I have nothing clever or witty to say; I’m mostly just tired. Physically tired, yes – I’ve been chasing kids around a summer camp out of town this week – but mentally tired too. I’m sure many of you are as well. Between last weekend’s awfulness, and the sheer stupidity and malice on display by many others throughout the aftermath, including by a certain semi-sentient Cheeto of note – I really have nothing else to add in the way of commentary this week. Let’s read onwards to the proper content.

WEEK 8 RECAPS

Edmonton 27 vs. Ottawa 20: Once again, another disappointing Ottawa effort; it was, once again, another blown lead late in the game, when an errant punt from REDBLACKS kicker Brett Maher gave the Eskimos great field position, and Mike Reilly connected with receiver Chris Getzlaf (brother to the NHL player of the same surname, yes) to score the go-ahead game-winning touchdown with ten minutes to play. It continues to be a frustrating year for Ottawa fans, but for Trevor Harris as well; the quarterback currently leads the league in both passing yards and touchdowns, and while Ottawa’s offence has put up some very solid numbers, the individual stats have still not translated to wins just yet. Also of significance in this game – Eskies RB LaDarius Perkins scored his first CFL touchdown on a 35-yard catch-and-run out of the backfield, while Reilly also notched the 100th touchdown pass of his CFL career. Edmonton just continues to roll on.

PICK: Edmonton

RESULT: Edmonton

Toronto 9 vs. Montreal 21: As it turns out, it was not Ricky Ray or Cody Fajardo getting the initial start for the Argos in this one, but in fact former Hamilton third-stringer Jeff Mathews. And unfortunately for Toronto, the end result just wasn’t the same. Montreal’s defence had a hell of a showing, keeping Toronto to just 142 yards passing, two sacks, and no touchdowns, with the only points coming from three field goals from Lirim Hajrullahu. Even when Toronto switched things up later and benched Mathews in favour of Fajardo, the Als’ D still managed to contain the fleet-footed quarterback on the ground. Darian Durant finished 18-27 for 237 yards and 2 TDs for Montreal, including a nice 41-yard strike to Ernest Jackson in the first quarter. These two teams have a rematch back in Toronto coming up this week!

PICK: Montreal

RESULT: Montreal

Winnipeg 39 vs. Hamilton 12: This game was a nice change of pace for fans of the Bombers, as no last-minute miracles were required whatsoever. The Tabbies continue to stink up the joint, still waiting to record their first victory of the season. It was, all in all, a very well-rounded game for Winnipeg; Justin Medlock kicked six field goals, RB Andrew Harris had 107 yards rushing on 14 carries, and Matt Nichols threw two touchdowns on 25-35 pass attempts for 267 yards and no picks. Playing behind a porous offensive line, Zach Collaros continues to struggle this year, with the last-ranked offence in the league managing just one touchdown receiving – a pass to Demarr Aultman – and one rushing, from backup QB Jeremiah Masoli. Both TDs also saw their conversions missed too. Hamilton is a trainwreck, through and through.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Winnipeg

BC 8 vs. Saskatchewan 41: Well, Saskatchewan got revenge for last week’s loss in a big way – and I think it’s safe to say that few pundits were expecting this score to be the final one when we were predicting the game. Kevin Glenn had an excellent bounce-back game after last week’s poor outing; he finished with 320 yards on 19-25 passing, for three touchdowns and one interception. Running back Cameron Marshall, who has been a breakout player this year for the Roughriders, also added a touchdown of his own. The Saskatchewan defence also punished the Lions big time, racking up five picks (four by DB Ed Gainey alone), four sacks, and a forced fumble on a three-headed trio of BC quarterbacks. Jonathon Jennings, playing his first game since suffering a shoulder injury back in Week 4, was horrendously awful. The only points scored for BC came from a garbage-time touchdown from Jennings to Chris Williams, who went deep for a big 56-yard bomb… all the same, this was absolutely a game for Lions fans to forget, and a curious near-mirror image of last week’s game between these two clubs.

PICK: BC

RESULT: Saskatchewan

BYE: Calgary (5-1-1)

WEEK 9 PREVIEWS

Edmonton (7-0) vs. Winnipeg (5-2), Thursday, August 17th, 8:30 PM EST: This will likely be one of the toughest tests of the season thus far for Edmonton; while the Eskimos are unquestionably the league’s top team to date, Winnipeg is hot, having won three straight – and they’ll have home-field advantage for this one. With such a balanced offence available to the Bombers as demonstrated thus far in the year, Edmonton will be needing to test out their defensive depth in order to keep the pressure going – with numerous key pieces already out with injuries, they could well be in tough. However, when you have Mike Reilly as your QB, a wide variety of inside and outside receiving threats, and seemingly endless RB depth – the Eskimos are a solid bet to stop Winnipeg’s momentum this week.

PICK: Edmonton

Ottawa (1-6-1) vs. Hamilton (0-7), Friday, August 18th, 7:30 PM EST: A battle of basement-dwellers in this one – I hope it’s an entertaining game to watch, at least. With an atrocious secondary, the Tiger-Cats will once again have a ton of difficulty stopping anyone going – and the REDBLACKS have done a good job with keying in on that lack of depth there over the last two seasons. However, Ottawa’s isn’t much better, to be fair, and if the offence continues to turn over the ball at inopportune times, as they have done all year, then the Tabbies may finally, just finally, get their first win of the year. That would indeed be embarrassing for the REDBLACKS, who were pegged as the East’s biggest threat this past offseason. GM Marcel Desjardins said in the Ottawa paper this week that coach’s jobs will be safe regardless this year, but it’s hard to see what other changes could be made at this point to try and turn things around, especially as the NFL season ramps up and many potential signees will likely end up sticking around south of the border to land on practise squads, rather than ply their trade up here.

PICK: Ottawa

Calgary (5-1-1) vs. BC (5-2), Friday, August 18th, 10:30 PM EST: The Stamps are coming off the bye, while the Lions return home licking their wounds after a humbling loss. Receiver Bryan Burnham didn’t play last week for BC due to a foot injury, while fellow receiver Nick Moore sat for the second half after hurting his back. As I write this, I’m still awaiting word on what their status will be for this week – if they’re not good to go, BC will lean more on Manny Arcenaux, Chris Williams, and Shaq Johnson – so at least they’re deep in that regard. Jonathon Jennings needs to rebound in a big way this game – he called last week’s outing “the worst of my career”, which is fair commentary to make. While I do think that last week was an anomaly for him, even with coming off injury, his life won’t be made easy having to match up against a tough Calgary squad that has an excellent pass rush and is good at flushing quarterbacks out of the pocket and off to the side.

PICK: Calgary

Montreal (3-4) vs. Toronto (3-5), Saturday, August 19th, 4:00 PM EST: Toronto’s now lost three in a row, and things are spiralling somewhat, but the Argos are hopeful they’re going to have Ricky Ray back for them on Saturday; after hurting his shoulder against the Stamps two weeks ago, his absence was definitely felt as the passing game was completely ineffective last week. For Montreal, it should likely be business as usual, as the game plan they had going seemed pretty effective overall against Toronto. The Alouettes also made a notable trade on Tuesday, sending former Oregon star quarterback Vernon Adams, Jr., who was Darian Durant’s backup, to Saskatchewan in exchange for Canadian DB Tevaughn Campbell and two 3rd-round picks in the 2018 and 2019 drafts. While I think it’s a curious move for Saskatchewan, considering their QB depth already with Kevin Glenn and Brandon Bridge in place, it’s clear to see that Chris Jones sees Adams as the starter of the future for Saskatchewan. Physique-wise, Adams is similar to Glenn – Glenn is 5’10” while Adams is 5’11” – but Adams has the potential to add a new dynamic to the Rider offence with his running ability. It’ll be interesting to see how he’s incorporated moving forward. For Montreal, Campbell is a help in meeting national-to-international player ratios out on the field while on the defensive side of the ball – and it also gives them a few picks to play with too. Still, one might argue that the return they got for Adams wasn’t comparable to what they gave up – Montreal acquired Adams’ negotiating rights from BC in May 2016 in exchange for their first-round pick in 2017. Hopefully this works out for both sides.

PICK: Montreal

BYE: Saskatchewan (3-4)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Haris, OTT – 2468
2. Ray, TOR – 2421
3. Reilly, EDM – 2329

Passing TDs

1. Harris, OTT – 16
2. Glenn, SSK – 14
3. Reilly, EDM – 13

Rushing Yards

1. Messam, CGY – 490
2. Johnson, BC – 476
3. Marshall, SSK – 390

Receiving Yards

1. Ellingson, OTT – 749
2. Green, TOR – 705
3. Sinopoli, OTT – 589

Sacks

1. Butler, TOR – 7
2. Hughes, CGY – 6
3. Westerman,  WPG – 5

Interceptions

1. Gainey, BC – 4
2. Heath, WPG – 4
3. Ladler, EDM – 3

Field Goals

1. Hajrullahu, TOR – 27
2. Medlock, WPG – 24
3. Long, BC – 19

PICK POOL

The pack is definitely clumping up in the middle here… the middle stretch of the season may end up spreading us out slightly further… but I guess we’ll see!

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