Well, here we go. Happy mark cast Monday here following the disappointing needless
to say a CFL Week eleven, I will say, had the Mariners not
swept the Astros at home, at home, the Mariners swept the Astros,
I'm about skip Bayless here, I was late getting on. I was about
skip Bayless. Here. I got my trash can, I got my BC
Lion's hat. So we're getting close here, not quite because the Mariners.
Thank god, Josie alle tb being thrown out. Josie, this was how
great my weekend was before last night, josielle Toba. But your biggest heel
in baseball right now, hits his two thousandth career hit, goes for two.
Kade Marlow, our rookie, throws him out a second. That's where
I was at, and then this whole weekend fell apart. Jason, how
are you doing. I'm doing good. Raid. Obviously I went to two
of the games this weekend, so it was a great weekend from that perspective.
But just wish one of my teams one. You're getting to the point,
yeah, we're running out of options here. Evan's back at school at
LSU. Evan how are you doing. Yeah? Good, It's been a
busy weekend for me, you know. But it was an exciting slate of
games, and I think we have a lot to talk about, not just
with the actual games themselves, but I think with some of the circumstances around
them. There was a lot of interesting CFL news this week to cover.
So excited to get into that as usual. Yeah, we have a Jason
and I were with Naylor. Evan was driving back across country getting back to
school, so it didn't have Evan on the Thursday show. I would just
say in all seriousness because I Farhan you know, was doing his post game
and Vernon talking about because Vernon took full credit for the loss and all of
that. But I said, these when BC is sitting here in November with
the thirty one to thirteen loss at ig Field, and like the West Finals,
this is the game, Like I want you to circle and look back
on, like, these are winnable games that you need to go in.
You need to take care of business. Where are the doughnut boys? We
have Jake della Galla running around the field, I mean looking like Patrick Mahomes
out there. I mean, this is crazy. I just didn't understand.
I watched the second half we were going to my mom's for dinner, and
that finally I'm like, I gotta pull this game up. I gotta see
what the heck is going on? So disappointing. I don't know why our
kryptonite playing away from you know, BC plays or whatever. Jason, what
did you make I know you were getting on the train back from Ottawa,
what did you make of? Just to me, it felt like a really
big collapse last night at the BC. Yeah, I mean like we've seen
a regression in recent weeks from that BC defense, which is certainly concerning.
Obviously, the game a couple of weeks ago against Winnipeg and then this week
against the scatch one very disappointing to see that. But I think that they
had some untimely turnovers that gave Saskatchwe short fields and that was a big factor
in how they were able to convert those into touchdowns and ultimately get enough points
to beat BC. I think if these teams played ten times, I think
BC wins probably nine times. But I think we saw that one time just
the last night, and I don't know. I mean, like I listened
to the postgame and I hear Rick and he's in the Hey, I know
you guys wanted to beat yourselves up right now, don't worry about it.
It's like I would worry about it, like this is a pattern. Now,
this is a pattern not being able to perform on the road, like
you know, Vernon, I don't blame all that. And he got beat
up again. You know you need to be able to protect them. Yeah,
James says, here Va took some hard, dirty hits. Evan,
what did you make of this because we're on the VA you know train.
Absolutely, it was an interesting game and I think this game to me was
honestly more surprising than the Edmonton winn and walls to get into that later,
but there was a lot of people predicting that Edmonton was gonna win that game
against Hamilton. Didn't see a lot of people that were saying, you know,
Saskatchewan was gonna beat BC, And that's kind of what I'm getting at
here. Definitely an upset game, but I think BC, you know,
personally, I mean, Saskatchewan played very well and Jake Dela Galla, you
know, I was very high on him. I think, you know,
his performances have definitely swayed a little bit. They haven't exactly been consistent,
but this was clearly the best doubting that he's had in a long time.
And you know, just to see that, I mean, BC played well
in this game. It's I find it interesting how every time BC loses,
like I go back to that Toronto game, you know, it's not because
Vernon Adams, you know, doesn't play well or I mean well, in
that case, he had a lot of turnovers, but like in this game,
you know, or both of those games, really, the one against
Toronto and then the one against Saskatchewan here because he didn't play in the Winnipeg
game he was injured. You know, both times he's thrown for like four
hundred yards, you know, three touchdowns, like he's still you know,
putting the work in. And when I looked the stats initially because I didn't
get a chance to watch much of this game, I did watch most of
the others, but this game in particularly, just looking at the stats,
I thought, how did BC lose? I'm looking at this, I'm like
running, you know, four hundred plus yards, three touchdowns like he was
doing his thing. Now I noticed that they didn't have much of a run
game, which again is always a red flag. But yeah, then I
looked over at Saskatchewan and I saw Jake Dolegal was dealing and Jamal Morrow look
decent on the ground, and that they finally started spreading things out. And
I think what's really important here from the rough Riders perspective, because I think
we know about BC already, we know what they're capable of. Yes,
they've had some struggles on the road, but we still believe in them.
I still believe they will be in that West Final again against Winnipeg. I'll
say that every week until it actually happens, or maybe it won't, who
knows, but I'm pretty confident that it will. What's most important for Saskatchewan
here is now they're back at five hundred, they're five and five, and
most importantly, because Winnipeg sneaked by Calgary, Calgary is now two games behind.
So we've been talking about this, you know, kind of race in
the West between Calgary Saskatchewan, you know those two spots. Now Saskatchewan is
finally pulling away a bit. They have a you know, they're two games
ahead or whatever. You know, they have that advantage, and I think
that's going to go a long way. And you know, personally, I
liked what I saw from Dolah Galla. I think you know him. I
mean, what, we'll see what happens with Mason fine, obviously, but
I wouldn't have a problem rolling with Jake Dela Galla at this point. He
proved himself took down the top team really in the West in my opinion,
even though Winnipeg is officially ahead of the standings. And if you're a Saskatchewan
fan right now, I think you should just be happy that you're back at
five hundred with all the turmoil that's happened the season, you know, And
I think Jason had message your group last night after I house and having my
panic attack. You know, Hamilton coming in next week, you know,
is that it made good? Is that it made good for BC? I
don't know. I mean, I I've lost faith in them in terms of
just I don't know if it's if it's a locker room thing. You know,
they talk Ryan Phillip tonight. You know, I shot Ryan's wedding and
like I know Ryan very well, Like you know, he's got the guys
that but I just don't know what it is. If it's just a little
bit more relaxed locker room. And we got Rick kind of like whatever,
guys like we gotta do. They need to show up. And Winnipeg,
I just feel like when they show up, you know, they carried themselves
like a championship quality caliber team. And just in terms of like these are
the games. Yeah, you had the Flute game and like you know,
with Emonton was up twenty two zero. They didn't worry. They came down
the field. Look what happened when BC they're started throwing those picks against Toronto.
Oh my god. You know, Dan like we're freaking out. We
gotta you know, we gotta do all this and do all that. Dave
fell behind, We gotta throw all these we gotta make it down the field,
you know, kind of making things worse. I just feel like there's
something going on in that mentality right now in terms of that that that team,
Jason, you have thoughts on that, Just it feels like something something's
not clicking here. Yeah. I think you brought up a good point a
few minutes ago about how they're struggling on the road. I think that because
that game next week's in BC, I think I am fully expecting a big
bounce back, because as little faith as you have in BC right now,
I can assure you that I have less face in the Hamilton Tiger Cats at
this point. So I think that BC will get a big win there.
But I think, like you said, you know, when you go back
at the end of the season and Winnipeg's ahead in the standings, this will
be the game that are one of the games that you circle and say that
this is, uh, why BC is not hosting the West Final. And
I think they really do need to host that West Final against Winnipeg. It's
gonna be very hard for them to go to Winnipeg in November and win.
As we saw last year, this is gonna like I've seen this movie.
I've seen this movie. I went to the Semis where we beat the pants
off Calgary wasn't even the game and then we go like I've seen this whole
movie before. I lived through this, and I said, I'm not going
to go to Winnipeg, YO, Because last year I was seeing like got
do I do I go? And I thought to my head, I thought,
I'm not gonna go just to watch BC loose and they got I mean
they kept it close and Nathan played his hard out, but he was coming
back. It was never quite right. We had a couple of questions here.
Yeah, Louise says, you're good to see you, Evan, congratulations
on your new new ifl direct your role there. I need to start calling
you the director more here. I know that was said. I was going
to do that. Lewis had a question for Jason, does the it We'll
get to the Taie Cats, But in terms of like turning Edmonton around,
are you feeling better on their stock right now? I definitely do. Obviously,
it's it's a lot easier to feel more confident about them coming off their
first win of the season. But I think the key will be breaking that
home losing streak next week against Ottable, which is as good of an opportunity
as they've had to break that streak. If they can win that game get
their second win of the season. I think they have a back to back
against Calgary the next a couple of weeks after that, so I think that
those are winnable games as well for them, so they could go on a
little bit of a winning streak here. I think they can get right back
into it and then, Evan, do you think does this turns this scatch
win around the Are you looking differently at them? Because if people are saying
in the comments like we're not giving them the riders and have credit here,
we're kind of BLAMINGBC. You know, we'll see right now, they're definitely
wild card team. You know, they have a lot of questions themselves.
You know, even at five hundred kind of getting back into the playoff race.
You know, I don't know, like they're well, I need a
couple more games of this type of performance from them before I'm really confident.
Maybe given another couple of weeks. I feel like I say that a lot.
You know, I will just give it a couple more weeks. But
it's true, like this team, you know, has had a lot of
inconsistency, and you know, I've pointed out a lot of flaws about them.
I still think they're a good football team. They have a lot of
good pieces there, and you know, I find it a bit interesting that
they have jumped Calgary this much. Again, I was pretty high on Calgary
and now that's starting to splip on a bit of a weekly basis. But
no, I mean, look, I think Saskatchewan you know right now they're
kind of you know, they're reaching one of those peaks again, and I
hope that they can ride on that for a bit, just because we're kind
of at a pivotal point in the season, like, you know, they
can hold this for now, but there's still enough time left to where other
teams can you know, come in and take that at the very end of
the season. I thought it was funny here. I had this tweet Paul
that Michael Ball is he was under the weather yesterdays they were the Riders were
battling through adversity on all fronts here, even even Michael Ball, the voice
of the Rough Brothers, battling through. But yeah, back to five hundred.
He had tweeted out before the game, like, I think I think
the Riders take this, and obviously whatever I said, I think I'll think
BC by two touchdowns, Like I didn't even think it was going to be
closed. Remarkable, just kind of like he said, if this is why
I don't do sports betting is because I would even throw my head through a
windillyland faster than that. Dorothy's credit. I did tell her last night.
I say, man, DC just kind of craft about here. Against the
Riders, she goes, or those are the green people, so Dorothy knows
Dorothy's even track, Dorothy knows the Riders. I want to get into the
game itself, Jason, I know you were seeing the first part coming back
on the train. What did you make of just the performance here? And
I got a couple of notes to pull up well. I think one of
the biggest surprises for me was how Saskatch one's defensive line really pushed around BC's
offensive line in this one. They really really struggled in this one. I
think that on top of that, they had several penalties. Kent Perkins don't
mean to call anybody out, but he had three huge penalties in this one,
especially in the second half. The last one, I think when they
were driving to complete that comeback, I think they would have completed that comeback
and took in the lead on that second to last drive. I think it
was if they didn't take a key holding penalty that would have set them up
on a third and one if they didn't take that penalty. So I mean,
that was very disappointing. I think that's really what stood out for me
in this game. And like you said before, I think BC's defense really
getting chewed up by an inexperienced quarterback in Jake Dalla Gala. Yeah, I
have here and I don't want to get I was gonna note this off the
top of the show, and then we just had in such a rants here
going into it. But we got copyrights stricken from the Shield last week from
the NFL for talking about one of the far Hans quote tweets about Nathan Works.
I hope, I hope the CFL doesn't come after us as well.
I thought we had fair use to commentary over a quote tweet of a game
clip, so hopefully we're fine with that. Evan, We're you surprised because
Dellaga, I mean we've seen him play, people have wanted to see him
behind Mason him find come out here. Were you impressed with how he was
performing? Oh? Definitely, I mean I was surprised at how quickly he
caught on. I've always been somewhat of a Jake Dola Galla believer, but
he hadn't quite sold me yet. Again, he has shown flashes, but
it has been very hard I think for him to be consistent so far,
and part of that is just because he's not getting a lot of playing time.
You know, he's even behind I think Mason fine in that regard.
So yeah, I mean, you know, Dola Galla, I think he
still has some you know, things to improve. I mean he was he
was with the I think the Bengals. I want to say, maybe it's
been two years now, twenty twenty one, so I think he's going on
year two in the CFL. Don't don't quote me on that. I should
have probably looked at that, but no, all I can say about Jail
Galla for now is I do believe that he can, you know, start
for the rest of the season, to be honest, if he needs to.
You know, I think there's a lot of a lot of potential there
and you know, the more he plays, I think the more he'll be
able to fit into this league. So that's that's where I'm out with that.
And of course havn't spot on it is always I pulled that. Of
course havn't knows exactly what's going on with all of these guys. I remark,
yeah, I had commenting a far on talking fortunate even to be down
eleven at half. It just felt like, you know, and we're watching
this kind of the game winning drive at the end, and Lucky had the
big drop and what was it deep shot to Lucky he had that he I
liked where he had one drop, but he had the thing too where he
kind of did the Tyreek Hill with the peace sign run and then I thought
that was kind of funny. Oh the other thing at the end when they
the final play where they where they kneeled it and then tried to do kind
of a semi hail Mary. I don't know, like do you let your
special teams go there? Jason, I thought that was odd at the end
of the game where we're like, you know, we're taking the ball all
the way. I have no faith in it that Vernon's throwing the ball eighty
yards here. Well, unfortunately, I actually missed the last like two minutes
of the game. That was right when my train was arriving in Hamilton's so
I missed that's the end of it. But I was watching with my data
on the train, like watching the huge comeback here. But excuse me.
Unfortunately missed the final couple of minutes there. Andy had a comment in our
chat Evan read my disagree with me, but that was one of the VA's
best games ever, gritty and took it like a champ until the end.
Why did you make a VA? Yeah? Va? I mean you know
again, even in a loss, VA I think is still impressive, you
know, and he you know, maybe he's asked to do too much.
Maybe that's the reason why they're in this position. I mean, four hundred
and fifty five yards, that's a lot to be throwing, you know,
even in a CFL game. And you look at I mean again, you
look at the run game. It was non existent. Vernon was still leading
rush or two carries for twenty four yards, So you know that I think
plays a role. But I mean continuing, like still continuing week after week
to just find his receivers. I think it's the most you know, impressive
thing. And Alex Hollins has really stood out in the past couple of weeks.
You know, he was exceeding when I was there. I guess that
was last weekend in Calgary. And then Lucky Whitehead finally getting involved a bit.
Lucky I think is a fan favorite there in BC. Every time I've
gotten to one of those games, people really gravitate towards Lucky Whitehead. So
it's nice to see him get worked into that offense because to be honest,
like we hadn't called his name out that much this year because there's so many
other guys that are playmakers. I mean Kean Hatcher too. He had a
career game last week against Calgary there at BC Place. So you know,
again, even in a loss, like you just I never you know,
Vernon is really he's really exceeding. You know, he's really exceeding. I
think he's exceeded everybody's expectations and he continues to do that even when they're is
doubt casted upon the team. And that's why I am still confident in this
team's ability now given their struggles on the road, and this kind of pertains
to you know, this is going away from this specific game for a minute,
but I think just in general, you know, it might be a
bigger deal now if BC hosts the West five as compared to them going to
Winnipeg, because I've been saying this, you know, they're gonna be in
the West Final. They're gonna be in the West Final. But now with
their struggles on the road that have been pointed out, and it seems to
be more of a consistent trend now than I believe before. I'm looking at
that now like, Okay, well maybe if it's at home, they're gonna
have a much higher chance of winning than if it's in Winnipeg. And I
mean, yeah, home field advantage. You could say that about every team,
but I don't know, maybe maybe this is something we're discovering about BC
that didn't really know before. I'm not gonna say that they can only win
at home. I don't think they're one of those teams. It's kind of
It's it's interesting because in CFL it's almost backwards, like there's so many teams
that can win away, but then when they go try and win at home,
it just it doesn't work out. I mean, you looked at Ottawa
and you know they finally broke the streak, and then Edmonton you know obviously
hasn't broken theirs yet, but they finally did win a game, thank God
for that. Will get into that later, but no, ultimately, I
think you know BC, you know with Vernon at quarterback that there's no doubt
to be had there and there's really I'm and I've always seen him make you
know, there's been very few mistakes I've seen him make this year, and
I mean it's it's safe to call him a top quarterback of the league,
even in a loss. Yeah, it's just it's frustrating when you look at
the stall and like he said, here thrown for four hundred and fifty five
yards, and how is my Zell like seven carries for fifteen Like the scotch
weren't shutting that down. Like, It's just it's crazy to me here that
we couldn't figure this out. I don't know, I'm kind of been the
last Chase said anything else on this one. I don't want to keep hammering
down the Lions, but obviously this was kind of the most recent game.
Yeah, I wanted to give a little more credit to the rough Riders,
specifically their wide receivers stepped up and made some huge catches in this one.
Samuel Mls continues his breakout season after being a first round pick last year.
Jared Stearns, I think it is I always bets up that first name,
but he had a big game in this one as well. Ke On Shaper
Baker back in the lineup as well, So I thought the receivers played a
huge role in this one Versus scratch one and a big reason why they were
able to come out Victoria. You know, I pick didn't had that big
catch there at the end and get the first down as well. And they
went and that went to review and everything, and I'm sitting there. I
got my phone out, that's sitting there kind of look and see them why
it was like, is that a catch? It was good? I give
them credit. I just like I said, I've seen this movie before.
Where's my standings here? You know, is it Saskatchewan this year versus you
know, as opposed to Calgary coming into BC and then I don't know,
it's like rinse and repeat. I would just like to see BC kind of
maintained a little bit of this momentum than to have such kind of a roller
coaster here. Let's get to the next game. I'll get it pulled up
here. Jason was at this one. We had the scattering reports from two
different games this weekend, the Montreal at Ottaway Red Blacks. This right finished
in the season. Jason, what's going on here? Thrilling fashion at the
end of the game. Yeah, So, first of all, this was
my first time at the Autawo Red Black Stadium TD Place, and I thought
that it was an excellent stadium experience first of all. But I think that
the biggest takeaway I have from this game, despite the dramatic comeback, I
think the best team won this game because when you look at the first half
and now Ottawa was able to build that lead, they came as a result
of a couple of big turnovers from Caleb Evans, the Montreal Alouette's quarterback,
and it set up Ottawa with very short fields and they were able to capitalize
that and turn them into touchdowns. But overall, Ottawa's offense didn't get much
going in this game, and Montreal was able to catch up to them in
the second half when they stopped making those mistakes. So I thought that was
really impressive from Caleb Evans and the fact that he was able to grow up
before our eyes in that second half after having a brutal first half. Like
I said, so, I think that it was pretty sweet for him to
get the win over his former team, a team that probably could have given
him the shot to be their first full time starting quarterback, but ultimately they
threw him to the curb and he came back to bite him in this one.
Yeah, because he was certainly involved earlier is so, what's the deal
with Cody? Is he still is still a thumbissue? Is it's still the
kind of week to week Yeah, I think that he's he was dressing for
this game was the third quarterback. I think that's become a trend in the
CFL, where like if they're somewhat close to returning, they often dressed the
third quarterback. I think it has something to do with, like, you
know, the one game injured list kind of thing, and maybe from a
cat perspective, but I'm not too sure, But yeah, I think he's
pretty close to returning because he was dressing in this one but ultimately didn't see
any action because spoiler alert. I've been trying to get friend of the Show
back on the show for a while here Kelly for jar though, and there's
been a lot of like, wow, he hasn't played or he was hurt
and it's a short week and we're all traveling as like we've been working on
I've been trying to get Cody back on. We're gonna get the stars align
there with Montreal. So working on the Evan what did you make Caleb Evans
coming out being the hero ball here three hundred and thirty three yards two two
TV's with two interceptions. Yes, very exciting game and one of my major
takeaways from this one was, you know, Caleb Evans he could stick around,
I think in this league for a long time, you know, definitely
as a backup and perhaps as a fill in starter what need be. You
know. I look at a guy like maybe Matt Schiltz just kind of bounced
around now between you know, Montreal and then Hamilton. I kind of see
Caleb Evans and that role like where you know, you might not be a
permanent starter, but you can stick around a long time in this league if
you just kind of find your role on your niche and you're in the right
place at the right time. Caleb Evans is a playmaker, you know.
And I've watched this guy, you know before. I think he played in
Ottawa at one point, so this will count as a revenge game, so
I've watched him a couple of times before, watch tape things like that.
You know this guy really, I mean, you know the fact, I
dare I say that, you know, he could start over Cody Fajardo,
And I shouldn't say that if Reid's gonna bring him back on the show.
But you know, again, like he got the job done, and maybe
it wasn't in beautiful fashion. It took again a rough first half and then
he kind of had to make that up in the second half and you know,
late game heroics and all that. You know, so maybe it wasn't
exactly perfect. It wasn't like a Jagdole gallatype performance that we saw on Saskatchewan,
but there was a lot there. There was a lot there to work
with and there's no doubt that he elevated this offense and you know, gave
him a win that I don't know if they I don't know if they needed
it. I mean, yeah, like look at you know, they it's
good to always win. Your your goal is to win. It's football,
it's sports. But you know, like if you look at the standings,
I mean, you know, Montreal is pretty comfortable right now, like they
kind of have a bit of breathing room. So if they lost this game,
I mean, you know, considering Autos at the bottom of the division,
it wouldn't matter too much. But either way, you know, they
still made a statement and outside of Caleb Evans from Montreal in this game.
You know, Austin Mack continues to impress week after week. I'm pretty sure
he's locked in his spot as an all start at this point. Tyler snead
Uh. You know, he kind of came back, he had that huge
game against Toronto and the kind of went quiet. It seems like on his
best days, you know, he's he's really good at scoring, you know,
multiple touchdowns in this game on the receiving end. And then the other
one I wanted to point out a player that I haven't really talked about this
year was Herjie Maala had a big play in this game. You know,
Herjie. He was in the CFL and then tried his luck with the Breakers
in the USFL. He went down there with Richie Sandanny who's now on the
Tide Cats, and didn't work out for them down there, so they came
back up to the CFL. And you know, it's been a pretty quiet
year for her Ji, for my understanding, and for Richie too in Hamilton.
Kind of both quiet years for guys that are coming, you know,
back from a USFL attempt. But it was nice to see him, you
know, have a have his moment in this game and then we'll just switching
over to the Ottawa side here for a minute. I honestly don't have a
ton of notes on Ottawa. Like Jason said, you know, they at
the end of the day, you know, even if it took a big
comeback in the second half, the better team still won. You know,
this wasn't you could consider it a choke job by Ottawa. But given the
way that they built the lead, you know, they You'll see this a
lot where where teams, you know, they will they will build a lead,
you know, off unconventional ways, so outside of you know, big
offensive drives and things like that, things that aren't sustainable, and then people
are surprised when a team comes back, because it's a lot easier to come
back when you've just made a few simple mistakes, in my opinion, than
when the opponent is again putting together these you know, long, stingy drives
and the defense won't let up. So yeah, overall, I mean this
was a very you know again thrilling game. You know, Montreal I think
had fifteen points in the fourth quarter, and yeah, I mean, but
but at the end of the day, like you know, I wasn't surprised
that Montreal was able to come back and win this. I mean, it
wasn't a guarantee, but you know, when it happened, I was like,
well, that's good, because Montreal I think deserve to win. Is
what I'm getting at. And the ultimate point here that I'll wrap up with
is, uh, you know, Auto has been losing a lot of momentum.
I mean we talked about them couple of weeks ago, you know,
having all this you know pull and it was like, you know, crumb
sanity or whatever you want to call it. But now that's kind of all
gone away, and they're kind of back to this, you know place again
where you lost those games to Hamilton. You're at the bottom of the East,
Like things really don't look that great. And we'll get into Hamilton later
because I have my own thoughts about them in their position, and personally I
think they're worse off. But I'll get to why I think that. But
just looking at Ottawa, I mean I don't I don't know, I think
yeah, I mean I believe in them, and I like Bob Dice for
the most part. You can question, you know, some of the things
that he's done in recent weeks from the coaching perspective, but I like Bob
Dice, like the culture they have there. I just think, you know,
they still need another year, as sad as that is, like,
I still, I don't know, even with all this stuff that's happened,
and you know, the big roller coaster, all the ups and downs,
like, you know, they could still win a couple more games, but
I definitely don't see him as a playoff team, and they're getting further away
from that each week at this point. Yeah, Ottawa feels very cold right
now, and I want to get Jason's thoughts comparing them to the tie Cats.
I will just say on Caleb Evans to give him a little credit.
I remember when I had Tim Kapper with the Flight Decks podcast on when I
think we were doing the AFL stuff or whatever, and I said, well,
you know, how how are you feeling about Cody and everything? He
said, I feel great about all of our quarterbacks. He said, I
feel good even if Cody's not. Caleb's good and I can't remember their third
string guy, but Tim said, no, I think, you know,
I think we're in the solid position right now, and I don't know,
it just feels like they're really kind of putting together a cohesive team here.
I like, you know, standbacks, I always solid, you know,
didn't have a you know, a huge game, but always good. And
we've talked before, like I said about kind of the receiving corn, the
Austin max if everything of the world Jason in terms of like it does feel
like Ottawa has lost all of the momentum at head, Yeah, it does.
But I mean it's really it all comes down to the playoff race right
now, because you know, none of the teams in the playoff races are
really pulling ahead. I guess it's with the Scatchwan pulling ahead a two game
lead here, it really comes down to the tie Cats, Red Blacks and
stamp Peters for that that last playoff spot right now in the CFL as of
right now. And I think that the Red Blacks, I mean a lot
of people will compare them to the tie Cats, but I think they're actually
more comparable this season to the stamp Peters because they've been in a lot of
close games where they've had opportunities to win games, whereas the tie Cats have
like they've been blown out when they've lost, they haven't won, like they
haven't been able to be competitive with a lot in games, and I think
that Calgary and the Red Blacks have really you know, down the stretch,
they haven't been able to you know, close games out. So I think
at the end of the day, I think it's gonna come down to those
three teams, and one of those teams is going to grab that last playoff
spot somehow. And I think, you know, maybe six wins gets it
done this year in the CFL. That would be you know, probably one
of the worst teams ever to make the playoffs in the CFL. I would
say circle here, you know, maybe sixty five pm Pacific here on Sunday
night next week. If if Ottawa loses the Edmonton at home, I do
think their season is about over, except for the fact that you got Hamilton
in BC so Stuming and we don't know, you know, Stumi. BC
does its job here at home. It takes care of business. That's gonna
be rough, gonna be rough. But I see that. Are you We'll
get to Edmonton, but Jason and I'll get Evan as well. Are you
pretty high on maybe Ottawa and finally given up the loss here at home?
I mean, I think it's as good of a chance as any as I
said earlier in the show, for Edmonton to break that streak. But until
I see it, I just won't believe it. I think that I've seen
too many close calls with this team, with so many opportunities to win that
game at home and break that streak, that I just don't have like full
confidence in their ability to do that. And Ottawa last year went in there
and won with Nick are Bucklet quarterbacks. So I mean, I thought last
year that was the game that Edmonton was gonna win, and they still didn't
do it. So I'll believe it when I see it. We'll be talking
here in two years. I remember that time. We like that Outima is
gonna come in and lose against them. They're gonna give good Evan, any
other thoughts on this, I mean in regards to the Ottawa Edmonton game,
Yeah, you know, I don't know. I'm not sure if Ottawa has
descended that deeply yet Again, just like Jason, I'll believe it when I
see it, you know, the I think about all the times, like
most recently it was the Winnipeg game, you know, where Edmonton you know,
pulled away like twenty two nothing and lost that, and they had I
mean, there was a couple you know, games where they had momentum,
like early in the season when they could have just broken the streak, and
then you know, gotten more fans in the building as the season continued,
when there was still hope. Now you're already looking forward to next year,
and I know I know you and you and Jason already talked about the Victor
Quee stuff on the Show with Naylor on Thursday. Speaking of Naylor, by
the way, he put out a tweet that I thought was very interesting and
it goes back to Jason's point about just sort of the Red Blacks. You
know, there's three and seven, but the one those teams where you know
you're a handful of plays away from being like five and five, and that
really goes a long way, I think, because Jason's right, Like I
I put Ottawa and Hamilton together because they're in the same division, but the
way they have won and lost games is extremely different, you know, compared
to some of the other ways that we've seen. Or again, if you
want to draw the comparison to Calgary, yes, Calgary and Ottawa are much
closer because you know, they've just had so many lost opportunities, where with
Hamilton, I think it's a pretty a pretty clear line. It's either they
win or they lose. Like when they win, it's it's by a good
margin. Most of the time, it feels like a confident win. And
when they lose, it's not pretty. With these teams, you know,
I with Calgary and then Ottawa in particular, and I feel like Ottawa will
feel the burn, maybe even more, just because you know, Hamilton is
further behind the Saskatchewan is when we're talking about East West playoffs stuff. I
think Ottawa might feel the burden there because if they I mean, let's say,
I don't know, let's say Hamilton gets into the playoffs at like you
know, six and twelve, and maybe Ottawa has the same record or they're
a game behind, but Hamilton holds the tiebreaker because they won those games against
Ottawa already. If that happens, I mean, you know, you had
an opportunity to go to the playoffs with that record, but you still couldn't
get in. And that's that's when you're sitting there. The all front office
coaching staff is sitting there just kicking themselves, like you know, we were
that close. Even in a year where it didn't feel close generally, there
was still an opportunity that we couldn't that we couldn't grasp. So it's a
unique situation across the league for sure. I think the East Division just because
I mean, I don't know, I mean, the West to me is
more ironed out than the East. I mean, well, I don't know,
like Toronto and Montreal pretty much locks this point. We're really just looking
at you know, Hamilton and Ottawa, which is still a toss up,
and Calgren and Saskatchewan is becoming, you know, a further battle than it
was a couple of weeks ago. So I don't know, it's an interesting
time. I think the bottom line here is, yes, we're going to
have a team in the playoffs that does not look like a play off team.
And you know that's happened in the NFL. I mean we had the
eight and nine Buccaneers, you know, playing the Cowboys in the playoffs,
you know, and in fom Bradies last year. That there's just this past
season, you know, it doesn't feel like that long ago. So I
don't know. People you're gonna get those people saying, well, you know
this is why the CFL is bad. You know, this is why we
can't you know, bother with alternative football. I'm like, well, it's
a problem across the sport, and you know, even in college football there's
a lot of mismatches and things like that, so that opens up a broader
discussion. I'm not going to get into that, but you see where I'm
going with this. Yeah, speaking of the Cowboys at Seahawks, he was
preseason, but I was there. Seahawks took care of business against the Cowboys
here. I was very excited for that. Jason, you have any other
notes on this one before we get today? A little bit of a snooze
fast year, the way to pay Calgary, But anything else on Ottaway and
all that, Yeah, I wanted to give a shout out to Montreal's defense,
which is a unit we haven't been talking enough about this season. I
think they're just a really, really solid defense and one of the best units
in the league. And I think that in the second half they really put
the clamps down, didn't allow Ottawa to get anything going, and allowed that
to be a catalyst for the big comeback. Yeah, I like Montreal.
Montreal is my team of the East certainly can't show for a cheer for the
Argos and Mike Mitchell's got that on lockdown. So well, we'll hope at
Montreal will be good. Coming up here. This was the right at the
Friday night one a Winnipeg at Calgary game, will run for their money.
Calgary came back Drew Brown a little bit more down to earth here. I
have a quote here from Michael Ball, I think coming up but evan initial
thoughts on this one. Yeah, so Drew Brown. I didn't predict this,
but I certainly said it could happen. Last week. You know,
Drew Brown kind of came out, you know, hot, you know,
and not come back against Edmonton after Clarens went down, you know, looked
great again. Isn't his third year, that big third year in the CFL
was getting experience, you know, getting these game reps. But he can
always come back down to earths. As you've just said, that was only
what I had in my notes, that exact term come back down on earth.
That's what happened here. It was a slower game. It was somewhat
expected. I think. You know, there's a lot of quarterbacks that we've
seen, including Dust and crumb where they kind of jump out hot, you
know, and get the train rolling and then things kind of start, you
know, slowly tapering off, you know, over one game in the course
of many games, depending on how many reps they get. So you know,
yeah, Drew Brown, definitely, this was definitely the slowest I think
I've seen Winnipeg's offense all year. I mean, you're used to seeing this
unit, you know, putting up thirty plus points on a regular basis,
and I get that's with a different quarterback, but you know that this was
un characteristic for Winnipeg, although again it's understandable there's certain criteria here that are
a bit different. They're in a bit of a different dumb position. But
yeah, I mean Calgary, you know, Calgary, we just talked about
it in regards to all this playoff stuff, and you know, Ottawa and
sort of drawing comparisons. They were so close. I mean, they just
keep getting so close. I mean when I saw him against BBC, it
wasn't close. But they've had a couple of times. You know, they
took that game, they took advantage I should I should say of that game
against Toronto, which is great because my god, if they don't win that
game, they're what two and eight, which is at that point, I
mean, you know, that's that's really bad. You know, I don't
think people have really realized that yet, as much as I've tried to put
a positive spotlight on Calgary and believe in them, I mean, two and
eight, then you're not even thinking about playoffs at all. And I mean,
Saskatchewan, we've already locked up the spot by that point, I think.
But regardless, you know, Calgary in this game, it was just
their offense continues to baffle me. I think they have so many good receivers
and they just keep adding to that, Like they've added Mark and Michelle,
Tommy Lee Lewis in the middle of the season, and they still haven't been
able to degenerate production. I would say Tommy Lee Lewis was the most impressive
player in Calgary's offense in this game, and he had one catch. Keep
in mind that one catch one for forty six yards. But if your top
player on offense has one catch, like one play, that's a really bad
sign. And you know, I think I had in my notes here two.
You know, Renne Parretis, he's a hero in Calgary. I mean,
he's the one, and he still didn't have a perfect day. He
went six of eight. But the fact that he has to attempt eight field
goals to even put them in a remote position to win, that's just not
good football. That's not sustainable football. You cannot keep that going. And
I know everybody in that Calgary building knows that. But it's just really frustrating
because I've said so many times, like you know, on both sides of
the ball, offense again receiving corps and then defense specifically with their defensive lot.
I think the Stampeders have a ton of talent. That's why I was
really excited to go and kind of evaluate that person last week. But they
just they can't get it together. And I think, you know, now
we're starting to ask more questions about Jake Mayer. You know, for a
couple of weeks that was well, this wasn't great, but it's fine,
you know, still the start of the season. Now you're in the middle
of the season and it's not fine. You know, it's there. They
are struggling to throw for two hundred yards per game with Jake Meyertt quarterback.
Now keep in mind, I still like Jake Mayer. This isn't a personal
you know, hit against anybody or anything like that. But I think from
the pure football perspective, you cannot have of a quarterback that you know can't
struggles to hit the two hundred yard mark per game. You just can't have
it. I mean, this wasn't especially you can't. It's like I'm just
looking absolutely yeah no, and it's it's just such a shame. I it
makes me sad because I was so excited for Jake and I'm sure he's probably
you know, beating himself up about it and taking a lot of the credit,
you know. It's it's just it's just sad, like there's just so
much potential there and I feel like if Calgary doesn't get it in the playoffs,
which is looking less and less likely every week, especially again with Saskatchewan
pulling away, this is just a it's a waste of a lot of things,
you know, And I mean any team that doesn't make the playoffs.
Again, you could say this about so many teams that don't make the playoffs.
There's waste of talent. There's guys that don't get an opportunity to compete
for a championship and that sucks. That's but that's sports, you know,
that's football. Those are all general assumptions. But with this team specifically,
like I think there's just so there's so much talent on this team and they
just I don't want to say they haven't tapped into it, because there are
playmakers and we have seen that Calgary has been extremely competitive. They just can
never get the job done. And I think when they don't get the job
done, we're all quicker to point out the flaws of this team again,
like their slower offense and the lack of you know, just general abilities,
and maybe the coaching too. You know, I've said it on the show
before. I think life's easier when you win, you know, and you
can definitely quote me on that life is easier when you win for everybody,
you know, from football operations. That trickles down to the players. Everything
is easier when you just win. And Calgary hasn't won, and they've been
in so many games where they could have won. And now you're starting to
see the fall out of that where we're sitting here and we're asking all these
questions about, you know, what things might look like in the future.
And again ultimately just disappointing Jason thoughts on this. I mean we have just
I mean, they're shaking my head when Evan's talking because Jake and I love
Jake, and like I said, just this stagnant offense. I've been putting
up tweets. You know they haven't had one of you know, they've had
one offensive testdown in four games. What are you making this mess? Well,
because I bring in the speed of the seat I've had Jake Mayor with
this, my number of those people. Really, you haven't the internet your
internet connection there kind of we walked out for a minute. Let's try one
more time. You might have to log back in. Oh shoot, let
make sure there you Let's get him back. Get Evan here. I had
a couple of quotes, Let's let's do an exercise here while we wait for
Jason. That was kind of everyone smilest. Step goes Farhan just put this
tweet at which team takes the CFL's final playoffs bot. I haven't voted yet,
so we're gonna vote. We're gonna see where the results are. So
what do you think? We have two hundred and twenty seven votes for Calgary.
Although I Hamilton, we've been talking scraping the bottom of the barrel.
What do you make of this? This one's difficult. I think it really
I think it really has come down to the East. I mean again,
I've just said, you know, it really comes down to Saskatchewan more than
just the Calgary because because like I didn't, none of us expect the saskatche
when the paw off the opposite against BC. Now that that's happened, they're
getting back to sort of winning ways and not again that all fall apart.
Maybe Calgary, you know, does make a change and becomes, you know,
a bit more drastic with their decisions given the state that they're in and
the fact that they are still in a playoff race. But I don't know
just right now, Like the way things are right now is we're sitting here
at the end of this week, I'm gonna stay, it's gonna be an
East team and I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Hamilton, and that's
my I'm go be controversial. And again, I we've talked about it.
I know Hamilton is you know, yeah, they might not be. I
still think Ottawa is better off long term because I think even if Hamilton does
make the playoffs, they're still gonna have a lot of changes to make in
the off season, and especially on the coaching side of things. And they
already got you know, Tommy Condell offensive coordinators already gone, so that's something
that you know they're gonna have to address soon. And then probably you know,
I mean, I don't I don't want to talk about head coaching yet,
but certainly a possibility, I think. But anyway, I think Hamilton
will make the playoffs because you know, my belief is that Saskatchewan will pull
away, which puts Calgary out. Ottawa has the potential and again I think
Ottawa and Hamilton could probably finish with the same record. But I just you
know that it all comes down, like you know, again, those two
games that Hamilton played against Ottawa and one that might have in a way,
I can't say, save their season, because again, if they go to
the playoffs, I don't think they're gonna be a winner in the playoffs,
but it made it might have just made their season a bit more interesting and
a bit more entertaining, and it might keep some more people around for longer.
And I think that's up that's an important thing. To note, So
I'm gonna go with the Tiger Cats. That's obviously subject to change, you
know, I do see there's a scenario where Ottawa just wins more games outright
than Hamilton, and I think that's the real possibility. Again, I still
feel like they have the potential to do that because they've been in so many
close games and I like the culture and I like what they're building. So
maybe that's the case where the tiebreaker doesn't even matter because Ottawa just turns out
to be the team with more wins and the wind column. But yeah,
I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with Hamilton. That's my final answer,
Jason, what do you make of this? And then we'll give you the
four to talk about the game. But we were pulling this up here.
Which team makes a take on playoffs flot I'm gonna regretfully say Hamilton, even
though at this point, I mean, I kind of you know, it's
it's sad to say is the Tiecats fan, But I kind of hope they
just they kind of missed the playoffs, so they have to make wholesale changes
with this team. I feel like if they make the playoffs, they'll talk
themselves into another year of the same, you know regime there in Hamilton,
and I think that you know what's really interesting is that you know, Ottawa
had, like Evan says, has to outright have more wins than Hamilton at
the end of the season. Now because of the tiebreakers that obviously could happen.
Calgary also would have to have outright more wins because the crossover rule,
there's no tiebreaker with them. You know, the West Division team has to
have more wins than the East Division team in order to crossover. So I
think mathematically Hamilton has the better shot. But when I look around this league
right now, I don't think there's many teams the Tiecats can beat. Honestly,
I think other than Ottawa, which obviously they just owned Ottawa, but
I think other than them, I don't think there's that many winnable games left
from the schedule, but they'll probably get two or three wins here, and
at the end of the day, I think Hamilton probably as the best shot
of all those three teams. Let's get your thoughts here and the internet.
It's a little dicey, it sounds okay, we'll give it a shot here.
Let's go through a year that you were going off on your Calgary before
we had to have your log back in. Yeah, So I was saying
that I blame myself for calgary struggles this year because going into the season,
I had Jake Mayo ranked as my number two quarterback in the CFL. I
was a full believer in him, in him, and I think that you
know his struggles. You know, for the third year in a row,
I picked a quarterback. Last year was Vernon Adams. I picked him to
win MLP. I mean he got bench two games of the season. The
year before was Trevor Harris. I picked him to win MLP. Obviously,
the Elks had a horrible season. So I think that, you know,
I blame myself for that. But I think that, you know, Calgary
is just a really tough team to watch right now. Like Evan said,
I think that it's just really really painful to watch this offense. They don't
take the training wheels off of this offense at all. I think that they're
not taking advantage of the receiving talent, like Evan said, And I think
that, you know, it's very disappointing because they've now lost two games in
which their defense hasn't allowed to touchdown, going back to that game against Montreal
where the only touchdown they gave up was a pick six, and the same
thing in this one. So very disappointed for Calgary. Their record could be
much better right now. Yeah, I had a tweet here saved. I
didn't really. I think it's just in the last couple of weeks here friends
of the show, Milt Stiegel and David Sanchez, and they've started their own
CFL podcasts here why the open with so we have new new competition here on
the block, gentlemen. But they posed a question here, Dave DICKINSONID as
a player coach's never missed the playoffs in the CFL? Will it happen this
year? Jason will go to Jason just to give him because he's been logged
up here, and they'll go back to Evan. Did you see Dave missing
the playoffs this year? I mean it's hard to say because Calgary has,
you know, had great second half to seasons in years past, most notably
twenty twenty one where where they were two and five to begin the year like
they were this year. But I just I just can't see it at this
point. I think they're gonna miss the playoffs. It just seems like it's
their turn to be a bad team, and after so many years of having
success, I think it's their turn. Evan thoughts on this, and I
have one more funny thing on this game before we'll go to the last one.
Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, if my prediction stands,
I mean, Calgary's Calgary is not going to be in it. And I
mean it sucks to see a streak like that go, and I think it
definitely marks the end of an era. And you know, maybe with that
brings, you know, some change, it's new I think. Again,
maybe I've said it before, but Calgary is already in a bit of a
transitional phase regardless of whether they're a playoff team or not. So I don't
know, Yeah, I don't. I don't see them as a playoff team
right now, especially not after this weekend. And you know, not what
I saw them at all. It's been rough. You know, it's been
rough. But again, like it's it's hard to see any of those other
teams that we mentioned as playoff teams given their struggles, and it's just a
numbers game at this point. You know, who can finish with the most
wins or who has the tiebreaker, and you know, it gets a bit
messy in that sense, and it might not mean the best playoff football,
but you know, we know who the good teams are and we know you
know who's entertaining and who will bring the best of the table. And I
think that's what's most important. Ultimately, we have an expectation. So that's
good. It was funny here. I guess it was freezing cold here in
Calgary in August, and so we have a new friend. He just posted
that he was going to be on Instagram now Paula Police, not the fake
Paula Police, but the real woman. I guess Farhan had like a blanket
on the sidelines. I guess far On and I don't know, like who
thse to the TSM production crew for finding that blanket to give it to paul
But I just thought that there. I don't want to play the audio.
God forbid we get another copyrights strike from TSM this time. But I think
it was funny. Far Paula Police used to be my friend. I don't
know Jason thoughts on this. I just thought this was tremendous. Yeah,
that's freaking hilarious. And I think the Instagram thing and how you know,
people made fake accounts of him on Instagram that was hilarious as well. So
I think he's a pretty funny guy and he's a good addition to the TSN
panel for sure. Yeah, I tweet him that said it was me.
I was one of the I mean, Paul like you gotta. I think
he's got in follows thirty two people or something on Twitter, like, let's
get the left back a little bit. You want to get people over on
this anything else? Evan on Winnipeger Calgary before we get to the Thursday game.
I don't know if I have anything else about Winnipegger Calgary, but I
will say, you know, it wouldn't be the first time I've seen Farhan
wearing some interesting stuff on the sidelines. When I was in BC last year,
he had the slides on and that was a pretty iconic moment. I
took a picture of that, and you know, I hope he brings those
back out again. It was a nice look. I might adopt out myself,
you know, going back to the XFL this year, I wouldn't mind
that. Yeah, you were at the slides game. You haven't forgot about
that? That was that was the slides game. Oh, here we go.
I'm hit the wrong about where we go. So Edmonton first win of
the season, I will be honest, and Jason, I want to hear
first hand experience here with the weather delay and all of that. I had
the game off in the corner. It really seemed like after they came back
from the rain delay, there wasn't much of a game. So I have
many many notes for the first half of the game, and then it really
seemed like they came back out and said, we've been sitting here for an
hour and a half, let's kind of get through this. Jason, you
lived through the rainstorm. What was this like? Yeah? So I Edmonton
came out fast, twenty one nine a halftime lead. Trey Ford had a
couple of nice touchdown passes to former Tiger Cat Stephen Dunbar in the first half.
So that was nice to see from their perspective. You know, happy
that Edmonton doesn't have to endure a winless season at this point. I don't
think any CFL fan base deserves to go through that. But I just think
Hamilton really wasn't prepared at all for this game, especially coming out of a
bye week that was very disappointing, and like we were talking about winnable games
going down the stretch, I think this is a very much a winnable game
for the tight Cats, obviously given the fact that the else hadn't be anybody
this season. And you know, they just wasted one of those opportunities and
I think, you know, key play and this one was key. Second.
In one play, I think they were at the Taycat's forty yard line
and just a prime opportunity to do with like a trick play, you know,
basically just a free play because you can get that that first down on
the next play, but Hamilton was not prepared for a fake and Taylor Cornelius
threw it deep to defensive lineman Acy Leonard, who was a converted wide receiver
upon coming to the CFL, and you know, he pulled in a nice
pass there and set up the second touchdown Forredton and it was basically home free
from there. I think another big thing in this one was also the fact
that Mark Leggio missed so many kicks. I think they totaled ten points that
he left off the board in this one, so that could have made a
massive difference. But again, Hamilton just could not get in the end zone.
They couldn't finish drives. And that's a theme with Taylor Powell since he's
taken over as the starting quarterback here. I don't think he has a single
will touchdown pass in the three games that he started. So, I mean,
you could, you know, completely passes all you want, complete like
seventy five percent of your passes all you want. But if you're not getting
in the end zone, you're not gonna win many games. And that's just
the facts. Yeah, this is a Jake Mayer of it. Well,
I'm ninety four percent completion, righty in their cries like, yeah it doesn't
Yeah, Cliffy here had the quote the tweet I got no Leggio. I
thought that was funny. We had I had the where was it Marshall's you
know, Marshall Ferguson there where I guess like wasn't even scheduled to be working
that game, but just showed up. And he's had like four weather delays
this year. Yeah, Marshall is definitely the problem. I had the other
funny quote and I'm going to I'm gonna preface if you're if you're sensitive to
language, but just thought this was funny speaking about the Tiects and the special
teams Jeff Riifolds and that we quote the fuck end the quote. I thought
that was a tremendously funny quote talking about the Tiects special teams. We saw
a lot of this as well. Victor quee, it's me, it's me,
I'm the problem. It's me. With Edmonton finally getting there win.
Evan, what did you make of this, Edmonton finally getting in the w
We saw flashes with tray Ford. I don't think that this was surprising,
but good to see that finally kind of put a complete game together, even
if it was still kind of a weather delay. It half well before I
jump into the game too deeply, all shout out to jeff ryin Bull That
guy's one of my favorite coaches, not just in the CFL, but maybe
ever. He's a he's a great guy. You know, he's worked with
with Sky Sports, I think, and he's done a lot of cool stuff.
A great, great guy to talk to, interact with whatever. Unfortunately,
you know, things maybe haven't gone his way this season, but great
coach done the last great man getting into the game. Yeah, so Edmonton,
you know, finally got their win. We maybe had some suspicions that
this was going to happen. I was in that same sort of you know,
I'll see it when I believe in category, and well now I believe
it because it's officially on the board. But yeah, I was really you
know, despite the weather delay and everything, I was it was good to
see Edmonton, you know, sort of hold things down. And I think
the most important part here, and maybe this goes without saying, but trey
Ford continuing to hold down at the starting job, continuing to sort of grow
into that role, and you know, you know take that with pride.
We all agree that should have happened earlier, but that's in the past now
nothing we can do about it. You know. The other guy too.
I mean we've talked about trey Ford so much. I really want to talk
about Kevin Brown because this guy really deserves more credit, I think, not
just on the Elks team, but like in the CFL as a hole at
the running back position. I know we talked a bit about Montreal's under raided
running backs like jesser An Antwee last week, but Yeah, Kevin Brown.
That guy. That guy can play. And I think it's gonna been under
the radar again because Edmonton struggle. No one's really watching them as much this
year. But but Kevin Brown will turn up, you know when they need
him too, and he is I think you know him and like having him
is the top running back, and then Trey Ford is kind of compliment,
you know, as a running quarterback. I think that I don't know,
I shouldn't draw comparisons, but I kind of think about, like, and
I'm not saying this is really a run first team, but if you want
to make a bit of a reach comparison, I think of like Lamar Jackson
and mark Ingram when they were on the same team in twenty nineteen. Now
keep in mind that team had fourteen wins in the NFL. This is a
this is a one win CFL team, so it's a bit of a different
ballpark. But what I'm getting at is, you know, the fact that
they can have a guy like that who is such a consistent runner and then
had a quarterback it's also mobile. I think that will benefit them for the
rest of the season if they can keep this momentum and keep winning games,
whether that's a way or at home, I don't know. That's just my
take on it. I'm not saying Kevin Brown is the next mark Ingram,
but you know that's that's the first thing I thought of, just given this
sort of situation. And there's other similar I would say, situations playing out
across the football landscape right now where you have that. But anyway, a
couple other things for Edmonton. Stephen Dunbar revenge game obviously goes without saying from
what I remember, he might have played. I don't know if it was
him. He might have played well when Edmondston played Hamilton last time. I
feel like I was here in the name Stephen Dunbar lots. So maybe he
just kind of breaks out against his old team. I don't know, but
he was very impressive in this one. Nonetheless, you know, top receiver,
two touchdown catches, he pretty much led the offense. I'll give a
special shout out to Emmanuel Arsenal two. I know a lot of attention was
going around H. A. C. Leonard, you know, coming in
on the receiving play, but many Arsenal, you know, became the thirtieth
CFL receiver to surpass nine thousand career receiving yards, which I'd say it's a
pretty formidab accomplishment considering you know, he was getting old in like twenty nineteen
and then CFL stopped in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, he was in
the IFL with the Frisco Fighters and then signed, you know, last year
I think with Edmonton twenty twenty two. You know, because he had been
in BC for many many years before that, really good to see him,
you know, at that age, you know, still going still, you
know, being productive, and you know he he's been I want to say,
he's been banged up this season. You know, he was an older
guy. I don't know, I don't from what I understand, he hasn't
exactly had a huge role, But love Manny. He's a great guy.
I remember I was in BC last year and you know he was coming over
and signing things for all the fans, and plenty of Arsenal eighty four jerseys
in there, so you know, good to see that. What else was
I gonna say? The last thing I'll say about Edmonton before we jump into
the Hamilton's side is Nyles Morgan on defense is someone I've had an eye on
all season, and he had two sacks, led the team and tackles in
this game. Again, another player, you know that doesn't really get enough
credit. I think just because of the state of the team itself. They're
not winning a lot of games, not a lot of people are watching,
whatever you want to put it. But Nyle's Morgan definitely deserves some credit for
this one. The other thing I was gonna say, I had a question,
my my little hype conspiracy theory here is I had to tweet, you
know, do the weather delays ended up the Stasi and can come back in?
First off, Jason, did you take advantage of that? No,
you said, I'm getting the heck out of here? How bad was first
off? How bad was the weather? And then I have my conspiracy.
Oh it was. It was pretty bad. I mean for the first little
bit of it, like because it was convenient because it happened at halftime,
so you know, that's when they announced that there was gonna be a weather
delay, and the rain hadn't really started yet. It was mostly just the
lightning day that caused the weather delay. So we're like, let's let's just
go home and let's see because we live about you know, half an hour
walk from the stadium, so we can make it back in time before the
weather delay ends. And I just watched the second half at home, and
that's what we did. That we didn't take advantage of this offer to come
back into the stadium. But yeah, at the end of the day,
it was a pretty long weather delay. I think I even had like half
an hour at home before it even started, So I think, you know,
that was disappointing as well for the tie cast. They had a lot
of time to regroup and potentially come out with the better effort in the second
half, and they just couldn't do it. Well, here's my conspiracy.
We saw against Winnipeg go of twenty twos here and then you know trade four
and say we didn't push the ball down the field getting out at Chris Jones
and all that. Uh, it really felt like I said that, people
came out and they're like, let's just get this game done. Like let's
you know, let's kind of move off from that. You know, does
Edmonton Jason, does Edmonton win that game? Like if they're if they just
go in, if Hamilton's just goes in for you know, the half comes
out and still you know, it's still fresh warm, isn't cold. We've
been sitting in the locker room for an hour and a half, Like I
would just be curious to see what that second effort looked like because we haven't
seen it. We still I don't feel like I've seen Edmonton put together a
complete game like this was a very bizarre situation for them to win that second
half. Yeah, it's it's it's a very interesting because we'll never know what
how the Edmonton would have came out. I think their defense really did step
up in the second half. When then when they eventually did get going,
I thought that, you know, that has been a problem for them this
year. They've had opportunities where they've had leads late and they blow it,
like looking back to that game against the Scatch one earlier this year, look
back last week against Winnipeg, So, I mean, they had opportunities to
close games out, but they finally were able to do it. Pass Rush
really showed up in the key moments. They got some key sacks, So
I mean it was good to see for Edmonton. But I think that the
weather delight didn't happen. Yeah, we never know what would have happened.
I think it's interesting. My last thing from this and then we'll do real
quick, we'll talk Hamilton, we'll get out of here. I love you
know, we have a love hit with Marshall. Marshall had his quote with
with Trey FOURD after the game. You know, people like to talk.
I don't have to listen, doctor Trey said. He said it was was
that one hundred, one hundred thousand times harder than Geno Smiths. They wrote
me off, But I ain't right back yet, not even in the same
ballpark in terms of quote ability. And if you guys know Geno Smith with
the Seahawks, our quarterback, and they said, yeah, a lot of
people wrote me off, and they right back had a couple quotes, you
know, rash talking and the absurd, you know, firing Tommy Condell shows
how lots of tie cats are. I have another quote here. The Klind
of tie cast since the twenty nineteen Gray Cup is now complete. The team
plays disciplined, uninspired football. It's on coaches management at Hamilton. Now the
worst team. Let's go to Evan and then we'll go to Jason and we'll
get out of here because we're right hitting the hour mark. Yeah, well,
you know, on the Hamilton's side of things, you know, in
my notes, I said the team is starting to lose their identity, not
that they really had much of one before, given you know, things have
been shaky. You're letting go of a coach mid season. But yeah,
I mean, like a rash said, you know, you're scoring ten points
against a team, you know that had previously been winless. I mean that
that is unacceptable. And again, you know, while I picked Hamilton to
be in the playoffs, a game like this would not signal that and it
would be completely unacceptable, you know, for a playoff team to have this
type of performance. So maybe that goes against my point from earlier. But
anyways, I think that the decision to let go of Tommy Condell, I'm
not gonna I mean, I don't have a say in that, so I'm
not going to argue with it. Do I think it was the best decision.
No, I don't think he should have been the one to to go
or the fall guy, whatever you want to put him as. But it
does kind of make you wonder like maybe this will signal changes in the future.
Maybe this does mean Orlando stein Hour is done after this season, and
I think that will be the big question, one of the bigger questions across
the entire league, because we already know, like you know, what's going
to happen. I think with Edmonton, but with Hamilton, it's like they
could go in a couple of different directions because if they do make the playoffs,
like well, like I said earlier, that could save some jobs.
You know, maybe they put together an effort at the end of the season
and they get some people back and it's kind of like rallying the troops and
you know, maybe we just had some missing pieces that we couldn't fill in
until now, or maybe it really is just you know, things are truly
falling apart and you can't just you know whatever it is, like plug square
plug squares into these circular holes or whatever. I don't know, but ultimately,
just a couple notes, you know, from the actual game, Taylor
Powell and James Butler both looks solid. You know, Powell has struggled to
score, but they can at least move the ball. I'd rather watch an
offense that could. I mean, it's frustrating when they can't finish drives but
I'd rather watch an offense like Hamilton where they can you know, have some
big plays and get things going as opposed to Calgary where they just constantly stall,
you know, can't move things like that. So I don't know.
Either way, it's not good, but you get my point. And then
the one, the one player that I really wanted to mention was Tim White.
And I bring that up because I haven't said a lot about Tim White
this year. You have to remember he was a CFL All Star last season
and you know this game he kind of finally you know, made some progress
and looked like an All Star again. It really noticed him standing out in
this one. And then yeah, I think Jason already said it, but
uh, bark leggio, man, that was rough. That that was really
rough. And I mean, yeah, I'm not saying that. I mean
I think he left, yeah, like ten points on the board, so
they still wouldn't have won the game if he just made all those kicks.
Like, I don't think that was the difference in this game. But it's
one thing when your team is already struggling to score and you know, you
come in and as the kicker, like you're just trying to get points on
the board. And when you can't do that, it's kind of like if
you didn't have any hope before, then all hope is lost. Then with
Howegary, like you know, with running prets, I mean, he made
six of his kicks, so while it wasn't pretty, and while the offense
couldn't score touchdowns, they at least had him to keep things going and again,
just get points on the board. It's not pretty, it's not exciting,
but it is what it is. You're staying in the game. But
with this, yeah, I mean there was just it's like, I mean,
you're not even You're just missing kicks, like it's it's just one of
those sloppy nights. And again weather delay never helps. So that weather delay
that I can't remember, I mean, there's hasn't been many weather delays I
can remember that have been that long. And the CFL has had a lot.
Realize that in the summer, like you know, things get that bad.
You know, I've been up to Canada in the summer, you know,
certain parts. I haven't been all around obviously, but you know,
it just seems like there's been so many. I Mean, the NFL has
their fair share too, especially you know, like September as things are still
warm and everything like that, and then obviously at the other end and winter
when things get cold, you know, maybe snow and rain, things like
that. Wind. But yeah, like there's just feels like there's been a
lot of weather delays in that one for some reason, just felt extra brutal.
Yeah, Marshall, Blame Marshall, Tim capri check in the year,
Tim, we time I gave you. We talked to Tim's inside sources about
the Allott's quarterback room earlier in the episode. You gotta go back find Jason.
We'll get out of here seeing anything else from you, and then we'll
try to get out because it's been it's been long. It's been good though.
Yeah, that's touching on the decision to fire Tommy Condell. I thought
that it was the right decision. I think that, you know, some
of these schemes that the tai CAATs coaches have been running have just kind of
dried up over the last couple of years. You've seen a clear decline and
I think that my only complaint with that was that it didn't go far enough.
I think that all of the coaching staff basically has to go for the
tie Cats, I think you've seen a decline every single year. So twenty
nineteen first place, fifteen and three, twenty twenty one eight and six second
place in the East, last year eight and ten, third place in the
East, and then this year maybe fourth place. I think that, you
know, it's pretty safe to say I don't think they're gonna get to eight
wins this year. So I think that, you know, it's just been
very disappointing when you see that sharp of a decline. And I think that,
like I said, I think these schemes that these coaches are running,
especially defensively, I think that, you know, offensively they just can't score
in the red zone. But defensively, they're like the worst defense in the
CFL this year, which is just shocking from a Hamilton's perspective because I've been
so used to over my years as a fan of watching poor offenses with the
tie Cats, but very rarely seeing this terrible defense with the tie Cats.
So I think they're dead last right now in points allowed per game in the
CFL, even worse than Edmonton. So I mean, that's really what stands
out for me with this team this year. I think the coaching staff.
And it's worth noting that President Orlando Stein now are now makes the decisions for
the personnel for this team. So he went out and made the decision to
bring in all these new players this offseason. So, I mean, I
think at certain point you have to blame the coaches, and at this point,
I think they deserve the brunt of the blame. Well, we're gonna
get out of here next This week on the show, I gotta figure out
got the Thursday game again, trying to do a traditional episode this week.
It's just hard, kind of like getting enough pieces together, like do we
have enough interviews to do otherwise we'll go live again. I'll figure that out.
But I gotta send some emails out today. But yeah, this montrelat
Winnipeg, I think that's good. I think I would like to see,
you know, if Montreal can kind of make a run out of here and
give Winnipeg you know something, you know, you give a little competition there,
and then we've got Calgary and all of that. Hamilton's BC we've already
talked about in Ottaway at Edmonton. Appreciate everyone, Evan, Appreciate you getting
back in getting everything set up and Jason obviously seeing all the games, everything
else. Anything else quick from you guys before we get out. All right,
we'll see you guys. Check out jason stuff this week. I know
he'll have some previews and everything coming up, and then just stay tuned on
social media and we will figure out what's going on. Thanks guys,