Elks favoured to beat Redblacks, snap historic home skid on Sunday
Published
One week after picking up their first win of the season, the Edmonton Elks are favoured to end their historic home losing streak on Sunday.
Now led by quarterback Tre Ford, the Elks (1-9) are a narrow 1.5-point favourite against the Ottawa Redblacks at Commonwealth Stadium, per FanDuel odds.
The Elks have lost 22 straight games at home, a North American professional sports record.
A 7.5-point underdog last week, Edmonton picked up a 24-10 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to snap a 13-game winless run, which was tied for the franchise record.
Ford, instilled as the starter ahead of the team's Week 10 contest against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, ended the Elks' season-long drought in his second start.
The 25-year-old completed 18 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns against the Tiger-Cats. He also ran the ball five times for 50 yards.
After the victory, Ford set his focus on racking up more wins moving forward.
“It feels amazing," he said. "I think this is what we needed, we needed one game to turn it around. I think this one win is definitely going to help and hopefully, we can build from here and just continue to win."
The Redblacks have lost four straight games and are coming off of blowing a 24-10 lead in their 25-24 loss to the Montreal Alouettes over the weekend.
Ottawa currently sits at the bottom of the East Division at 3-7, but head coach Bob Dyce said Monday there's no reason to panic with eight games still on the schedule.
"We've still got a couple games versus Montreal left, couple games against Toronto left, another one versus Hamilton," Dyce told TSN Radio 1200 Ottawa. "We have to take care of our immediate future and our immediate future is here in Edmonton.
"We're locked in and focused to take care of that."
The Elks home losing streak stretches back to Oct. 12, 2019. Edmonton took over the home futility record earlier this season, surpassing the 20 straight home losses by the MLB's St. Louis Browns in 1953, one year before the franchise became the Baltimore Orioles.
Edmonton lost 26-7 to the Redblacks in Ottawa earlier this season in Week 8.