School is back, and I’m still in denial about it. Unlike in the South, it’s highly unusual to be teaching when the humidex hits 104 degrees… so the start of this school year has been especially unpleasant from a weather perspective. I sure hope some

In league news this week:

• The CFLPA was extremely concerned about the air quality in the Edmonton-Calgary Labour Day Classic matchup on Monday, and actually lodged a formal notice to the CFL that players needed to be pulled off the field midway through the game. While the league says that the air quality measurements taken in the field were all within the “moderate” zone, the data from Environment Canada suggests that the majority of the city of Calgary was experiencing ratings somewhere in the 8-10, or “poor” range. If it’s true that the league knew and refused to operate by the agreement signed between them and the PA, I suppose that opens things up for legal complaints? I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to play one on TV.
• Roughriders DL Pete Robertson was suspended one game for his late hit on Blue Bombers QB Zach Collaros; despite the fact that he clearly head-butted Collaros on the play, he wasn’t actually penalized in the game for the infraction. He’ll miss this week’s Banjo Bowl – the rematch of the Labour Day Classic that just took place on Monday.
• Toronto signed QB Chad Kelly to a three-year contract extension worth $1.865 million in total, or just over $600,000 CAD per season; this keeps him with the team through the 2027 season, though like with all CFL deals, he’ll have a window to sign with an NFL team at the beginning of free agency in February. While this is still a good deal for the Argos, they also haven’t paid this much for a QB since trading for Ricky Ray back in 2012; with a bigger chunk of the salary now devoted to a true QB1, some cost savings on the roster are incoming.
• The Argos also signed Canadian OL Peter Nicastro to a three-year extension; he’ll be making some big money for the CFL – north of $200K CAD each year, but as a Canadian who can play both guard and centre – not to mention still being only 24 – Toronto did well to lock him up to these terms. He’ll be a big fixture on the offensive line for years to come.
• Stampeders LB Titus Wall is probably done for the year; the second-leading tackler for Calgary, he went down on the first defensive play of last week’s game against Edmonton. Calgary’s the league leader in man-games lost to injury, and the hits just keep coming, it seems.

Onto the games!

WEEK 13 RECAPS

BC 34 vs. Montreal 25: Last week I said that the Lions were going to live and die by how well Vernon Adams, Jr. played in each game remaining. Fortunately for them, he absolutely delivered in his first appearance back in Montreal since his fateful trade to Vancouver last season. Having dropped three of their previous four games, Adams, Jr. had an immaculate game, going 21-33 for 306 yards and 3 TDs in a back-and-forth game that finally saw the Lions go ahead for good in the fourth quarter. Montreal struggled to protect Cody Fajardo again – he faced a strong BC pass rush and threw two more interceptions in this game – but the run game saw a little more usage, as star RB William Stanback finally recorded his first TD of the year on a huge 69-yard run (nice); unfortunately for the Alouettes, they just couldn’t put together a good fourth quarter, with Fajardo picked off by Leos DBs Quincy Mauger and TJ Lee, and the D unable to stop RB Tyquan Mizzell on a TD run that iced it for the visitors.

PICK: Montreal

RESULT: BC

Winnipeg 30 vs. Saskatchewan 32 (OT): This was a truly excellent football game, save for the Pete Robertson headbutting antics. Winnipeg didn’t look like their usual dominant selves on the field – credit to the Riders home crowd for disrupting them all afternoon – but still managed to jump ahead in the fourth quarter thanks to a late rushing score by RB Brady Oliveira. Saskatchewan, who controlled the play for the vast majority of the game, put together a successful field goal to knot the score at 24 and send the game to OT. Jake Dolegala, in just his third career CFL start, showed off his arm strength once again, and in OT managed to find WR Sam Emilus and RB Jamal Morrow for big gains, before backup QB Antonio Pipkin punched it in for the TD. Dolegala then found receiver Shawn Bane, Jr. for the successful two-point attempt. Winnipeg scored on literally the very next play in OT – Zach Collaros found WR Kenny Lawler for a long-bomb TD – but couldn’t convert the two-point attempt, giving the victory to the Roughriders and preventing the Bombers from clinching a playoff spot.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Saskatchewan

Toronto 41 vs. Hamilton 28: The Argos dominated their QEW archrivals once again, claiming a Labour Day Classic victory after another strong performance. The Argos scored 17 points in the first quarter, and while they didn’t score in the second quarter, still put up another 24 in the second half despite taking their foot off the gas pedal. Chad Kelly, fresh off a contract extension, threw two TDs and ran in another, though he did see his statline marred by two interceptions. RB AJ Ouellette also had a strong game, rushing for 79 yards and also finding WR Dejon Brissett for a 26-yard TD pass on a trick play. Hamilton only put some sustained drives together in the second half of this game; rookie Taylor Powell threw three TDs but continued to get little help from his defence. For a team so eager to play in a Grey Cup at home this year, this season really has been a poor one. Luckily for them that things have been even worse in Ottawa.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Toronto

Edmonton 31 vs. Calgary 35: Tre Ford absolutely dominated the Stampeders all game long – the Elks QB rushed for 135 yards on the night, a CFL record for Canadian quarterbacks – but at the end of the day, couldn’t come out with the win. Edmonton was up by 11 points with just over five minutes left to play in the game, but unfortunately, their defence imploded and allowed Calgary two touchdown drives to storm back and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Jake Maier led the Stamps down the field both times, but had backup QB Tommy Stevens punch in the first one from the goal line to draw within three points of the Elks, while Dedrick Mills scored from four yards out with just 20 seconds left to ice the comeback. I truly did not see this finish happening – Edmonton looked thoroughly in control for almost the whole game – but while it might also be fair to say that Calgary was aided by a timely pass interference call before the Stevens TD, you, as a team, also can’t allow yourselves to get in situations that burn you that hard. Edmonton drops to 2-10 after burning a game they probably should’ve won.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Calgary

BYE: Ottawa (3-8)

WEEK 14 PREVIEWS

Hamilton (4-7) vs. Ottawa (3-8), Friday, September 8th, 7:30 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): The last time these two teams faced each other, the Ti-Cats completely neutralized Dustin Crum by placing a spy on him at all times – it worked fantastically for them. The previous game also saw Bo Levi Mitchell unnecessarily in at the end of the game, and he broke his leg, ending back on the six-game injured list for the second time this season. Both these teams have been disappointments this year, but with Ottawa, it’s been chronic. Crum is a good QB but is still young and needs more time – mostly, the coaching needs to be better. At least Hamilton’s offence, which was anemic under Tommy Condell, is showing some more zip since Scott Milanovich took over the reins a few weeks ago.

PICK: Hamilton

Montreal (6-5) vs. Toronto (9-1), Saturday, September 9th, 1:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Alouettes remain overall a good team, but the overarcing theme of this season appears to be “close, but no cigar”. They can’t seem to close out games or successfully mount comebacks on any consistent basis. A lot of that has to do with their poor pass protection – Cody Fajardo has been just driven into dust this year. Expect more of the same as Montreal heads on the road to take on the league’s best team. There were a lot of trick plays and elaborate celebrations last week against the Ti-Cats, and if there’s criticism to be had of their performance last week, it’s that the Argos didn’t quite have the same focus in the second half as they did out of the gate. The Als played them close earlier this year, so they’ll need to be sharp as ever to keep on their winning ways.

PICK: Toronto

Saskatchewan (6-5) vs. Winnipeg (9-3), Saturday, September 9th, 4:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Riders are flying high after the dramatics of last week’s OT win. While a big win in front of a supportive home crowd is always a great thing, they’ll still be in tough to repeat the feat in this week’s rematch in Manitoba. The Blue Bombers still jumped ahead with a late lead despite playing a decidedly mediocre game; all it takes for another blowout win are a couple of plays like what we saw Zach Collaros do in OT with that deep shot TD to Kenny Lawler. The fact that Winnipeg has the capacity to do that at literally any point when they’re on offence – with at least four different receivers – is a terrifying prospect to consider as a DC. Maybe Pete Robertson was onto something with that headbutt.

PICK: Winnipeg

Calgary (4-8) vs. Edmonton (2-10), Saturday, September 9th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): Hard to find myself saying that Edmonton pretty well deserved to win last week’s game – apart from their late collapse – but man, Tre Ford deserves better. If there’s any redeeming factor of this lost season, it’s that the Elks have been way more fun since Ford took the reins as a starting QB. The fact that he’s a Canadian doing cool stuff doesn’t hurt for marketing purposes either – and it’s a sign that CIS football is home to some pretty darn good athletes. Still, a loss is a loss, and it has to hurt double knowing that the Elks had the chance to pass Calgary in the standings last week (thanks to their head-to-head record) and blew it. Devastating injuries aside this year, the Stampeders appear to be somewhat righting the ship as of late – but a lot is going to have to right over this final third of the season if they want to leapfrog Saskatchewan for the final playoff spot in the West – perhaps a crossover into the East may yet happen if the Tiger-Cats and REDBLACKS continue to flounder.

PICK: Calgary

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards 

1. Maier, CGY – 3100
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 2957
3. Collaros, WPG – 2817

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 22
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 20
3. Kelly, TOR – 18

Rushing Yards

1. Oliveira, WPG – 990
2. Ouellette, TOR – 710
3. Butler, HAM – 701

Receiving Yards

1. Mack, MTL – 971
2. Hollins, BC – 879
3. Begelton, CGY – 863

Defensive Tackles

1. Awe, CGY – 86
2. Morgan, EDM – 74
3. Dean, SSK – 65

Sacks

1. Betts, BC – 12
2. Leonard, EDM – 10
3. Orimolade, TOR – 9

Interceptions

1. Houston, WPG – 7
2. Dandridge, OTT – 4
3. Daniel, TOR – 4

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 38
2. Whyte, BC – 32
3. Cote, MTL – 31

PICK POOL

Bigs ups to Don T on the perfect week last week. He’s a later entry to the pick pool but is quickly making a name for himself; like Tre Ford, a championship may not be in the immediate future, but watch out for him in 2024.

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=205786

Enjoy the games, everyone.