Jamie Nye: This empire doesn’t look capable of striking back

Opinion

The Evil Empire has fallen.

It’s currently 0-6 and drawing flies.

Now Edmonton Elks president Victor Cui has a decision to make, although on Thursday night the CFL team and its coach should have made the decision easy.

The team was at home, taking on a 1-3 Hamilton Tiger-Cats squad that had a short week and a long trip to Alberta.

Even the oddsmakers favoured the Elks despite their 0-5 start to the 2023 season. The Elks even had me convinced Thursday night was going to be the end of their 19-game, 1,370-day home winless streak.

Then the Elks took the field and continued to do what they’ve done all season: Lose.

They’ve now lost 10 straight games dating back to last season and 20 straight home games. That’s a modern-day professional sports record.

Fans are donning the paper bags on their heads and no longer showing up. They announced 21,000 fans turned up to witness another loss, but there was no way the stadium of 60,000 seats was one-third full. Maybe it was a quarter full. Maybe.

It’s a far cry from the average attendance of 35,000 I witnessed while being a sideline reporter in Edmonton.

And not when the EE was good. I was there for seven-win and five-win seasons under Danny Maciocia and 30,000-plus fans were still showing up.

Now the hardened fans of a once-great franchise are staying away, preferring to spend their money on overpriced NHL tickets to watch Connor McDavid or unwilling to spend their money on a franchise that has gone from flagship to a sinking ship.

Cui can’t sell the status quo, although I’m not sure the energetic, optimistic president of the Elks is going to be able to sell much for the rest of 2023.

However, he at least can show the fans that he’s willing to do something — anything — to get results.

And he can’t do that by holding on to Chris Jones.

Jones turned around a three-win Saskatchewan Roughriders team to a 12-win team before taking off to the NFL. It was Edmonton’s hope after 2021 that Jones could do the same in Edmonton.

He hasn’t.

Instead, he put his faith in quarterback Taylor Cornelius in a curious decision midway through an underwhelming season in 2022.

On Thursday night, TSN play-by-play man Dustin Nielson blurted “What is he doing?” when Cornelius threw the ball with his non-throwing arm into the waiting hands of Tiger-Cats defensive back Stavros Katsantonis.

“What is he doing?” was uttered last week when CJ Sims baffled the CFL when he allowed a single on a kickoff to give the Roughriders the winning point over Edmonton.

“What is he doing?” was uttered when Jones gave Cornelius a solid starting salary with a small sample size to believe he could be the guy.

And now, “What is he doing?” could be uttered if Cui doesn’t do something after the most embarrassing loss of the season, which includes being shut out by the B.C. Lions.

The next question I’d like answered is how the Riders almost lost to this team … twice.