Well here we are happy marcast Monday, coming off the Great Cup Playoffs semi
finals here a little later in the day working around Evan, one of our
co hosts had a doctor's appointment, working around his schedule, and then Evan
stuff in the second traffic getting back. But I'll be good. We'll vamp
a little bit. Evan can hop on. I have a CFL plus rant
that I think we'll wait to get into it Evan, because I'm sure he
has some thoughts as well. But doing this here, we'll kind of recap
obviously the games over the weekend, and then we'll preview everything. Depending on
XFL news or not this week, this might be the podcast for the week,
so we'll see. It was like last week, I'm like, do
I bring on Dave Naylor the preview? We've already previewed like too many previews.
So Jason, how are you doing, sir? I am doing good,
raid no, thanks for having me as always, and definitely got my
football fixed this weekend with some great games in the NFL, and you know,
my teams didn't do so well, but what are you gonna do?
Yeah, I posted in the group chat that drake me, you know,
getting up at nine or whatever to do the mark cast live stream is like,
no, but yeah, I was up at six thirty watching the Dolphins
and Chiefs game. Dorothy came down and she's like, what do you What
are you doing here? What is going on? So all of that.
Yeah, very exciting all the way through. Coming off of a Portugal the
maand show last night. We have Kissed tonight in town, the final goodbye
tour for that. So hopefully, luckily we're doing the show now and not
after that. My boys, we'll hold up here real quick. A couple
of notes off the back. Jason's waiting to hear back. You did hear
our credential for myself and I assume Dorothy's email came in as well. Here
a credential. Third, you're in a row here covering the Great Cup.
Really appreciate that. I feel privileged and honored. I spelled it with ou
because we're Canadian doing all that stuff. But I'm really excited. We're going
to have a really good show. We either have a location we mentioned at
the end of the podcast last week, but it's either going to be at
the Anchor Bar there by the Convention Center or else working to see if we
can get in the kind of the Great Cup, you know, the fan
access kind of all that stuff. But the other way, we'll be there.
Jason will be there, Evan, you know, and then you know
the Namesdays far Han and Naylor. I'm sure he'll stop by. We got
the Joe Davis of the world. I know, Jamie and I wants to
come on Jeff Hamilton if he's around, you know, so we'll get all
that kind of you know, Tim Bays will be there. Jason, are
you excited for the Great Cup live show here coming up in two weeks.
Yeah, I've been looking forward to it for a long time now, and
I'm really excited for all the guests that we'll have on and just to do
it in person will be really cool. Yeah, it should be a good
vibe. So we'll post all that. You can stop by. Obviously your
watch and we got really good viewership last year, so hopefully we'll kind of
do that as well. But anyway, moving on here, let me see
we have a couple of comments, like I said, vamping a little bit
today and then we'll get in Evan and everything else. James can't wait for
the East West Finals with a big boy c BC. If I can speak,
it's going to be the game of the year and Montreal is going to
upset the oh got a little curse word there, I didn't see that.
And then Kyle is excited. Kyle's a big Montreal Alolette spam. Jason,
We'll do a further deep dive here, but tykatspeaking at the right time.
How would you grade the Tykats season now all said in them, Well,
it's definitely a failing grade. I think because you know, they changed so
many players in the offseason. I mean they said, you know, the
players are the are the problem. They changed all these players in the off
season, made all these personnel decisions, and yet they ended up with the
exact same record in the exact same situation, losing to Montreal in the East
semi final, and it didn't really look close, just like last year.
I will say, And you know, we had a couple of weeks ago
with the Din Witty playing Chad Kelly and like, do we need to play
Jack Kelly? And is that coaching malpractice to see Chad Kelly here in the
game. I think it was coaching malt practice to say Bo Levi Mitchell tel
six minutes left, and I think, yeah, I guess we can talk
about that. Benjamin to have the comment here already, I tweeted out,
and I was kind of surprised because it was one of those things where I
got home, I was I was watching the BC Lines game on my phone.
We were getting ready for the Cracking game. I had it on and
then I went to the game and then I, you know, came back
after saw the comments on and I guess I'll present this my little tweet,
and then I want to get Jason's thoughts as well. You know, Bo
saying, you know, if you're not playing paying your highest paid player on
the team in the playform, I don't see myself being here again, Bo
Levi, and I just said, you know, I appreciate his honesty.
I think this is a huge story. So much of the off season was
built and like where's Bognna go? And he's going to the Saskatchewan and you
had the Michael Balls of the world yelling at people, and I think Naylor
was kind of in on that scuffle of where's he going? And then he's
going to Hamilton and we've got the billboards and everything, and it was you
know, it was like Aaron Rodgers going to the Jets. I mean,
we kind of talked about that on the preview show for the whole season,
and I don't get this and this isn't what do you make of this?
To not only I get maybe even the first half, and to go to
it was six minutes left, year down, he was two scores right when
he finally came in. Yeah, I think that. You know, I
was one of those people that said start Matthew Schultz for the game, because
I do think he was the best quarterback option for the ty Cats this season,
definitely better than what Bow had shown this season. But at the end
of the day, Schiltz was not playing a very good game at all.
So many passes batted down at the line of scrimmage. We'll get into it
more when we talk about the game specifically, but Schildtz just did not have
a good first half, and I thought that immediately starting the second half,
Bow was gonna be put in there. But, like you said, malpractice
not putting your highest paid player on the field in that situation, because it
becomes indefensible because you made this move in the offseason to you know, not
just sign this guy but trade for his rights months ahead of time, and
you know, bring him in as this big offseason splash that you sold these
season ticket holders on, and ultimately at the end of the day, you
didn't even play him in the most important games, a game of the season.
And for bo Levi, I understand his frustration because this very well could
be his last game in the CFL. I mean, who's really bringing bo
Levi Mitchell in as a backup quarterback next year, even if he wants to
do that. So, I mean I understand his frustration with it because I
was very frustrated watching the game on Saturday. To me, it's kind of
like the trade four thing, when we were kind of getting to that point
in the season where even if like you're Chris Jones, you're Orlando and like
why you know I know better? We like, you're getting to the point
where you're gonna have to answer those questions later, right, those receipts are
coming in, like I know, the tie Cats right care and Taker Bob
kind of like the owns, but there they got the whole conglomerate there,
you know, in terms of like the power structure, I'm sure that you
know a couple of hands there. But you know, to me, there
would be major questions coming out today, I'm like, what are we doing
here? I mean, even if you didn't think that this was, you
know, a game changing with whatever situation at that point, like we've spent
all this money and time in equity and all the media stories around when is
he coming back and is he going to make it to the playoffs and then
not even play it. I just that to me, the aesthetic of it
more than anything, even if you don't think it's going to matter on the
gameplay, I think it would help solidify saving your job if that was in
jeopardy or saving just answering a lot of those difficult questions after the fact.
If that makes sense, Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, at
least go down swing with the guys that you've invested in, you know,
when that's where you put your resources. Don't go down swinging with Matthew Schultzer.
You know, we didn't give to see Taylor Powell, But don't go
to those guys in that situation. Go to your you know, veteran quarterback
that it's won MLPs one, great cups. You never know what's going to
happen, but the way that they put them in, with what six minutes
left in the game, they're down by fifteen points, never really had a
shot to really get his footing in the game, and I definitely understand the
Bow's frustration as well as the fans. Yeah, so just around that out,
I do potentially see that being Bo's last. I don't see anyone else
going there at this point. Are you of a similar elk here? Yeah,
I agree. I think that maybe if he has a kind of a
mindset change, maybe not necessarily a mindset change. I can't really read his
mind, but I can't see bolieve I mentioned, with the pride he's had
throughout his career and the confidence that he's played with wanting to accept the backup
job going into the season where he's know for sure going to be the backup,
because I don't see any team bringing him in to compete for a starting
job next season, even in Ottawa or some other team like that, or
Edmonton or whatever. But I think at the end of the day, this
could be it for Bo. We're talking here, Kyle's I said. Obviously,
Montreal Montreal defense showed up today a tough game, and then Jeff,
you're saying Montreal threw a wild card here and they have a chance to upset
the ar Let's get into that a little bit here In terms of the game.
I guess we'll go that one first, because we're talking about it.
Normally we go in reverse chronological order here, but let's get in on this
Tykats twelve twenty seven Montreal. If I can get this going here, what
did you kind of general thoughts of the game, and then we can do
a little more deep time. Well, not an overly surprising result. This
is kind of of what I expected, given that the Alouettes won all three
games against the tay Cats in the regular season, and that the Tai Cats
offense couldn't really find a breakthrough against that Alouette's defense. And that's really the
story here. The Alouettes really shut down the tai Cats really from the opening
snap, and I feel like that first drive for Hamilton was very promising,
but then they go down and KeAndre Smith fumbles. That's the second big fumble
he's had in as many years against the Alouettes in a key situation. So
I mean, I think that really took a lot of wind out of the
tay Cats sales. If they had gone down and punched it in the end
zone on that first drivee we could be talk about a completely different game.
But ultimately the Alouetz defense kept the tay Cats out of the end zone for
yet another time this season. There was a game earlier this year, the
first meeting, I believe, where it was thirty eight to twelve, and
similar story, the tai CAATs just continued to settle for field goals, could
not get into the end zone. And really that's the problem in football.
If you cannot get into the end zone, you're not gonna win many games.
Yeah, this was a slow beginning. We had like a flash rating
flood here. I was like up on my roof as the game of starting
and I'm like, okay, we got you know one point we ever came
in was able to settle down. Well, I just certainly picked up momentum.
Yeah, I mean Montreal and like we said Kyle's comments, really the
defense here really kind of putting their work in. I had the tweet from
Evan that we were talking you know, former X ANDFL renegade SAT champion here,
Darnell Sankey, you know, the big offseason move coming in there,
how impressed were you? Would you credit the Aloet's defense or the lack of
offense on Hamilton's you know, for the low scoring the fair of starting out
at least, I would credit the Alouettes defense for the most part because they've
been a very consistent unit throughout the entire season. They've been a defensive led
team throughout most of the season. Their offense really doesn't do anything too flashy,
but they're complimentary and I think, yeah, those offseason additions or mid
season editions. I should say of Darnell Sanki at the middle lineback position,
what he have eight tackles, two sacks and interception. You know, he
really showed up on the stat sheet in this one, made some big impact
plays. And then Sean Lemon at the defensive end position two sacks in this
one, really being that closer that the Alouett's defense really needed because I really
didn't think they had that, you know, premium edge rusher, but when
they brought in Lemon, they really filled that role. And ultimately, at
the end of the day, this defense is a story in the CFL.
This season is the story of their season. I should say their secondary is
really good as well. They completely took away Tim White in this game.
Zero catches for Tim White in this game, who was the league's leading receiver
this season. So I mean, just great defensive game plan from the Alouettes.
Yeah, that's one of those things when they say that, because like
I'm listening, I got that, I got it, and we can say
the CFL plus of it all. But yeah, I got on my phone,
I'm walking, and you know they say that, you know obviously like
Tim White, which that surprised me in and of itself that he was kind
of the lead, the leading receiver in the league and then to have zero,
zero targets on that it seems wild to me at that point. And
like you said, the Sean Lemon thing, I know, Mike Mitchell's commented
in our group chat that like it was like the league didn't want Sean.
It was just like, you know, to be able to pick him up.
That it wasn't like anyone wanted to resign him. A weird situation there.
Why do you think there was that I didn't even know if stigma is
the right word, but kind of, oh, he's he's out to pasture
and then here he comes in and makes a huge effort. Well, that's
so weird. With his career, He's had one of the strangest CFL careers
I can remember, and the fact that he's never really settled down anywhere.
I really thought the last couple of years in Calgary he had found a home.
But ultimately, at the end of the day, I think their hopeful
loss if he really kept them from retaining him this offseason. It came back
to bite the Stampeders as well, and that was to the benefit obviously of
the Montreal Alouettes. And uh yeah, just you know, the pressure on
the quarterback is just so important in these playoff games. I felt like the
Hamilton didn't generate nearly as much pressure on Tody Fajardo on the other side of
the ball, so I think that was a big difference in this game.
And obviously the turnovers. Welcome Evan here. Hopefully everything went well getting back
through traffick. Evan, we were talking. I showed your tweet already,
Darnell sank here standing out for the Montreal Alowett's defense. What impressed to you
the most with this game? I mean, to me, really dominant.
I'm excited to see Montreal going here to Toronto and uh, you know it
could be could be a real low scoring the fair just and both of these
defenses step up. But what did you make of the game? Absolutely?
I mean I think, you know, we can start obviously talking about Darnell
Sanki, but not just sanky Sean Lemon is the other guy. I think
really the entire Aliowett's defense I believe won this game. But you know,
obviously shout out to Darnell Sanki and Sean Lemon. You know, great job
by the Montreal personnel department adding those guys in the middle of the season.
I mean that was you know, I don't want to say it won them
the game out right, but uh, you know, two high impact players.
You know, some people had written them off. It's really incredible to
me, to be honest, that they were able to get both Sanki and
Lemon considering that those were two you know, pretty I guess, you know,
highly respected free agents. But you know, Lemon went unsigned, and
I think it's pretty clear he was unsigned for too long and should have been
on a roster at the beginning of the season. And then obviously, as
I pointed out in my tweet, You've got Darnell Sanki, who you know,
as much as we talk about XFL guys going to the NFL, Darnall
Sanki was a guy who played with the Arlington Renegades, won the XFL championship
this year, and then signed with Montreal I believe at the beginning of September
and has been there ever since. So you got to give him credit.
He's playing two different seasons of football in two different countries. That's that's not
easy to manage. It's honestly great that we can even see that given the
current state of you know, football or pro football, alternate football, whatever
you want to call it. But yeah, Sanky and Lemon definitely stood out
in this game to me more than really anybody. Yeah. Really remarkable,
I think, and depending on if they were to make it to the Great
Cup and I you know, we'll get kind of our predictions here coming up,
but truly remarkable. I just think that's a cool story. And I
mean we saw the mc cloud of it all and kind of go into the
USFL last year. We'll see with these with the merged league and all that
coming up and kind of how that goes in terms of timelines and everything,
But I don't know, I like seeing these players kind of interact in both
of that. Jason from a you know, a little bit more of an
outsider. Just obviously you're not doing XFL day in the day out. I
thought this transition here and kind of other players being able to do that obviously
coming into the season late like Darnell did, but you know, timing works
out if you're done in April. I mean you could transition into a CFL
camp in the summer anyway. Yeah, for sure, And I think that,
you know, it's way more plausible. Obviously it's gonna be e merged
league, but with the way that USFL had their schedule, is much less
like likely for a player to join the the CFL midway through the season than
it is for an XFL player like Sankey to join the CFL through the season.
But obviously that's a mute point with the merged league coming up. But
I think at the end of the day, it's I think it's pretty cool
how players can bounce back and forth. They think that at the end of
the day. You know, I love the CFL, but I also love
all types of football, and I think that I just want more opportunities for
players to you know, live out their dream. And I think, you
know, Sankey's really got the best of both worlds the last year or so
here in in the CFL and the XFL. We talked before you hopped on
about bow Levi and kind of coming in late and all that thoughts on him.
You know, is this the end of the road for bow obviously upset
in the comments and you know, if you're not playing your highest paid player,
what did you make of that situation? Well, it was a very
strange decision, I believe because last week when we were previewing the game,
excuse me, you know, we talked about sort of you know, Hamilton's
two quarterback system and how they were very likely to play Matt Shiltz and bow
Livi Mitchell in this game. But they did so in the way that I
didn't think was going to happen. And that was first all they gave Shultz
to start, which to some people was a bit controversial. To me personally,
I understand, you know, he ultimately I think is well, I
don't have the numbers with me, but you know, he played a good
amount this season, you know, before his injury and then Taylor Powell came
in. I mean bow Levi, you know, up until the end of
the season here had barely seen the field due to his injuries. So,
you know, to some people it was a bit controversial that they they started
Shiltz, but in my opinion, it took them way too long to get
bow Levi into that game. And I have a lot of respect for Matt
Shiltz and what he's done is a you know, sort of journeyman now in
the CFL, really only between well Montreal and Hamilton, but he's been around,
you know, in a backup role for several seasons now, someone that
I'm you know, I would call a friend and that I highly respect.
But this wasn't his best at you know, let's be honest. He was
not, you know, see in the field as well. And you know,
beoliv the fact that he didn't come in until I mean it was I
think it must have been less than halfway through the fourth Yeah, less than
or more than halfway excuse me, through the fourth quarter. You know that
that's on Steinauer. You know that's on Orlando Steinauer. And you know he
was questioned about that. I think one of the TSN guys you know,
asked him, you know, at halftime when they came out, you know,
for the third quarter, would there be a change at quarterback and he
just said, oh, well, we'll see you know. But yeah,
I mean the fact that I mean, the fact that they didn't even bother
putting bo into some degree before halftime is kind of its own thing, and
it was a very puzzling decision and it was even more well maybe not surprising,
but you could definitely fell that bo Leivi I was not happy about that
decision when he was interviewed after the game and came out saying that, you
know, he doesn't anticipate seeing himself, you know, being there in the
future, despite his love for the team. And you know, obviously this
season didn't go as plan, but it was very questionable in my opinion,
again, going in that game, the idea of playing two quarterbacks and having
Schiltz kind of be your guy that leads it out that I understand, but
given Schiltz's struggles early on, in the fact that Montreal's defense was able to
establish themselves for them to not you know, make a change and put bow
Levi in who to be honest, I mean, again, not the way
we thought the season would go for him, but somebody who has shown a
lot of promise here, you know, in these last couple of games and
has shown us you know that he could still, you know, maybe be
a starter in this league. The fact that they didn't make that change,
you know, that goes on coaching and that's going to be a decision that
I think affects a team for a long time when you lose a game like
that, Jason at this point and I want to transition here that kind of
the Alouett's going into Toronto. But as a ty Cats fan, you know,
come down the last couple of years, right, you're in the Great
Cup, you lose and there was all that stuff, and then the last
year and kind of be on the outside like do we I don't know,
how do you? How do you view this now? Is there enough here?
The salvage? Bo's not coming back? Do you? Right? With
Schildt? Like is stein Howard there? I mean, do you blow up?
How do you? How do you would you how would you like to
see them moving forward? Well? They're kind of in no man's land.
It really feels like it. I feel like, like I said, last
year, they kind of just blamed it all on the players. They're like,
it was a disappointing season, we went eight and ten, Let's change
a bunch of the players. I think they flipped over at least half of
their starters on both sides of the ball, and they hope that that would
make the difference, and ultimately it was the same result this season. And
I don't know what they do going forward. I don't think anybody on the
roster at the quarterback position is necessarily the answer. Maybe Taylor Powell if he
gets a little bit more seasoning, but I don't think you trust that going
into next year with him being your number one quarterback. So I mean,
maybe they look around the league. I think that maybe Drew Brown in Winnipeg
is a guy they look to bring in. I remember years ago I was
surprised when the ty Cats brought in Zach Klaris from the Toronto Argonauts, who
was little known backup who played pretty well in limited action there. So maybe
they bring in Drew Brown, or if somebody else from around the league,
maybe bring back Dane Evans. I think that Bridge is probably burned, But
I think at the end of the day, they have to make a change
yet again at the quarterback position. Yeah, Like I said, I don't
see Bo being back. I don't think Matthew Schiltz is an answer at any
capacity as a starting quarterback. So I mean, yeah, it's just back
to the drawing board. And a lot of this points to the head coaching
position. I think that Orlando Steinauer, for as much success as he's had
as a tai Cats head coach, obviously great Cups appearances in the first couple
of years of his coaching tenure, I think that he's just really struggled to
manage the quarterback position, even going back to his time when he had Massoli
and Evans. So I think at the end of the day, they need
to pick a guy, commit to one guy. But I'm losing faith in
the whole coaching staff here in Hamilton. Yeah, it feels like that was
kind of the peak of all this, at least obviously in the time that
we've covered the league. But you kind of had that strong one A and
one B, and I remember even going into that great couchs like you know,
who's gonna play or what's gonna happ you a little bit more, We're
now in this, you know, you know, the she sheltz and what
I don't know, it feels like a lesser version of that in terms of
Montreal here going in Evan, do you think that Montreal has a chance here?
I mean Toronto historic run here and what is it sixteen to two and
kind of all that stuff. What are your thoughts here previewing going into the
weekend. Well, I'll say this, they look better than I expected,
you know, playing against Hamilton, and you know, you can argue maybe
Hamilton, you know, kind of dug their grave a bit a bit too
early, but on Montreal's side of the ball, you know, like Williams
stand back in this game. I think one thing that they did very effectively,
and that might be more difficult to do against Toronto, but it certainly
worked for them here was establishing the wrong game. You had william stand back,
you know, eighteen carries for ninety five yards. You know, they
didn't have to do a ton of offense. I mean, I'm still a
bit concerned obviously about Cody Fajardo. Very respectable performance here, but you know,
his one one critical mistake was an interception in the red zone, and
I think he's said a couple of those this year. You know, that
was at a point in the game where, you know, had Hamilton's offense
not stalled out, I guess you would say, you know, that could
have easily been a situation where you know, he throws that interception, Hamilton
gainst the momentum, they go and score and the game is tied. But
besides that, you know, Montreal, do I think that they have a
shot against Toronto? I don't know. I mean, you know, from
what I saw in this game, you know, clearly their defense. Maybe
I haven't talked about them enough this year, but they had a great outing
against Hamilton, and it's hard to say, you know, well, obviously
Toronto's offense is gonna be much more of a juggernaut than than Hamilton's offense,
which has been as much as I've again praised this season under their change with
Scott Molanovitch, I feel like, you know, I feel like it's still
been pretty up and down at times, a lot of different quarterbacks, as
Jason has pointed out. But you know, Montreal, I think if their
defense, you know, stays stout, they'll at least make the game competitive.
I really don't think that they have a chance at winning unfortunately, but
maybe they proved me wrong. You know this, to be honest, there's
a team that I mean going into this Toronto game. If they win that
game, you know, if they even have a chance, that would prove
a lot of people wrong, including myself, because let's be honest. You
know, while Montreal has defied the odds this season, a lot of people
thought that they were going to be the worst team in the league, they
still have a lot to prove. You know, as much as I've talked
about this defense being strong, in this offense, you know, throughout the
year, having several different different pieces excuse me, that have made this team
you know, watchable. The fact that they haven't beaten Toronto or BC or
Winnipeg that's incredibly alarming, you know, and great. You know, you
get a playoff win, you know, first year under Jason Moss and Cody
Fagardo. Even if they do lose that game in Toronto, I feel like
you walk away from this season, you know, feeling good about yourself and
feeling good going in the next year, knowing that you have a lot to
build off of. But I just see Toronto is too strong. Unfortunately,
going into this one. I am happy for the Alletts, and you know,
I know that the TV announcer talking a lot about it too, obviously,
we you know, including like even James Letcher here he had the one
B one, he at least one big run when I kind of had tuned
it on, and I always get excited to kind of always you know,
is he going to make a break again. But we have a lot of
outlets players on the show, and they've been tremendously good for me to work
with and to get players on, and so I obviously have a lot of
you know, friends and good warm feelings towards a team. And this really
could have been a dumpster fire this year coming in and just everything Cody's gone
through with Jason Moss and everything. And we've talked about that with Darreld Davis
on about Saskatchewan and their problems. Now we're like, hey, you know,
Cody Jason, like they were the scapegoats. Hey, that's the problem,
and you get rid of them, and now they're excelling here. And
obviously there's a lot of more movie parts and just you know, two individuals
moving back and forth, but just excited and excited for Cody like Evan said,
to get a playoff win, you're still playing meaningful football. You're going
to be in the finals. I don't think excuse me, I don't think
anyone had them penciled in for that, Jason, in terms of your expectations
for the year, I mean, had to exceed anything for the for the
Allettes, Oh absolutely. I mean I had them, like I said a
couple of weeks ago on the show, that I had them last place in
the CFL, like a lot of people did going into the season. I
really didn't believe in the playmakers that they had. I thought their defense was,
you know, kind of middle of the road. But obviously that proved
to be false. And I think that, yeah, they have to be
proud of the season that they've had, especially considering they had new ownership as
well, really gives them something to build off of, regardless of what happens
in Toronto on Saturday. But yeah, I think that it's been a very
good season for the Alouettes and they have to be proud of what they've done
and exceeding a lot of people's expectations. I mean, obviously there's no like
you don't get flowers for you know, at the end of the day,
you want to win and make it all the way. You know, there's
no like half measures. But I just it really could have been a nightmare,
and I feel good for them. Toronto's really good. I don't know,
I kind of worry there, afraid that this could be a little bit
of a bla. Do you at least see Montreal kind of keeping this I
guess keeping this close because the thing during this game, like you said,
Cody's got the interception, that I kind of felt that way yesterday watching the
Commanders play against the Patriots, Like, you know, we won the game,
did play our best game, but I'm like, man, the Patriots
were even a remotely good team at all, like we would be having trouble
right now. Like to me, it felt the same way, like,
yeah, Aloett's won. I mean, obviously doubled up the score, but
if Hamilton even had a modicum of kind of any sort of momentum going,
it maybe would have been a little bit closer. So what do you make
here of at least the Alouettes keeping it close in Toronto? Well, I
think another big thing that I didn't talk about is as much as I've praised
you, know Montreal's defense, and again they've got all these different offensive playmakers,
which has contributed to their success this season. You know, Cody Fajardo
has a very very difficult task ahead of him when it comes to that.
You know, Argo's defense, both the upfront and in their secondary. I
mean you look at the amount of all star talent that they have on that
defense. I mean, you know Hamilton's defense. You know, they have
pieces that I like, but I mean you're going this is a whole other
level. I mean, you know what he faced against Hamilton, I really
don't think, you know, is comparable and that it'll be interesting to see,
you know, just within a week, you know, if he can
handle or you know, manage that difference. So we'll see, you know,
Cody, Look, Cody's been up and down. Cody is one of
those quarterbacks where it always feels like he's got something to prove, you know,
and we know that in the past. I mean, you know,
there's a reason that he's here in Montreal and that you know his I guess
you could say his career has been well up and down, Like I already
said that to this point, But there's a reason he's in Montreal, and
to be honest, this year, I was ready to count him out pretty
early, and he's you know, while he's proved me wrong, you know,
like there's still Montreal is kind of a there's just so many question marks
with that team, and some of them were answered in this game against Hamilton.
You know, they really took advantage of that home playoff game and that
was great to see. You know, it wasn't a fluke. They were
able to go well. Of course, they had home field advantage, so
that was a bit of a benefit, but they were able to win a
playoff game and a lot of people, you know, would have never thought
that we would have even been at this point. So yeah, I mean,
in terms of Cody specifically, like I said, you know, he's
he's proved me wrong this season for a majority of it. But you know,
I watching his game, you know, just last week and obviously a
couple of games you know into the regular season, there's still some things that
he needs to clean up, you know, if he wants to again have
a chance against you know, a defense of that caliber, and you know
that's gonna be a new challenge for him. Now. Fortunately Toronto and Montreal
have had some very entertaining matchups this season. I go back to I think
it was the game in July that was, you know, that big back
and forth battle and obviously Toronto got the better of him. But you know,
we'll see, given that Toronto's had, you know, a week off,
you want to see how they're able to respond to that, as any
team does in a situation where they have a bye week. So all of
that's kind of interesting. The But to answer your question, like I said,
I mean, after this playoff game, I feel a bit more comfortable
about Montreal going into a BMO and not you know, suffering a complete blowout
at the hands of Chad Kelly. I'm just trying to figure out. And
I you know, I'm the biggest Cody Fjarda fan and one hundred percent support.
I'm just trying to figure out, like you know, if you put
if Montreal is constructed in a way where we had like we got a pretty
good defense, we have enough guys that can catch the ball, like we
see what happened with BC when Vernon's out and Dane has kind of been up
and down this year, it hasn't played kind of up to that level like
is are the alowitz winning because of Cody Jason or is it could you plug
and play maybe another quarterback in there, or is Cody good enough to kind
of elevate and raise them over. I think that Cody Pajaro, like I
was saying last week on the show, is kind of like that league average
starting quarterback that he doesn't really hinder the team around him, or he doesn't
really raise the play of the players around and I'm around him, and I
think that at the end of the day, he's a guy that, you
know, skill set wise, not really the best deep ball thrower, doesn't
really push the ball downfield. He didn't have to do that in this game,
and I think that's gonna be the big determining factor against Toronto because I
think the Alouettes are going to have to score thirty plus points in order to
beat the Argos at Bemo Field. And I get to see that Alouette's team
this season, so I'm interested to see how that matchup plays out. I
think that they have some playmakers on that side of the ball. Austin Mack
has been excellent this season, one of my favorite players to watcht the CFL
this season. Had a huge play in this one, really the touchdown that
really decided this game. So really interested to see how he plays in this
one. And Toronto's had some weaknesses in the secondary this year. They have
given up a lot of big plays. I think there was one game against
Oudawa that they really audible was moving up and down the field with the passing
game. So they've had some moments where they haven't looked the best in the
secondary this year. It's gonna be all about if Montreal can exploit that weakness
and you know, keep up offensively with the argos Evan. Any other thoughts
here on this game will transition over the BC and all of that. I
want to make sure you get any other thoughts on this. Yeah, I
mean, I think I'll just touch on Hamilton to wrap this up, because
we've obviously been focused on Montreal since they won this game and they did it
in the impressive fashion. But yeah, you know, I was I was
just really surprised, you know, by Hamilton. Like I said, I
thought they had a really good chance in this game and they came out and
like to me, it was pretty clear after like the first quarter that I
don't want to say it was a lost cause because they did keep it,
you know, somewhat close, but it just felt like every time they were
you know, within reach, Montreal kept pulling away and there was nothing you
know, really they could do about it. The only bright spot I'd say
for Hamilton in this game, at least on offense, was a James Butler,
you know, establishing the run with him, but you know, that
didn't really feel like it happened until later. You know, he averaged six
point four yards of carry on thirteen touch, which is great, you know,
but man, like I just I had so much hope, you know,
for this Hamilton team after what I've seen here in the past couple of
games to end the season. They finished so strong, and for them to
come into Hamilton like that, and really, to be honest, I mean,
I hate to be critical like this, but to put up a rather
forgettable performance, it's a shame. But again you have to credit the opponent.
And you know, I now now that I again, now that I've
watched that game and I had an opportunity to really see Montreal again in their
you know, full or at full strength, I should say I feel a
bit better about them going to Toronto because, like I had said before,
you know, I thought Hamilton versus Toronto would have been the much more entertaining
matchup. But to be honest, like you know, Montreal demonstrated that they
you know, have enough to at least, you know, make things interesting
in another playoff game. So I'd say that's a that's a win win situation,
Jason, Like, you know, we were talking to you, what's
the state of the Ti Cats? And it's just hard because you know,
like in the CFL, it's hard not to be a playoff team kind of
right, you know, you really got to be you really got to be
avitendent. So this whole like, well, you know, Hamilton made to
the playoffs, Like what do you want? You know, we're gonna do
it, like to be third in the East and get knocked out, and
like Evan's had a pretty forgettable game, Like it seems to be a little
bar here to kind of go through and get that buy. And so I'm
just worried about that and kind of obviously, you know, tay Cat fans
moving forward, do you have anything else on this game? But we can
move on. Yeah, I'm kind of afraid that the tay Cats management won't
be U won't be open to making changes this offseason because, oh, we're
a playoff team this year. Again, We've been the playoffs four four years
with Orlando Steiner as the head coach. So I'm afraid they're just not gonna
do anything. I mean, they're going to change the quarterback position, but
outside of that, I'm kind of afraid that they're going to be complacent and
not make the changes necessary to really get this team back into the conversation as
one of the best teams in the league. So I'm very concerned for the
ty Cats heading into the offseason. Yeah, we talked to last week,
and we have the same standings, you know, right in terms of last
year and this year, and that we have the same result right going into
you know, both of these right going in again. And so you just
wonder in that way, like it's such an easy sell, Oh, you
know, we made it in. It's like it's like the Commanders had a
couple of years like, well, you know, we're like we're teetering on
the playoffs, and you're like you're either gonna you know, getting to me
being a playoff team and getting knocked out the first round is not there's nothing
to celebrate about that. You know, you want to have sustaining success for
that, Evan. Anything else, we'll get onto the other one, all
right. So we had this and like I said, I was, I
think I have this right here. I was at the bar watching this.
Evan, We'll do our CFL plus ran at the end of the show for
anyone, we'll get into football first year, you know my fear right,
BC kind of whatever. BC took care of business. Put it point still.
You know, you know the Donut Boys still giving a given up thirty
and I saw I'll got to pull the tweet up here that Ryan Phillips and
said like, yeah, most of my guys played pretty good. I'm like,
oh, look, that's interesting. I kind of like that. Let's
go first adjacent for this. BC took care of business. You know,
a score looks a little bit more misleading than the game felt. But what
did you make of this game? This game was all about Bernon Adams,
like Vernon Adams was the best player in the CFL this weekend, and it
really showed. I mean, this is one of the best quarterback performances I
think we've seen since in the playoffs, since the league came back from the
canceled twenty twenty season, so I think that he was just lights out and
the Calgary defense had no answers for them. And the funny thing is Calgary
goes right down the field on the opening drives scores the touchdown. I'm like,
Reid's getting really nervous right now. He's probably sweating right now. But
texted me I was walking the dock. I go, I had, I
got the game's been on for three minutes. I'm not back from walking the
dock yet. Yeah. It's like crazy, like how this game started and
then how quickly BC just flipped that and just they just never looked back.
And I think the key play in this game was Calgary had the ball in
their second possession because they forced a punt on the BC's first possession. Calgary
had the ball, was driving into BC territory and then Gary Peters I believe,
got the interception and then BC just really didn't look back. They got
the tying touchdown and then took the leads soon after, and Bernard Adams just
basically a flawless game from him, and Keon Asher had a massive game as
well. Yeah, I was sitting there at the bar, I tweeted out,
you know, Keon have a day. I mean this was every time
I was looking because we had the UDUB game on. They were playing who
played USC you know, boohoo of Caleb Williams like that. It is just
ridiculous. I'm sorry, but I'm watching. It's like, every time I'm
looking at my phone, Keon's getting a twenty thirty yard reception. What was
his statline? Even one ninety nine receptions from one ninety five Jeerlli remarkable,
Evan, what did you make of this one? Becau? Yeah, you
were texting me. I'm like, the game, hasn't I get my the
other vacation. The game started two mans, I get the vacation. Calgary
is up seven zero. Yeah, well look I predicted that BC would score
over forty points in this game, and they did that very interesting start.
You know, when Jake Mayer came out with a three play, eighty one
yard touchdown drive and what felt like about thirty seconds, I thought, well,
they're like, you know, is this really like, is this what
it's gonna be? Or is this just like a one off thing? Because
you know, he had the big completion the Bagleton like on the first play,
and it was interesting because they did that exact same thing pretty much.
I forget if it was to Reggie Bagleton or the Trey Odoms Dukes two weeks
ago, and that pass was dropped. But you know, they came out
at the gate with a big play, but this time they hit it and
then I think they had a run and then they had the touchdown to Market
Michelle which went for over thirty yards. And I mean, way to make
a statement, you know, early, but unfortunately when you're going up against
that juggernaut of an offense, and the big question I think going into this
game, not that there were many questions for BC, but it really was
Vernon Adams, you know, whether or not he's going to come out in
the playoffs and really performed he has in the regular season. You know,
I think this was his first playoff game and in quite a few years,
you know, going back to when he was in Montreal obviously, but I
mean, man, he lit it up. You know. He any doubts
that we had about Vernon Adams if there were any, which to me there
weren't, but maybe the other people that were those were silenced, you know,
within a couple of minutes. You know, obviously Calgar got off that
hard start. You're thinking like, okay, like is this gonna get interesting?
But you know, Vernon kept as cool and they got rolling man and
you know, of course, well BC's defense, you know, still giving
up thirty points. I mean, you could argue that there's still some work
that needs to be done there, and they had a couple guys that got
banged up early, you know, so that will be something to monitor really,
that entire unit obviously going into Winnipeg. I won't get too much into
that right now. Obviously we have a lot to talk about with that matchup,
because that's, to us, I think, one of the better games
of the year, or it could be U anyway, just sticking to this
game, I mean, keyon Hatcher, you know, nearly twenty two yards
per catch. I mean the fact that he had you know, nearly two
hundred yards on less than ten catches. I mean, if that doesn't summarize
this offense and what they've been able to do opening up that passing game,
I don't know, I don't know what is at Jordan Max Simmick, I
think is the offensive coordinator there, and you know, what a great job
he's done. You know, as much as we've given credit to all the
players this season, I think the coordinators and the coaches deserve you know,
their credit as well, because I mean, you know, going out there
and I mean, man like that, just the absolute offensive clinic from this
team every week. Now, the one thing still, and this has been
a theme all season, but the one thing that's still you know is slightly
of concern going into next week, is the run game continues to you know.
Now, look when you're leading rusher, I mean Vernon had Look,
Vernon was efficient, you know, fifty four yards on seven carries, had
three rushing touchdowns, didn't even need Tom Davis for that short yardage stuff.
But whenever your quarterback is the leading rusher in a game, that's a sign
that you know, you probably haven't established things correctly. So again, and
this is something that I pointed out before, but I'll reiterate it here now
that we're in the playoffs. You know, BC, as much as it's
fun to watch their offense and you know they kind of they air it out
and it's just you know, it's good football. It's fun, fast paced,
you know, high scoring stuff. You know, when you're going up
against the team, you know, like Winnipeg in the conditions that they could
be facing next week. You know, establishing the run I think is something
that would be very high on that list. But you know, even in
games that didn't matter this season, or games against I guess you'd say lesser
opponents, you know, they any opportunity that they've had to establish that run
game was not successful. And that's something that you know, I really worry
about because again, when Vernon, you know, when Vernon slows down or
has a setback, it seems to be harder for him to get back into
the mind of things right. So you know, typically in a situation like
that, there's a mistake made, quarterback needs time to reset. You're gonna
lean on your run game and those guys to you know, kind of pound
the rock and move things forward. But so far, I mean again,
Vernon was the leading rusher in this game, so you know, where do
you go. It's kind of all on his shoulders and it has been,
you know, for this season. I think that's what made this season so
impressive for Vernon as it wasn't. You know, look, obviously Winnipeg has
a great offense, you know, with Zach Klaros, but they can kind
of fall back on Brady olivera who you know, had a phenomenal season,
not just by a Canadian rusher, but of any rusher. You know that
we've seen in the CFL over the past couple of seasons. So you know
that I think it really makes Vernon stand out and that's why I've been,
you know, talking about him so much in a positive way this season.
But you know, some of these flaws, you know, defense giving up,
you know, random points late that they don't need to, you know,
no run game that those are all things that they're gonna have to get
fixed quickly or adjust too quickly. Hitting the game against one a pig if
they if they want to have a shot in that or else. Despite this
game being very good and Vernon establishing himself, you know that that could all
go away very quickly. Yeah you have h yeah, twenty eight yards rushing,
you know. Inside here with myself, I was looking at next week's
given me. You know, freezing that's the fair and height here it's gonna
be thirty thirty three degrees fair? What is that? Uh do No matter,
it's gonna be one degree, one degree Helsias here, you gotta you
gotta get that, and especially when you know you said not only it's bretty
olivera having a standout season like he's probably gonna be the MP. So you
have you have no run game at all versus a run game that is probably
going to win the MP, you know, for the first non quarterback,
you know, for many many years to do this in the can Football League.
Vernon a tremendous game, a clean game. I love to see that.
I had a comment here at James, every time VA has a big
game, he falls up at the bad game. I don't believe that at
all. I don't think that that's true. Jason. How concerning is a
run game here for BC Windpeg, Well, I don't think it's suddenly gonna
turn around now. I don't think that suddenly they're gonna find this great running
game in Winnipeg on Saturday. So I think they're gonna need Vernon Adams to
play like he did this weekend again if they want any shot of beating Winnipeg
next weekend. And we have seen that happen. We saw that in the
first meeting against BC, where against Winnipeg where they went into Winnipeg and he
had a great game and the defense obviously was playing a lot better back then.
But I think we have seen that from the BC Lions offense before and
Vernon Adams specifically, So I think they do have a shot. But I
think with the running game, yeah, I don't expect them to suddenly find
it. I think the best thing they can hope for is that they you
know, really game plan and shut down Brady olivera and you know, hope
that their defense can hold up passing game wise. But I think at the
end of the day, it's gonna be a do or die for their ride
and die, I should say, with their passing game against winn Peg.
To me, it's just and we'll see. I mean the game hasn't happened
yet, but it's just frustrating where like none of this will be a surprise.
If they come out then they can't run and you know, Winnipeg shuts
it down and you know, like this has all been foretold and so I
just don't I don't know they're uh, you know, scheming or otherwise is
that coaching? Like you just I don't know, can we figure this out?
Or they I never get this, Like you see these teams, like
are the coaches like do they think it's better? Like does Rick Campbell think
like, oh this is fine? Like like I just I would love to
be in the mindset of like, oh no, like we're fine, like
we're going to go in there like you know, not not the media bs
and talking and Okay, we're gonna give it. Like I would like,
you know, some real truth sirm here of Campbell and kind of everyone else
and just with the simments and kind of all that, like what what what
are you guys planning here? Do you not realize that this is going to
be an issue? Evan Winnipeg? Like I said, really good here coming
in anything else about that matchup in particular, because we'll kind of talk a
little Calgary here post warm as well. Right, well, I think,
you know, for BC to have a chance in this game against Winnipeg.
And you know, now that I've had time to think about this, I've
seen, you know, obviously a lot from this team. I went to
a game in person this year to watch him, which was against Calgary,
So I didn't think back then it was going to be a playoff preview,
but you know, CFL gets gets funny sometimes. But you know, I
think ultimately what BC is gonna have to do because I agree with Jason as
much as I say, well, they need to find the wrong game.
They need to do this, like you've got five days. If it hasn't
turned around all season, you're not going to get it in five days,
you know. But I mean sometimes miracles happen, but now realistically it's not
going to happen. So what I think BC needs to do in this game
is they need to start hot. They need to do what Calgary did,
you know, to be ce what we saw, you know, and we
could talk about that a bit more here in a minute. But this weekend,
like you know, just have like a you know, just get Vernon
out there. I mean, I don't know if they're going to get the
ball first, right, you can't predict that, but let's say, you
know they start with the ball. I mean, you just got to take
some shots. I think, you know, you just got to, like,
you know, get Vernon out there early. You know, get a
three four play scoring drive. And that's way easier said than done. And
again they're I mean they're going to be doing that in some pretty cold weather.
We know that, you know, Winnipeg is a different beast, not
just the team but the environment. But I would really like to see them
get out there and just like you know, we know what their strengths are,
and I mean, the best thing that they can do is, you
know, at this point, it's not really about you know, fixing you
know, the holes, because they've I think they've tried to do that this
season and it just hasn't worked. Unfortunately, They've still been able to win
games just because they have enough power. But at this point, you just
have to go in there and you know, like we say, you've got
to go make a statement. You have to go and get that big scoring
drive early, you know, get key On Hatcher involved, get Alex Hollins
involved, you know, just get everybody going early. And if you don't
do that, then I think there was the writings on the wall is a
good saying they need to do. When I was looking back here and this
is what was this week three or four? If I can get this up
here, you know, and they went in before this where they really shut
them down and held them to field goals. Really take the crowd out of
it, because to me, that's that's the biggest thing. It's not only
the elements, right, but it's the whole, and it's just everyone's screaming.
And I remember watching the game last year and Nathan's coming back and he's
been you know, he's still not one hundred percent and just like I felt
so bad for all that. You need to, Evan said, score early,
get the crowd out of it. Jason, you know Evan and I
on the BC team train you in Texas. You your you're pro BC.
Now what are you making here of their chances going into Winnipeg. Well,
they definitely have a shot, because you know, this is a team when
they're playing their best, they can beat any team in the CFL. But
I think at certain points they get too high on themselves. I feel like
we've seen that throughout the year where they've had a big victory. You know,
they play excellent like they did this week, and then the next week
they kind of show up a little bit flat against a team that is better
prepared. So I think I'm looking forward to seeing how they start the game.
Like you said, if they can get off to a lead, I
think that would be huge in this one. And just to add on the
running game aspect of things. I think that they did a good job in
this game. Even though they didn't run the ball well, they did a
good job of getting the ball to Takwan Mazelle in like the screen game and
stuff like that, kind of substituting for the running game. So I think
that could be huge. Kind of slowing down that Winnipeg pass rush will be
huge because I think Winnipeg had six sacks the last time they played at BC,
So I think that will be huge slowing down Willie Jefferson and company over
there. So I think BC has a shot. They have, you know,
so many playmakers on that side of the ball. I think Dominic Grimes,
who had a quiet game this week, is due for a big game
next week. So I mean, I think they have a lot more firepower
left in them this season. So I think they have a shot. But
at the end of the day, Winnipeg is gonna be very tough to beat
a team with a championship pedigree. Yeah. I like seeing like you said,
different kind of uses because I know Myzelle and they liked him because he
was her earlier in this season. He missed a week or two and then
they brought him back and they said, well, we like him because of
his hands and he's able to do more of that reception stuff. Not to
keep bringing up commandities, but similarly, the enemy is using a lot of
our running backs in different ways now where it's not we're not just pounding in
like let's get them in motion, Let's get them, you know, in
the passing game that way, and kind of like you said, you do
the same give the same benefit, but you know, maybe maybe it doesn't
look like a rushing whatever kind of thing on paper. I want to talk
Calgary here and then we'll do the kind of CFL set before we get out.
Evan, I guess first to you, like, it's been not a
great season. They've had two games, you know, pretty good games back
to back here and Mayor looking at least halfway decent. What do you make
here kind of all said and done for Calgary. Well, look, I
mean, you know, I think this game could have been a lot worse
for Calgary, and I'm honestly a bit surprised that they were able to.
Obviously they didn't win, but the fact that they were able to, well,
I can't even really say competitive at least just put points on the board.
I mean, you know that this team, I mean, there's no
doubt that they've had their struggles this year. And you know, Mayor,
I mean, if you take away those two interceptions, Jake Mayer had one
of his better games, you could argue of the entire season here, you
know. And I think another thing too that really the Calgary really benefited from,
you know, was Kadeem Carey establishing their run game. You know,
it was fourteen carries for seventy five yards, taking a bit of that workload
off of off of Mayor, even though he still threw for three hundred yards.
I mean, what are you gonna do, Like, you just got
to keep firing when you're going against BC's offense. But yeah, I mean,
you know, ultimately, I don't think this was this was a bad
game for Calgary. They didn't you know, going into the game, I
didn't think they had much of a shot. But the fact that they were
even able to pull within eleven and it got that high scoring, I mean,
I'll give him credit for that. You know, I mean that team
went through a lot this year. You know, the fact that they're even
in playoffs now, and it looked it looked impossible that they were going to
keep that streak alive. But by the way, separate note, but pretty
sad about Daguerrett Davis a great Cup streak ending. I don't know if I
don't talk about that before I got on, but yeah, that's uh,
that's a that's a tough one. I was kind of banking on that in
the back of my head. But anyway, you know, Calgary, Yeah,
I mean, look, you know, they they're still gonna have some
questions, you know, going into this offseason. But to be honest,
I mean, you know, they came into the playoffs, you know,
when everybody said they wouldn't, and they had a respectable day, and you
know, to be honest, I mean, you know, are you really
gonna make significant changes after that? I don't think so. I mean,
I still believe in Jake Mayer and again, you know, not the season
that I expected from him at all. Really, yeah, he flashed some
stuff, but I thought he was gonna be playing at an all star level
and you know, it wasn't quite close to that. But do I think
that, you know, if he puts the time in, you know,
with the off season program, then yes, I think he could get to
that level. Still. Again, we've seen so many flashes from him this
year. He just needs to limit some things and polish some things up that
I thought might have already been done going into this season. But if he
needs an extra year, look, like I said, you know, football
in general, not just a CFL, is is a winning business. And
you know, whether you like it or not, this team, as ugly
as it was, again they were in the playoffs. You can't you can't
slice that one way or another. So excited to see you know what the
off season brings for this team. It's one of those situations. I mean,
all all the off season situations you know, are very interesting. And
you know, the one thing that sets the CFL apart from you know,
some other pro football leagues, I mean mainly the NFL. If you want
to draw direct comparison, is you know, like free agency, right,
a lot of these guys are only going the teams for maybe a year,
so you get a lot of turnover and a lot of a lot of change.
So it's easy for teams to kind of swap players out if they want
so. I mean, look at Hamilton. Jason brought it up earlier.
They were. You know, they turned over half their roster just because you
have so many guys on those those shorter contracts. So, you know,
again, Calgary, it'll be interesting to see what they do with some of
their pieces. I love what they already have, to be honest, I
wouldn't. I would hope. I guess that they would keep a lot of
those pieces, you know, going into next year, because I think that
they can win more than six games with the existing roster right now. But
you know, again, one of those one of those situations that'll be fun
to follow, as there is for a lot of teams, you know,
not just the playoff teams. Yeah, Jason sin to you here, we
tied to Hamilton and all of that. I mean, I feel like he
can't blow up Calgary, right, I mean I feel like Jake took him
to the playoffs here, right, Yeah, for sure. I mean this
whole season was a struggle for them. I think their injured list was absolutely
huge. I think one injury that really cost them this season was the injury
to Malie Henry. I think that with him and Bagleton, they have a
legit one two receiver combo, and Emilie Henry is the guy that can stretch
the field for them. But once they lost that element, this offense was
very, very hard to watch. And I mean I was also looking at
the free agent list this morning that three down posted. They have thirty eight
free agents of the fifty something man roster, so they have an opportunity to
change a lot of this roster if they want to this offseason. It'll be
interesting to see who they decide to keep. But Calgary has been a team
throughout the years that has been very reluctant to spend money in free agency and
bring in players from other teams, and I'm very interested to see now that
they've had a season like this, do they change the philosophy at all in
that regard. I would bring in a legitimate backup quarterback because as much as
we want to talk about how Jake Mayor struggled this season, I think there's
no team in the league that has a bigger drop off between their number one
and number two quarterback. Like who even is the backup quarterback for the Calgary
Stampeders. It's Tommy Stevens, but he wouldn't be getting a start if Jake
Mayor ever went down. But luckily that didn't happen for the Stampeders this season.
We didn't have to watch whoever they had a backup quarterback this year,
But I would bring in a legitimate backup quarterback. Maybe a Matthew Shultz type
would be good for them. But at the end of the day, I
would give Jake Mayor another year. Development in this league at quarterback is rarely
linear. I think when you look at the great quarterbacks in this league,
you know it takes time to really develop into those guys. And you know,
maybe if they move on from Jake Mayor, this is another like Dane
Evans situation where Congree is not any better next year if they bring in another
guy. So I think at the end of the day, I would ride
with Jake Mayor and make some tweaks to the roster. Yeah, right,
Mayor was the only one that started every game this season, right that we
started for all that. So yeah, we'll see. Should be excited.
We'll start rounding down here before we get out. I want to make sure
we talk so this and Evan can chime in as much as he wants to
or not, but this is this is read here talking now. Thrice credentialed
CFL reporter here coming in a CFL accounts, so doesn't follow me on Twitter.
That's okay. The CFL Plus experience, I would love anybody involved in
the league office to have a converse It doesn't have to be with me,
have a conversation with any Americans at all that are watching any not just American,
but any any non Canadian watching your product on CFL Plus in the off
season. Because it's truly around this experience, with the no on demand,
you have to do it live. And then this weekend, not only do
you know, we don't get the ads, so you get like kind of
this black and white Canadian football footage and we get this trap hip hop,
you know whatever music. But then this weekend they felt the need to air
the Gray Cup Hamilton commercial, which is really cool and like I showed you
to Dorothy and she's like, oh that stand. I'm like, but they've
played it every single commercial break the entire you know, in spoiler alert,
Like, the CFL has a lot of commercial breaks, right, and it
kills me where if I'm watching CFL Plus, if I'm watching the playoffs on
CFL Plus, I am not the target demographic for this anyway. I know
what the gray Cup is. I know it's going to Hamilton if I'm watching
the CFL plus on that, but it's such just a wasted opportunity and just
a lazy like at least go back to the trap music. But just to
have it be like a repetition by one thousand just nice in my skull.
But I just to me, there's a better use of whatever this platform is.
There's easy ways to tweak it that would take a little bit of work,
having the on demand be able to pull the games up that way,
be able to pause the game. I don't understand why we can't put the
TSN broadcast up afterward and just be able to kind of scrub through it like
you can on the TSM website in Canada. I had just Chanser's rights involved
with all that and ads and everything else. But very frustrating, Evan,
Do you have anything else to add? I mean, it definitely needs some
work right now. Now. I'm very grateful. I mean, look,
I can sit here and complain about you know, repetitive Gray Cup ads and
a hip hop song that's stuck in my head and the same gray footage or
whatever. But to be honest, man, I'm just really happy that they
even took the initiative to have that platform, you know, in the first
place, because, you know, if you're trying to grow the game,
especially amongst you know, maybe the American people, considering you know, how
many American players they have up there. You I'm not going to get into
that debate, but you know, I think it's really important to make it
easily accessible, and they have done that, you know, through CFL Plus
being able to just pull up a website and obviously not all the gas are
available. Well in the first half of the season. It's interesting because they
had a lot more games on you know, CBS Sports with that new partnership,
obviously switching over from ESPN, but you noticed that when the college football
season started, obviously that takes priority for CBS Sports and a lot of those
slots are filled. So really every game, it feels like for the past,
you know, or the last third of the season, I feel like
was on CFL Plus and a lot more people were probably using it. So
it definitely needs some work. I you know, I didn't mind all the
you know, little things too much. I don't really pay attention to that.
I don't worry as much about on demand, like maybe you do read,
It's not as big of a deal for me. Like, if I
know the game's on, I'm just gonna set aside the time for the game.
And I'm not really somebody to go back and rewatch too much unless it's
highlights. But I think the one thing that I'd really like to see him
do you know. Obviously we're sitting here talking about you know, ad space
and repetitiveness. I think, you know, with that time in between,
you know, well, what would be a commercial break on the TSM bro
podcast. But obviously CFL plus it's just that same song plan over and over
again. I think it would be really cool to see, like and I
brought this up in our chat, but you know, just like I mean
the CFL, you know, they have some great content creators, you know,
I mean they've done some cool things, you know with video production and
you know, following player stories and it's become you know, some of the
stuff they're doing there is very professional. You could argue that it's better quality
than you know, some of the uh, you know league like the other
pro leagues XFL, USFL here in the United States. And I'm not going
to make this a big media war, but who has the better YouTube account?
But my point being, you know, it would be really cool to
see, like, you know, maybe they kind of throw in some clips
about you know, certain players or some things from their YouTube. Maybe you
could, you know, advertise, like I mean, if you you think
that CFL plus, like that's a US and international audience. So obviously you're
not going to be advertising like, hey, like you know, this is
gonna be at the game on Sunday, because that's not really your projected your
projected audience. But maybe if you were saying, like, hey, you
know, here's what you should look for for the game next week. Obviously
it's not a broadcast from a specific team, so I don't know how you
work around that. Maybe you just kind of get like a general CFL person
to break down the games or whatever. But there's there's a lot that you
can do there. I mean there's a lot, certainly a lot more than
listening to the same soundtrack over and over again. That's been you know,
ingrained into my head, you know, throughout the season. So you know,
we'll see. Do I expect that to happen? I don't know,
I mean, are they really willing to put that much time into the CFL
plus product, you know, which is really just a couple of games you
know, here and there that are available to watch, and there's not many
futures. I don't know. I mean, the fact that the games are
there already, at least to me, kind of feels like enough and maybe
to them feels like enough also. But you know, again, there's a
lot you could work with there, and you know, hopefully they make an
attempt to do something with it. Yeah. My last thing is just it's
clear to me a that no one in the CFL office uses CFL Plus and
all the access any of this, which is fine, but like it just
so you know, you come out and you say words and you know,
I had ran me on the show and well this is a great service.
And then it's like I can tell that you're not using this because you know,
the little things that would change and make the user experience better. But
it also says to me, there's probably not a lot of people accessing this
because I have to imagine they have access to the analytics involved in this and
kind of know, like, you know, are we getting five thousand people
a week while I don't know what the numbers are, but I have to
imagine it's not as super high, even though it's free and even though it's
easily access Jay said, any thoughts on this before we get out. I
know this is a little bit of American complaining, but anything else. Yeah,
I mean, I'm hopeful that this because it was the first year that
they had CFL Plus there in the United States. I'm hopeful that they can
add more features as the years go on here and we'll see a much improved
product next season. I would like to see them do something that you could
actually subscribe to, and something that like even if you had to pay for
it to get like the games on demand and you know, get all these
past the games from like previous seasons. I'd like to see that because almost
every professional sports league kind of has a streaming service like that. I'd even
like to see that up here in Canada. But like you said, rights
issues kind of coming to play with that. But yeah, I'm hopeful that
the changes we made in the future to CFL Plus. You know. There
you go, as we say when we talk the x usbl stuff like hope
in one hand and you can poop in the other and we'll see which one,
which one fills them first. No, but I mean, well this
was fun. Well, like I said, depending XML USFL stuff this week,
this's gonna be the previews show. Otherwise we'll do our big recap next
week and then, like I said, a big show there on. It's
going to be live on the Saturday before, so we'll be live the Saturday
before, live on the eighteenth, and then you can enjoy the Great Cup
preview show. It usually spikes in on Sunday, but we'll record that.
Probably going to be new local time if we're going with the anchor bar.
Otherwise we'll figure out. But I'll post all that stuff Evan anything else from
you, awesome, Thanks guys. We'll see everyone next week if you're subscribing
all day, but we'll see you guys next time. Next