CFL Beat: Week 9

I’m leaving in just a few days for the East Coast for a whole month of vacation. I sure hope I’ll be able to keep sneaking away for football watching – but that time difference, especially for watching those West Coast games, is killer – that 11 PM start time in Atlantic time is not conducive to staying up to watch the entire thing. At any rate, I intend to continue feeding the content monster as best as I can even as we do our best to plan the few remaining details of our wedding and try to find a few moments to relax here and there as well.

In league news this week:

• In a surprising move from last Friday, the Toronto Argonauts released WR Rasheed Bailey. This feels like a curious move to me, as he was leading the team in receptions; but it was likely spurred with an impending salary cap crunch due to Chad Kelly’s imminent return in just a couple of weeks. With a number of promising rookies on cheap deals, Bailey was the odd man out from a financial standpoint. That said, he’s going to get snapped up very quickly, I have no doubt – apparently there’s already been talks of him returning to Winnipeg, where the list of receiver injuries continues to grow.
• Former BC Lions QB Nathan Rourke, a Canadian who took the league by storm in 2022, left for the NFL after being signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2023; he also spent time with New England before being cut by the New York Giants this past week. It’s hard for CFL QBs, and especially Canadian ones, to get much traction in the NFL, and it’s hard to say if his NFL career is truly done. If it is, all nine teams should be tripping over themselves to sign him as a free agent – for teams even with solid quarterbacks already in place, Rourke was better by a country mile than every single one of them, even in his injury-shortened 2022 campaign. Getting him on your roster instantly makes you a serious Grey Cup contender.
• A cool human interest story: CFL fan Chris Tymofichuk, an Ottawa resident, has unofficially broken a Guinness World Record for the fastest amount of time to see a CFL game in all nine stadiums. The current record stands at 364 hours, but Tymofichuk completed his attempt in 362.5 hours. It wasn’t all smooth – he forgot a GPS tracker monitoring his data in the Calgary airport terminal at one point, and his car’s engine blew up between Ottawa and Montreal, forcing him to get a cab to nearby Hawkesbury in order to snag a rental car to make it through busy Montreal traffic and catch the Alouettes game on time… but it all went successfully in the end. Tymofichuk was carrying a bucket with him to all the games to collect money for cancer research; not sure how much he raised, but I’m sure those totals are coming soon. You can check out his Twitter account documenting the journey here, or read this article from the REDBLACKS’ team site for more info as well.

Onto the games!

WEEK 8 RECAPS

Saskatchewan 16 vs. Montreal 20: Sometimes your third-string quarterback provides the boost your team needs to turn things around. With starter Cody Fajardo recently added to the six-game IL and backup Caleb Evans struggling significantly, Davis Alexander came off the bench in the second half of this game to rally the Alouettes to a big comeback win over the visiting Roughriders. In the first half, Saskatchewan had the rushing attack going; backup RB Frankie Hickson, starting in place of an injured AJ Ouellette, had 117 yards on the ground, and Montreal just couldn’t get any rhythm going on their offensive possessions. When Alexander came in, the Als were down 16-3, and he managed to turn that around into a 20-16 final score with twelve straight completions to open the half, two TD passes, no turnovers, and 15-18 completions for 178 yards. A tidy night of work for the young pivot. If he can maintain that level of play, he may well jump Caleb Evans in the depth chart. With Saskatchewan dealing with their own litany of injuries right now, the collapse is unfortunate, but also somewhat understandable. They’re still tied with BC for the best record in the West right now. Hopefully Trevor Harris’ return in the next few weeks will provide another boost.

PICK: Saskatchewan

RESULT: Montreal

Calgary 6 vs. Ottawa 33: I legitimately cannot remember the last time I saw the REDBLACKS dominate a game in the way they did last week. From start to finish, the REDBLACKS just completely outclassed the Stampeders in every way and moved to a perfect 4-0 at home. With five wins in seven games, they’ve beaten their season win total (four) in each of their past two seasons. Even if things completely fall apart from here on out, they are still mathematically a better team than what fans have seen in a long, long, long time. I was truly surprised to see Calgary get so outgunned – the Ottawa front seven were absolutely merciless and terrorized Jake Maier all night, while rookie receiver Kalil Pimpleton appears to be an absolute stud. Beyond his seven catches for 80 yards, he also ripped off an electric 99-yard punt return TD in the third quarter that was truly the dagger in the Stamps’ heart. Big credits to QB Dru Brown for an almost perfect game – he went 30-37 for 325 yards and a TD, and with RB RyQuell Armstead ejected from the game early in the second quarter due to picking up two personal fouls, he was called to do a lot on the night. Hard to believe that 5-2 is the best start in (rebooted) franchise history – the schedule is going to get tougher still, but this win sure makes Ottawa look like a pretty legit team right now.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Ottawa

Winnipeg  14 vs. Toronto 16 (OT): An entertaining, offensively-inclined football game, this was not. It took extra time to finally resolve things and see the Argos walk off with a big home win, but make no mistake – this victory came pretty much solely on the backs of an extremely impressive defensive effort. The Argos’ front seven created immense pressure on Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros and sacked him five times, while newly-signed DB Tarvarus McFadden scored a pick-six – the only Toronto TD of the game – in the fourth quarter to give the Argos the lead. Winnipeg’s had over 400 yards of offence and conceded just over 200 – these are games the team should win. But they didn’t. Most controversially, the Bombers missed a key third-and-one opportunity at the end of the game that turned the ball over on downs, rather than play more conservatively and kick a field goal. For a team that has historically been good at those short-yardage situations (which are also overall easier in Canadian rules due to defences being forced to line up one yard from the line of scrimmage), it was incredibly surprising to not see them execute it properly. And it ended up costing them. Rather than convert and run the clock down and perhaps kick a slightly later field goal to win, the teams went to OT, where the Argos pulled out the late victory on their possession thanks to a 43-yard field goal from Lirim Hajrullahu.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Toronto

Hamilton 44 vs. Edmonton 28: Luther Hakunavanhu had a monster 66-yard TD late in the first half to crack the game open for the Ti-Cats, and he continues to show strong chemistry over the last couple of weeks with Bo Levi Mitchell (who had five TDs in this one – a career first!) dating back to their time together in Calgary. Five catches on the season – and three TDs. Weird stat line for sure.  At any rate, the Elks looked completely hapless in this contest until Tre Ford, last year’s Canadian QB sensation, finally entered the game with ten minutes left to play. Yes, it was garbage time, and yes, Hamilton was probably leaning more towards a prevent defence, but Ford scored three TDs on 10-15 passing for 121 yards in his limited game time. The Elks’ secondary has been trash all year long, but the dramatic transformation in their offence was remarkable the second that Ford saw the field. If he doesn’t start next week, fans will riot, and they’ll be right to do so.

PICK: Hamilton

RESULT: 

BYE: BC (5-2)

WEEK 9 PREVIEWS

BC (5-2) vs. Winnipeg (2-6), Thursday, August 1st, 8:30 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): The Lions are coming off a bye feeling rested; the Bombers are coming off yet another poor offensive effort. I think it’s now officially time for Winnipeg to panic a bit. They’ve had a really great run these past few seasons, with two Grey Cups and two other finals appearances, but Zach Collaros is looking washed – though to be fair, he also hasn’t had the same O-line protection that we’ve been accustomed to seeing this past while. Same with missing several top receivers… if this team continues to falter, then it’s probably time to blow things up and revamp the roster.

PICK: BC

Montreal (6-1) vs. Hamilton (-), Friday, August 2nd, 7:30 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): I think we’re going to see Davis Alexander under centre again for Montreal this week. Based on his second-half performance against the Roughriders, he’s earned the opportunity. Cody Fajardo’s going to miss a few more weeks, and the chance for a young pivot to get some good game snaps in, against a relatively easy opponent in Hamilton, is an important step in his development. Hamilton has played some better football over the last few weeks, but they remain a relatively inexperienced team defensively, particularly in the secondary, and despite their improvement as of late still find themselves in a hole in what is proving to be quite a deep East division.

PICK: Montreal

Edmonton (-) vs. Saskatchewan (5-2), Saturday, August 3rd, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): Saskatchewan is definitely good at running the ball – with no AJ Ouellette last week, Frankie Hickson performed very well in his absence. That’s a useful feature for an offence, but they also need to see Shea Patterson gain more refinement to his snaps and go through his reads with more fluidity. That’s not something that develops overnight for young QBs, of course, and so they’ll have to be patient. The Riders sit tied with BC for the best record in the West right now, so it’s not all doom and gloom – but I thnk that they’d also like to not be in a position where Trevor Harris feels like he has to rush back too soon in order to keep up in the playoff hunt. The sky is certainly not falling in Regina right now. A decisive win over these sad-sack Edmonton Elks is probably just what the doctor ordered coming up. That said, one has to think that we’re not likely to see McLeod Bethel-Thompson in an Elks uniform much longer considering how Edmonton’s offence has dried up since Chris Jones’ firing. With Tre Ford’s brief but electric performance last week, it’s been truly inexplicable how the coaching and management has had such little faith in him these last two seasons.

PICK: Saskatchewan

Toronto (4-3) vs. Calgary (3-4), Sunday, August 4th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): Considering how thoroughly Calgary got stomped last week, I think their best course of action is simply to burn the game tape. They’ve had some flashes of brilliance this year – a big win over BC and a great offensive showing against Winnipeg before that – but defensively they need to be more consistent and the O-line needs to a better job of protecting the pocket. Toronto’s offence is limping along right now, but RB Ka’Deem Carey remains a bright spot for the team. There’s just two more games left until starting QB Chad Kelly is eligible to return. I still think he probably doesn’t deserve the right to return to the league based on his appalling personal conduct, but there’s no denying that he’s a better player than both Cameron Dukes and Nick Arbuckle, both of whom looked pretty inept last week. If Toronto can play a very simplified game and lean towards a ground & pound scheme, I think they can come out with a road win here.

PICK: Toronto

BYE: Ottawa (5-2)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Adams, Jr., BC – 2395
2. Mitchell, HAM – 2257
3. Brown, OTT – 1881

Passing TDs

1. Mitchell, HAM – 17
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 14
3. Maier, CGY – 11

Rushing Yards

1. Oliveira, WPG – 511
2. Carey, TOR – 491
3. Mills, CGY – 406

Receiving Yards

1. McInnis, BC – 780
2. Philpot, MTL – 690
3. Hollins, BC – 663

Defensive Tackles

1. Morgan – 45
2. Wilson, HAM – 44
3. Beverette, MTL – 43

Sacks

1. Ceresna, TOR – 5
2. Archibald, BC – 4
3. Johnson, MTL – 4

Interceptions

1. Milligan, SSK – 4
2. Roberson, CGY – 3
3. Williams, SSK – 2

Field Goals

1. Ward, OTT – 25
2. Whyte, BC – 24
3. Castillo, WPG – 22

PICK POOL

No perfect scores once again this week; I will note that reviewing the picks matrix that I was apparently the only person to pick the Riders on the road last week. Considering how that game turned out, that makes me an idiot. But I repeat myself.

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=231808

Enjoy the games, everyone.