmonton Football Team in 2020 (a season that wasn’t actually played due to the COVID-19 pandemic), then became the Elks in 2021.
The Elks are also on their third head coach since Jason Maas (a former Edmonton quarterback, and now the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes) got them that last home win in 2019. Current Edmonton head coach and general manager Chris Jones (seen above ahead of a June 17 game against B.C.), who was hired to that dual role ahead of the 2022 season, now has an overall record of 4-22 in his latest stint with the team. That includes an 0-8 mark this year.
The Elks also made some further history Saturday. This marked the second time they’d been shut out this season, with the first the aforementioned 22-0 road loss to B.C. on June 17. That was the first shutout this Edmonton franchise had suffered since 1976. Now, they have another one, at the hands of the same team, within the frame of a single season. And that’s a CFL record.
For the first time in @CFL history a team has shutout the same team twice in one season.
And not only did the @BCLions shutout @GoElks twice, they didn’t allow a trip to the red zone in either game🤯 @CFLonTSN https://t.co/HaRB2vQZFK— Farhan Lalji (@FarhanLaljiTSN) July 30, 2023
An additional remarkable part of the Elks’ futility this season is that it’s come with incredible continuity at quarterback relative to the rest of the CFL. The league’s pivots have been ravaged by injury this year, and Edmonton’s Taylor Cornelius (who first started for them in 2021) became the second-longest-tenured currently-starting quarterback in the league this week, behind only Zach Collaros of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. However, Cornelius has often been…not impressive.
The Elks to their fans: pic.twitter.com/Qh60EIq6CA
— Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) July 24, 2023
In the Elks’ last home loss, Cornelius completed 11 of 20 passes for 170 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions before being pulled, with one of those being a brutal pick-six off a left-handed attempt to throw the ball away. In Edmonton’s last game before Saturday, a 28-14 road loss to Winnipeg last week, Cornelius played the whole game, but only completed 17 of 29 passes for 220 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. On Saturday, he also played the whole game, but completed just 16 of 30 passes for 197 yards and two interceptions. And while there was plenty of blame to go around for this one (with fans even screaming at offensive coordinator Stephen McAdoo), you’d have to think Cornelius’ starting streak may be in trouble at this point.
The Elks now have a bye week. Their next game will be at home on Aug. 10 against the Blue Bombers, who are currently 5-2. So this streak of days without a home win is expanding to at least 1,398 days, if not longer.
[CFL.ca]
