CFL Week Three

Observations from Week Two:

- Hamilton seemed to adjust to BC's defence in the second half last week, as Henry Burris and the offence moved the ball much better in the last quarter and a half than it did beforehand.  This may be a step up from their Week One performance, when they were consistently stymied by the Riders' defence.  It will be interesting to see if the O keeps developing this week.


- I made it through Sunday night's defensive battle between Edmonton and Saskatchewan.  It leaves me with two questions: just how bad is the Esks's offence?  Conversely, just how good is the Riders' defence?


- Four kick return touchdowns last week-end, highlighted by Larry Taylor's 125-yard missed field goal touchdown gambol:  gotta love the CFL.


- AC 'sunset' watch:  one outstanding game, one very pedestrian game and one injury.


- Results from Week Two: 4 - 0.  I thought Winnipeg-Montréal would be much closer, and Hamilton-BC not as close as it was.  This brings my season record to 5-3.

Thursday

Calgary (1-1) at Montréal (1-1)

Already a rematch at this early stage in the schedule.  After he took over after Drew Tate injured his shoulder in the early going last week-end, the Stamps are now Kevin Glenn's team for the next 4-6 weeks. After Nik Lewis, it is hard to figure out whether the Stamps have another go-to receiver: Romby Bryant was shut out of the last game, while Chris Baumann, after getting a handful of catches in the first few games, is not dressing on Thursday.  After containing Anthony Calvillo in Week One, the Stamps' D got picked apart by Ricky Ray last week-end; which version will show up Thursday? For the Als, Anthony Calvillo is evidently starting after injuring his non-throwing shoulder.  How well will he bounce back from that injury?  As AC goes, so does the Als offence.  As for Montréal's D, it barely handled the Bombers' offence last week, yielding over 350 yards.

Montréal by 7.

Friday

Winnipeg (0-2) at Edmonton (1-1)

It is only Week Three, and this already feels like a tilt between the two teams that will end up missing the playoffs.  Winnipeg's defence has looked awful in the first two games and they lost two substantial parts (DHB Stuber and LB Stewart).  Edmonton's offence has looked awful, and they have lost their main deep threat possibly for the season, providing the team gets his signals straight (WR Bowman) as well as possibly WR Greg Carr (to be confirmed.)  This has all the makings of the stoppable force meeting the moveable object.  Even with the injuries to the receiving corps, one would think that Jyles and/or Joseph might gain a bit of confidence facing the Bombers' D.  If neither one of them moves the ball, I hope we see Matt Nicholls, partly because I own him in my pool, partly because we know what Jyles and Joseph are about.

As for the other half of the battle, the Eskimos defence has looked strong in the first two games, stifling the Riders for the first three quarters last week.  Winnipeg did move the ball well at times against Montréal and BC, but mostly when the game was already out of reach. Rookie Chris Williams has had an impressive CFL debut, giving the Bombers a double-threat at receiver with veteran Terrence Edwards.  While RB Dorzon had a stronger game against the Als than in his Week One debut, it is still unclear how strong a running game the Bombers can establish with him.

Eskimos by 2.  Total points in the game generated by the offences will not exceed 23; there is a strong chance the defences and special teams might outscore the offences.  Total net offensive yardage will be around 500 yards.  Yawn.


Saturday

BC (2-0) at Saskatchewan (2-0)

This should be a good one.  I still say the Lions are the class of the CFL this year, but the Riders should be their first real test of the season.  QB Travis Lulay has looked relatively ordinary so far this year; he may be due to show the form that earned him Most Outstaning Player honours last year. Andrew Harris has come into his own as a half-back, giving the Lions more diversity on offence.  The Riders' defence looked nearly impenetrable in the first two weeks; however, Hamilton just could not adjust to the Riders' schemes in Week One while the Esks offence, well, it does not seem able to give much of a challenge to anybody. Going up against Lulay and the Lions' offence should give a truer measure of how strong the Riders' defence is.  As for the Riders' offence, they looked like a powerhouse in Week One, and were mostly stopped by the Esks in Week Two.  The Lions' defence has played well enough so far to give their team a chance to win both games.  Hard to call that half of the match-up.

Oh, let us say the Lions by 3, on the last play of the game.


Toronto (1-1) at Hamilton (0-2)

The Ti-Cats started to look good in the second half of last week's game against the Lions.  Henry Burris looked like the QB he used to be in past years with the Stamps, varying his play calling and using most of his offensive assets. (Five Ti-Cat receivers caught 4 or more passes during the game.)  However, this was after looking like last year's frustrated version of himself throughout most of the first half; during one two-and-out series, he unleashed two deep throws, both of which had little chance of connecting.  He was benched for a series shortly after.  It is always a gamble which Hank shows up, and Good Hank has not seemingly showed up for a full game for over a season now.  While Toronto gave up 36 points last week, 14 of those were off a kick return and an interception return, so the Toronto D did a good job of stopping the Calgary offence; Tate dislocating his shoulder might have had something to do with that.

On the other side of the sticks, Ray dismantled the Stamps' defence last week.  The Ti-Cat D came on strong in the second half, stopping Lulay and the BC offence.  However, while the defence gave signs of gelling, it has already given up almost 900 net yards in two games.

I am guessing this might be a shoot-out.  When in doubt, I have been taking the home team, so let us say the Ti-Cats by a TD.