Edmonton Elks’ interim head coach Jarious Jackson has seen a lot of games in his 20 years as a player and coach in the CFL, but Friday night’s meaningless overtime victory over the Toronto Argonauts is one he’ll never forget.
“That’s at the top for me. Interim head coach or not, that’s one of the craziest finishes I’ve seen,” he told the Edmonton media. “I’ve seen the back-and-forth kicks where somebody’s got to bring it out of the end zone and take a knee or what have you, but to actually finish on the rouge, it’s got to rank in the top two for me.”
The Elks trailed the Argonauts for much of the game but scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to take a late lead before Toronto tied the game with a 16-yard field goal with zeros on the clock. After forcing overtime, Lirim Hajrullahu missed his next attempt and set up the Elks for a 31-30 win in the most unconventional manner: a 54-yard rouge off the foot of punter Jake Julien.
Coaches rarely ever put the punter on the field in situations where a single point would secure victory, as it eliminates the margin for error that a field goal provides and puts the kicker much further back from the line of scrimmage. The strategy is virtually unheard of in overtime, where punting isn’t even utilized. However, the now-viral decision was as successful as it was shocking.
“[I was] going with the more veteran guy, a guy who has been there and done it. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on [Vincent] Blanchard in that situation,” Jackson said, alluding to the team’s decision to dress a rookie Canadian kicker instead of veteran Boris Bede.
“I trust [Julien]. I believe in him. I see him kick it every day. They had one returner back there so it played into our favour.”
Positioned at the Toronto 34-yard line, a game-winning field goal attempt would have been from just 41 yards out. However, Blanchard’s only career field goal was from 19 yards earlier in the game and he had already missed one of his two point-afters. His career-long at Laval was 49 yards, the exact distance from which the much more seasoned Hajrullahu had missed from moments earlier. Javon Leake returned that kick 14 yards to prevent a rouge.
Julien got the call on the final play of what was a historic season for him. The native of Barrie, Ont. averaged 54.0 yards per punt in 2024, shattering the previous CFL single-season record of 50.6 set by future NFL Pro Bowler Jon Ryan in 2005. His booming kick had plenty of distance and sailed over the head of five-foot-10 returner David Ungerer III, who tried helplessly to bat the ball down before it sailed past the end line.
While the CFL’s rouge rule is controversial, particularly among those who fear American ridicule, Jackson can’t be accused of taking the easy way out in this victory. He took a shot at the end zone with Eugene Lewis on the previous play which was broken up by Tarvarus McFadden, before calling on his Most Outstanding Special Teams Player nominee to execute his job perfectly.
“I tried to get another touchdown to Geno but wasn’t able to connect with him,” Jackson recalled. “I looked at Jake and I’m like, ‘Hey, can you kick it out of the back of the end zone?’ ‘I got you.’”
The bizarre victory moves Jackson’s record to 7-6 since taking over for the fired Chris Jones midseason. That was not enough to jam the Elks into the playoffs and it remains unclear if the interim boss will have a job moving forward. If he doesn’t, his tenure will end with a classic CFL finish.
“It’s awesome. First opportunity to be an interim head coach and I feel like we put our best foot forward,” he said. “Of course, I would have loved to win a few more of those games, or even maybe be a part of a few earlier wins, and I think it’s a different scenario than us wrapping up the season tomorrow.”
The post ‘I trust him’: Elks’ Jarious Jackson explains logic behind punter Jake Julien’s game-winning rouge in OT appeared first on 3DownNation.
