10 thoughts and feelings on this rebound season for the Edmonton Elks

The Edmonton Elks head into the final week of the regular season on the road against the Saskatchewan Roughriders already having clinched first place in the Canadian Football League’s West Division, and the right to host the divisional final, which will be their first home playoff game in 11 years.

Here are 10 random thoughts and feelings about the season that was, and the post-season still to come:

• First off, I am shocked and awed the Elks were able to turn it around from worst to first in the span of these past two seasons under Mark Kilam, a first-time head coach in the Canadian Football League.

Not because I don’t believe in Kilam. Heck, he might go down as the only person in pro football history ever to hold a job as an assistant on the same coaching staff for 20 consecutive years before arriving back in the city where he played his university football.

And not because I haven’t been believing what I was seeing week over week during this miraculous bounce back of a season the Elks have been putting together.

My utter amazement lies in the fact that the bounce was so high, so soon, after years and years (and years and years) of wallowing in the muck. Rudderless. Directionless. And altogether hopeless.

Well, the team that was the laughing stock of the league for so long may just get the last laugh if things continue on the trajectory they have been vectoring all season long.

• Remember when the Elks burst out of the starting blocks on the season with three straight wins and a ground game that was unstoppable? Right up until it was completely ‘stoppabled’ by a brick wall of a defence belonging to the previously winless B.C. Lions in Week 5?

And then how the Lions turned around and almost beat them again at Commonwealth Stadium two weeks later? With their backup quarterback, no less?

Yeah, me too. And it still scares me. For whatever reason, the Lions came up with the solution for the Elks’ high-octane ground game that ended up leading the league heading into the final week of the regular season.

Rankin went from rushing for 102, 179, 106 and 107 yards in the other first four games, and then 19 and nine yards in the two games against the Lions.

All of a sudden, the Elks offence is one-dimensional. And if that happens again should the two teams meet in the playoffs, it could be run-and-done for our heroes in green and gold.

• It’s kind of nice to have the last game of the year not matter, but in a good way, this time around, when the Elks visit the Regina Roughriders on Saturday (1 p.m., TSN, 880 CHED).

Usually, they’re playing meaningless games because they’ve been eliminated from post-season contention and they’re simply winding out the string, with the biggest story coming from the guys job auditioning for next season.

This time, it’s meaningless because they’ve crossed the finish line ahead of everyone else in the division.

Then again, is it really meaningless with the Montreal Alouettes also sitting at 13-4 on the season? Would it be worth pushing the pedal to the metal a little bit in this one and taking a shot at first place overall? The Elks are the hottest team going right now, having won three in a row, while the Als dropped a snoozer to the Roughriders.

With Montreal facing the Toronto Argonauts, and the Argos already cast as the East Division semi-final hosts, every player in double-blue possible will be resting, while the Roughriders need a win to avoid having to cross over to the East Division.

So, it’s not necessarily looking good for Elks fans on the first-overall front.

• How on Earth are the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-9) still alive in this thing? And not just in the crossover scenario, either. No, really. A Winnipeg win, and they’re in the playoffs. In the West if Saskatchewan loses and in the East if Saskatchewan wins, effectively leapfrogging the Calgary Stampeders (9-9) altogether.

But Saskatchewan (also 8-9) has already clinched at least the crossover spot thanks to holding the tiebreaker in their little rock, paper, scissors battle with the Stamps and Bombers.

Elks fans can shrug it off now, but they would have killed to have that chance at playoffs over the past five years.

• Is Mark Kilam the CFL’s Head Coach of the Year? Who else do you have? Jason Maas, in Montreal? He didn’t have to bring his team nearly as far to get where they are now.

• Will the Elks rest all their big guns this week? Or will they chose to play them knowing they can still rest for two weeks ahead of the division final? And is three weeks of rest too much, to the point where they will have to shake off rust if they don’t get out on the field at least briefly?

Or do they let the players decide? Or is it simply smarter to avoid any and all chance of injury and keep the prize stallions in the barn this week?

Remember when Michael Reilly broke his foot playing against B.C. in 2014, in a game he didn’t need to be in, and then had to play in the playoffs to the point where he couldn’t even walk anymore?

Sounds like the perfect time to see what this Taylor Powell guy can do in the pocket, if you ask me.

• The Elks needed 15 weeks (including two byes) to do what the four previous editions of the roster couldn’t, and that’s capture a playoff spot. Fast-forward another four weeks (and another bye), and they secured a home playoff date, which is something none of the previous nine double-E roster editions were able to do.

Not even Maas’s three-division-final-appearances-in-four-years double-E crews.

But that’s the funny thing about goals. You achieve one, no matter how tough it seems, and it’s onto the next. Now the Elks find themselves one win away from playing in the Grey Cup. And two from winning it all.

They’ve come a long way from the team that once lost 22-straight home games and couldn’t find the post-season to save their lives.

• Will the Elks continue playing like they have something to prove, or will they start believing their own hype?

• Will the fans turn out for the first home playoff game since 2015?

It doesn’t help having an Edmonton Oilers home game conflict with the 6:30 p.m. kickoff on Nov. 7, even though the puck doesn’t drop against the visiting Vancouver Canucks until 9 p.m.

A CFL game lasts three hours, so only the most diehard of sports fans will be willing to hustle to catch both.

Man, isn’t that a great problem to have?

Maybe not for Deb Thompson. The Elks owner has shown nothing but dedication to the team and the city, especially through the untimely death of her husband and co-team-owner, Larry, 13 months ago.

Both she and her pocketbook have proven they are in for the long haul, but she can’t do it alone forever. It’s time football fans to give some of that support back and remind this team what it means to this town.

• At a time when pro sports organizations across the continent are price gouging their fans every which way from Sunday, it’s refreshingly wholesome to know the Elks are not raising their ticket prices for the West Division final.

Are you kidding me? I mean, it’s almost like they want people in the building.