Elks’ Rankin looks to solve Lions’ run defence

Justin Rankin has spent the season finding holes in CFL defences. The B.C. Lions were the one team that slowed him down.

The 5-foot-10, 210-pound Edmonton running back rushed for 1,170 yards at 5.7 yards per carry over 17 games, but B.C. held him to 19 yards on seven carries in a 36-24 win July 4. Two weeks later, he managed nine yards on seven carries in Edmonton’s 19-17 victory. He averaged 2.7 and 1.3 yards per carry in those games, respectively.

Rankin gets another crack at the Lions on Saturday, when the Elks host the Western final in Edmonton. Edmonton finished first in the West at 13-5 to earn home-field advantage; B.C. finished second at 10-8 and advanced by beating Saskatchewan in last weekend’s Western semi-final.

Elks offensive-line coach and running-backs coordinator Stephen Sorrells said Tuesday the team was confident it could counter B.C.’s run defence after returning to practice following a week off.

“Their two interior guys are as good as you’re going to find,” he said. “They’ve got really good players, and they do some good things schematically on defence. We feel like we have answers this week.”

Rankin can shift to receiver when the running game bogs down, or the Elks want a different look on offence. He said the Lions did a good job of plugging the middle, leaving him few holes to run through.

“We need to do a better job of blocking,” Sorrells said.

Rankin carrying the ball only 14 times in the two games wasn’t part of Sorrells’s game plan, either.

“The way those games played out, we didn’t get enough attempts as we needed, for different reasons,” he said, adding that the run game needs time to get established.

“It’s like if you throw an incompletion on the first attempt, you’re not going to stop throwing. A successful run game is about giving it opportunities and attempts, especially with our backs … they can take it the length of the field every time they touch [the ball].”

Whether he runs for nine yards or 109, Rankin said, his concern remains the final score.

“If it’s zero yards and we win, that’s fine,” he said.

“The biggest thing is that we’re winning games regardless of whether the run game is hitting or not. Obviously, we want to be able to run the ball; we want to be able to dominate the line of scrimmage, but when it’s not going our way, we still have other avenues. And I think that just shows how much depth that we have, you know, on the offensive side of the ball.”

Saturday’s forecast at Commonwealth Stadium calls for temperatures around 10 C, cloudy skies and light winds.