CFL Beat: Week 3

This heat wave affecting the Eastern seaboard sure is a pain in the ass, huh? As inconvenient as it all is, I’m grateful I just had my furnace replaced and A/C spritzed up in the house. I truly cannot imagine how some of you Bayou folks deal with this every single day from May through October. At any rate, by the time our next slate of CFL games rolls around shortly, we should be through the worst of things, at least.

In league news this week:

• Montreal signed former Calgary LB Titus Wall; he played 21 games over two seasons with the Stamps before suffering a shoulder injury last year in the Labour Day Classic against Edmonton. In those 21 games, he recorded 104 total tackles, four sacks, three interceptions, and three forced fumbles; with LB Reggie Stubblefield done for the year following his Week 1 ACL injury, the Als are hopeful Wall can be a suitable replacement for the 2024 season.
• Ottawa signed former Toronto DB Tarvarus McFadden; with some notable injuries to their secondary right now, it wouldn’t be surprising to see McFadden get promoted to the active roster sooner rather than later. Ottawa similarly has veterans Winston Rose and Sherrod Baltimore poised and ready for promotion depending on how injuries shake up this next little while.
• Thursday’s game between Ottawa and Montreal is going to be the first ever “augmented” live broadcast, which is being touted as a partnership between the CFL, official broadcaster TSN, Wilson (the official ball supplier to the league), and Genius Sports, responsible for real-time data and game metrics. Features are supposed to include player names, route diagrams, speed calculators, and more… cool concept or distracting, hokey gimmick? I suppose time will tell.

Onto the games!

WEEK 2 RECAPS

Winnipeg 19 vs. Ottawa 23: In his first appearance with his new team, former Blue Bomber Dru Brown led the REDBLACKS to a season-opening victory against his old one. Brown looked like the franchise QB the team has been so desperately missing since, arguably, Trevor Harris’ departure back in 2018; he was calm, poised, and confident, and Ottawa is now above the .500 mark for the first time since August 2021. That’s… quite the stat. RB Ryquell Armstead, a former fifth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, had 95 rush yards on 16 carries in his first career CFL appearance – with Devonte Williams on the shelf for the whole season after an Achilles tear in offseason training, Armstead’s chance to win the lead rusher position appears to have been a prudent training camp choice. Zach Collaros threw two interceptions in this game and had six passes swatted away; the REDBLACKS also sacked him three times. Collaros still has yet to throw a touchdown pass this season. Late in the game, thunder and lightning flashed and came down, and play was delayed by an hour waiting for the sky to clear; fortunately, the REDBLACKS were able to lock down and close out strong – something that was sorely missing almost all of last season.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Ottawa

Montreal 23 vs. Edmonton 20: The Als played a very tidy game and did a good job protecting the football while also socking it to the Elks on defence. WR Cole Spieker, who’s moved up the Als’ depth chart due to the departure of last year’s rookie of the year Austin Mack to the NFL, had a spectacular TD catch where he tipped Cody Fajardo’s pass to himself with one hand before corralling it in midair as he fell to the turf; the D also provided excellent coverage on McLeod Bethel-Thompson and his receivers. The front seven had three sacks and pressured the QB all night. MBT had a few notable underthrows, including one to Eugene Lewis where DB Nafees Lyon made an awesome move, and another intended for Dillon Mitchell picked off by DB Kabion Ento. Also noteworthy was the plays of Alouettes RB Walter Fletcher, who had 143 yards from scrimmage and two TDs on 15 touches; he appears poised to have a monster year now that William Stanback is out of the picture.

PICK: Montreal

RESULT: Montreal

Calgary 17 vs. BC 26: After getting pressured like crazy against Toronto, the Lions’ O-line responded with a better performance this past week against the Stamps. The Lions went into halftime leading 14-10, but the Stamps took back the lead with nine minutes left in the third quarter; Sean Whyte tied it back up with a field goal, and the Lions went on to win the game due to an excellent fourth quarter featuring a 59-yard completion from Vernon Adams, Jr. to receiver Ayden Eberhardt, which Adams then punched in himself on the next play from the goal line. Adams had a very good night, throwing two TDs to Alex Hollins and Justin McInnis, plus the winning rushing score as well. Calgary’s Jake Maier threw two TDs of his own to Marken Michel and Reggie Begelton, but couldn’t get the offence going late in the game; RB Dedrick Mills looked poised to set up Calgary with the tying score, but his fumble gave the ball back to the Lions, who ran down the clock successfully. Looks like the 50 Cent concert got the team, and crowd, sufficiently prepared for the home opener – with over 53,000 in attendance for the opening act and the game, the Lions set a new franchise record for the largest home opener crowd in team history.

PICK: BC

RESULT: BC

Saskatchewan 33 vs. Hamilton 30: Boy, I don’t know where the Riders keep finding all these horseshoes. For the second week in a row, the team produced a massive come-from-behind win; despite some sloppy, undisciplined play, the visitors put together a humongous second half to tie the game with 40 seconds left courtesy of Trevor Harris’ TD pass to Canadian receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker. While Tiger-Cats QB Bo Levi Mitchell had a good game, with 380 passing yards and 3 TDs, his interception, with just 35 seconds left to play, set up the Riders with the game-winning kick to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. That’s a tough ending to a game that started out so promising for the home side – despite the loss, that might have been the best individual performance we’ve seen from Bo Levi Mitchell since probably the 2021 season.

PICK: Saskatchewan

RESULT: Saskatchewan

BYE: Toronto (1-0)

WEEK 3 PREVIEWS

Ottawa (1-0) vs. Montreal (2-0), Thursday, June 20th, 7:30 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Als get to open their home schedule with the raising of a Grey Cup banner against their closest geographical rivals in Ottawa. Montreal has looked truly excellent to start this year – even more dominant than last year – and when you factor in their late regular-season and playoff run, plus this opening stretch to 2024, they haven’t lost a meaningful game in eight months. Truly impressive stuff – but they’re going to face a good test against an Ottawa team that looked similarly sharp last week. If the REDBLACKS don’t win this one, it won’t be because they got blown out – I have to give the advantage to the home side for this one, but I expect this to be one of the tightest contests between these two sides in quite some time. Always cool to see a resurgent East Division in the CFL after so many years of being a doormat.

PICK: Montreal

BC (1-1) vs. Winnipeg (0-2), Friday, June 21st, 8:30 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): Boy, the Bombers are reeling right now. It’s still incredibly early in the season, with ample time to right the ship (and let’s not forget about the injuries the team is dealing with right now as well), but these last two games are the worst this team has looked in a long, long time. If there was ever a year that the Lions were going to knock them off the West Division pedestal, this year might be it. Winnipeg doesn’t have a pass TD yet this season – that’s something that’s going to need to change in a big hurry if the team wants to turn it around quickly. For the Lions, the run game has improved compared to last season, but major free agent William Stanback probably still has more to give in him. He had 69 rush yards on 15 carries – a good outing – but I think that in order to truly be the best in the West this year, they’ll need him to hit 1000 yards on the season.

PICK: BC

Edmonton (0-2) vs. Toronto (1-0), Saturday, June 22nd, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): I still think McLeod Bethel-Thompson is a better QB than people give him credit for, but I think there are some communication issues that the Elks need to work out between their quarterback and their receivers in order to better fine-tune their passing game. The visitors are going to have their hands full once again as the Argos host them coming off an early-season bye, with fresh legs and the chance to watch a good amount of tape already. The Elks blew a late lead in Week 1 to Saskatchewan, and just couldn’t quite trade punches with Montreal, though they weren’t really out of it until the very end of things – but close doesn’t cut it. After four straight seasons of 0-2 starts, and with HC/GM Chris Jones sitting at just 8-30 since taking over the team in 2022, there’s reason to believe that despite his pedigree as a coach (including four Grey Cup rings), he may well be on the hot seat.

PICK: Toronto

Hamilton (0-2) vs. Saskatchewan (2-0), Sunday, June 23rd, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): This game is the second half of a home-and-home between the Tiger-Cats and Roughriders, and the host’s home opener in the provincial capital of Regina. With a nailbiter last week, I predict another tight one ahead. Saskatchewan’s main focus this week is going to have to be their discipline; they lead the league in flags after two weeks of the regular season, with 18 penalties for 199 yards conceded. Also noteworthy for this one will be how Tabbies receiver Tim White picks up his game; it’s not fair to pin a team’s troubles all on one player – especially when he wasn’t personally responsible for Hamilton getting outscored 26-10 in the second half – but he has had several extremely untimely drops through two games thus far this season. For a guy who wanted $300K in free agency, which only comes to guys who are head and shoulders above the other top receivers in a league, you can understand why some Steeltown fans are currently grumbling about his current contract situation. For Saskatchewan, the status of WR Shawn Bane, Jr. remains up in the air; he left last week’s contest in the second half with an injury.

PICK: Saskatchewan

BYE: Calgary (1-1)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Harris, SSK – 695
2. Mitchell, HAM – 680
3. Adams, Jr., BC – 640

Passing TDs

1. Harris, SSK – 5
2. Fajardo, MTL – 4
3. Maier, CGY – 4

Rushing Yards

1. Butler, HAM – 146
2. Mills, CGY – 133
3. Fletcher, MTL – 118

Receiving Yards

1. McInnis, BC – 194
2. Sterns, SSK – 193
3. Philpot, MTL – 190

Defensive Tackles

1. Hladik, BC – 20
2. Milligan, SSK – 18
3. Beverette, MTL – 14

Sacks

1. Barlow, HAM – 3
2. Brinkman, TOR – 2
3. Archibald, BC – 2

Interceptions

1. Addae, OTT – 1
2. Pickett, OTT – 1
3. Amos, TOR – 1

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 7
2. Liegghio, HAM – 6
3. Bede, EDM – 4

PICK POOL

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Enjoy the games, everyone.