We have a weird week in the CFL; there’s no bye week happening, and we have five games scheduled – this means that one team will draw the short end of the stick and have to play twice during this time frame. This year, my beloved Ottawa REDBLACKS lost out and have to be the poor, unfortunate buggers that have to deal with this; if they can’t get at least one win, heads are gonna start to roll in the nation’s capital. I, personally, would really prefer that they didn’t. Unfortunately, screaming at my TV seems to have had less effect than last year so far. I blame Russia for this, as I do when most things in my life go awry.

Onto the games!

WEEK 4 RECAPS

Toronto 25 vs. Winnipeg 33: Surprisingly, this game took a back seat to an off-the-field kerfuffle, where Karen Kuldys, a Winnipeg resident, lost a million-dollar grand prize from local grocery chain Safeway after referees incorrectly reversed a call on what would have been the second kickoff returned for a touchdown in this game. While Kuldys was admittedly disappointed at the call, the CFL, the Blue Bombers and Safeway all reached out to her to try and make amends for the inexplicable decision-making that prevented her payout. She received, in all, season tickets to the Blue Bombers for this year and next; a trip to the Grey Cup game in Ottawa for her and her entire family; a year’s worth of free groceries; 500,000 Air Miles (worth around about $50,000 CAD); and a home entertainment system worth $25,000 CAD. Not a bad consolation prize, but definitely not as great as a million bucks would have been. As for the game, it was actually a pretty entertaining tilt  – Argos rookie kick returner Martese Jackson, in particular, had an incredible night; he returned 5 kicks for 148 total yards, as well as for a 78-yard touchdown run that saw him pull in close to the sideline but still remain in play (If that kickoff return hadn’t been negated on the incorrect illegal block in the back call, his total would have been even higher). Unfortunately for the Argos, Ricky Ray got picked off twice by Winnipeg’s ball-hawking secondary – Maurice Leggett and TJ Heath each snagged a throw. Andrew Harris also added two touchdowns on 17 carries for 81 yards for the Blue Bombers, who made up for a listless effort last week against Calgary.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Winnipeg

Calgary 23 vs. Montreal 30: The Alouettes’ passing game finally came alive, and just at the right time. The very first play of the game was an 80-yard Darian Durant bomb to Ernest Jackson, who hauled it in deep – he would finish the night with 118 yards receiving. All in all, this was a big upset – in games where Bo Levi Mitchell was the starting quarterback for the Stampeders, they hadn’t lost in 19 consecutive regular-season matchups. While Durant threw two picks, the ability to get completions and move the ball through the air – besides Jackson, receiver BJ Cunningham finished with 73 yards while Nik Lewis & Tiquan Underwood had 42 and 41, respectively – gives their offence the versatility they’ve long been looking for. Running back Tyrell Sutton also had 3 catches for 22 yards while adding another 85 on the ground as well as a touchdown. The Stamps ended up having to go pass-heavy on the night after starting RB Jerome Messam got ejected for an extremely egregious facemask on DB Branden Dozier, who had just scooped up Messam’s fumble and ran it back for a defensive TD. Bo Levi Mitchell ended his night with 396 yards on 34-50 pass attempts for a touchdown and no interceptions; Kamar Jorden led all Calgary receivers with 140 yards on 9 catches.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Montreal

Ottawa 21 vs. Edmonton 23: For the fourth consecutive week, the Ottawa REDBLACKS beat themselves. They jumped out to an early 9-0 lead in the first quarter, but after a missed convert attempt after a quarterback sneak rushing TD from 3rd-stringer Ryan Lindley, the team started to come apart at the seams; following a Sean Whyte field goal to get the Esks on the board, Edmonton pounced on a failed lateral pass from Trevor Harris to Brad Sinopoli and ran it back for a touchdown. Adding on a Mike Reilly strike to Adarius Bowman in the end zone, Edmonton would take a 17-9 lead into halftime. In the third, after another Edmonton field goal, Ottawa made it 20-15 with RB William Powell scoring a TD on a 2-yard punch-in, but then missed the subsequent 2-point attempt. Down 23-15 late in the fourth, Trevor Harris connected with Josh Stangby for a touchdown with 30 seconds left on the clock, but again, the REDBLACKS missed the 2-pointer afterwards, and couldn’t recover the onside kick for one last gasp. Those missed extra points will be haunting them for sure – I expect they’ll be running those plays a ton in practise this week, though they’ll have limited opportunity to do so with 2 games in 6 days coming up.

PICK: Edmonton

RESULT: Edmonton

BC 41 vs. Hamilton 26: When Jonathon Jennings went down with an injury to his throwing shoulder on the Lions’ first offensive play of the game, backup QB Travis Lulay – the 2011 CFL Most Outstanding Player – not only came in off the bench to lead BC to a win, but also set a career high in single-game passing yards, and shattered the league record for most yards by a quarterback coming in off the bench. Lulay finished his night with 29-36 completions for 436 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 2 picks, while also tacking on a rushing touchdown of his own. After an initial 13-6 Ti-Cats lead coming off some effective ball movement by Zach Collaros and Hamilton’s defence pouncing on Lions WR Marco Iannuzzi’s fumble, BC managed to take over with two touchdowns in 59 seconds thanks to Travis Lulay marching 95 yards on 8 plays, followed by T.J. Lee picking off Collaros shortly afterwards and Lulay subsequently connecting with Nick Moore to make Hamilton pay once again. It was in the third quarter, though, that the game featured an absolutely bananas catch from Bryan Burnham that is undoubtedly going to be included in Catch Of The Year videos for football of all levels and varieties. Seriously, check this shit out.

Hamilton lost almost all momentum in the second half, and BC pulled away afterwards. Additionally, Lions fans received good news when according to the Province newspaper, an MRI revealed that the injury to Jennings’ shoulder was not serious; he’ll dress as the backup against Winnipeg on Friday night.

PICK: BC

RESULT: BC

BYE: Saskatchewan (1-2)

WEEK 5 PREVIEWS

Montreal (2-2) vs. Ottawa (0-3-1), Wednesday, July 19th, 7:30 PM EST: Montreal frustrated Ottawa last year, not on the scoresheet – though they did win one of three meetings last season – but moreso in the bad blood that stemmed from former receiver Duron Carter shoving REDBLACKS head coach Rick Campbell on the sidelines back in Week 2 of last year. While Carter has since left Montreal, and has subsequently been replaced by former REDBLACK Ernest Jackson – there’s still been a rivalry between these two cities that has spilled over from hockey arenas onto football fields since Ottawa returned to play in 2014. While the Alouettes are riding high after a win last week against arguably the league’s best team in the Stampeders, they’re up against another extremely high-powered offence in the REDBLACKS; Ottawa just needs to be able to finish and not make some of the absolutely ridiculous mistakes they’ve made in previous weeks, particularly in missed converts and in failed gimmick plays that explode in their face. The Alouettes’ defence is excellent, but I’m personally picking Trevor Harris as the man who’ll help to expose some further cracks this week.

PICK: Ottawa

Edmonton (3-0) vs. Hamilton (0-3), Thursday, July 20th, 7:30 PM EST: Edmonton played some excellent football last week to knock off a team that had their number last season; this week, they’re up against a team that has both A) poor pass protection and B) poor pass rushing – two factors that will almost certainly be of extreme benefit. If running back Travon Van can have another strong game, similar to last week against Ottawa, where he racked up 105 yards rushing and a touchdown, that will also play directly into their favour. Last year, one Eskimos-Tiger-Cats tilt saw Hamilton backup Jeremiah Masoli set a CFL record with 23 straight completions; it was an extremely impressive Ti-Cats come-from-behind win that saw Edmonton surrender a huge lead in the 2nd half – both teams will be hard-pressed this year to play a game that matches the entertainment level of 2016’s matchup.

PICK: Edmonton

Winnipeg (2-1) vs. BC (2-1), Friday, July 21st, 10:00 PM EST: The Lions are on a 3-game win streak after sweeping their Eastern road trip, while the Bombers had a much-improved effort against the Argos to bounce back after a lacklustre effort against Calgary the week before. Travis Lulay gets the start under centre for BC with the coaching staff being conservative after Jonathon Jennings hurt his shoulder last week, but he’ll still dress as the backup for this one. It was a special teams battle last week, and Winnipeg got owned by Toronto’s kick returns; they’re facing another very good returner in the Leos’ Chris Rainey this week – expect them to have worked on their special teams coverage in practise a fair bit this week. With the offensive weapons both teams have, particularly at running back in Jeremiah Johnson and Andrew Harris, who can both go out of the backfield and catch passes, it’s going to be a fantastic matchup. Last season, these two teams had an excellent rivalry; Winnipeg won both regular season matchups by a combined 5 points, while BC got revenge in the playoffs by eliminating the Blue Bombers in the West Semifinal 32-31. This is gonna be a fantastic game, for sure.

PICK: BC

Saskatchewan (1-2) vs. Calgary (2-1-1), Saturday, July 22nd, 9:00 PM EST: Saskatchewan comes off their bye week facing a tough Stamps opponent, but one that has been proven to be beatable, as demonstrated last week by Montreal. Unfortunately for Saskatchewan, while they arguably have more offensive weapons available than Montreal does, they lack the same defensive ability that Montreal needed in order to properly quell the multi-headed beast that is Calgary’s offence; add in the fact that Calgary hasn’t lost a game at home since Week 16 of 2015, not to mention that Saskatchewan hasn’t beaten Calgary in the regular season since Week 2 of 2015, and the odds continue to not look good for the Riders.

PICK: Calgary

Ottawa vs. Toronto (2-2), Monday, July 24th, 7:30 PM EST: The REDBLACKS really drew the short end of the scheduling stick this year, being the team to get the extra game in the one week with 5 scheduled games that happens each year; not only that, but they’re playing a team that has also already beaten them once this year, coming off very little rest, and little time to practise, in between a lot of travel between Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto. This is going to be a very tired football team, and I expect the Argos will be able to capitalize on this opportunity and pick up a home win. If Ottawa can somehow pull this one out, then the East standings will suddenly be blown wide-open once more.

PICK: Toronto

BYE: None

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Ray, EDM – 1529
2. Mitchell, CGY – 1382
3. Harris, OTT – 1379

Passing TDs

1. Harris, OTT – 8
2. Mitchell, CGY – 7
3. Glenn, SSK – 7

Rushing Yards

1. Sutton, MTL – 295
2. Johnson, BC – 265
3. Messam, CGY – 188

Receiving Yards

1. Green, TOR – 452
2. Ellingson, OTT – 435
3. Jorden, CGY – 380

Sacks

1. Butler, TOR – 7
2. Johnson, CGY – 4
3. Roh, BC – 3

Interceptions

1. Heath, WPG – 4
2. Leonard, HAM – 2
3. Evans, CGY – 1

Field Goals

1. Hajrullahu, TOR – 16
2. Paredes, CGY – 12
3. Long, BC – 10

PICK POOL

Remember to submit your picks here! http://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=138425