It’s Labour Day weekend (or LaboUr, if you’re a regular reader of this fine website!), and with that comes some of the marquee rivalry games that the CFL has to offer. School is just around the corner – and, unfortunately, the potential for a dangerous fall with rising COVID case counts – but for many, this weekend is a way to send off the summer in style. Let’s hope

In league news this week:

• The Roughriders and Elks have made it official; every CFL team will now require proof of vaccination (or in some locales, a negative PCR test) in order to have fans in the stands at games. Unfortunately, these policies won’t take effect until later (September 17th in Regina and October 15th in Edmonton) which leaves the likelihood that games could unfortunately spread the virus quite notably as the Delta variant continues to ramp up in Canada. The Labour Day Classic matchup in Regina, which is a drunken shitshow in a good year, has lots of potential to cause more chaos than ever before. This is a step in the right direction for both teams, yes, but they could easily be more aggressive with these public health measures – as could a lot of other CFL teams.
• Edmonton appears to be over their COVID-19 outbreak; the team staged a walkthrough practise on Wednesday with players and staff who completed the mandatory 10-day isolation period. In total, 13 players tested positive last week, and the team isn’t specifying who they were as well as their vaccination status. However, the Elks released OL Jacob Ruby from the team on Tuesday; he apparently lied about his vaccination status to the team. This is a serious breach of COVID protocols that will not only have severe repercussions for him personally, but with the threat of forfeit still on the horizon for Edmonton – and the loss of a game cheque for all his former teammates – a message clearly needed to be delivered about how his irresponsible behaviour put dozens of people in jeopardy. Furthermore, the league has issued a directive banning all other teams from signing him – further driving home the seriousness of his health and safety violations.
• In a smart move to bolster their offence that has been able to grind out games, but not yet dominate thus far this season, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers signed veteran WR Naaman Roosevelt. With two thousand-yard seasons under his belt during his long stint in Saskatchewan, the 33-year-old Roosevelt will be a solid veteran presence that can help QB Zach Collaros spread the ball around further on the field. He won’t play this week against the Riders, but expect to see him in action in mid-September once he’s out of quarantine.

Onto the games!

WEEK 4 RECAPS

Edmonton vs Toronto: Postponed indefinitely due to a COVID-19 outbreak on the Elks’ roster.

Hamilton 27 vs. Montreal 10: The Tiger-Cats got into the Win column for the first time in 2021, thanks to a combination of some effective special teams and an offence that was much more efficient compared to Hamilton’s first two games of the season. Dane Evans, starting for an injured Jeremiah Masoli, threw two touchdowns, while RB Sean Thomas-Erlington ran for another. DB and returner Frankie Williams had 184 combined yards on eight returns, and the Ti-Cats’ D stood strong. It was a disappointing effort for Montreal – the Als failed to score a point in the second half of the game, after being down by only a field goal at the half. It’s now the second week in a row that the team hasn’t adjusted well for the final two frames – the Als will need to learn how to close if they want to keep pace with Toronto and Hamilton.

PICK: Montreal

RESULT: Hamilton

BC 24 vs. Ottawa 12: As always, the REDBLACKS stunk it up on offence – which is really a shame, because the rest of the team played decently well. True, Michael Reilly threw for a touchdown and ran for another for the Lions, but the D was always going to have a tough time completely neutralizing him – more troubling for Ottawa is the team’s almost complete inability to score touchdowns. Lewis Ward, star kicker for Ottawa (yes, it really is a thing around these parts!) kicked four field goals to try and keep the REDBLACKS in it, but without the ability to put majors on the board, Ottawa has a long season ahead of them. BC returns to .500 with the win – and with the way their defence is playing (especially impressive in keeping the REDBLACKS to under 300 yards of offence in this game), they have a chance to hang onto that third seed in the West for a little while longer.

PICK: BC

RESULT: BC

Calgary 16 vs. Winnipeg 18: The score isn’t indicative of how quality a game this one really was… Stamps QB Jake Maier, in his second career start, had 17 consecutive completions to open the game (including a perfect first half), finishing with 307 yards on 30-39 attempts, while there were six lead changes that happened throughout. Star RB Andrew Harris returned to the lineup for Winnipeg after missing their first three games with a calf injury, and he made an immediate impact on the running game, rushing for 81 yards and a TD on 17 carries. With both teams kicking field goals continuously throughout, the Bombers were down by a single point late in the game; with 42 seconds left on the clock, rookie kicker Marc Liegghio kicked his fourth field goal of the game, this one from 45 yards, to put Winnipeg back on top. Calgary had just enough time for one final possession, but unfortunately for the Stamps, Rene Paredes missed on a field goal from 52 yards out; it fell seven yards short and was recovered by the Bombers to wind down the clock. Too little, too late, but at least Calgary fans have to be feeling better about their QB situation even with Bo Levi Mitchell still sidelined with a broken leg.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Winnipeg

BYE: Saskatchewan (3-0)

WEEK 5 PREVIEWS

Montreal (1-2) vs. Ottawa (1-2), Friday, September 3rd, 7:30 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): The Als can’t play second halves, while the REDBLACKS can’t score; one is a more pressing issue than the other. Ottawa HC Paul LaPolice has gone on record as stating the offence is “unacceptable”, and it appears to me that some more substantial changes will be coming if the current starters continue to fail to execute. Yes, Matt Nichols remains the #1 guy, but Dominique Davis – who had a disaster of a 2019 season – is also still on the roster, and even though Davis wasn’t the sole reason that the 2019 REDBLACKS played so poorly on offence, he is, to me, absolutely not the QB answer here either. I really hope they don’t switch – even though it may well be that Matt Nichols’ shoulder is completely toast. For Montreal, they just need to build consistency – the tools are all there, and simplifying the offensive playcalling and sustaining some longer drives will give their defence some longer rest periods, which will hopefully sustain them through a full 60 minutes.

PICK: Montreal

Winnipeg (3-1) vs. Saskatchewan (3-0), Sunday, September 5th, 6:00 PM EST (TSN, ESPNews): The league’s most drunken regular-season game every season, without fail. The Bombers and Riders are the two best teams in the entire league, and Saskatchewan is coming off of a bye week, rested and ready. This game is going to be fantastic. Winnipeg’s running game looked better last week against Calgary with Andrew Harris having returned to the lineup, while Saskatchewan continues to have an excellent group of receivers making life difficult for secondaries across the nation. I hope we see an offence-driven game for this one, but either way, the fans are still going to enjoy themselves.

PICK: Saskatchewan

Toronto (2-1) vs. Hamilton (1-2),  Monday, September 6th, 1:00 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): Hamilton has dominated the Battle of the Queen Elizabeth Way over the last few seasons, but Toronto has been a much improved team thus far through 2021. The Ti-Cats definitely looked much better offensively last week with Dane Evans under centre… one would assume that the team wants to ride the hot hand for a while, but Jeremiah Masoli did win the starting job out of training camp. If his ribs aren’t healed yet, however, it’s a moot point to ask the question. If this is a Dane Evans vs. Nick Arbuckle matchup at QB, I sincerely hope we have a gunslingers’ duel on our hands.

PICK: Toronto

Edmonton (1-2) vs. Calgary (1-3), Monday, September 6th, 4:30 PM EST (TSN, ESPNews): Calgary is better than their record suggests, while Edmonton is dealing with the fallout from COVID. Yes, the Stamps continue to miss Bo Levi Mitchell, but with Jake Maier playing at an extremely impressive level for a rookie, hopefully the team will be able to gut it out over the next few weeks. The Elks’ season, even after beating BC, has been a disaster thus far – and a Labour Day win would go far. That said, like the REDBLACKS, they also have an issue with closing out drives on offence – Trevor Harris has only thrown for two touchdowns thus far, and nobody has rushed for any. Those are some serious red flags, and they need to be addressed quickly if Edmonton wants to shake off all of the bad breaks they’ve had through the month of August.

PICK: Calgary

BYE: BC (2-2)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Reilly, BC – 974
2. Collaros, WPG – 956
3. Harris, EDM – 862

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 6
2. Adams, Jr., MTL – 5
3. Fajardo, SSK – 4

Rushing Yards

1. Wilder, EDM – 301
2. Carey, CGY – 251
3. Stanback, MTL – 234

Receiving Yards

1. Whitehead, BC – 339
2. Burnham, BC – 329
3. Lawler, WPG – 323

Sacks

1. Woodard, SSK – 5
2. Jeffcoat, WPG – 3
3. Leonard, SSK – 3

Interceptions

1. Kanneh, OTT – 2
2. Hardin, BC – 2
3. Sayles, BC – 1

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 12
2. Whyte, EDM – 10
3. Lauther, SSK – 9

PICK POOL

PoolTracker elected to list the Edmonton-Toronto game as “cancelled”, and award a point to everyone who submitted a pick for that game (although it appears that every single person in the pool chose the Argos for that one, lmao). Should this game get re-scheduled, this point should be deducted later on for an incorrect selection.

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=193216

Enjoy the games, everyone.