It just, you know, it's in the tradition of sports thinking kind of sets up that way, right? Not to say that this team looks like they've fallen victim to anything mentally really all year long.

You know, I think the way they've been dealing with it is just speaking it out.

You know, and some teams want to avoid it and say, well, no, we haven't thought about that.

That's not an issue.

I think, you know, it's not to say they think this is a big problem, but I think they realize they're coming off a very emotional two games, especially the last game where they, you know, clinched a playoff spot and they absolutely trounced their provincial rivals at home in a packed house.

So, you know, there is a natural letdown to that.

And I think they said, you know, they're basically saying it's something we've talked about that we can't do that.

They may have

Mm-hmm.

Um, you're not gonna fool them.

On Monday when that hype starts building and the, the emotion in the, in the, in the stadium, the flyover happens with the, uh, with the CF-18s, and everything about it, uh, you know, they see the Stampeders in the, in the traditional black on, on Labor Day.

They'll know what they're in for, for sure.

But Mark Killam has, has said this: "It's not about hatred or hype.

It's about winning one game." So I think that's been the messaging, and everyone has said it to me this week that I've talked to, uh, the, the handful of players I've talked to, and that's a good sign.

That, that means the messaging is getting, uh, through to the players, and that they are aligned, so that's good.

What you got going on in inside sports today?

You know, they

theyThey're, they're kinda bend but don't break, but man, when they turn it on, they're a very hard group to stop.

And it looks like they'll have Vernon Adams to deal with on, uh, Monday.

He practiced full today after missing last week's game with a head injury.

Uh, we'll also talk with, uh, our buddy Pat Steinberg, the host of Flames Now.

There we go.

And then we're gonna talk with, uh, Carolyn O'Dwyer, head coach of the defending, uh, U of A Pandas volleyball team, defending national champions.

She was also the assistant coach of Canada's national women's volleyball team, who just recently clinched a spot into the 2028 Olympics in LA, first time since 1996 for the, uh, Canadian national women's team.

What do you got rolling with tonight? Well, the Elks are back.

They're back on the field.

We got lots of...

Battle of Alberta coming up.

Oh, I love it.

It's going to be a good one.

It usually is.

So a lot of elk talk tonight on Inside Sports.

They've won some close games, haven't they?

I think you describe the theme of their season.

They find a way.

They've won almost every sort of way possible, but the find a way moniker is, I think, the most accurate.

Because in the final three minutes of games, they are 6-1.

They've been that good in the final three minutes.

And there have been heart-stopping games, close games, two walk-off field goals.

yes he did that

It's been a long stretch, but we've gotten to the other side of it, so

there's that.

It's hard to believe it's September, and this is the time when the NHL awakens a bit, although it's been kind of stirring, right? But yeah, for the Elks, I mean, this is going to be an interesting week.

They get back on the field on Wednesday, I believe.

So they're already conducting some meetings.

All the players are getting back in town.

I think, you know, Sunday, Monday, Thursday.

What you got going on in inside sports today?

What you got going on on Inside Sports tonight?

Well, we'll talk, uh, the Makar contract, uh, with Derek Van Diec, regional writer for nhl.com. We'll also talk about the Oiler moves this week, the, the announcement about, uh, you know, Savoy and Anderson not being available to start the season.

And then, uh, Donskov hire, and then we'll talk about Hellebuyck's trade request.

Mm-hmm.

So we got a lot on the docket here tonight.

We'll hear a, I'll just play a few, uh, clips from Ed Hervey, uh, from Monday's show, the VP of Football Ops and, uh, general manager of the Edmonton Elks.

They're in their bye week.

They're gonna get going, uh, uh, back, I believe, for meetings on Monday, then on the field a couple days later preparing for the Labor Day Classic in Calgary.

Yeah.

Right? So, you know, again, I mean, Mike Babcock's messaging, it'll remain to be seen what it's like.

Um, clearly, he will be direct when he needs to be.

But, uh, you know, we know why GD Smith's on the bench.

He's kind of the good cop, right?

[laughs]

... 'cause there's a, there's a lot of opinions saying, "What is Kevin Cheveldayoff doing? Why didn't he trade him earlier in...

Oh, Connor Hellybuyck, look at you, trying to get more leverage and, and trying to force the hand of the team that signed you to a max deal." Uh, we'll talk a little golf with Adam Stanley from Sportsnet.

Mm-hmm.

You know, could Frederick do it? Do you want him to do it? There's also, like, Luke Glendenning out there.

There's Tolvanen out there.

There are options.

There's not many, though.

Um, but, you know, I go with what Bob says, and maybe there's a UFA PKer they can s- uh, they can sign.

They're gonna have the cap for it now.

What you got on Inside Sports today?

Ooh.

They qualified, uh, last, not this last weekend, but the weekend before in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Talk about that.

Course there's lots to consider.

Uh, NFL players are allowed to go.

CFL players are allowed to go.

CFL, it's a little trickier because, um, they're not gonna shut their season down, so-

Mm

[laughs]

They just switched bodies.

But no, what happened was the Elks played their, their style of football, and, uh, they all of a sudden kept the ball away from the Bombers, who kept the ball away from, you know, Cody Fajardo and company, and there was more first downs.

There was more, uh, you know, there was more offensive plays, more offense.

I mean, uh, five two-and-outs in a row the defense forced.

So i- you know, what, what it says to me, really, Aidan, is that this is a team that is very, very tough, uh, very, very scrappy.

I mean, they're 6 and 1 in games that are decided inside of three minutes.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You know, something they couldn't do against the Riders, uh, at home after beating them in Regina.

So to have that carrot, and if you get eight wins, that means you're six clear, uh, six points clear of the Bombers.

And really it's eight, because you have the tiebreaker in your back pocket.

But the Bombers, you know, I, I think there's ...

They're, they're not the same anymore.

But people look at the Bombers as, you know, th- that program that still makes you a little worried with if you're the opposition, right?

What you got going on in Inside Sports today?

[laughs]

So the schedule's been rather interesting, but, uh, yeah.

They're, uh...

The, the coaching staff's done a good job with managing the fatigue levels or trying to, so, um, you know, we'll, we'll hear from Aaron Grimes, defensive backs coach, about that.

All of a sudden his t- his secondary have turned knockdowns into picks-

[laughs]

Exactly.

So, uh, Kevin's a great guy, great coach, and it's, uh, Wednesday.

But I wonder, Dave, how do you evaluate the loss against Montreal? Uh, you know, given that Edmonton hung around for a little bit, and then ultimately there was a lot of separation by the time the final whistle blew.

You know, I, I compare it to the loss, not nec- not, not the, the, the home loss to the Riders where I think the, you know, the, the Riders just did a good job of actually pulling a page out of the script of the Elks and, you know, they got better as the game got longer, and they got tougher, and they got, you know, more dug in.

I, I remember the game in Kelowna, uh, on July 4th when the Elks lost by 12 points, 36-24, and I felt in that game there was a lot of mistakes the Elks made.

I mean, they, they were in that ball game I think for most of that game.

You know, there was turnovers.

Cody Fajardo had three picks in the, uh, in the second half, I believe.

There was a fumble by Rankin.

efficiency.Yeah, how would you say the, that practice was this week, um, you know, mood-wise, execution-wise, what'd you see out there?

First for the Elks, and then we'll maybe talk about the entire CFL.

Well, I think if you would have told me this team would be six and three at the halfway mark, I would have said I take that.

Absolutely.

I think they have played some really good football.

I think they've established their identity as being a very tough team to play against.

They won some really tough games in the fourth quarter.

They don't do things the easy way, but eventually you kind of get used to playing that way.

He was

Mm-hmm

... uh, you know, where players all of a sudden wanna create super teams or just have no tolerance for, uh, certain dynamics and things like that.

I think, you know, it is important to look at the big picture, and I g- and I think you would agree too, Justin seems to have a, a, a pretty good worldly perspective on his career and life.

I- while he's intensely competitive and obviously zero playoff wins in his career, it's definitely starting to be kind of a elephant in the room- Uh, I don't know that he's so narrow in his thinking and, and small-minded in his just sort of life goals, [chuckles] right? That, that this would, you know, that missing the playoffs, let's say, in 2026 would, would flip a switch and hit the trigger and it's like, "I'm out.

Send, send me somewhere else." Let's also remember how much more, uh, limited NFL stars are in their leverage to-

Mm-hmm

... re-upping.

Um, cap dynamics certainly play into that, and they're not the type of owners that micromanage the way the general manager and the, the VP of football administration manage the roster.

So how are you viewing

this going into training camp? I guess I'd put Justin on the watch list.

You know, personally, I'm someone who's very slow to – to start fire alarms and pull code reds and things.

So it's like, okay, let's just relax a little bit here.

Certainly, someone who's as good as he is and who's as fiercely competitive as he is, another season like last season where they're not passing the ball effectively and they're losing games is not going to sit well or bode well.

I think since I cover all the sports all the time, we've got a somewhat similar situation brewing out of, mostly brewing out of the void of content in the NBA with all of a sudden, nationally, people have decided that Anthony Edwards will not want to stay with the Timberwolves for very long because they've hit a ceiling in the conference finals.

But it's not unlike Jefferson's situation.

So brooklynbetting.com with the promo code purple.

Yeah

... who I was on with, uh, well, he'll be on with you soon.

Uh, but I was on his show, uh, earlier today.

And it's interesting 'cause he said, you know, kind of the same thing about the Riders is that, yes, they're the defending Grey Cup champions, but this is a new season and they have to prove themselves all over again.

And they're four and one, but, you know, people are looking at the Elks and going, "Well, you beat Ottawa twice and you can barely escape a Chase Brice-led BC Lions team," and, you know, the da, da, da, da, da.

But then, you know, he said, "Look, well, look at what the Ottawa or, well, look what the Riders have done." I mean, they, they kind of barely escaped the R- the Red Blacks, and they, you know, the last time they played was, uh, against Jake Dellagatta and the Hamilton Tiger Cats, right? And that was a game where they got 20 points, uh, uh, from, uh, or sorry, the, uh, defense of the Ti-Cats only allowed 20 points.

They get, in large part they had a lot of points scored from their defense.

If you're the Elks defense, what is the key to making him uncomfortable? I mean, you know he's gonna get the ball out quickly, so what does that leave you with?

I think both of these teams have some questions to answer tomorrow night.

Oh, for sure.

Absolutely.

And, you know, yes, the Elks beat Ottawa twice.

They have beaten a Winnipeg team that, you know, maybe was a little vulnerable at the time.

They beat Montreal at home in a rain game.

But they found a way to win in overtime.

Isn't that a franchise quarterback, Dave Campbell?

... uh, what was your take on that game? And then how do you think it carries into this week?

Well, you know, I think the, the Elks were just off that day, and I think they weren't terrible, but they weren't themselves.

They couldn't run the football.

They were a little spotty on defense.

Obviously, back to offense, they, they turned the football over too much, and, uh, they could not stop James Butler.

And a lot of talk about Nathan Rourke.

Really, it was James Butler that dictated that game.

[laughs]

That was the first

time I took any outside capital.

And it's because in our business and games, Kickstarter works basically as its own marketplace.

You know, we were able to get a little bit of funds, not a ton, but it gave me some more validation and more like, hey, this is going to work.

And with that game specifically, especially comparatively with the games that I had made previously, there was some electricity and magic around that game.

And it's hard to kind of put into words what that actually is, but I could tell and I could feel it.

This game is just different.

What do you think would surprise the Dave that was daydreaming while on the road doing sales about his first games? What are the big surprises or pivots that have happened along the way?

Mm-hmm.

But today, uh, it was an interesting first half because no shots on target, but the pace was unbelievable.

It was extremely, extremely chippy.

Um, and then the second half comes.

England gets the goal.

And then what do they do? They sit back.

They have 12% possession, according to BBC, and they let Argentina keep coming, keep coming, and then Fernandez scores, and Martinez scores, and it's over.

What you got going on in Inside Sports today?

It was great.

Yeah, I think it was really, really solid, especially when nothing's going on offensively.

And, you know, that's something we'll talk about tonight with Gord Hines, who, uh, used to play for the team, of course, and he's our sideline analyst, uh, on Elks broadcasts here at h- uh, on home games.

But, you know, just talking about the, the lulls offensively, and there's times where it just, it doesn't look very good.

But Cody Fajardo led a perfect drive down the field, and everyone buys in.

And defense is, uh, playing well.

Special teams, a little bit, uh, well, you know, kinda ebb and flow there.

[laughs]

Do you expect the offense to continue running through him? Or is there a danger, I guess, in having too much of the offense run through one player? What do you think about that?

I think they're happy that they have Justin Rankin on their football team, right? Because he is their best player right now.

I think he's probably going to be their best player through the end of this season.

I fully believe that.

But yeah, you're right.

I think they're looking for other players.

avenues and other, you know, ways to, to produce offense and, and to get yardage right and you know Austin Mack has had a you know a quiet good first couple games you know with two touchdowns you know one in each game I you know and I've heard you know what your your comments a couple nights ago I thought were really good you know is is back a one he's probably not a one right now but he's a two he could be a one right he has that ability and I think there's time of the season for for that to happen but You know, they don't have Joe Robustelli again.

What kind of challenge does that present for this Elks side? How challenging is this spot?

For Elks fans, Dave, what's the biggest concern that still exists despite all of the optimism entering this year?

That's a good question, you know, and I still think that and I'll go back to the offensive line.

I think their interior is good.

I think the tackles, again, Boardner and Murray have so much upside.

They haven't proven it, though, I think week in, week out yet consistently that they're CFL starters.

We have seen it in sample sizes in Hamilton where they were before, but now we need to see it across 18 games.

I guess I worry about the lulls in the offense and I hope that the new receivers, and I think the expectation is the new receivers that they've brought in, you know, with Mac and obviously Robustelli, Joe Robustelli too, won't play tomorrow because of a hamstring injury.

It stands out to you when you look at the Red Blacks.