CFL Week 18 Review and Week 19 Preview

Article by Duncan Gray

 

Despite some decisive wins in the Week 18 games the play-off picture hasn't become much clearer. There's still almost everything to play for over the last two weeks of the season.

Next Sunday night's double header starting at 6pm on BT Sport/ESPN is going to be compulsive viewing.

 

The Week 18 games

Montreal Alouettes 34 – 2 Toronto Argonauts

Playing another home game in Hamilton because of the baseball, Toronto lost their second straight in embarrassing fashion and failed to score an offensive point. Running back Tyrell Sutton led the Als with two touchdowns while Kevin Glenn was solid at QB. John Bowman recorded three sacks and moved into the all-time top ten. Trevor Harris had another poor game as the Argos quarterback and was finally replaced by Ricky Ray in the second half, the first time that the veteran star has played this season.

 

Hamilton Tiger-Cats 13 – 40 BC Lions
The long trip west for the TiCats didn't bring any success as the Lions run of form continues. Jonathon Jennings threw three touchdowns and Andrew Harris got back on track for the rushing title with 119 yards and two TDs.

 

Ottawa Redblacks 27 – 20 Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Henry Burris reached a career total of 60,000 yards passing with his first throw as the Redblacks completed back to back wins over the Bombers. This was a close but scrappy game which Ottawa came through to win late on. Their defence is still firing though, they recorded six sacks and two interceptions on Matt Nichols.

Edmonton Eskimos 35 – 24 Saskatchewan Roughriders

The Riders looked like causing an upset in their last home game of the season when they took a 21-3 lead over the Eskimos early in the second quarter. The third TD was scored on a pass by try-out quarterback Keith Price on his first ever CFL play. However, the Eskimos came back to lead by half time, thanks largely to over 200 yards of passing from Mike Reilly to Adarius Bowman.

 

Highlights of all the games are available through our results page.

The Play-off situation

A quick reminder of how it works, the first place teams in each division get a bye straight to the Divisional Final. The second and third place teams meet in a semi-final, the winner goes to the final. If a fourth place team in one division has a better win/loss record than the third team in the other division then the team with the better record crosses over to take the other's third place play-off place.

The winners of the East and West finals will meet in the Grey Cup game in Winnipeg on November 29^th.

East Division: Toronto have qualified for a top three finish but they cannot now finish first in the Division. The next two weeks has Hamilton and Ottawa meeting in back to back games which will decide who finishes first and goes straight to the final.

West Division: Edmonton play their last regular season game on Sunday and a win will secure first in the division. If they do win they'll go three weeks between games as they have the Week 20 bye and then the first round play-off bye. That's not necessarily a good thing. If the Eskimos slip up then Calgary can steal the division by winning their last two games.
BC Lions now lead the race for the third spot with six wins. Montreal also have six but need to finish with one more than BC to achieve the crossover. Winnipeg have fallen a game behind and with only one left to play they'll be eliminated without playing this week if either of the others wins. In fact BC can clinch the play-off place this week if they win and and Montreal loses.

 

 

This week's TV Schedule Ottawa Redblacks at Hamilton Tiger-Cats – LIVE Sunday evening November 1, 18:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Montreal Alouettes at Edmonton Eskimos – LIVE Sunday evening November 1, 21:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN BC Lions at Toronto Argonauts – recorded Monday morning November 2,  00:30hrs BT Sport ESPN Saskatchewan Roughriders at Calgary Stampeders – recorded Monday morning November 2,  09:00hrs BT Sport ESPN

 

Week 19 Game Previews

 

Toronto Argonauts should finally get to play a proper home game at the Rogers Centre on Friday as the Blue Jays MLB season came to an end last week. Their form has collapsed in the last two games (playing four games in 17 days doesn't help) while the visiting BC Lions are having a late surge behind rookie Jonathon Jennings at quarterback and must fancy their chances. The Toronto QB situation is more of a problem. A couple of weeks ago rumours started to emerge that Trevor Harris, who's been covering for an injured Ricky Ray all year and will be a free agent after the season, is looking for a new contract to make him the CFL's highest paid player. Since then he's played terribly and was finally benched last week with Ray being brought back into action. This game will see Ricky Ray restored to the starting role.

 

 

Calgary Stampeders return after their bye week to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders at McMahon Stadium. Calgary need to win to keep up their chances of winning the division. They'll have running back Jerome Messam in the line up ready to face the team he was traded from just a couple of weeks ago.

 

In the first game of the live on UK TV Sunday night double header, Hamilton Tiger-Cats have home advantage for the first of two decisive games against Ottawa Redblacks. To the winner will go the East Division title. Hamilton have struggled since losing quarterback Zach Calleros a month ago but will be improved as running back CJ Gable has returned to the line up. Ottawa had a scare last week as their QB Henry Burris took a knock in the game at Winnipeg but their stand-in running back William Powell looked good as he ran for over 100 yards in the game.

 

Finally on Sunday night Montreal Alouettes will be away to Edmonton Eskimos. The game between these two earlier in the year was a fascinating defensive battle of field position which Edmonton won 15-12. With so much at stake this game might just be similar.

CFL Week's 15-17 Review

Article by Duncan Gray

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to report on what's happening in the CFL so here's the catch up on what's been happening.

 

 

Week 15
Henry Burris threw a record 45 completions as Ottawa Redblacks thrashed the Montreal Alouettes 39-17. The previous record holder, Anthony Calvillo was watching from the opposite sideline.
Jonathon Jennings was the star as BC Lions dumped on Saskatchewan Roughriders 46-20. The BC quarterback threw four touchdown passes and caught one too!
Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders both officially qualified for the play-offs with narrow wins and last minute field goals over Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats respectively. The Bombers kicker Lirim Hajrullahu missed 5 kicks in their game.

 

Week 16
Toronto Argonauts beat Ottawa 38-35 in a wild game. Argo's Chad Owens made an outstanding one handed touchdown catch for the winning score.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats got their first win with Jeff Matthews at quarterback as they saw off  Saskatchewan by an easy 30-15.
Edmonton got a win in Calgary by 15-11. This gave them the lead in the West Division as they now hold the tie breaker over the Stamps.

In the battle for the last play-off place in the West, Winnipeg had a big comeback win over BC Lions. They came back from 14 points down to win 29-26
In Toronto's second game of the week they saw off Montreal 25-17 and took top spot in the East Division.

The Trade Deadline arrived and there were two significant departures from the Saskatchewan Roughriders who have gone into rebuilding mode. Firstly, Montreal signed quarterback Kevin Glenn to cover for Rakeem Cato who's doubtful for the rest of the season after suffering a concussion. Then Calgary signed running back Jerome Messam. This gives the Stampeders the season's second and third top running backs in their backfield.

Week 17
Ottawa beat Winnipeg 27-24 in dreadful weather to secure their first ever play-off spot.

Toronto had to play their home game in Hamilton due to the Blue Jays MLB play-offs and lost to Calgary there by 27-15.
BC Lions had an opportunity but couldn't take advantage of Winnipeg's loss. They surrendered a late lead and finally lost 26-23 after overtime in Edmonton.
Hamilton finally got a win over Montreal on the third attempt of the season, wining 23-11. The highlight was an over the shoulder reception by Luke Tasker.

 

 

 

The Play-off Picture

The three post season places in the East Division have been claimed by Hamilton (10&5), Toronto and Ottawa (both 9&6). The last three regular season games will be needed to sort out the seeding.
In the West Division Edmonton and Calgary (both 12&4) have tied up the top two spots. With two games left the automatic place in the West Final is Edmonton's to lose. The last place is up for grabs is still between Winnipeg, BC and Montreal who have 5 wins each. Montreal would need to finish with more wins than the other two to achieve the crossover from the East.

 

 

This week's games
It's Week 18 and every game has play-off implications. The action starts on Friday night with Toronto Argonauts having to play their home game away in Hamilton again, this time against Montreal Alouettes. Toronto beat Montreal easily a couple of weeks ago but then played badly against Calgary. Montreal will hope Kevin Glenn settles in at QB for this one. However they've lost four in a row and another defeat would pretty well kill their play-off hopes.

The late Friday game is a match up between two young quarterbacks. BC Lions with Jonathon Jennings playing well enough to keep Travis Lulay off the field, host Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Jeff Matthews. It's a long trip for Hamilton on a short week, and BC have been unlucky in recent games.

There's another East to West trip on Saturday for Ottawa Redblacks as they're in Winnipeg to play the Blue Bombers. This one's a match-up of veteran quarterbacks, the Bomber's Matt Nichols against Ottawa's Henry Burris who's in contention for the CFL's Most Outstanding Player award.

The week finishes with Edmonton Eskimos facing the ultimate banana-skin game as they visit Saskatchewan Roughriders. With only two wins through the season this is the Riders last home game and with rookie Brett Smith now established as their quarterback they have a lot of points to prove. Edmonton have won their last six games but haven't always been convincing. They can't afford to lose if they're to finish top of the Division.

 

This week's TV Schedule There's only one live game in the listings so far but hopefully more slots might become available if the Baseball Conference Championship series finish before Game 7. Ottawa Redblacks at Winnipeg Blue Bombers – LIVE Saturday evening October 24, 21:00 hrs –  BT Sport 2 repeat - Monday morning October 26, 10:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Hamilton Tiger-Cats  at BC Lions - recorded Sunday evening October 25, 22:30 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN repeat - Wednesday morning October 28, 06:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Edmonton Eskimos at Saskatchewan Roughriders – recorded Monday morning October 26, 01:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN repeat - Monday afternoon October 26, 13:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Montreal Alouettes at Toronto Argonauts – recorded Thursday afternoon  October 29, 13:30 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN

 

 

CFL Week 15 Preview

Preview by Duncan Gray

 

Live TV coverage of the CFL is back on BT Sport this week, including a Saturday afternoon double header which we can watch starting at a respectable time of night. The full schedule is further down the page.

In the news this week
With Swayze Waters back on the injured list Toronto Argonauts brought in a couple of players to cover the kicking duties this week. The players they signed were Michael Palardy and, a couple of days later, Justin Palardy (no relation). Since it's usual in the CFL that one player acts as both kicker and punter there's a suggestion going round that somebody made a boo-boo and signed the wrong Palardy. Argos general manager Jim Barker vehemently denies he would make a mistake like that, after all Michael is a left footer from Florida while Justin is right footed and Canadian. Michael will do the kick-offs and punts, Justin will specialise in field goals.

 

The competition to sign free agent linebacker Henoc Muamba has been won by the Montreal Alouettes who have signed him to a two year, $225K per year contract. Muamba, who was born in the Congo but grew up in Ontario, was named a CFL All-Star with the Blue Bombers in 2013 before playing last season with the Indianapolis Colts. This should boost the Montreal defence who've had to play all season without their first choice LB Bear Woods. Still, the defence has played well so far, you'd think it's the Als' offence that needs shoring up....

The official announcement was finally made this week that the 2016 Grey Cup will be played in Toronto. The venue will be BMO Field, the stadium being redeveloped to host the Argonauts and Toronto FC, rather than the Rogers Centre.

Play-Off Watch
Toronto's win in Ottawa last week moved them up to second in their division and in line to host a semi-final. However there are still lots of ups and downs to come before anything's decided in the East. On the other hand Calgary and Edmonton can both officially qualify for post season football in the West if results go their way this week. In the race for the third place in the West all three teams with a realistic chance lost, so no change there. Montreal still holds the crossover spot.
East: 1 Hamilton, 2 Toronto, 3 Ottawa
West: 1 Calgary, 2 Edmonton, 3 Montreal

 

This week's TV Schedule Montreal Alouettes at Ottawa Redblacks – LIVE Friday morning October 2, 00:30 hrs –  BT Sport 2 repeat - Saturday morning October 3, 07:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Calgary Stampeders at Hamilton Tiger-Cats - recorded Saturday morning October 3, 10:30 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Edmonton Eskimos at Winnipeg Blue Bombers – LIVE Saturday evening October 3, 21:00 hrs –  BT Sport 1 repeat - Sunday morning October 4, 06:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Saskatchewan Roughriders at BC Lions – LIVE Saturday night October 3, midnight –  BT Sport 1 repeat – Monday afternoon October 5, 15:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN

 

Game of the Week

When last season's Grey Cup teams, Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats met back at the start of the season they served up a thriller which the Stamps won on the last play of the game. They're both sitting on top of their divisions and the Tiger-Cats will be looking for revenge.

Jeff Mathews will make his first start at quarterback for Hamilton. He struggled when he had to come on to replace Zach Collaros in their last game but the team have confidence in the rookie. He's well versed in the system, he played for head coach Kent Austin when they were at Cornell University and he's had two weeks of taking the snaps in training. To help Mathews the Ticats have Bakari Grant restored to their receiving group after injury while Michael Ford returns at running back, replacing Ray Holley. Ford played for Hamilton earlier in the season and has been brought back after a spell with the Atlanta Falcons.

On the Calgary side the offence is running smoothly with Jon Cornish restored at running back and eyeing a run at his fourth rushing title, while the Bo Levi Mitchell to Eric Rogers passing combination leads the league. Their problems are in defence where they had two injury losses last week, both defensive back Joe Burnett and linebacker Juwan Simpson are going to be out for several games. They're bringing in ex NFL defensive back Brandon McDonald who was axed by the Redblacks earlier in the season for indiscipline on the field.

 

The Other Games
Talking of the rushing title, the two leading contenders will face up on Saturday when Andrew Harris and the BC Lions host Jerome Messam and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Harris in particular has been underused in recent games, leading to a lot of fan criticism of the coaching staff, while Messam is seeing more action since the Riders changed the head coach. Travis Lulay has been reactivated off the injured list but rookie quarterback Jonathon Jennings performed well for BC on his starting debut last week and he'll lead the team again.

 

Ottawa Redblacks have had a short week's preparation for their East Division match up against the Montreal Alouettes at TD Place on Thursday. The Redblacks offence, particularly the O line, underperformed against Toronto and they'll be desperate to make amends. However, Montreal's performance in Saskatchewan last week was even worse. Jim Popp has decided that they're reverting to having Rakeem Cato start at quarterback. In nine games this season Cato has thrown nine touchdowns and nine interceptions. The Als are such an inconsistent side that anything could happen here. Watch out for returner Stefan Logan looking to take advantage of Ottawa's weak special teams.

 

The first game of Saturday's double header features Edmonton Eskimos looking for a win over Winnipeg Blue Bombers to secure their place in the play-offs. The Bombers showed up well against Calgary last week and were unlucky when a bad refereeing call denied them the chance of a last gasp result. It will be a big game for QB Matt Nichols who'll be facing old friends. He came over from the Eskimos in a trade last month and played his best game yet for Winnipeg last Friday. Kick returner Kendial Lawrence is an injury doubt for the Eskimos.