The Edmonton Elks won the CFL Western Final 28–16 at Commonwealth Stadium on November 7, 2026. The BC Lions had the lead at halftime and were level early in the fourth quarter. By the time the Lions lost the ball on third-and-10, Edmonton had already put together two scoring possessions in the fourth. The takeaway gave the Elks the field position for a third. Edmonton now plays the Montreal Alouettes on November 15 in Calgary.
The final margin makes the game look more comfortable than it was. BC led 9–6 at halftime. The two quarterbacks then traded rushing touchdowns, and the score was 16–16 with most of the fourth quarter left. To see how the game changed, follow the scoreboard at each Edmonton possession after Nathan Rourke’s touchdown. At 19–16, a BC field goal could still tie it. At 25–16, BC needed two scores. At 28–16, the same two-score requirement applied, with three minutes and 27 seconds left and a field goal and converted touchdown worth only ten points together.
Why Edmonton’s early completions produced six points
Cody Fajardo completed his first nine attempts. Seven came on Edmonton’s opening possession, which ended with Vincent Blanchard kicking from 21 yards. Blanchard made a longer attempt from 48 yards on the next scoring drive. Fajardo also ran for 13 yards on that possession to reach BC territory. The sequence tells you something about the strength of the opening, but the scoreboard tells you what the Elks had actually banked. Two trips into range had produced six points, a lead BC could erase with two kicks of its own.
Look at the two Edmonton field-goal distances separately. The first reflects how close the Elks had moved to the goal line. BC gave up a string of completed passes and still forced Edmonton to settle close in. The second reflects points from farther out, where a kicker has more work to do and the offence has less reason to assume a score is secure. Together they illustrate why an offence can open efficiently and still leave the opposition within reach. Each possession created a real scoring opportunity. Neither ended with a touchdown.
The Lions then matched the early output and added a third field goal before halftime. A 25-yard completion to Jevon Cottoy helped BC threaten late in the half. Noah Taylor’s sack cost the Lions nine yards and made it harder for them to turn that opening into a touchdown. They took three points on that drive. After Edmonton went two-and-out, Sean Whyte hit a 42-yard kick as time expired to give BC the lead. Possession order mattered as much as the shape of either offence in that stretch. BC scored, got the ball back quickly and scored again before the break.
Darnell Sankey’s big night had an effect on the scoreboard
The CFL credited Lions linebacker Darnell Sankey with six tackles and two sacks in the first half. He finished with 11 tackles, two sacks and a tackle for loss. Those numbers matter because the first half featured so few points. A stop that limits an offence to three, or a negative play that makes a new set of downs harder to reach, can change how far the next possession needs to travel to erase a lead.
Sankey’s game is also a useful check on the urge to use the result as a verdict on every unit. Edmonton won by 12. BC’s defence had still helped the Lions take a lead into the break, even with Fajardo completing his first nine passes. A team can defend one phase well and give up decisive plays later. The clubs’ accounts offer different vantage points on those moments. The CFL recap supplies the scoring and the sequence of possessions. The Lions’ account looks at where BC felt it had opportunities to execute better. Neither account supplies a view into every coverage call or the assignment of each player on the field.
The third quarter showed what a running quarterback can change
Early in the third, BC faced second-and-inches and called a pass. Malik Carney reached Rourke for a sack, and the Lions punted. The distance before the snap and the distance after the play show how quickly an apparent chance to keep a drive alive can disappear. It would take the play call, the blocking assignments and the available throwing options to judge whether a different choice would have worked. What the record does show is that Edmonton ended the series and its own quarterback soon found room to run.
Fajardo gained 29 yards on one third-quarter run, taking Edmonton to the BC 32. Blanchard’s 35-yard field goal made it 9–9. Later, Edmonton faced first-and-30 after two penalties. A 15-yard Fajardo run and a BC unnecessary-roughness penalty helped the Elks recover. Fajardo finished that possession with a five-yard touchdown run. It was the first touchdown of the game, with 1:16 remaining in the third quarter.
The runs affected three different situations. The 29-yard gain moved the ball into scoring territory. The 15-yard run helped Edmonton get out of a severe down-and-distance problem. The five-yard run finished a drive once the end zone was close. The same box-score category covers all three. For a defence, though, the jobs are different. Containing a quarterback in space, keeping the offence behind schedule after penalties and preventing a short-yardage score require players to account for a moving ball carrier while respecting the pass.
Fajardo finished with 84 rushing yards on ten carries. He also threw for 274 yards and a touchdown without an interception. Those totals describe why BC had two substantial threats to track on his snaps. They cannot tell you how many runs were planned and how many developed after the snap. The scoring sequence is enough to show that his rushing contributed directly to both tying the game and taking the lead.
How the fourth-quarter drives changed BC’s options
Rourke answered with an eight-yard touchdown run at 14:26 of the fourth quarter. Whyte’s convert made it 16–16. At that point BC had already shown it could turn one Edmonton lead into a tie, and there was plenty of time for another exchange. Blanchard made a 46-yard kick at 11:45 to restore a three-point Edmonton lead. That was his fourth field goal of the game. It put pressure on BC without forcing the Lions to abandon the possibility of answering with a kick.
Austin Mack’s touchdown catch changed the calculation. Fajardo found him for 23 yards with 6:59 remaining. Blanchard missed the convert, leaving the score at 25–16. Even after the miss, the lead was nine points. A touchdown and a two-point conversion can produce eight on a single possession. BC now needed to score and find another possession with enough time and field position to score again. This is the practical difference between the fourth-quarter field goal and the touchdown that followed it. Each added points. Only the touchdown moved the game beyond what BC could tie with one scoring drive.
Mack caught six passes for 85 yards on the night. The touchdown counted for a little over a quarter of his receiving yardage, but its importance went beyond the share of yards. It came at the point when Edmonton could change the kind of comeback BC needed. For anyone looking for a sequence to rewatch, start at 16–16 and follow what happens to the length of the field, the clock and the number of scores required. That makes the tackle and recovery on the next BC possession easier to understand.
What the Dublanko takeaway gave Edmonton
Down nine, BC went for it on third-and-10. Joel Dublanko stopped receiver Justin McInnis short of a first down and forced a fumble. JJ Ross recovered and returned it to BC’s 10-yard line. The immediate consequence was a change of possession. The return gave the Elks a much shorter field than they would ordinarily have when they took over from their own end. Edmonton already led and could make the advantage more difficult to overcome without asking the offence for a long drive.
Blanchard kicked his fifth field goal from 27 yards at 3:27. The extra three points mattered even though both nine and 12 are two-score leads. At nine, a converted touchdown and field goal are enough to go ahead. At 12, those scores leave a team two points short. BC’s next possession reached Edmonton’s 18-yard line, where a third-down throw for Stanley Berryhill III fell incomplete. That was the Lions’ last chance to keep the comeback alive. Their ability to reach the 18 also illustrates why the late kick had value. Edmonton had forced BC to do more than simply move downfield once.
There is a distinction between credit for the fumble and credit for the points. Dublanko created the loose ball and Ross secured it and improved the field position. Blanchard supplied the three points that changed the remaining combinations for BC. On a drive chart, those plays belong to different units. On the scoreboard, the advantage they created was cumulative. BC had gone from being level to needing a comeback with very little time to recover the ball again.
What Montreal brings to the matchup in Calgary
The CFL has scheduled the 113th Grey Cup for Sunday, November 15, at McMahon Stadium. Kickoff is 5 p.m. in Calgary and 6 p.m. Eastern. Montreal earned its place with a 33–23 win over Winnipeg in the Eastern Final. The league credited quarterback Davis Alexander with 373 passing yards in that game. Montreal and Edmonton have played for the trophy 11 times before, according to the league’s announcement. Edmonton won eight of those meetings. The championship is a new game, with a different opponent from the one Edmonton faced at Commonwealth.
A useful question for the opening possessions is how well each offence finishes once it has reached scoring territory. Edmonton showed that it could move the chains early and still depend on field goals to bank points. Montreal scored 33 against Winnipeg, with a large passing contribution from Alexander. Look for where the drives end and how often each side gets a fresh set of downs after a penalty or sack. Those details will tell you more about the developing game than comparing one team’s semifinal passing yards with the other’s semifinal rushing yards.
Then watch what happens when a drive reaches second down. Edmonton’s third quarter offered two examples of how that moment can reshape the next possession. Carney’s sack forced a punt after BC had needed inches. Fajardo’s running helped Edmonton salvage progress after it needed 30 yards on first down. Against Montreal, the relevant comparison is how often both teams can keep third down available as a genuine choice. A short conversion attempt, a field goal and a punt arise from very different positions on the field, even when the score remains close.
Why Canadians were searching for the Elks
Google Trends listed “edmonton elks” in its Canadian Trending Now view on November 8. In the captured 24-hour window, sorted by search volume with all categories and trend statuses included, the query was second and marked Active. Google displayed 100K+ for the row. The snapshot was collected at 15:02 UTC. That figure describes the search band shown by Google in that view. It gives no count of the people who watched the semifinal or who plan to watch the Grey Cup.
Readers arriving from that search have two different questions they can resolve with the records above. If you need the result, it was Edmonton 28, BC 16, with the Lions last level just after Rourke’s fourth-quarter run. If you are looking for the next game, it is Edmonton against Montreal in Calgary on November 15. For the connection between those facts, the most useful stretch runs from Blanchard’s go-ahead kick at 11:45 to his fifth field goal at 3:27. In that span Edmonton gained the lead, made it a two-score game through Mack, then used Dublanko’s takeaway and Ross’s return to put a field goal and one converted touchdown out of reach as a tying combination.
Related coverage of BC’s regular-season game against Saskatchewan
Sources consulted 8 November 2026, Bangladesh time.