Well, happy Monday, everyone, Welcome to the marcast. Here your CFL
Week two recap. Happy each and teenth if you have the day off.
I know my wife Dorothy is off. Some of the schools like we're still
in session, others are, but we are here today, no days off.
We'll be doing our USFL a week ten recap tomorrow with Pat Raffino.
Very excited. I had to talk to USFL playoffs there with two, two,
four, and six teams making the USFL playoffs from the same division even
but today we're talking CFL. I actually I have a lot to say today,
so this will be good because I actually did my homework this weekend.
We have Jason Housey here and Evan Willsmore. Jason, how are you doing?
Doing great? Read? How are you? We're good, Evan,
Evan my West coast you can. Patriot here and getting up a few minutes
ago to do this with me. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm
not bad. Definitely a bit of an early start, but I got another
good slit of games to talk about, so I'm looking forward to it.
I'm very excited. Here, Jay, Thomas Harry coming in. Hey,
what's up? So I decided after However, many weeks in doing this with
Andy, Pat and everything, I decided I need to start taking notes for
the weekend. So actually did I have notes for all the games? I
actually haven't supposed to. Just like flying off the seat here we have all
that lots to talk about today kind of overall thoughts, and then we'll go
kind of game by game here, Jason, what did you make of this?
I enjoy seeing the blank here with these zero score for the Elks.
What did you make just overall the weekend? I think that in general it
was better in terms of the quality of play from week one, which is
to be expected. But I think that in general the quarterbacks played well in
the exception of a couple of cases. We'll get to Eva wild you make
of everything? Yeah, I would agree, I say, you know,
overall play quality increased, but unfortunately the teams who you know, still had
struggles in Week one that seemed to roll over into Week two with you know,
Ottawa, Edmonton, and Hamilton in particular Saskatchewan. You know, they
played a good game against Winnipeg but didn't end up scoring enough to make a
count in the end, because what a pig put up forty five so we'll
get into more of that later. But yeah, overall, I thought it
was a bit of a better slate than last week. Evan Frozer a second.
Yeah, I have a lot to talk about Saskatchewan too, because I
saw a lot of tweets and there's a lot to look forward to here,
Like we just got our apps absolutely handed to us by Winnipeg. But there's
like a lot I guess saw balls he talking about it and Hodge and everywhere
else like Scatch one, So we'll talk about that. Hang your heads high
there. Pretty poor game the Thursday night one the Ottawa A lot to say
about without Marshall Ferguson, friend of me of the show poo Pooling on XFL
week one and two, and I said, hey, Marshall, how does
it feel here? We have some of these things going on? But overall
I thought it was fun when I posted, Hey, you know our previouw
yesterday. Hey, we're gonna be talking about this this morning. The couple
of notes that came up to me was one the bad refereeing. I had
a bad officiating. I had a lot of comments about that. Jason,
have you noticed continuing bad? Like play whatever you want to call it here
going into Week two, not especially from the referees so far this season,
not more than normal. I think that the natural thing about the CFL game
is that there's going to be a lot of flags. There's more flags,
I believe, on average than an NFL game. So I mean, I'm
just kind of used to it with the amount of penalties that are called.
But maybe there's some specific cases that people would point to, but none that
really pop into my mind. And then it was like we had some refeing
the passers and things. I just it was curious that, you know,
if it's one person, we just having the three or four people commenting on
it. I thought it was least something that has that stood out to you
as more egregious than others over of your life. Well me, sorry,
no, you know, if we're going to talk about, you know,
the refereeing, um, I think it's uh, you know, in all
these leagues, you know, I've heard complaints, you know, especially you
know in the XFL and the USFL because those are newer products. Obviously the
CFL has been around for longer, but I haven't noticed anything that stood out
too much. I mean, you know, every now and then you're gonna
get a bad call. It's just you know, maybe not right. And
there were definitely some things in that BC Edmonton game that you know, you
could maybe I don't know if the referee is maybe in that one had the
best grasp, but they still figured things out in the end, and I
thought, you know, it worked out all right. So I don't know,
I wouldn't sit here and complain about the refs. I mean, given
just football in general nowadays, like there's a lot of I am on the
refs in any league, like I was saying earlier, but I don't know,
this community just seems like, you know, classic like, oh,
your team lost, so let's try and find a you know, excuse to
make it seem a bit better. Yeah. The other thing too, continuing
to see people harp on like the live stats being updated. Now obviously we're
here today kind of going through the box score. Am I missing? Is
this in a real time? It's not going on there. I've seen Hodge
complaining about that as well. Jason, are you tracking, like the stats?
Is it? Is it? This thing? Am I missing? Where
it? The problem is? Yeah? So if you were to check during
the game, there would be no stats available on anything TSN, Google,
sports Net whenever you usually find CFL stats, So they don't have any live
tracking on and a lot of the times, like a while after the game,
they don't have it posted. So that's a major problem I think for
any professional sports league to have. Okay, because yeah, obviously here on
this I don't do a lot of like lives. You know, I guess
if I was out watching Evan, has that affected your life at all?
I mean, I know I've just seen a lot of people talk about this
with like the sports betting and fantasy and all that. Yeah, you know,
I haven't had too many problems with it for me. I know,
I've been able to check during most of the games and it's been all right.
There was a game last week I think it was Winnipeg Hamilton where it
just kind of froze after halftime and it didn't really get going again until like
the fourth quarter or the end of the third or something like that. I
don't quite remember, but I don't know. To me, it hasn't been
terrible. I think the greater conversation we should be having here is, you
know why the CFL doesn't have it app yet? With all this stuff in
it. You know, I keep having to go on my you know,
web browser, Safari or whatever, typing in you know, CFL dot CAA
and then clicking on the game tracker. It's just a bit more work than
I'd like to have to put in. You know, with the XFL,
I could just go over to ESPN and that would all be there. With
the USFL, you could just use the Fox Sports app. So it's a
bit surprising that the CFL is kind of lacking in that category. Well,
and then it just would have thought, you know, and now we're two
years into the genius sports thing and all of that. I see it a
lot of times people make fun of that, like this is the thing genius
sports. Yea, certainly something here in the XFL. And I think even
their app. I'm not living in dying by any of these leagues apps,
but even the XFL one, like sending out the notifications and hey, the
games coming up and this is the touchdowns and you can kind of track along.
I just think it's helpful. It makes it feel more. I know,
last year the USFL, they weren't piped into whatever app I used to
like live track my stuff, and it felt like these games were existing in
the vacuum. We're a little bit more this year. Yeah, you're getting
the notifications. Hey there's a touchdown. Okay, third quarters starting. I
think that's helpful. You're like, oh, yeah, that game is going
on, I should go watch it. Oh this game happened. That kind
of missed that. So, Jason, any other thoughts on that, We'll
get to the games. I'm not really anything more to add. I think
that it just it would provide another engagement tool. I do agree about the
app. I just think that's a basic thing to have in today's world.
And I think the CFL in general really struggles in terms of the digital space.
They're really trying to improve that with this whole genius sports thing, and
I think that, you know, the an excusable thing about the stats thing
is that they had a system before that worked fine for doing live stats during
the game. Why did they launch take that down before launching the other one?
Like, why didn't they just keep the old one up until the new
one was ready to go? So that's what I can't wrap my head around
with that. Well, I think it's interesting, and obviously I think change
is coming in general for the CFL. I remember, like last year we
had Danny Austin and a lot of the guys that normally would come to Great
Cup didn't come right. And now this year we saw all the layoffs last
week with the you know, the TSN twel sixty and I got you know,
with Dustin over there and Jason Gregor and kind of longtime friends to the
show and trying to figure out Like, I'm just curious, like what all
this becomes now where if you're the CFL and we're losing we're losing some of
these like traditional outlets that are covering us anyway, right, and whether they
are choosing too or not. I mean in the case of if you're getting
laid off or whatnot. Like I'd be curious to see how the CFL kind
of rides this out where it's already kind of this niche fringe thing and trying
to attract you know what I'm saying, Evan, are you are you like
you're trying to get some of these people. Now, I'll be curious,
like who if you do decide to come to Gray Cup this year with us,
Like who is still there this year? That kind of is uh doing
the daily stuff. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's interesting.
There's definitely a lot of people in this space. You know. I think
it's similar to the league, where you know, maybe there's been a lot
of things that have been the same for a long time, and now you're
starting to see some changes, especially after the pandemic. I mean, the
CFL, you know, missed an entire season in twenty twenty, and I
do think that plays a role into some of the sort of I wouldn't say
lack of interest because they're you know, our long time fans that have stayed
loyal, but I think it's just harder now to kind of attract you know,
new people into this market, especially people like me who are younger.
It's it's really difficult because, like you said, it's a niche product,
and now we have so many leagues like this just in the United States,
you know, between the XFL and the USFL. I think people would rather,
you know, spend their time with that because it's more local as opposed
to, you know, doing something with the CFL, which is technically an
international product. But yeah, no, I definitely agree. There has there
has been, excuse me, a lot of turnover, and it will be
interesting to see. Yeah, like, you know, how is this going
to go in the future, not just from all this stuff we talk about,
you know, on the football side and the operations side, but the
media side as well, Jason, anything else to add Not not really,
but yeah, I do agree that it's it's incredibly hard to attract the younger
fans in this in this day and age. And I think that the biggest
problem is, like I was saying about the digitalized content, it's really it's
really important for this today's day and age for companies and businesses to really reach
the consumer on the platforms that they're currently on. I don't think the CFL
does a very good job of doing that, so that's definitely something that they
need to look to improve in the future if they want to survive. You
know, let's go here. I guess we'll start at the end and work
back. This is the game I saw the least amount of, but I
certainly caught up on the highlights and kind of everything else. Sway, Kelly
making his big debut here, Chad for the Argonauts thrashing the Hamilton tie Cats.
We you know, we called I called on the show was our pregame
show I said, Believi Mitchell is going to be duty this year, has
has played, you know, poorly in two games. We'll start with Jason
here. What did you make of the tie Cats fourteen to thirty two loss.
Well, I was in intendance at Bemo Field for this one. Um,
great seats, but unfortunately for me as a Tiger Cats fan, Um,
you know, it was just more of the same from week one.
I think that maybe they played in general better than they did in Week one,
which is funny because they lost by more points. But I think that
a couple of key things are the key red zone interceptions in the first half.
Those twok really you know, points off the board for the Tiger Cats.
Even if you get three points there, I think it would have been
a completely different game from that aspect, you know, just really bad interceptions
from Believi Mitchell. That the play calling for Hamilton was very predictable. Run
on first down into the line for two yards and then you know you're stuck
in second and long. So I think there was a lot of those situations.
So I'm not impressed with the Tiger Cats offense through two weeks. My
panic level is probably about to a five with this team right now, because
you know, of what we've seen the first couple of weeks, but we
have yet to see this team play at home. They've arguably played the two
best teams in the league the first two weeks. So I'm, you know,
kind of holding back a little bit of my concern for that reason.
But at the end of the day, at pretty disappointing starts the season for
the tiger Cats perspective. Even initial thoughts on this one, Yeah, you
know, so from the Hamilton's side, I definitely agree. You know,
the play calling needed to improve, Believe I Mitchell I said last week.
You know, it's going to take a couple of games for me to really
decide, you know, whether or not he's just progressing in his career at
this age, or you know, whether it's a situational thing and you know,
maybe he's going to get better after you know, falling out in Calgary
the past couple of years. But to be honest, after last night,
I'm already starting to draw the conclusion that, you know, maybe this is
just age and it's just not a great fit. You know. Matt Schiltz
came in and like the middle of the fourth, like start of the fourth
kinda and honestly played better I think than believe I did pretty much the entire
game. And you know, Matt someone I know personally, I interviewed him
about a year ago. Good friend James Butler played well. He was,
of course the big free agent addition for them over from BC, and then
Duke Williams who came over from Saskatchewan and had a nice game. But outside
of that, I don't know, there wasn't a lot to write home about
for Hamilton. Unfortunately, that one never really felt. I mean by halftime
even it was twenty two to six and I was kind of sitting there like
do I even keep watching? And yeah, to be honest, the rest
of the game just kind of went about as I expected. But for Toronto
it was a great way to start. You know, they're next season after
the Great Cup, especially with Chad Kelly quarterback. You know, he had
three rushing touchdowns in that game and had he was pretty efficient passing too.
I mean, what is that two hundred and thirteen yards on fourteen completions,
so he was impressive. And then yeah, I mean that was I would
say the best part. And then also, um, what's his name?
Quantz stickers give him a special shout out. You know that he played defensive
back in fan control football, didn't play college football at all, so that
was definitely a good story to follow. And he had an interception in that
game game excuse me. And then yeah, I think overall that went about
as I expected. I mean, Toronto to me was gonna win that game,
especially given that it was at home. You know, they're raising the
Great Cup banner everything like that. It felt like a Toronto win. I
just again maybe expected Hamilton's to put up more of a fight. It was
similar to last week. Like, obviously, you know, Winnipeg is a
tough opponent. Hamilton's definitely had two really tough opponents. You're playing both the
teams that were in the Great Cup in the first two weeks of the season,
and you're playing you know, yeah, you're you're doing that, So
that's that's pretty difficult. Um And ultimately, yeah, I mean, they
didn't put up the effort that I thought they could. But hopefully that will
improve in the games to come, although right now I'm not so optimistic.
I guess you'd say, yeah, Evan with Quantez, wasn't it. I
was reading it down again, was trying to talk about fan control football or
and they were trying to talk about it on the broadcast. Is that accurate?
He said? All he said was a league where the fans called the
plays, But he did not actually say fan controlled football. I did pick
up on that. I was kind of waiting for him to say like FCF
or fan controlled football or something along those lines, but it didn't happen.
So somewhere and Patrick D's is shaking his fist like that. Uh. It
is funny though, like the way they'll go about talking to these players outside
of you know, when they ever like they ever talking about the Thompson a
lot in the USA ballots he played up north, or he played in the
different land, or he played in the different You're like, just say,
Jason, I was reading on here, how was Hamilton favored coming into this
match? I think it was around at two two and a half point spread
in favor of Hamilton, believe it or not, which was kind of shocking.
I did actually on my channel took I did take Hamilton to win the
game by one point. But you know, I just had a really tough
time picking this game this week. I really should have seen that effort for
the Argos coming out of the gate, Like, um, I really should
have seen that coming. Um. So I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't
take the Argos in this one. But yeah, the tire Cats were surprising
favorites going into this game. This aj Ellett thing where he went viral with
it, it wasn't like, I don't even know what wrestling promotion it was.
It wasn't aw or whatever. He was spearing the guy this week.
And then I that was very classic, I thought, putting the Hamilton tie
Cats thing on did you have you you guys, Evan, did you track
any of that? There's that outside of your preview? I mean I saw
I saw a bit of it around on Twitter, you know. I mean
I know that he's been doing wrestling stuff, and I mean I know,
I don't know how long he's been with the Argos now, but he's been
there for a decent amount of time. Um, he had a good game.
I don't know if I mentioned that earlier, um, but you know,
he was someone who definitely carried the rock and you know, whenever they
couldn't, whenever they weren't passing it, they were definitely running it. With
him effectively him and Andrew Harris had a couple of carries and he scored as
well. UM, so yeah, that was that was good to fault.
But I didn't really I don't know. I wasn't. Um, I don't
know. Yeah exactly like what wrestling like league he was competing for? How
any of that works? That that that is above my pig grade? I
will say, Uh, Jason, did you track any that? Because I
thought that was a pretty good I want to pull it up, but I
thought that was a pretty good, like viral thing for the US or for
the CFL to have. I didn't actually see the video of it, but
I didn't hear that he was. Um, I believe it was some wrestling
thing in Toronto, Um, Greek Town. Don't cancel us here? This
holy crap. I mean, this is classic wrestling giving him the Great Cup
rank here. It is not. This is gonna be a championship right hand
by John Sampson. Don't violate championship memorabilia like that in this rank. Oh,
Shrick Gibson is out. I mean, that's this classic of there is
that? Do anything for you, Jason Is. I'm a wrestling fan.
I get excited watching that. Yeah, I love that kind of thing.
Anything to get the logo of the team or you know, the association with
the league out there, to more more eyes, especially for a niche product
like the CFL. I think that's uh, that's important. I'm not a
huge wrestling to hand myself. I never really grew up watching the WWE,
but a lot of my friends did, and my brother, um by brother
was a big fan of that growing up. In fact, we were actually
talking about it on the goat train back last night. Yeah, see this
is there. I won't play the audio again, but they obviously they took
it and they superimposed a tie cats a logo here on the poor gentleman,
and so I thought that was funny. I mean, that probably makes you
cry a little bit there, Jason, but I thought that was funny they
did that. The other thing with this Chad living up to I think the
expectations Evan, I know, you know, obviously coming off last year and
like he helped win the Gray Cup, but you know, mccag is in
there and then him going there was just it never really felt like they had
any doubt with Chad and the Brian Scott's up there and everyone else. But
Evan, are you just surprised how good Chad looks coming out of the gate
here? Uh? No, I mean there was a lot of hype about
him in the off season, and I think he's definitely I think he worked
a lot behind the scenes last year even when MBT was starting, So I
don't think this is a fluke or anything like that. I will say I
think it was John Hodge put up yesterday. He says, you know,
do you think like Zach or do you think Chad Kelly kind of it's in
behind. I think it was Zach Claros and someone else is like the third
best quarterback in the CFL. And I said, well, just given sort
of the instability at the position across the league right now, because there's been
a lot of turnover, a lot of guys are getting older, there's a
lot that needs to be proven. Uh yeah, there it is, you
know, I said, yeah, because its like again, just because of
the uncertainty, you know, I think that like, he definitely has the
highest ceiling. It is a bit of a knee jerk reaction to call him
the third best quarterback in the CFL after one good game where he had three
rushing touchdowns. But you know, I'm gonna stand by my word and see
how that goes through the rest of the season. I really do hope that,
you know, this is Chad's year and that maybe Toronto gets back to
the Great Cup with him having started the full season as opposed to just playing
the one half of that game or whatever it was. I mean, I
don't really think this is that I mean, I know John is known to
be a little hyperbolic sometimes, but I don't think that this is that crazy.
I think, you know, besides Claros, I wouldn't put Vernon in
that category right now. Certainly would put corn Dog. I wouldn't put our
Buckle. I wouldn't put Cody. Really, Trevor Harris, I mean,
Jason, do you think that's that outlandish that Chad's a top three quarterback right
now? I think that's a good thing. I mean, getting you guy
in there to do that. Boy do you make of this? Well,
I can't really disagree based on what we saw in Week one. Obviously,
tire Cats didn't have any tape on him. You know that always plays a
little bit of a factor. But I think from a physical standpoint, the
athleticism that he has brings to the table. I think that was really impressive,
and honestly, like you said, given the situations around the league,
nobody's really shown to have other than Clariss and maybe like Trevor Harris, to
have that kind of consistent of a floor. I think that. I'm very
interested to see how Kelly does in the next couple of weeks, but I
don't think it's Atlantish to have him in the top three quarterbacks just based on
that Week one performance. We had a thing here. Oh, Evan was
in our group chat with saying, once you over under own the tie Cats
to win this year, Evans saying, seven, Evan, standby value.
What are you making the tie Cats here going out the rest of the way.
I mean, I definitely I said this last week. I think they're
in a bit of a rebuilding process. I wouldn't be surprised after this year
if there was some turnover on the coaching staff. You know, I think
they'll keep some of the you know, core pieces around still. I know
they have a couple of guys that were left from these are the great Cup
runs. But I don't know, like I'm looking at this thing and I'm
just I'm not seeing a team that is really going to be competing. And
you know, maybe I'm proven wrong. I would hope so. But right
now, there's just a lot you know that seems very not I don't want
to say scripted, but it's like, you know, there's just certain teams
where you look at them and you're like, if this person is you know,
here by the end of the season, or if they're not doing this
by this certain point, the outlook doesn't look great. And you know,
Hamilton, I will say, had a very impressive run. I mean they
made two great Cups technically back to back between nineteen and twenty one, since
there was no twenty twenty season. Unfortunately, they weren't able to capitalize on
that, and that was definitely a bit sad, especially because you know,
I used to cover the Tiger Cats for a bit and it was fun to
see them go all the way. But you know, I think right now,
especially again on the coaching side, I mean, you know, we
talk about the players a lot here, but I think there's a lot within
that organization at the higher levels, you know, that could be potentially looked
at in a different way. At some point and that's not trying to discredit
anybody. I think, you know, coach Steinauer has done a good job
there, you know, right over the course of a couple of years.
But it just kind of gets to a point where you know you're being figured
out, I think is what I'm ultimately trying to get out here. That's
my you know sort of lead is like they've been you know, they've had
their run, but now it's like, you know, you switched quarterbacks.
There's a lot of things that are different for them already in this short period
of time. And again, I just don't see this as a great year
for them, unfortunately, Jason, last thing on this and I haven't pulled
up here with obviously bow missing, you're leaving the game, Schiltz coming into
this lower body or is this cause for concern? Are we just getting him
out of there for the week? Like what do you I mean, is
you know, with Bobie and injury prone and everything. Well, I think
it's worth noting that they have a buy after this next week. So I
think that maybe they start Schiltz this week and then they because they have a
short week, they play on Friday at home against Montreal, so maybe they
you know, sit Bo for that one, led him to, you know,
sit on the bench for a little bit, um for for a couple
of weeks, and then give them back for week five. I think they
play Oddwall that week. So I think that's that's an option for them,
And potentially what we could see, I think Schiltz, I mean from what
we saw, I mean, given that it was garbage time, you've got
to take it with a grain of salt. But I think that um he
played better than Bo win this one. So I think that, you know,
having that familiarity with the offense, you have a little bit of comfortability
with Scholtz. But at the end of the day, I think if Bo
was missing the whole season or or is easy out for a significant amount of
time, he obviously has a history with injuries, So I think that's concerning
um, you know, going forward for the Tiger Cats. But I will
say, in terms of reprojecting like over under win or loss record for this
team going forward, I still think they're gonna win like eight games this year.
Look back last year, oh and four to start the season. Traditionally,
this team is a slow starter. Other than the twenty nineteen season,
where they went fifteen and three, so I'm not too concerned. I think
they'll probably you know, figure it out, get a three or four game
winning streak somewhere in there. But at the end of the day, it's
disappointed to have another slow start for this team, and I do agree that
there could be some changes on the coaching staff. I think that Orlando Steinauer
has kind of lived off the success of June Jones, who was the previous
head coach, an offensive guru who you know, turned Brandon Banks into a
receiver into a great receiver. That is, you know, other players and
you know, transition them into this great, powerful offense. And you've seen
a decline every every year in terms of their offensive productions. So I think
that's super concerning considering that, you know, just the that Steinauer is a
defensive head coach that doesn't really bring too much to the table in terms of
offense. I think that Tommy Condell has been there for a long time,
so I mean, maybe it's getting a little bit stale. So I do
agree with Evan that there could be some changes coming by the end of the
year if this continues. Yeah, bo both making five hundred thousand, I
mean, you know, that's the big biggest thing on that big thing on
that yeah, coming up here. All right, So now we have this
was my you know, my my crowning life. I have my BC Lions
had on here. Not not quite as electrifying as the Nathan Work like five
touchdown whatever the heck it was game last year that was like the greatest home
you know that we had. We had one republic and kind of all that.
I didn't laugh at the game, Evan. And then I have a
couple of jokes here to make. Yeah, I mean, this game well
unfortunately, I mean I expect the BC to win, and they did.
But again, I'm probably gonna focus more on the team who struggled here,
and that was Edmonton, you know, being shut out for I think it
was the first time in like fifty years or something close to fifty years,
since the seventies anyway, and you know, ultimately this is just not acceptable
by any means. And I know, you know, again, I'll get
the BC in a minute, but I think we need to talk about sort
of the urgency here for Edmonton. And I said last week, I said,
this is a team, you know, the leash really isn't that long.
You know, for a lot of players and coaches here because of their
struggles in previous seasons and so far, it almost just looks like they're regressing
even more. I mean, scoring zero points in a game. Even if
BC you know, turns out to be a ten plus win team this year,
which I think they will be, you know, that's just quite frankly
unacceptable. I mean, ninety one passing yards one turnover for Cornelius. I
mean you have to ask that question of when does you know, someone like
a Trey Ford come in or Kyle Loxley you did complete a pass in this
game, When does one of those guys you know, get a starting up
oportunity. I know Chris Jones has talked that Nledgium about how Cornelius has developed,
and you know, he's been with Cornelius now for like three seasons.
But it gets to a point where it's like, man like, I mean,
come out, like if it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work,
you know. And again, I don't want to sit here in week
two saying that Taylor Cornelius can't do anything for this team because there's still sixteen
games left. But so far, I mean, he's had one long touchdown
pass to Gina Lewis, and outside of that, I mean, there's not
really much to work with there. He's a good scrambler, you know,
he can run when he's needed, but like, that's not gonna win you
the game, you know ultimately. And I get that that's a great part
of his game, you know, his build, his mobility, but I
don't know, I'm really not sold on that at all. And then yeah,
for BC, you know, I thought they had a decent game.
You know, could they have done a bit better. Maybe there was a
lot of weird sort of turnovers that happened early on where it was like the
all just kind of seemed to be flying around between the teams and there was
a bunch of flags that you know, overturned those turnovers. I think one
of them ended up counting. But yeah, Vernon had three hundred passing yards,
which I thought was pretty good. Did have a turnover, but I
won't fault him for that. I mean he completed you know, twenty five
out of thirty five minutes passes, So I call it a good day for
him. To Quan Mizzle the running back, I think that's how he pronounced
his name. Definitely was impressive at least that's what I gathered from this game,
especially because he had such big holes to fill with James Butler leaving big
shoes, I should say, not big holes anyway, Uh, yeah,
he was impressive at least to me. And then just going down the list,
Justin McInnis had a really good game. Was good to see that after
he had the big catch in Week one against Calgary Dominic rhymes again another impressive.
I mean, just look at this whole receiving core down here, and
how sort of balanced this. You know, every one's got four or five
catches. It speaks to Vernon's ability to really spread the ball around. And
I talked about that last week. I said, they have so many good
players in that receiving corps, but at the end of the season, there
might not be that much difference between you know, their top receiver and like
their fourth leading receiver. Just saying but then, yeah, I'd say for
BC again, could they have you know, done a bit better? I
mean, obviously they shut out the opponent, which is great. I mean,
I maybe you could have scored a bit more than twenty two in that
situation, But ultimately a good game for them. They're on the right track.
Edmonton unfortunately not so much. Yeah, I want to I'm gonna.
I didn't want to hit a baker yesterday because of Father's Day. But I
want to get I want to get Justin McGinnis on the podcast here. I
think that's our new kind of fresh with the missing Lucky and missing Keyan and
everything else. I want to get get kind of in his head here,
because he's really come on strong. Jason, what what did you make of
this? I just kind of slather of the Elks. So I did an
initial reactions video on my channel that got a lot of traction, Um,
you know, saying how the Elks are off to a disastrous start, And
it really has been a disastrous start for the Elk because I think that a
lot of things are just inexcusable. With how much talent I think is around
this ross, or how much talent they brought in the past couple of off
seasons. I think that, um, you look at how Taylor Cornelius has
played, I think that, um, it's really inexcusable because you have guys
around him that have been productive receivers at other spots in the CFL. So
what's the common denominator. It's the quarterback position. So I think that sometimes,
you know, or maybe they're just better off like going forward, you
know, going with Tray Forward, running some kind of like run heavy option
offense, you know, something like that, just to get the ball moving.
Because tray Forward, we saw him played a bit last year. I
saw him play, start, started his first game in Hamilton, and I
saw him, you know, really make a difference with his legs. I
think that really puts a lot of pressure on defense and could add another element
that we're currently not seeing because yeah, we say that you know, Taylor
cur Relius does have some of that scrambling ability, but if you're gonna just
say that's his biggest strength, that's straight forward's biggest strength, and that's even
a bigger strength for him. So I think that, you know, going
forward, that might be the play that they do, or go with kay
Loxley. But something has to change with its Edmonton Elks offense because zero points
in a CFL game. I forget who said it. I think it was
Kerrie Joseph who said this about fifteen years ago. He's like, we're getting
shut out in a CFL game. That's an unacceptable So I think that at
the end of the day, just so disappointing for Edmonton. But I do
believe Chris Jones deserves a lot of heat as well. Going into a season
with a field goal kicker that can attempt a fifty fifty one yard field goal,
that is unacceptable. They had a couple of chances to take a lead
early in this game, could have changed the entire tide of the game.
Even with the field goal. They passed up fifty yard forty nine yard field
goal attempts for a punt, the punt goes out of bounds and then they
basically get no net yards on the punt. So I think that, you
know, at the end of the day, just a really disappointing performance all
around for the Elks. Anytime you score zero points is just unacceptable. So
that's what I think about them. They just really need to do some soul
searching and figured this out really quickly because jobs are going to start being on
the line here and then for BC, I think that just a matter of
scoring more touchdowns. I think that defensively, they've looked excellent obviously against Edmonton
this game. You know, take that with a grain assault. But you
look back last week only allowing fifteen points to Calgary, So fifteen points allowed
in two games. Hard to do better than that. And then I think,
you know, just like I said, finishing drives, scoring touchdowns,
it's only the only complaint I have Offensively, I thought they moved the ball
very well. Yeah, it was so a couple of things that I have
this tweet saying I thought this was good buy Brock. Sorry Elex fans,
Cornelis ain't bad guy. Twenty six games enough of a sample size to figure
it out. I agree with that. And I know that we have Darryl.
I think that you used to ride for CFL news stub and he's still
he's an ELX fan, and he's always been going on about, oh,
you know, it's Cornelius all that stuff. It was to me there was
the quote at the end of the game, and I was trying to find
the tweet I had where it was Chris Jones saying, hey, you know
we have our quarterback. You know we're set with that. I said,
I don't know if you have your coach at this point, like, if
you're that invested in and I, you know, I was. I was
filming the children's dancer recital and I had my phone on, like my try
you know, I'm watching the game and silent the whole, like the second
half. I watch the first half, watching the game muted the second half.
I'm like, I'm seeing Kai Locksley warm up on the sidelines. I'm
like, why the hell are that. I'm like, oh, they're clearly
they're going to put in you know, Kay here at the end of the
game and get Cornelis out of here like he finished the game. I mean,
Cornelis finished the game. I thought that was weird. And then the
BC thing. I when Vernon finally had the touchdown pass, I saw kind
of a look of relief because I do think that Vernon was afraid that they
were going to go, you know, TD list the entire game, like
you guys said, kind of completing drives but did not score any points like
you guys said. In the CFL game, I was trying to explain to
Dorothy how challenging that is with the rouge and kicking, like that's very,
very hard to get. I think Dave Naylor said it was nineteen seventy was
last time that the Elks had been shut out Evan. In terms of Vernon,
they called it good Vernon kind of at the at the CFL on the
TSM panel at halftime. Was it good Vernon? They're bad Vernon this week?
Oh, it was definitely good. I mean again, was it perfect?
No? Could he be better? Yes? But ultimately, like you
know, the only thing that I would really fault him for is, yeah,
not finding the end zone that much, But that doesn't all go on
his shoulders. I mean, you know, as long as they can keep
scoring and they can just kind of keep at the steady pace, I mean,
they're gonna be just fine. They're gonna be, you know, right
behind Winnipeg there in the West, and you know they're not going to have
a problem. So the other question I had was a Ganey being out too.
Looks like he's gonna be out. That's gonna be a big loss for
Edmunton as well. At Jason any other thoughts, It's just I don't know
what the Elks do at this point. I think last year it was like
the struggles at home and that was kind of a joke, and now it
feels like it's struggles no matter where they are. I mean, what would
you like to see them do. Honestly, I think I would go with
the quarterback switch. I think, like you said, twenty six games is
enough of a sample size, and I think the big thing is we haven't
seen any progression from Taylor Cornelius at all. So I think if he showed
some signs of getting better, stringing, some you know, good stretches of
play together, I think you could justify having the position that Chris Jones has
and saying that he's our starter going forward. But at the end of the
day, we haven't seen any kind of consistency from him or any kind of
progression from him. So I think I would look for the quarterback position because,
like I said, you're wasting the talent of all these great receivers around
you. I think Dylan Mitchell has negative five yards in two games. That's
that's pretty rough because he was expected to be a breakout star in the CFL
this season. I had him on my top fifty players list, So you
know, at the end of the day, I think when it's hurting the
players around you, and you really have seen the players around him like succeeded
other spots in the CFL, it really shows you that the problem is the
quarterback position, and also the offensive line hasn't looked ideal either. They're really
not confident in those short yarded situations. Probably the worst team in the league
as we saw in Week one against the Scatch one, So that's a concern
for them going forward. They kind of have a little bit of a flawed
team building philosophy in my opinion, whereas they built from the outside the perimeter
and not really built in the trenches. So I think, you know,
the Elks have a lot of soul searching to do, and you know,
they just kind of have to go back to the drawing board. I think,
yeah, like you said, I thought Mizzelle was good running back,
kind of filling in for BC. I know that there was obviously the concern
there with Butler going the other thing. I thought it seemed to me,
at least that Vernon was moving a lot more in the second half. It
seemed like in the first half he's trying to be a little bit too much
of a pocket passer. And I don't know if that if they just got
more pressure on him in the second, but it felt like where he's scrambling
more, he's a little bit better in that way, kind of trying to
make up things and kind of be a little bit of an orchestrator on the
field and that way. Yeah, I just have written here a corn dog
equals duty. I'm just looking in through my notes. And then it felt
like they were finally trying to get rhymes going, that they had a couple
of drop passes and he was missing that. Evan, any other thoughts on
the Receiving Corps. I know you were talking about them kind of getting a
balanced workload there and a couple of the big stars being outright now for BC,
Yeah, I mean the Receiving Corps. You know, I talked about
him enough last week. I mean they you know, they're doing a great
job. Someone's always going to step up. And even if you know they
don't have the one guy that necessarily explodes onto the scene, again, it's
always going to be pretty even you saw how many guys on that list that
had like three, four or five catches. It's very very diverse, but
very balanced at the same time. And I will say too, just talking
about Vernon Adams again for a second, I think BC and someone said this
in our chat to At some point BC was extremely smart forgetting Vernon Adams last
year before Nathan Rourke left. Well, I mean obviously Nathan Rourke was injured
and that prompted them to bring Va in. But now you look at again
the sort of state of the quarterback in the CFL. Yeah, you know,
it's it looks like a steal, you know, to get a guy
like Va who again maybe isn't exactly in his prime. Like you could argue
that, you know, Va, I guess I think it might have been
like twenty nineteen in Montreal, was you know, at his peak, but
even then, like he's still you know, one of the top guys.
I mean, you could put him, to be honest, I would feel
comfortable at this point maybe putting him right behind Zach Claros. You know,
we were talking about this like top three guys earlier. You could maybe put
Trevor Harrison there right now, especially after his game against Winnipeg, which we'll
get into in a minute, you know, and then Chad Kelly obviously like
we talked about. But I don't know, like at this point, like
I think if Vernon can take this team to the playoffs and they can have
you know, another run and at least challenge Winnipeg again, I'd say that's
a win. I mean at that point, like I know, Rourke was
extremely flashy, and I was very fortunate to see him play against the Alex
last year, where he had I mean just in a phenomenal game, best
game I've ever seen in person by any quarterback I think at any level,
even though they had Rourke. You know, Vernon I think can carry the
same type of Wait, maybe that's a bold statement. Again, I understand
how good Nathan Rourke was. I know his season was cut short. I
get it, trust me. But I really think that, you know,
Vernon, you know, like there's nothing like with his receivers, Like I
mean, who's stopping that. You know, at this point, they're gonna
have to face a couple you know, difficult teams. I'm sure once they
get to like the Torontos and the Winnipegs, like I said, maybe even
like Montreal, you know, it could become a bit more difficult. But
right now, I think Vernon is on pace for a great season and I
think he could really return to that form that he was in, you know,
maybe three or four years ago. Keep in mind that, you know,
Lions also have Dan Evans here, you know, where you're talking about
kind of having the quarterback Richards and then where our backup is probably better than
I would say, certainly Cornelius and certainly whatever. At this point, Derek
Taylor had tweeted out, and I think Derek said to come on the show
this week, like who can play you know, who can play a quarterback
for the Elks right now? And I said, like, yeah, I'd
call it like DeAndre Johnson or someone in the USFL like, hey, you
dismissed the playoffs, like let's get you up yere and kind of do that
half joking, but you know, I mean they could kind of figure that
out. Last couple of notes from me, we had the big LLL Cool
Jay concert. I thought this wasn't funny tweet by Jacques. I don't if
you guys followed him on Twitter, said it's a real statement. See if
I'm fan demographics said, la cool Jay gone through this phrase for appealing to
younger crowd. I thought that was good, but you know, it looked
good. I saw. I appreciated the like the sweet shots of them are
hanging out with LLL like in there, you know whatever in the owner's suite
or whatever that was. I thought that was cool. And then I especially
I saw the tweet said that I know that Edmonton did the Christian Salisbury kind
of tribute last week, and I thought that was nice that BC kind of
had that going at the beginning of the game as well. For him.
Obviously, you passed away too soon, and with the Edmonton we've tracked him
through all the other stuff. Jason, any other thoughts, well, kind
of double time through these last couple of games here we're going along. But
this has been good. Yeah, I think just h I agree with you
you guys said about Burning. I think he has a chance to really rejuvenate
his career here, and you're starting to see the signs of it. He
played really well at the end of last season, so I'm glad he's in
a situation that's very conducive to the way he plays. And you know,
they may not be as explosive on offense as they were last year, but
I think this defense could be even better than they were last year, as
we've seen the first couple of weeks. So I think that, you know,
we're gonna have to see how they played this Thursday against Winnipeg. That's
gonna be a big test for them. But I'm excited about the BC Lions,
you know, going forward. So we had the game here. This
was the game I saw the least of. Like I said, Winnipeg really
just kind of smacking around the Saskatchewan at home. I think they said that.
You know, Winnipeg hasn't lost a game in Saskatchewan since twenty nineteen or
whatever. Evan, I know you didn't see much of this game either.
This was the late Saturday game, but like I say, at the top
of the show, there was a lot of like apologizing for Saskatchewan looking good
even in losing twenty seven to forty five. To me, it never felt
that incredibly close. Do you have any thoughts and we'll toss to Jason.
I mean, yeah, like you said, Reid, I didn't get a
chance to watch much of this game, if any. I went back and
I looked at the highlights. You know, Saskatchewan, I mean they had
they had a great day passing the ball. I mean we can start with
that. I know we already talked a ton about BC and they're receiving corps,
but like you know, the rough Riders had two guys Sean Bain Junior
and Kevin Jones went over one hundred yards. And then I heard a lot
of praise about Samuel Mliss too. There was a lot of people like,
you know, welcome to the CFL type of thing, so that was good
to see. And then on the defensive side, I know, again we
haven't talked much defense yet, and I fought myself for that. But like
Larry Dean had a great game and that's obviously a familiar name to me and
many others. Roland Milliken, who I talked about on the show last week,
also had a pretty good game, I thought, with three tackles for
loss. And then for Winnipeg, I mean, yeah, like you know,
it was just a I mean, they've scored I think over because they
had forty two last week against Hamilton's. So they haven't even had a game
yet this season where they've scored below forty points, which is stagger I mean,
that's that's just unbelievable to me. I mean, if you, I
mean you want to talk about a strong way to start a season, that's
how you do it. I mean, this is like just the polar opposite
of Edmonton, and I hate to you know rain on the Elks parade there
if there is any parade. But you know, I just feel like,
I mean, there's it's such a contrast going from that game to this one
where you're looking at such a you know, diverse group of players, and
you know, there's so many what's the word I'm looking for. There's just
so many, you know, different outlets and options and whatever. I mean
if you look here, I mean Zach Collarro's you know, is posting like
a similar stat line, you know, close to three hundred yards every game,
two touchdowns. He's just kind of automatic with that at this point.
And then receiving wise head Dalton shown you know who obviously came on and seen
last year, you know, eight catches, one hundred and forty five yards.
I mean, your day doesn't get better than that. You tack on
a touchdown too, extremely impressive stuff from him. And then on defense,
uh, you know they had I mean a couple of guys i'd say,
you know, stood out Celestin Habba, who's a rookie um I want to
say from Texas A and m Commerce he had a nice game. And then
m Malik Clements had five tackles for lost, which was also impressive. Same
with Brandon Alexander the cornerback. So again good to see all those guys,
you know, kind of really putting things together again. Like I was going
into the season, I really wanted to see how Winnipeg would start, especially
um, just coming off the Great Cup loss. It's like, you know,
how do you sort of tackle that momentum? Like is it gonna shift?
You know, because there's a lot of moving pieces there. You've been
good for so long. But to be honest, they retained a lot of
their you know, core players, and you know, obviously I think I
remember when Andrew Harris left to Toronto and that seemed to be a big departure.
But Andrew Harris is getting older now, and I always knew, like
Brady olivera I was going to carry the weight and he's done that so far.
So things like that, They've just done a fantastic job sort of replacing
the few players that they've lost, and I think that's why they're in this
position where they can score forty plus points per game. Jason thoughts on this,
and I have a couple fall up questions. Yeah, so I actually
believe it or not. Despite the eighteen point deficit at the end of the
game. I thought this was the most entertaining game so far this season.
There was a point in this game where Saskatchewan was matching Winnipeg punch for punch.
Trevor Harris looked incredible in this game, especially considering who they had out
in the receiving corps. Obviously, keyon Shaver Bakers yet to join the team
this season. He's out with an injury. You have Drell Walker who's out
with injury. So I think that Saskatchewan looked great considering the guys that they
had in there. And you know, I think this game really changed on
the Geneering Grant punt return because I think that made it a ten point game
and then Winnipeg just kind of take it home from there. But Winnipeg just
such a well oiled machine. In terms of their offense, I think that
their defense showed a little bit of holes. I think the first couple of
weeks of the season, they may not be as good as they were the
previous couple of years. But I think this offense is better than they've ever
been and I think that's gonna lead them to a lot of victories. If
they're gonna score forty points every week. I think there's nobody that's going to
stop them this year. Yeah, was this the best? Was this the
best punt return that I saw? This at least top three? I think
Ben Grant was saying that as well, top three punt return he's ever seen.
Jason, Yeah, it was absolutely incredible. I mean just count the
broken tackles and how far he went like laterally across the field making guys miss
before he turned it up. So, I mean, Jenerry granted Son an
all time punt returner, I think for what he's shown the past couple of
years in the CFL. The other thing I had, oh it was it
ended the game late game when I finally got the game on in like Saskatchewan
deciding not to go for it. We had seen Ottawa go for it on
third down there at the kind of end zone goal I whatever in the Thursday
game, and I like kind of aggressiveness because I was going back and forward
with Christine the constable and I said, if you're onto at this point,
what do you have to lose? Like I would go for it, like
what are we trying to save here? And I felt the same for Saskatchewan,
like Winnipeg, you can't match, you know, they always say that,
like you can't match touchdowns with field goals, and especially Winnipeg, like
they had the opportunity there to at least give it a shot, and I
felt like not going forward and settling for the three and the Winnipeg comes immediately
back, drives the field and gets another touchdown, It's like, well,
now you're down. I just feel like you have to be aggressive there,
and I feel like you have to play a perfect game to beat Winnipeg,
and there was just too many issues there with Saskatchewan. Anything else from this
one, I want to make sure we get through the Ottawa game. Jason,
any other thoughts on the Winnipeg Saskatchewan Well, I'm glad you brought that
decision up because I believe they were down by fourteen points inside the ten yard
line about seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, so plenty of time left
if they get the touchdown there to come back potentially in that game. But
they decided to kick the field goal, and I'm just like, I'm a
big proponent of always going for it if you're inside the ten yard line on
third on third down, in this CFL, because if you turn it over,
you're giving them a long field, whereas if you kick the field goal,
you're giving them the ball at the forty yard line. Only gives the
good offenses. You can get a couple first downs, they get that field
goal right back, So the field goal doesn't help you in that situation.
So I really don't understand that decision. Like you mentioned Ottawa's decision on the
Thursday night game, I think I really did agree with that one despite it
not working out. So I mean again, I'm big proponent of going for
it on third and goal in those situations. The other thing too, you
were saying Trevor Harris played good. I said he played good despite I was
being totally wasn't going to play the game of Rod Peterson came out and said
he's not playing. Trevor Harris is there? And then Andrew where he was
that cried about that. I had anything else here? Should write you?
People say either Trevor Harris whatever. Oh and then the last thing, the
pizza feud. What was going on with this pizza feud the Winnipeg Saskatchewhy did
I miss something with that? Is this a Canadian thing? I couldn't tell
you. I'm there was something with Regina Pizza being being duty or something like
that. Okay, so we end up with that all right, last game
here, and this brought a little bit of enjoy to my heart because early
on in the XFL season there was a couple of poor games, as you
would expect from a startup league in the first couple of weeks of gameplay.
Marshall Ferguson felt the need to chirp off on Twitter about the poor gameplay,
and I was very happy to have Marshall Ferguson on the call for quite possibly
the worst CFL game of the week, certainly of the season thus far,
with the Calgary Stampeters beating the Ottawa Red Blacks that evan initial thoughts on this
game, Yeah, this one was rough. Definitely a rough way to start
the week. I you know, I remember putting this game on and I
was like, oh, geez man, Like immediately it just kind of stood
out as like a sore thumb. And I don't want to you know.
I know there's been I heard some talk on Twitter about how sometimes when Calgary
and Ottawa played each other it ends up being like this, But I don't
know, Like I was watching that game and it was almost it's just one
of those games where it's like what are we doing? You know, like
what is going on? Like you know, like I don't I don't want
to say I can do a better job than you know anybody that you know
is in these sort of positions, but I mean you look at it and
you're just like, I mean, there's just so many things that could have
been done differently. I will say the one thing that I was pleased about
was Tyree Adams getting some action in a quarterback for Ottawa, you know,
the nick Arbuckle thing, Like he started the game okay, but still turning
the ball over, still not finding the ends, Like all those problems are
still there, right, So I think, again the Red Blacks are they've
already started you know. Maybe I don't want to say making that transition,
but like, would it be surprising if Tyree Adams you know, played again.
No, I mean he did, Okay, he still had to turnover
as well, but like a tiny bit more efficient in the past game and
had more passing yards, So I'll give that one to him. Yeah,
just the whole game really felt you know, sloppy, I think is the
word for it. And I'm glad that you know that the game like right
after that, um, I think it was it was Winnipeg Saskatchewan was the
game after that, right, yeah, yeah, after Yeah, So I'm
glad that there was kind of that turnaround. Um. But man, like
you know, I'll just say it's with all that in mind, I'm glad
that Calgary was able to pull through because I do feel like they were the
better team here. Um. Was it a perfect day for them by any
means? Not really? They did all right on offense. You know,
Jake Mayer two hundred and seventy yards. Dedrick Mills was someone I had my
eye on, you know, really the whole game. Um, he was
being talked a lot. Is like again he had you know, some shoes
to fill there. And then Reggie Begelton Begelton, Um, you know he's
been with Calgary now for a while. Um, I know, I remember
back when I first started doing CFL coverage, he had signed with the Packers
or something, and then now he's come back and you know, still with
Calgary, you know, doing his thing all these years later. It seems
like so, you know, good for him him on that front, but
ultimately, yeah, I mean this game was just kind of one where you're
like, you know, you're glad it's over and you move on. And
I think the teams maybe thought that too. I could be wrong, but
like, that's that's what I just gathered from watching on my TV. Jason
thoughts. I had a quote here Bob Dyce after the game, we have
to look seriously look adapted everything we're doing as a good if we a firm
believe we just have to correct the errors because like this only comes back.
This isn't a different team about him. Feel like, what did you make
of this really pitoful performance by Ottaway. Well, one stat tells the whole
story of the first two games for the Autoo Red Blacks. Zero offensive touchdowns.
That's inexcusable and honestly, Edmonton would be right along with them if not
for that one hundred and two yard touchdown by Eugene Lewis in the first game.
So Ottawa, you know, I feel for them because they've been stuck
in the mud for the last several years here. I mean, this was
a team that justin twenty eighteen they were in the Gray Cup. I mean
and just the last several years here we just have not seen them get anything
together, especially on the offensive side of the ball. I think that,
you know, the first half of this game was very hard to watch.
I think that once Tyree Adams came to the game, it was a lot
more watchable. Calgary also played better offensively in the second half. I think
both offenses played terrible in the first half. I think really the only touchdowns
that Calgary got were off turnover, so you know, I think that was
a really sloppy game from that perspective. But in the second half, I
think Calgary got some things going. Good to get Reggie Bagleton going. He
had a very disappointing year from in my opinion last year. I think he
was my number one receiver going into the league last season, so it was
good to see him get going. Willie Kennry had a big reception at the
end there. But overall, I think that this game was one basically by
one really strong drive in the third quarter by Calgary to get a touchdown.
But other than that, I think that, you know, Ottawa really just
didn't get anything going again, not getting it in the end zone, and
it's hard to win games like that. Jason, do you think that Mayor's
kind of fallen off here and not living up or how do you how do
you kind of grade his performance thus far? Well, first of all,
I actually wanted to say that I believe these statistics are wrong. I believe
the I think he actually passed for over three hundred yards in this one,
So I mean that's another thing with the statistical system that have an error resolve
over the place. But I think he was better in this one. I
think it was acceptable. Still not the level of play I'd like to see
from him, but I think that I didn't really have any problems with this
performance. He the one turnover rehad, I think it was off as receivers,
and so I'm not going to really fault him for that. So I
think he was much better from week than week one. So I think that
given the bar for a quarterback play in the CFL right now, I still
think he is one of the better quarterbacks in the league. And I think
that, you know, if he can just play like this going forward,
even if he doesn't play any better than this, I think that, you
know, I think Calgary doesn't really have too many things to be concerned about
going forward because the rest of their team is just very strong. They're always
gonna be able to run the ball, and that was a big difference Week
one for them because against BC they could not get that running game going whatsoever.
In this game, Detrick Nels had a huge game, So I think
getting the running game going, allowing him to lean on play action a little
bit more is a big thing for Mayor going forward. The other because Kadeem
was out too, right is he on the sixth game? Coadem carry right
now? Is he on yeah? Sixth game injured list? Yeah, so
certainly not good there. We'll start to wrap this up look ahead. Here.
I had a comment here might have to be on the stream here.
I can put users in time out if they have inappropriate comments. We have
just reminded the defending Gray Cup champions are America's CFL team. Trummor. I
don't appreciate that, Mac, then I do not appreciate that. Yeah,
Chris knows. I tho the BC Lions are America seam looking for it.
Here I had the schedule Evan thoughts BC here with the early game kicking off
Thursday, we'll have our show regular on Friday again this week and our kind
of our regular weekend show here BC going on Thursday, and then we have
Montreal at Hamilton, Saskatchewan at Calgary, and then Toronto at Edmonton. That
could be a scary one there, Evan, thoughts of the game you're looking
most forward to heading into the weekend, Well, I definitely think BC at
Winnipeg is the headliner. That's gonna be the real test for the lines.
You know, they've come out pretty hot. A couple of things they could
have done differently, but ultimately they're two and o. Both them and Winnipeg
are two and o at top of the West, so that'll be interesting to
see. I mean, BC's playing at their house, so you know that
that makes it a bit more difficult. That's definitely the matchup I'm most excited
for. The other one that I'll talk about here is Saskatchewan at Calgary.
I feel like that'll kind of be, you know, one of those teams,
like you know, I mean, right now, it seems like BC
and Winnipeg are gonna be the two you know, Western teams, but like
Saskatchewan and Caligraph, I feel like it's sort of you know, who slots
in at number three there and I think that I think that that might um,
that'll be interesting. I feel like that game could determine a lot about
just sort of how the rest of the season goes, especially just through the
entire Western Division, even though it's only Week three. Yeah, Jason,
In terms of do you think Hamilton gets a bounced back here, I reluctantly
say they do. I think I do think they generally play much better at
home year to year, and I think if Matthew Schiltz is playing, I
oddly have more confidence that they'll win this game. But Montreal is coming off
a bye week, which is the diagrams kind of got screwed a little bit
by the schedule makers at the beginning of this season. Obviously, Toronto having
the bye week week two, they have to travel to Winnipeg week one,
and then Montreal off a bye again here, so I think that's something to
keep in mind. But I think Hamilton coming back home generally plays with a
lot more energy there, so I think defensively they'll play a lot better or
maybe get Cody Fajardo will throw a couple of interceptions here or there. So
I think Hamilton, I'm pretty confident in a bounce back for them, Mac
the Knife. Here you can win tickets to the XFL next year or the
USFL twenty twenty three Champ Chip game, which has not taken place yet,
so we could still add a subscribers here before July. First watch it there
and then Chris. Here are lots of emojis. I don't know if this
is appropriate, but we'll put it on here. I think Cornelius got a
lot of poop emojis here, and we're gonna go beat the Argos that way.
It should be exciting here. Evan, anything else for me before we
get out of here, You know, I don't think so. Like I
said, I mean, you know, I really want to see some of
these teams that are struggling turn around. I mean that everyone says that,
but I really mean it because especially teams like Ottawa who have been in the
basement for a while, and same with Edmonton, especially those two. It's
just I really hope here that at least in the first month of the season,
that they're able to get a win and turn things around, because right
now it looks pretty grim for some of those teams. Fortunately, you know,
teams like BC have continued to be strong even though they've lost some key
pieces, you know, the argos. They still had a couple of questions
even coming off the Great Cup win. Clearly not a problem yes to day
against Hamilton. Hopefully they continue that. Um so you know, teams like
that, I mean, everyone is in a different position right now. I
feel like and I mean that, I mean that in some good ways,
and I mean that in some bad ways. Like there's some teams that have
a lot of work to do, and there's some teams that have really none
to do. Like if you're Winnipeg, like, I don't see what you
could really change to make things better. But that's usually how it goes about
every year. I'm just a bit surprised to some extent that, like some
of these teams have shown like no improvement whatsoever, like at all. Again,
I get it, it's week two, knee jerk reaction. Whatever.
We're not gonna you know, we're not gonna. I don't know anyway.
Um yeah, I'll stop, I'll stop rambling now. Yeah that's good.
Jason, we're here week two of this. You're now ingratiated in the writers
group Twitter that you don't don't sell our secrets to the Canadians here, anything
else from you here as we work our way through the season. No,
I'm just excited for Week three. I think that we're learning more and more
about these teams. I think, you know, once we get past the
third fourth week of the season, then we get a much better idea of
you know, where these said teams are at. I think once everybody's had
their home openers and everything like that. So I'm excited to see what we
have in store going forward. I will say, if you're still on the
fence here, I did tweet you know, if you're still on the fence
and you're like, I gotta don't really care about the CFL USFL ending here
And I did have this tweet yesterday. I was really proud of the Breakers
Gamblers game. First half was one of the worst house in football I've ever
seen. I said, I probably apologize any fathers out there watching this game
with their children. If you're still on the fence about the CFL. It
can't be any worse in that half of football yesterday. So join us,
Pat and I will be back tomorrow. We'll be doing USFL Week ten preview,
and then I think Pat is doing an all USFL team that we're going
to be doing here on the podcast this week. I think Derek Taylor,
like I said, it's coming on, and I believe Rick Sarah Tella as
well. We're gonna be talking to XFL Rookie Draft and the team's kind of
rounded out. Appreciate everyone like and subscribe, get your USFL twenty twenty three
championship tickets or XFL next year. Appreciate it. We'll get out of here
and thank you guys so much