ARBUCKLE SHINES IN ELKS PRESEASON DEBUT

WINNIPEG – Nick Arbuckle threw Edmonton’s only two touchdown passes in the Elks’ 30-20 exhibition win over the Blue Bombers on Friday, but he viewed it as a quarterback group victory.

“I feel like everybody did well,” said Arbuckle, who was one of four Edmonton quarterbacks to hit the field.

“We all produced scoring drives and I feel like we won this game together … I feel like it was a really great collective effort and I don’t envy the coaches’ job to be able to make their choices.”

Arbuckle was 9-of-10 passing for 145 yards in his first game action with the Elks. The three-year veteran was acquired last October in a trade with the Toronto Argonauts, but never got into a game with his new teammates.

Both teams were assessing their quarterbacks in front of 20,518 fans at IG Field.

The back-to-back Grey Cup-champion Bombers played a number of their starters on both sides of the ball, but sat starting quarterback Zach Collaros.

Second-year Bombers quarterback Dru Brown was 10-of-13 passing for 108 yards. Former Elks quarterback Dakota Prukop was 5 of 14 for 81 yards with two interceptions for his new club.

“I like that our quarterbacks were able to drive the field,” Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea said. “I thought there were a couple pretty big plays on defence.”

Elks head coach and general manager Chris Jones hasn’t declared his starting quarterback and looked at four options: Arbuckle, Taylor Cornelius, Tre Ford and Kai Locksley. Most of Edmonton’s starting offensive line suited up to help with the auditions.

“I thought they played pretty good,” Jones said of the foursome. “We weren’t perfect. We missed some of our stuff, some open receivers, but at the same time we moved around, we used our legs and we scrambled to try to push the ball down the field.”

Receivers Caleb Holley and Ka’Ron Ashley caught touchdown passes for Edmonton, and Cornelius kept the ball on a successful quarterback sneak.

(Canadian Press/Photo: CFL)