• An update to the AC Leonard piss test saga from last week… Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said his star pass-rusher stuck around for four hours trying to provide a sample for the league’s drug testers. Unfortunately, his off-field performance was the complete opposite of his on-field performance, and upon his failure to relieve himself, he earned himself the mandatory suspension for not complying with drug testers, despite his best efforts. Dickenson added that his teammates “forgive him” for not letting things fly, and the team just wants to focus on football.
• The Ottawa REDBLACKS signed QB Devlin “Duck” Hodges to a three-year contract late last week; when he completes the CFL’s COVID quarantine protocols soon, he’s got every opportunity in the world to emerge with the starting job for the second half of the season. Pittsburgh Steelers fans will remember Hodges getting a few spot starts back in 2019, when The Ben was injured and Mason Rudolph playing like shite. At age 25, he’s much younger than either Matt Nichols or Dominique Davis, and it’s clear over the last season and a half that the REDBLACKS desperately need to find a long-term answer at QB. The current tandem simply ain’t gonna hack it. As for whether or not Hodges can actually make the adjustment to Canadian rules is a separate issue entirely, but with youth and NFL experience on his side, it seems like it’s a worthwhile gamble for Ottawa’s front office to make.
• The Alouettes signed former Ole Miss and Michigan QB Shea Patterson to their practise roster this week; with Vernon Adams, Jr. and Matthew Shiltz occupying the top two slots on the depth chart, I don’t expect to see him in game action anytime soon… unless something catastrophic. But then again, this is football we’re talking about, after all…
• Calgary signed two Americans to their roster; DB Javien Elliott, a four-year NFL vet with 52 games of experience in Carolina and Tampa Bay, and RB Aca’Cedric Ware, another former Bucs practise squadder. With the Stamps likely to start moving some vets towards the second half of the season, there may be an outside chance for both guys to get some looks on the field later this year.
• In another final bit of transaction news, Hamilton signed two former NFLers to the active roster this week – QB Jalen Morton, most recently a practise-squadder with Indianapolis, and LB Corey Thompson, who played with Buffalo for 18 total games in 2018 and 2019. With injuries starting to become an issue for the Ti-Cats… particularly at the quarterback positon… a little added practise squad depth never hurt anybody

Onto the games!

WEEK 7 RECAPS

Calgary 17 vs. Hamilton 23: With both Jeremiah Masoli and Dane Evans on injured reserve, David Watford finally got his first CFL start… and man, is he ever fortunate that the Ti-Cats’ D showed up to ball out in this one, because the offence did not have much going on for it. Equally distressing for Calgary fans is that Bo Levi Mitchell, two-time CFL MOP and the pride and joy of the franchise, was decisively outplayed by a guy making his first career start. Ti-Cats’ kicker Taylor Bertolet hit five field goals, and star LB Simoni Lawrence picked up his second pick-six of the season, running it back 15 yards for the major. Jake Maier relieved Mitchell in garbage time and added a late score, but an unsuccessful onside kick later and that was all she wrote for this one. A cool stat: Ti-Cats’ head coach Orlondo Steinauer remains unbeaten at home in his tenure as HC, which began in 2019. It’ll be interesting to see how much longer this streak lasts.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Hamilton

Toronto 16 vs. Saskatchewan 30: A big bounce-back win for the Roughriders, who were reeling after two straight losses to Winnipeg. With the home crowd firing them up, Gang Green grabbed an early lead and never looked back in this one. RB William Powell was a stud, with 21 carries for 122 yards, while Cody Fajado threw two touchdowns and ran for another, including one to Canadian rookie receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker. Nick Arbuckle had two scores of his own, but it was too little, too late – Toronto didn’t manage to put together a cohesive drive until the third quarter – and even by that point, it wouldn’t have made a difference. The Argos remain a maddeningly inconsistent team – good home at home, and poor on the road. How fortunate for them that the East has been so weak thus far this year.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Saskatchewan

BC 27 vs. Montreal 18: With no Khari Jones to coach the team, running backs coach Andre Bolduc stepped up to be the man in charge… and we did see lots of running from the Alouettes, but that was also in part due to two picks from QB Vernon Adams, Jr. Montreal failed to score a single touchdown this game, and were fortunate to have kicker David Coté go 6-6 on field goals, because this game would’ve been far more lopsided without his accuracy. The Lions won their third straight game; the offence appears to have found its groove over the last little while. Michael Reilly went 21-25 for 308 yards and two scores, while RB James Butler had 12 carries for 36 yards and a touchdown. Like their Eastern rivals in central Ontario, Montreal has remained a very inconsistent team thus far this year; in particular, Vernon Adams, Jr. needs to re-discover his creative playmaking abilities if the Alouettes want to take the next step forward and try to win the East.

PICK: BC

RESULT: BC

Winnipeg 37 vs. Edmonton 22: The Bombers continue to roll. Edmonton had a tough break late last week, putting QB Trevor Harris on the six-game injured list due to a lingering neck issue. In Harris’ absence, Elks QB Taylor Cornelius got his first career CFL start. An XFL vet with the Tampa Bay Vipers, Cornelius’ first CFL action was… pretty awful. He threw three picks and failed to score a touchdown, and was fortunately bailed out with two rushing TDs from James Wilder, Jr., and three field goals from Sean Whyte. The Elks temporarily had a 16-15 lead midway through the third quarter, thanks to Wilder’s second rushing score of the game, but Winnipeg, as the undisputed best team in the league, once again overcame adversity and found a way to win. Zach Collaros had 252 passing yards on 19-24 attempts, with a touchdown and a pick; Nic Demski and Sean McGuire added rushing scores for the Bombers.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Winnipeg

BYE: Ottawa (1-4)

WEEK 8 PREVIEWS

Hamilton (3-3) vs. Ottawa (1-4), Wednesday, September 22nd, 7:30 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): It’s the first meeting of the year for these two Eastern rivals; the Ti-Cats, dealing with injury issues, will be going with third-stringer David Watford at quarterback once again. The REDBLACKS, coming off the bye, won’t be able to start their big free agent acquisition Devlin Hodges just yet due to league quarantine protocols, so expect Dominique Davis to get his second straight start under centre. Also missing for Hamilton again is receiver Brandon Banks, which is a big hole in the passing game. True, the Tabbies’ offence looked pretty average last week, but that defence can blow things wide open. If Ottawa’s O-line continues to struggle at protecting the pocket, Simoni Lawrence and co. will feast.

PICK: Hamilton

Montreal (2-3) vs. Toronto (3-3), Friday, September 24th, 7:30 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): A matchup between two teams that just can’t seem to translate potential into consistency thus far in the season. The Alouettes will have Khari Jones back on the sidelines to coach the team once again, as he’s cleared the required 10-day isolation period after testing positive for COVID earlier last week and is now negative. For the Argos, there’s no place like home – they’re 2-0 at home versus 1-3 on the road, and hopefully this trend continues for their sake. Additionally for Toronto, pass rusher Charleston Hughes really needs to get going – he has just a single sack in five games so far this year. Disappointing production for one of the marquee free agents Toronto signed this offseason, but at age 37, Father Time may finally be catching up to him. Hughes’ invisibility on defence is just another issue emblematic of Toronto struggling to live up to expectations this year.

PICK: Toronto

Saskatchewan (4-2) vs. BC (4-2), Friday, September 24th, 10:30 PM EST (TSN, ESPN+): I think this game is going to be a lot of fun. BC has won three straight, while Saskatchewan looked much sharper last week against Toronto than previously in their Winnipeg matchups. When both teams are on, they’re on; most interesting in this one will be to see how playcalling looks against the ballhawking Lions secondary and the strong pass rush of the Riders. With BC favoured by just a single point at home, I fully expect our final score to be a very tight one.

PICK: Saskatchewan

BYE: Edmonton (2-4), Calgary (2-5), Winnipeg (6-1)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Collaros, WPG – 1931
2. Reilly, BC – 1601
3. Harris, EDM – 1481

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 10
2. Adams, Jr., MTL – 9
3. Reilly, BC – 8

Rushing Yards

1. Wilder, Jr., EDM – 499
2. Stanback, MTL – 485
3. Powell, SSK – 406

Receiving Yards

1. Whitehead, BC – 554
2. Jorden, CGY – 539
3. Lawler, WPG – 498

Sacks

1. Lemon, CGY – 6
2. Jeffcoat, WPG – 6
3. Woodard, SSK – 6

Interceptions

1. Lokombo, BC – 3
2. Nichols, WPG – 3
3. Gainey, SSK – 2

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 21
2. Whyte, EDM – 17
3. Lauther, SSK – 16

PICK POOL

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Enjoy the games, everyone.