CFL Week 20 Review

Article by Duncan Gray

The highlight of the final week of the regular season was a remarkable game which saw Ottawa clinch first place in the East Division while Saskatchewan and Montreal kept the excitement going right to the end.
The final tables are here.

 

 

Winnipeg Blue Bombers 11 – 21 Toronto Argonauts

The Argonauts broke their losing streak on Friday and enjoyed a solid preparation for their coming play-off game. Ricky Ray and Trevor Harris both had time at quarterback and both threw touchdown passes to Dave Stalla. Meantime Dionte Spencer led the offence in receiving with 123 yards and Chad Kackert in rushing with 89. The defence was solid and kept the Bombers out of the end zone all night.

For Winnipeg's last game of the season they gave ex Atlanta Falcon Dominique Davis a try out at QB. Jamaal Westerman had two sacks while Khalil Bass kept up his claim for rookie of the year honours by leading the defence with nine tackles, taking him to 102 for the season.

In a ceremony at half time the Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea was inducted into the Argonauts all-time team, honouring his many years played as a star of Toronto's defence. A banner with his number 50 was hung up though in the Rogers Centre though presumably it won't be there for long as this was the last time the Argos will play there.
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Hamilton Tiger-Cats 28 – 44 Ottawa Redblacks

The Redblacks completed the leap from worst to first in the East Division as they clinched top place with a storming performance over Hamilton. It was a night of broken records. Greg Ellingson caught three touchdown passes and made 152 yards, making him the fourth Ottawa receiver to reach 1000 yards this season. Four one thousand yard receivers on one team has only been achieved twice previously in CFL history. Henry Burris threw a total of six touchdowns on the day and with his 28 pass completions he set a new record total for a season at 481.

The Redblacks raced out to 17-0 first quarter lead before Hamilton replaced Jacory Harris with Jeremiah Masoli at QB and fought back to lead 20-17 at halftime. Masoli ran in one TD and passed to Andy Fantuz for another. Credit the scores however to an Eric Norwood interception return and a 63 yard Terrell Sinkfield Jnr punt return, both of which were stopped just short of the line. The Tiger-Cats chances of getting the six point win they needed looked good at that point and they kept the excitement level high with a third quarter touchdown when Rico Murray scored from their onside punt routine. Brandon Banks produced the highlight of the night when he ran a missed Ottawa extra point all the way for two points at the other end. In the end though Ottawa were too strong and Burris threw touchdowns to Sinopoli, Williams, Lavoie and Ellingson again to make the win comfortable.
Hamilton will now host Toronto in next week's Divisional Semi-final. Ottawa will play the winner a week later for a place in the Grey Cup.
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Calgary Stampeders 28 – 7 BC Lions

With the teams due to meet in next week's West semi-final game lots of starters were rested and the teams were going through the motions. BC had Travis Lulay back at QB while Bo Levi Mitchell's understudy, Drew Tate, led Calgary to the win as he threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns.
The point of interest of the night was the race for the rushing title. BC's Andrew Harris ran for 42 yards before sitting down before half time and he finished on 1039 yards for the season. Jerome Messam made 59 yards on the night and finished with a total of 1003.

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Saskatchewan Roughriders 30 – 24 Montreal Alouettes
The final game of the regular season on Sunday brought us one last overtime thriller though there was nothing but pride at stake. Both quarterbacks were making their starting debuts. Keith Price played the first half for the Riders before being replaced by Brett Smith. The big news though was that Montreal's Brandon Bridge became the first Canadian since 1996 to start at QB and to throw a touchdown pass (or two).

The Als were leading comfortably until Brett Smith came in at QB for Saskatchewan late in the game and threw three touchdowns, the last one in overtime to earn the Riders their third win and avoid this being worst ever season.

Points of pride for the Als were that running back Tyrell Sutton ran for 139 yards on 22 carries, enough for him to steal the year's rushing title from Andrew Harris, while John Bowman took the sack title with three on the night and a season's total of 19.
Both teams have a lot of work to do before they play again next year, not least they both need new head coaches.
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