As we roll into mid-August and close to the halfway point of the 2022 CFL regular season, there’s a few important things that fans have learned: the Bombers are elite, the Lions are fun as hell, and the entire East Division is the Keystone Kops. I look forward to what the back half of the schedule will show, particularly as it features a much larger number of divisional games amongst East teams, which will hopefully narrow the gap in sad-sack records we’ve experienced up to this point in the schedule.

In league news this week:

• The Saskatchewan Roughriders signed Canadian LB Jordan Herdman-Reed, who spent the 2021 season in green & white; his identical twin brother Justin is also a linebacker on the team.
• The injury bug is starting to hit some teams hard: Hamilton WR Bralon Addison has a torn Achilles, while Calgary DB Tre Roberson has a knee injury; both will miss the rest of the regular season.
• With Addison out, the Ti-Cats signed two receivers to bolster their depth – American Tony Brown, who’s spent time in the NFL with both Washington and Cleveland, and Canadian Tyler Turner. The team also brought back Canadian LB Myles Manalo, who played in three games last year as a rookie.
• The Saskatchewan Roughriders released RB Shaq Cooper and DB Malcom Lee; both players had hardly seen the field for the team this year.
• The Toronto Argonauts released QB Khalil Tate, and signed snapper Max Latour, a former Ottawa REDBLACK, and DB Maurice Carnell IV.
• The Edmonton Elks signed DL Jachai Polite and LB Nate Evans to their practise roster.

Onto the games!

WEEK 9 RECAPS

Winnipeg 35 vs. Montreal 20: Alouettes owner Gary Stern again hopped on Twitter last week, guaranteeing a win for the home side… alas, once again it was not to be. The Bombers, despite still not having had a bye week yet this year, continue their winning ways. That said, this game remained fairly close up until the final quarter, when Winnipeg scored three TDs to pull away from the Als and clinch the game. Zach Collaros was picked off three times by a ballhawking Montreal D, but his two strikes to Dalton Schoen and Rasheed Bailey almost made up for the mistakes; Winnipeg was really fortunate to get a fantastic 57-yard punt return score from Janarion Grant that sealed the deal in the final frame.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Winnipeg

Calgary 17 vs. Ottawa 3: What a stinker of a game from the REDBLACKS. They’ve recorded just two home wins since 2019 – just an absolutely atrocious performance that is, in full honesty, just crippling the franchise. Caleb Evans had an awful outing, giving up a pick-six to Stamps DB Titus Wall, and fumbling deep in the red zone on another drive that just killed all momentum for the team. Nick Arbuckle replaced Evans at QB midway through the third quarter, but he couldn’t muster up a whole lot more on offence, and threw two interceptions within the three-minute warning. Bo Levi Mitchell didn’t have a great offensive night either, but the Stampeders pulled out a gritty win all the same despite missing HC Dave Dickenson, who was still in COVID protocols when the game took place.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Calgary

Hamilton 20 vs. Toronto 34: In the first Battle of the QEW of the 2022 season, the Argos’ D put together a fantastic performance to pull off an impressive comeback victory. After being down by 11 earlier in the game, the score was knotted at 17 when Argos DL Benoit Marion recovered Ti-Cats K Michael Domagala’s blocked punt, returning it 24 yards for the go-ahead TD. Later, with just over two minutes remaining in the game, Dane Evans threw yet another back-breaking interception, with Toronto LB Chris Edwards picking off the ball and returning it 40 yards for another defensive score that iced the game for the home side. As ridiculous as it is that these two teams will play each other three more times in the next four weeks, at least we’re almost always going to get some really entertaining football out of the rivalry.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Toronto

Edmonton 14 vs. BC 46: Nathan Rourke just ruined Edmonton for the second time this season. Remember back in Week 1 when the Lions scored 59 points against these same Elks? We were all impressed then with the young Canadian quarterback, but he topped his own performance from the season opener with some jaw-dropping numbers; 34-37 for 477 yards, five touchdowns, and a rushing major. He’s the runaway favourite for both Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian as we approach the halfway mark of the season – and despite the protests of some Blue Bomber fans on Facebook, the race is not close. The Elks simply had no answers for the red-hot Lions offence – with Rourke able to spread the ball around so effectively to three elite receivers in Lucky Whitehead, Bryan Burnham, and Dominique Rhymes, the game was virtually over by halftime anyway.

PICK: BC

RESULT:  BC

BYE: Saskatchewan (4-4)

WEEK 10 PREVIEWS

Montreal (2-6) vs. Winnipeg (9-0), Thursday, August 11th, 8:30 PM EDT (TSN, ESPN+): If the Bombers win this rematch with the Alouettes – which is looking really likely at this point – they’ll have matched their best opening record since 1960 when they started the season 10-0. We’re witnessing something truly special right now in Canadian football – coming off of two consecutive Grey Cup wins and even with some key contributors from 2021 having moved on, this might be the best Bombers team we’ve seen during Mike O’Shea’s time as head coach. The Alouettes had their hands full last week – even with their D stepping up to put pressure on Zach Collaros, the Bombers’ own defensive unit responded in kind. Key lesson for the Alouettes: don’t let your owner guarantee wins. It really doesn’t end well, apparently.

PICK: Winnipeg

Toronto (4-3) vs. Hamilton (2-6), Friday, August 12th, 7:30 PM EDT (TSN, ESPN+): It’s another rematch, as the two southern Ontario teams square off yet again. As the geographic rivalry has been condensed into such a compact schedule this year, I look forward to seeing what will happen from a personality standpoint – while it’s unlikely we see another instance of the giant fight that happened in last year’s East Final, I can only expect that further controversy will somehow emerge one way or another. The Argos clearly have an excellent defence, but the O still needs some work to find consistency. The Ti-Cats just need to stop turning the ball over – we’ve seen this as a problem for over half the year, but nothing has been done about it – Dane Evans had a chance to put together a game-tying drive last week, but yet again, poor decision-making resulted in a pick-six and another dagger for Hamilton. As such, it’ll be interesting to see what Matthew Shiltz will do under centre for the Tabbies this week; Evans is currently nursing a shoulder injury.

PICK: Toronto

BC (6-1) vs. Calgary (5-2), Saturday, August 13th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, ESPN+): Calgary is a good football team, but they have offensive problems; RB Ka’Deem Carey was out last week against the REDBLACKS and without an effective run game, Calgary struggled to score points. Against the Lions, they’ll need every point they can possibly get, as BC’s pass-happy attack has pulverized every team they’ve faced this year; even in their lone loss to Winnipeg, Nathan Rourke still had three pass TDs. The Stampeders will get their head coach back for this game, and not a moment too soon. They’re going to have their hands full this week.

PICK: BC

Saskatchewan (4-4) vs. Edmonton (2-6), Saturday, August 13th, 10:00 PM EDT (TSN, ESPN+): The Riders come off their bye week hopefully feeling rested; that said, after their recent slide down the standings, they have some significant discipline issues that still need to be addressed. Cody Fajardo’s knee is still in a bad state even after a week of rest; the fact that they still feel the need to trot him out there to try and keep pace with the rest of the West seems pretty wild to me at this point. Getting CFL sack co-leader Pete Robertson back in lineup will be a welcome boost. Meanwhile, the Elks still need to find an identity; last week’s loss was likely demoralizing, especially considering it’s the second time they’ve been blown out this year by BC. The Elks also need a home win so, so badly. Fans are upset, and even in a rebuild, I can’t fault them.

PICK: Saskatchewan

BYE: Ottawa (1-7)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards 

1. Rourke, BC – 2418
2. Evans, HAM – 2229
3. Collaros, WPG – 2204

Passing TDs

1. Rourke, BC – 21
2. Collaros, WPG – 17
3. Evans, HAM – 10

Rushing Yards

1. Morrow, SSK – 484
2. Harris, TOR – 471
3. Carey, CGY – 471

Receiving Yards

1. Lewis, MTL – 742
2. Acklin, OTT – 715
3. Schoen, WPG – 641

Sacks

1. Robertson, SSK – 7
2. Mauldin, OTT – 7
3. Howsare, HAM – 5

Interceptions

1. Marshall, SSK – 3
2. Peters, BC – 3
3. Taylor, WPG – 3

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 24
2. Lauther, SSK – 22
3. Ward, OTT – 20

PICK POOL

Yeehaw! I had a perfect week! Suck it, all the rest of you nincom– aw, crap. Oh well. At least I felt special for two whole seconds this time.

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

Enjoy the games, everyone.