What a weekend for CFL Football!

Fortunately for the Lions, Hamilton was coming in punch drunk on their six-game winning streak and pointing at the offensive stats sheet as evidence they are worthy eastern leaders. Hamilton even honored NBA MVP Shia Gilgeous-Alexander who is from Hamilton at the start of the second quarter.

While Hamilton should get credit for beating the teams they did to get a six-game streak going, they were fortunate to have some luck and luck and a winning streak has to end at some point. Hamilton had the look I recognized from the first Rider Calgary game of a team that felt they could pull things out no matter what.

Rourke is an interesting study as his oblique injury suffered early in the season has affected his throwing accuracy due to his inability to get his whole body into his throws. Rourke has had good moments and bad moments but what was notable for the Lions win over Hamilton was how Rourke brought in his legs as a factor to keep Hamilton off-balance.

Isaiah Wooden for Hamilton had a beautiful return for a touchdown but went out with a shoulder injury. Wooden is probably a very viable choice for special teams player of the year, but if he out of the lineup for a substantial period, the Cats may need to see who else their scouting staff can identify as a returner.

For some reason Hamilton was feeling cocky enough to play man defense against the faster and taller BC receivers. Playing man is a show of confidence in the physical abilities of your secondary, but Hamilton’s secondary was not exactly

world beaters in their first two games before they embarked on a six-game streak against some of the lesser talented teams.

Hamilton’s defense ran out of gas against BC as Hamilton was on a short week and traveling all over the country. The bye week for Hamilton comes not a moment too soon as they prepare to go to Saskatchewan for what will no doubt be billed as a Grey Cup preview, but let’s remember it is only August.

BC has moved into a tie for Winnipeg for third place, but Winnipeg through sweeping its season series with BC holds the upper hand over the Lions if the teams have identical win loss records. The Lions have an interesting game this week against Montreal who are on a two-game losing streak after losing to Edmonton 23-22 with McLeod Bethel Thompson choking badly as quarterback.

BC has a chance to sweep the series with Montreal and get to ,500 for a season record and keeping pace with Winnipeg. Caleb Evans took over from MBT after he threw a pick six to Edmonton and I remember Evans beating the Riders in a start with the Redblacks a few years back so its not like Evans is without some ability.

I would think Evans would try to spread out BC’s defense with his running and he does have some passing ability, but the question is whether he has the receivers. Montreal has injuries in its defense and offense but were competitive against Edmonton until they had a brain cramp on special teams.

Montreal lost the last two games, both at home, one was a beat down by the Riders and the other was probably due to mental hiccups by all aspects of Montreal’s team. Travelling from one end of the country to another is not easy and both teams have relatively the same prep time.

What is most important is the recovery times of players on the respective injury lists. Will a switch to Evans be enough to spark Montreal’s offense and can their defense keep their heads in the game?

I would say Montreal pulls off a surprise 26-24 win over the Lions, although I would not be surprised to see the Lions totally dominate Montreal, but sometimes if you make a change at the most important position, it lights a fire under the entire team and that is why I am going with Montreal.

Hamilton goes to Riderville and while Hamilton has been touted their offense as the best in team history since 2000, I wouldn’t necessarily lose sleep over them. The Riders gave their fans a good look at their running game when they went into

Hamilton for the second game of the season and came away with a 28-23 win. Bo Levi Mitchell had 336 passing yards against the Riders, but most of that came while the Cats were trying to catch up to the Riders.

The Riders are coming off their bye week and the Riders are now approaching a stage where players are coming off their time on the injury list. The players coming off provide the Riders with options, but a lot depends on the ration and how the Riders can work things around.

The Riders will take a physical approach as their offensive line, always a work in progress, is coming off a physical beatdown of a Montreal defense that I think is amongst the best in the league. The way to keep a hot quarterback on the back burner is a ball control offense that keeps the QB on the sidelines.

Hamilton has some recovery time this week, but I believe the Riders have learned from their Calgary experience where they came off their first bye week and lost to Calgary. A lot of that was due to underestimating Calgary but I think the Riders would like to show their domination of Montreal was no accident and I think this game will go a lot like the first one between these two.

Saskatchewan beat Hamilton 28-26 as Hamilton tries to come back late against the Riders but will fall short due to the Riders physical domination at the line of scrimmage.

Ottawa is coming off a 46-42 win over the Toronto Argonauts to move into third in the east and now meet the third-place team in the west in the Stony Mountain Blue Bombers. Dru Brown as quarterback is being asked to raise the playoff hopes of the Redblacks and they go into Stony Mountain after the Bombers dropped a 28-27 loss to Calgary in a walk off field goal.

The Bombers dropped a 17-point lead to Calgary where the Bombers had a strong start to their rushing game, but went away from it, whether due to inept play calling or give Calgary some credit, their defense adjusted to what the Bombers were trying to do.

The Bombers’ receiving corps is not what it used to be. They have possession receivers, but they do not have receivers who could be considered burners and can stretch opposing defenses.

Fan sentiment in Bomber land is trending in having Jarious Jackson take over as offensive coordinator and Jackson did not a bad job in Edmonton last year when he

took over from Chris Jones. The Bombers defense line is nothing more than pylons with Willie Jefferson, when he feels like it, being the tallest pylon. The Bombers secondary is a desolate place, devoid of consistent play making.

There is a lot of discussion about how the Bombers blew it by extending Collaros and not investing in a quarterback like Dru Brown. With Brown coming into town, Bomber fans are indulging in what might have been and are bemoaning the Bombers insistence on hanging on to veteran players past their best before date.

This game sets up the Bombers for their Labor Day series with the Riders and the Bombers can close the gap between themselves and the Stampeders by two points since Calgary is not playing this weekend. The Bombers are probably confident they will be in the playoffs, whether in the west or not but the Bombers need to get some confidence going after the start of this season which could be said to be erratic.

It’s a short week for Ottawa and the Bombers and Ottawa must travel west. Ottawa will make this a competitive game, but until Ottawa gets more consistent play offensively and especially defensively, they need to do more than just feed off the injury riddled lineups of their opponents.

So, I am going to go with the Bombers and a 27-26 win because it is foolish to count the Bombers out unless you drive a stake through their hearts sometime in November.

Finally, we have Toronto going to Edmonton for the mid-season toilet bowl between the two worst team records this season. Toronto had their special teams melt down against Ottawa and blew a major lead as Ottawa slipped into third place.

Toronto’s offense has been producing, but it is Toronto’s defense who have been letting their team down, along with special teams. Argos Head Coach Ryan Dinwiddie came out after the game and called out the lack of courage in the Argos locker room.

The Argos have simply lost too many pieces, both on the field and off and while bringing in Jason Shivers as a co defensive coordinator and pro player personnel assistant might have been a good idea on paper, there is a gap between what the Argos want to do and what their personnel is capable of.

The Argos need this game to climb back into the eastern playoff race, and the clock is ticking on the number of opportunities they will have to do so. Nick Arbuckle has been producing as the starting quarterback while Chad Kelly recovers from his broken leg and it is entirely possible Kelly will miss the entire season before he returns.

It’s not entirely certain the return of Kelly would make a difference in the Argos fortunes because the Argos need to block, catch, and tackle better and Kelly just throws the ball. Maybe it is the relative success Dinwiddie has enjoyed as the Toronto head coach, but it is hard to get your head around whether the Argos are what their record says they are.

Edmonton took advantage of Montreal special teams’ errors and Cody Fajardo has been doing a pretty good job of rallying the Elks in his last two starts, beating Montreal in Montreal, and barely losing to Hamilton. If Fajardo continues rallying the Elk, you must wonder where Tre Ford can fit in, or if he will ever fit in as a quarterback who can do more than just scramble around.

Edmonton’s defense for some reason has not been able to count sacks or interceptions despite the free agency money spent and being able to grab the Argos entire defensive line. Edmonton also has problems with their offensive line as they have backed off on pursuing their running game due to the lack of blocking.

Fajardo can roll out and stretch defenses, but his running against Montreal reminded of his last season in Saskatchewan where the lack of blocking had Fajardo running for his life every play. It will be only a matter of time before Edmonton’s opponents figure out how to game plan against him.

So I am going to think Toronto has maybe just enough to edge out Edmonton, although with my luck Edmonton will blow Toronto out of the water. Both teams are struggling, but this is an evenly matched game and Toronto may edge out Edmonton 29-27.

by Greg Urbanoski

What a weekend for CFL Football!

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