As my second week of vacation winds down, I look forward to hopefully giving some more space to pontificate a bit further on the state of Canadian football.
In league news this week:
- The BC Lions released international kicker Takeru Yamasaki, a Japanese citizen, and signed two replacements – American Jimmy Camacho and Canadian Felix Menard-Briere – to duke it out this week for the job.
- The Bombers released former NFL receiver Cam Meredith from their practise roster; he didn’t appear in any game action this year with the team. Meredith has had a litany of injuries that have limited his playing time significantly since 2017, and it’s too bad it’s held him back – he does have some notable talent when healthy. With the open roster spot, Winnipeg then signed linebacker Kevin Brown, who most recently played with Ottawa from 2017-19. He spent 2021 training camp in Edmonton, but was released prior to the start of this season.
- Montreal released Canadian fullback Alexandre Dupuis, a 31-year-old veteran. He missed the season opener against Edmonton due to a hip injury, and judging by his release, the the team likely feels it won’t be getting better any time soon.
- Former Argos, Elks, and Als receiver Natey Adjei, who retired just before the start of the 2021 season, will join the broadcasting booth of TSN Radio 1050 in his hometown of Toronto to help with Argos broadcasts for the remainder of the season – he’ll be a nice addition to TSN’s strong CFL coverage on both radio and TV across the country.
WEEK 2 RECAPS
BC 15 vs. Calgary 9: Michael Reilly went 26-33 for 342 yards and a rushing TD, while the Lions played some impressive shutdown defense and handed the Stamps their second loss of the season. Calgary has looked surprisingly out of sync thus far in the season; to further add to their woes, starting QB Bo Levi Mitchell was picked off four times in a single game for the first time in his career. Mitchell’s performance is likely to do with an injury he suffered last week against the Argos, but the Stamps’ coaching staff is not specifying anything at this time. For Lions fans, it’s always nice to see Reilly when he’s at his best – looks like the elbow does not appear to be bothering him too much at this point of the year.
PICK: Calgary
RESULT: BC
Toronto 7 vs. Winnipeg 20: The Bombers improved to 2-0 on the year while Toronto was dealt its first loss of the season. Winnipeg QB Zach Collaros had his second straight game of 200-plus passing yards, going 32-40 for 292 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, while his Toronto counterpart McLeod Bethel-Thompson was held to just 70 yards on 10-20 pass attempts on the night. Bethel-Thompson was replaced by Nick Arbuckle midway through the third quarter, though he fared only marginally better, going 10-19 for 96 yards and an interception. The Argos’ only points on the night came on a nice 30-yard touchdown run by John White, marking another overall strong defensive effort from Winnipeg, who remain tied for the West Division lead with Saskatchewan.
PICK: Winnipeg
RESULT: Winnipeg
Montreal 30 vs. Edmonton 13: The Alouettes looked really sharp in their first game of the season; Vernon Adams, Jr. threw two touchdowns, while special teamer Mario Alford had a nice 86-yard punt return that he took to the house for another score. Edmonton’s offensive woes continued; they’ve only scored a single touchdown in two games, with this one happening in garbage time when Trevor Harris connected with Shai Ross on an eleven-yard pass. Things do not look good for the Elks – it may still be only two games into the season, but there’s a lot of work to be done if they want to keep pace with heavyweights Winnipeg and Saskatchewan in the West.
PICK: Montreal
RESULT: Montreal
Hamilton 8 vs. Saskatchewan 30: I could pretty much copy and paste most of my commentary from the previous game into this one – but even for my standards, that would be phoning it in a bit too much. Jeremiah Masoli had his second sub-par game, throwing for two interceptions and no TDs once again, and he was yanked for Dane Evans towards the end of the third quarter. Hamilton has little momentum on offense over the last two games, so one has to wonder if a shakeup is coming after the bye week. Meanwhile, Riders fans are rejoicing at how lucky they are to have solid, consistent quarterback play for the first time in a while – Cody Fajardo had another excellent outing for Saskatchewan, going 17-25 for 222 passing yards and two touchdowns, while adding another on the ground.
PICK: Hamilton
RESULT: Saskatchewan
BYE: Ottawa (1-0)
WEEK 3 PREVIEWS:
Edmonton (0-2) vs. BC (1-1), Thursday, August 19th, 10:00 PM EST (TSN, ESPN2): The Elks need to right the ship – and fast. With only a single TD thus far in the year, the offense needs to get in sync if they want to keep pace with star quarterbacks like BC’s Michael Reilly. The Lions have the ability to control the game when Reilly’s in – and so long as his elbow continues to hold up, they have to be considered the favourites here.
PICK: BC
Montreal (1-0) vs. Calgary (0-2), Friday, August 20th, 9:30 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): Canadian QB Michael O’Connor will get his first start for Calgary against the Alouettes tomorrow, as the team placed starter Bo Levi Mitchell on the six-game injured list with a broken fibula on Tuesday. The Stamps have not looked like their usual dominant selves yet this season – if Montreal can put together an effort like they had against Edmonton last week, they’ll have to be considered as the new favourites to win the East this year. Yes, I know there’s a lot of football left in the year, but good coaches know that establishing rhythms early in the season helps for them to be sustained consistently.
PICK: Montreal
Winnipeg (2-0) vs. Toronto (1-1), Saturday, August 21st, 4:00 PM EST (TSN, ESPN2): This is a rematch of last week’s game – it’ll be interesting to see if Nick Arbuckle will get the start for this one after coming in to relieve McLeod Bethel-Thompson after a weak first half last time out against the Bombers. Winnipeg, meanwhile, just needs to stick to their game – a win is a win, yes, but if they do show another decisive victory here, it makes one wonder about what may happen when it’s time for them to play early Grey Cup faves Saskatchewan – or perhaps Montreal. I hate to prognosticate too deeply too early, but this appears to be a good football team this far in the year.
PICK: Winnipeg
Ottawa (1-0) vs. Saskatchewan (2-0), Saturday, August 21st, 7:00 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): The REDBLACKS come off their bye week rested and hopefully ready against their former namesake counterparts, but they’ll have their work cut out for them. The Roughriders are likely going to be almost everyone’s toughest challenge this year, especially if Cody Fajardo continues his strong play. The REDBLACKS displayed a good pass rush and good secondary in Week 1 against Edmonton, two things which might help them stay close in this one.
PICK: Saskatchewan
STANDINGS AND STATS
East Division Standings
| Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Ties | Points For | Points Against |
| Montreal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 13 |
| Ottawa | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 12 |
| Toronto | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 40 |
| Hamilton | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 49 |
West Division Standings
| Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Ties | Points For | Points Against |
| Saskatchewan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 37 |
| Winnipeg | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 13 |
| BC | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 44 | 42 |
| Edmonton | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 46 |
| Calgary | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 38 |
Passing Yards
- Harris, EDM – 566
- Reilly, BC – 545
- Mitchell, CGY – 542
Passing TDs
- Collaros, WPG – 4
- Fajardo, SSK – 4
- Adams, Jr., MTL – 2
Rushing Yards
- Wilder, EDM – 174
- Oliveira, WPG – 155
- White, TOR – 139
Receiving Yards
- Whitehead, BC – 244
- Burnham, BC – 213
- Walker, EDM – 174
Sacks
- Woodard, SSK – 3
- Leonard, SSK – 2
- Moore, EDM – 2
Interceptions
- Kanneh, OTT – 2
- Rocquemore, WPG – 2
- Brown, SSK – 1
Field Goals
- Paredes, CGY – 7
- Whyte, EDM – 6
- Yamasaki, BC – 4
PICK POOL
Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=193216
| Rank | Total Points | Weekly Score | Win Percentage |
| Litre_Cola | 5 | 3-1 | 62.50% |
| Anthony in TX | 4 | 3-1 | 50.00% |
| Mr. Ayo | 4 | 2-2 | 50.00% |
| Wakezilla | 4 | 3-1 | 50.00% |
| Ballsofsteelandfury | 4 | 2-2 | 50.00% |
| WCS | 4 | 2-2 | 50.00% |
| The Maestro | 3 | 2-2 | 37.50% |
| Prittlewell Pumas | 3 | 2-2 | 37.50% |
| BC Dick | 3 | 2-2 | 37.50% |
| 3 | 1-3 | 37.50% | |
| Game Time Decision | 3 | 1-3 | 37.50% |
| SonOfSpam | 2 | 1-3 | 25.00% |
| Doogs | 2 | 0-4 | 25.00% |
Enjoy the games, everyone.
[redacted, for now]
This site and my new ESPN+ subscription have gotten me fully into the CFL. Now I’ve gotta arbitrarily pick a team to root for.
As long as it isn’t Saskatchewan we good.
All right, Saskatchewan is out. Now taking applications for all other teams.
The traditional way is to have the Queen pick for you, but be careful, as that’s how Canada ended up with Ottawa as its capital.
Okay, but what if I have Queen* pick for me. Who would Brian May pick?
*Original members only. None of that Adam Lambert nonsense.
Hmm… well, I think Winnipeg is the most likely place to find Fat Bottomed Girls.
/hasn’t been to Winnipeg in 30+ years
It’s interesting how dependent Amazon radio stations are on the fans of the bands that the stations are based on. Streetlight Manifesto station? Good band, good station. Roxy Music? Good band, good station. Sublime? Good band, HORRIBLE station.
To clarify, people who are listening to Streetlight Manifesto independently are also listening to other (similar) music, so Amazon can develop a decent algorithm. People who are listening Sublime are apparently just otherwise listening to complete trash.
Haven’t used Amazon Music, but I’ve spent a lot of time training Pandora on what I want from each of my stations, and I’ve more or less got them where I want them.
I think I see your problem. You are listening to Sublime.
Better than listening to Green Day.
/ghost tWBS starts making LemonJello’s walls bleed
Like, which of my walls? Borble.
Intestinal walls. He’s really mad about it.
Keep it up, and they’ll be bleeding ghost pepper extract.
40 oz. to Freedom is a great album.
One would think by now that all of the DJs surely would have taken a lesson, but I guess not.
I love this comment so much I want to feed it ice cream. What’s its favorite flavor?
It prefers sherbet, perhaps in a… (sub)lime flavor?
Amazon Music is the only app I have that is guaranteed to crash every single time i use it. Works for about two minutes then abruptly closes. Does fine after reopening.
For $10/mo, I just cancelled it. For Amazon to charge that much for that product and have absolutely no support available — fuck you, Bezos.
Does the league have room for an Austrian rb by the name of Sandro Platzgummer?
That’s too bad for Cam Meredith. He showed some real flashes for the Bears.
CRAP! The six month anniversary of Rush Limbaugh passed (the 17th) and I forgot to celebrate it! Well, I guess I’ll just have to celebrate it tonight.
That BC win was very surprising. It looks like it was more Calgary not being good than BC being good. This week will tell which one it really was.
Bo Levi was playing on a broken leg. He is out 6 weeks, the cupboard at QB in Calgary is quite bare.