Well, good morning everyone, Happy Monday. Welcome to the Mark ass here
read here at a little different angle today. We saw Trevor Harris take a
hit at the end of the game last night. I'm a little bit on
the I R as well right now. Was filming a wedding on Saturday.
I felt a pop in the back of my right leg and that limp being
got my leg elevated here, So I appreciate everyone working through less an ideal
here. I got my mother's compression sock on and we're work working through it.
Welcome. We have been doing these every Monday through the XFL season with
Andy Murray, pat Raffino here through the USFL and now we have Jason Hussey
joining today as well as special guest Evan Wilsmore. Appreciate this kind of the
the knee jerk reaction Monday morning. What did we learn from the you know
whatever league of choice over the weekend? Pat Raffino and I will be back
tomorrow same time. Will we do in the USFL recaps analysis and then obviously
the ratings that should be coming out for that as well. Bring in by
co host for today, we have Jason Hussey here. First off, Jason,
how are you doing great? Raid, how are you? I'm good.
We're working through and then we have Evan willsmore here. Evan said,
I got a lot to talk about for the CFL as well, James checking
in anytime we have you know, raise your hand if your team is undefeated
right now in the CFL. Action. Got a lot to talk about with
Jason as well everything else. But first off, Evan, how are you
doing. I'm doing good, man, Excited to talk about some you know,
CFL football start of the twenty one week set in full, So yeah,
lots to cover just in week one already. Yeah, so we'll go.
Jason was with me for our pregame kickoff show with Naylor and far Hunt
and everyone else. That's good if you want to go back and checking that
out. Chris checking it as well. Hey Hussey. First off, Jason,
you know we're back CFL. I'll pull up kind of all four games
here, but why did you make it just a weekend overall? And then
obviously we'll go week by week or game by game. Well, first of
all, I love that CFL football is back. I think most importantly that's
the biggest thing. But I think in terms of the games themselves a little
bit sloppy, to be expected, CFL short preseason, so I mean it
didn't really surprise me. But I thought the quarterback play wasn't very great this
weekend, but again to be expected. Evan, what about you, We're
back, We've lived through XFL and USFL here, why did you make it
back to the Canadian game? Yeah? I thought it was okay. You
know, like Jason said, it's week one, you got to shake off
a bit of rust. Outside of the Winnipeg and Hamilton game, there wasn't
a ton of scoring, and yeah, the quarterback play was kind of iffy.
You know, we'll get into more of that later, kind of about
them just a general quarterback situation in Canada right now. But overall, you
know, I thought it was good. I liked that there was at least
a lot of close games, you know, not everything was a blowout again,
except maybe the Winnipeg game. They really you know, blew the brake
soft Hamilton there in the first half. But yeah, other than that,
you know, a decent way I think to start the CFL season. It
was good. It was exciting. I watched three The Saskatchew one was tough,
I will say, you know, for people in the States, I
thought, and Jason I talked to about this on the pregame. I thought,
the CBS Sports Network, where it's great able to go on I could
do it, go on Fubo, kind of pre record all of those.
But the CFL Plus ones, I wish there was a way they could get
the games back on afterwards. Like I understand maybe we can't do you know,
like live rewinding or anything on the TSM broadcast, but if we could
embed those somewhere after that would be phenomenal because, like I was able to
go back and watch the Ottawa game in full, was not able to do
that as much with a Saskatchewan one. I just because of kind of the
broadcast windows around. Evan, did you have a problem watching any of the
games? I know there were some issues as well with like the box scores
updating on the website over the weekend. Yeah, the scores were definitely a
bit of a problem on the CFL website. It seems that they've got that,
you know, figured out now that all the games are over. But
viewership wise, you know, the stream on CFL Plus worked fine for me,
you know, I kind of had to bounce back and forth between that
and then CBS Sports Network, which I have through YouTube TV. You know,
a kind of a weird system. Again, I expected going into this
season I would just be able to use ESPM plus, like that's what I
subscribe to ESPN plus four. But obviously you know that partnership is no longer
in place and it's not moved over to CBS Sports Network. So it was
a bit weird. But again, you know, one of those week one
things. I'm sure I'll get used to it as the season goes on,
you know, figuring out which game is on CFL Plus and you know what's
on CBS. So it was all right. There wasn't a problem at least
with the quality of it. Wait, what did you make, Kussie?
Kind of having everything back? I kind of you know, I like the
Rod Smith and the with those. I kind of like getting the kind of
the familiar voices of all that. Did you enjoy the broadcast of the games?
Yeah? I always enjoyed the broadcasts that TSN puts out there. I
mean, besides the TSN panel, they're just so not funny in my opinion.
But other than that, I always do enjoy the broadcast themselves. I
think the play by play guys do a great job. And yeah, no
problems from my end up here in Canada. Yeah, you're living the dream
out there. I don't understand they hate the panel gets obviously, I've been
trying now. I've been trying to get canned on the podcast for three years.
I've had Milton, I've had David Sanchez on, I've had done Again
on, I've had you Naylor obviously. Evan, what do you make of
the roundtable? Because I do get this a lot that people don't seem to
like it. Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't get to
see as much of it, right because on CFL plus, you're not really
true. Yeah, yeah, they got the kind of little ad breaks where
they don't show you anything. So unless you're watching on I think CBS Sports
Network, you can't really see much of that. I mean going back to
like when of the games used to be on ESPN or ESPN two, ESPN
plus whatever. I thought they were decent, you know, I mean,
it wasn't to me. It's just more exciting that like those guys like you
know, some of them, like Milk, you know, had great careers
in the CFL and that they can still invest time into that all these years
later, especially you know, with you know, some might argue that the
state of the CFL game might not be at its peak right now. So
you know, I don't think their job is easy, which you know might
mean sometimes the product isn't is great, But overall, you know, I
think they're doing a good job. And I mean, yeah, they might
not be the best group of people, but at least they have some experience
and they know what they're talking about, because again, you know, to
people, especially who are watching in America, the CFL is a very niche
product. Yeah, we have a question here, we'll break up how to
watch. I will say, yeah, tuning into the CFL. Plus,
they just had that slate at the beginning, and obviously they're not showing all
the ad breaks. And I did tweet out I said this would be a
great and I'm not trying to sell promote, but you know, get Marshall
Fergus in there, someone in there, like do a little YouTube thing leading
into it. I just think that that's I get we can't show the ads
and we okay, we're TSNs pay and the broadcast. Get someone that you
trust in there, get a Marshall, get someone like, Hey, I'm
sitting here with my webcam, welcome to the show. We got this coming
up. Like, I think that's a really easy way if you're not going
to be able to show the pregame of the TSN game, to be able
to do that. Yeah, Jersey King says, love it. We're getting
a lot of our American people trying to watch the games. It's basically fifty
fifty because half the ones this weekend you watch on the Fubo and some of
them were on the streaming if it's right, is there kind of a method
to that madness? I just kind of would look on there and see if
it was on Fubo. Otherwise I knew it was on CFL dot c A
Evan. Did you make any heads or tails of how to figure out which
ones were which? Yeah, you know, I found something on the CFL
website and I wasn't able to find it again, but they kind of had
a little brochure or a PDF or something like that that would tell you,
you know, where each game was, whether it was CFL Plus or you
know, CBS Sports Network and then obviously TSN. If you're in Canada.
You know that's not a problem, but for us, Yeah, I mean
I referenced out a bit. But again, yeah, I had a similar
situation. Do you read it was more like you just if it's not on
my TV guide on CBS Sports Network, I knew I'm going to have to
stream it off my laptop on the CFL website with CFL Plus. Yeah,
Crossopon says Riders one though, that's all that matters. So we'll get into
the games here, exciting stuff. How did we get this back? Up?
There? We go? So, first off, we did our big
pre game. We'll start at the beginning BC Lions here, obviously my game
of the weekend. We can get anyone's thoughts on that vernon looking and saying
on there, I'll pull in here. But Jason, overall thoughts, was
this your top game and what did you kind of initial thoughts? Well,
I think that this game was kind of surprising to me. I thought it
was going to be a lot closer. I thought it was going to be
a little bit higher scoring. I thought that Calgary kind of struggled really all
the way up until like midway through the fourth quarter, and then they started
starting to turn it on a little bit. They got a couple of drives
together, but overall, just a very disappointing performance from them. Jake Mayer,
it's starting to stay out to me that he's struggling in these matches against
BC dating back to last season. And I think that's interesting because you look
at how he's played against Winnipeg and the starts he's had against them, and
it's a drastic difference. Winnipeg he's actually played very well against. So that
BC defense is no joke. I've been saying it up for a while now
on my channel that they have a chance to be the best defense in the
CFL this year, and they showed it Week one. Yeah, I know,
and I get into this kind of the knee jerk and you the CFL
season SA marathon that its great. But Vernon Adams really looked like the greatest
quarterback in the league. It was. He was like a for eight going
down and I think it was nine with the conversion on that. Evan,
I know, you know we're big fans of VA everything in our group and
everything else. What did you make of Vernon's performance? Yeah, I thought
it was great, you know, outside of the turnover I thought that was,
you know, probably the best game he could have had. You know,
like Jason said, you know, maybe you hope for a bit more
scoring, especially on the Calgary end, but like Vernon came in and you
know, he exceeded my expectation for a week one game, especially because this
is a pretty new environment for him. You know, he's got big shoes
to fill. And I put that on on Twitter. I said, you
know, Lions fans were blessed last season with the presence of Nathan Rourke up
until his injury. You know, you bring in Verton Adams, who had
a pretty good career there in Montreal, but it's a different environment for him,
so you know, to see him flourishing again. He had some pretty
good weapons, like Dominic Rimes picked up right where he left off from last
season, you know, being one of the top receivers in the CFL.
You know, but yeah, I was very impressed with Vernon. Is the
bottom line and if he continues, you know, at that general pace,
you know, I'm sure he'll have a couple of games where you know,
things might drop off or whatever, but this is a really good start and
he should definitely be happy about that. I think Vernon's the kind of guy
that like lives and dies just like in every moment, right, And I
think you know, he kind of you ride that emotion with him. I
saw him after the game. You know, he's looking up, he's thanking
God, breathing on the sidelines. You can just read that emotion and yeah,
if he's playing good and he's feeling it right, he's gonna kind of
he's going to be king of the world. But but if it's the other
way, you know, if they start getting too much pressure whatever, Like
he does seem like someone that kind of gets faltered that way. It's crazy
though here with the receivers, you know, Lucky White kind of in and
out wasn't even really a part of it. It just seemed he has so
many different tools there. This Dee Justin McGinnis, I said, when he
got kind of the game ceiling a reception there on the side of something,
that's my guy, Like, I want to buy his jerse. He had
that he was a good pickup. What did you make adjacent of just kind
of the tools Burnon Head. I think it's a great receiving core that the
Lions have, and I think especially you saw that connection with dominic rhymes.
Rhymes I rated a little bit too low. I actually already regret where I
placed him on I did a top fifty players campdown over on my channel.
I had him at like twenty eighth, I believe, and honestly, if
I have to do it over again already, I probably would have had him
in the top twenty. He had an excellent season last year. I just
didn't think he was gonna follow it up. But you saw in Week one
already producing two touchdowns, having a great connection with Burnon Adams and then the
other guys they think they have a lot of height in this receiving corps.
He looked like a guy like McGinnis that they bring in. He was a
former first round pick in Saskatchewan, so it's good to see him producing.
A little bit. Whitehead, like you said, didn't get much out of
him, so you don't expect that to continue going forward. You think he's
going to have some bigger games. So things look good for the BC Lions
receiving corps. Well, even Keian Hatcher was he is he injured? What's
his deal right now, because obviously that's another huge tool. I think he's
on the sixth game injured list, I believe. Yeah, so, I
mean, but here that was what was insane to me, Like Lucky White
had i mean three receptions here, even the guys that you would think that
he would go to any Dominic Rhymes is you know, one of the kind
of the elite guys on that. But he didn't even have kind of his
full slate or was even working with this full slate last night. Yeah,
exactly, Sorry, Evan, Evan, any thoughts, any thoughts on kind
of you know, Keyan metching Keion missing, Lucky obviously out, but Silverdin
kind of finding everything. I mean yeah, you know, like for a
long time, you know, BC had Brian Burnham, you know, that
was the guy that they could always go to, and now you have to
replace that, right Obviously, Dominic Rhymes had a very good season last year.
I think he had fourteen hundred yards, was second in the CFA,
fell behind Bolton shown and Winnipeg. Um. You know, yeah, I
mean I think it just it speaks to his sort of you know, veteran
presence and it's not about you know, it's not always about the guy that
the top guy like you can have, you know, like that receiving cores
very deep and you can see, you know, how many receivers they were
able to catch passes. So I think that was just Vernon's ability to you
know, find players and spread out the field and it worked out really well
for them. Clearly, I think it was. Naylor tweeted that, like,
I haven't seen the BC quarterback half. It's a great of a week
one since well Nathan worked last year. I mean obviously, I you know,
high expectations, but I just I don't know. To me, there's
a lot of pressure on Vernon. Like I said, I love him as
a man, I know, want him to exceed as good as a leader
in this a quarterback as he is as a human being. I'm glad he
saw that. In terms of Calgary, you know, I thought it was
interesting. I think it was going into half the sidelined interview and you know,
far Han was I thought Jake was actually kind of hurt with far Han,
where far Han's like, yeah, what do you make Jake's like,
I don't, like we needed to do better? Like I thought he was
almost kind of rude that way. It's surprised that Jake, here's someone that
you know, really stepped up with you know, with bo Levi and all
of that. Jesson, what did you make of Jake Mayor's kind of struggles
here through the game twenty to thirty six. Well, I alluded to a
few minutes ago that he is looking to really struggle in these matches against BC,
looking back to the playoff game last year, a couple of the matchups
during the regular season last year he struggled against BC. So this is becoming
a trend for him. But I'm not going to be too worried about Mayor
until he struggles next week at Ottawa. I think that's a perfect bounce back
opportunity for him. But at the end of the day, what I saw
from him in this game is that he's pretty hesitant out there. You just
kind of hesitated to make some throws, and I really saw that as the
strength of his game. Guy that can get the ball out quick, not
going to be a guy that pushes the ball down the field of ton,
but he's a guy that can make quick decisions and keep your offense on track.
And that's something that we just simply didn't see in week one. Evan,
are you worried if you're a Calgary fan. Are we worried right now?
Where is this two seed to tell? Yeah, you know, I
think it's too soon to tell. You know, people who know me,
or at least that are in my circle, will know that I'm a big
Jake Mayor fan. You know, I've been following him since he was a
rookie in Calgary, and you know, I always kind of knew that he
was going to take the throne to bowl by Mitchell, or at least yet
takeover. Yeah, you know, it was a bit of a slow day
for him again week one. You know, is this an accurate representation of
who he is as a quarterback? No. He's going into year three now,
so I would hope that over the course of the season that we do
see a lot of development. I know last night one of the broadcasters mentioned
that, but when they were talking about Taylor Cornelius and Edmonton, it was
the same thing. You know, Chris Jones is hoping to get more out
of him in year three, and it's kind of those first two years,
especially at the quarterback position in the CFL, where you have some things to
iron out. It takes a while to develop. But we'll get to Edmonton
later. I mean just talking about Jake Mayor, you know, I think
I still think he's gonna have, you know, some moments like this season
where you know, like what we against BC, where you know he has
some slower games, but like Jason said, you know, you play Ottawa
next week, that's a perfect bounce back opportunity. You know, that's the
time where you can go out and maybe have a three hundred yard, two
touchdown, no turnover type of game. And if he does that, then
that's great. Then there's no need to be worried about it at all.
And even if he doesn't do as much as that, I'm still not going
to be worried. It's only if he replicates that kind of thing that we
saw in BC, where yeah, if I was a Calgary fan, I'd
be like, Okay, you know, maybe he's a bit further behind than
we would like at this point in his career. Chris checking in here says
loved the Stamps Mayor tough loss. We have friend of the show Tim Kapper
over with a bunch of other Let's Fight Tyck podcast and BA has in the
other season like twenty nineteen, BC is going to be tough to be I
don't know. I mean it felt like I don't let people down to BC
going into last year. We had anything kind of all of that here Vernon
coming up. I just like I said, it's it's doing that over you
know, eighteen games or whatever. That's where I worry a little bit about
that. Jason, any other thoughts on BC or Calgary, We'll move on
to your tie cats. Anything else from the first game, Well, one
guy I wanted to shout out is a few bets defensive end for the BC
Lions. He's a guy that I kind of wrote off. He was a
first round pick I believe it was second overall by the Edmonton Elks a few
years ago. Believe it was twenty nineteen, and then in twenty twenty one,
the year after they canceled twenty twenty season, he comes in. It
didn't really do much. Gabe got a lot of starts at the defensive ends
position for Edmonton, then moved on to BC, got a big contract from
them before really producing anything. Has a really good year last year and had
an excellent game in Week one. So I think he's a guy that's really
living up to his potential. Where Evan anything else will move on, No,
I don't think so okay, Well, here we guys, So this
was to me my game kind of to watch keep an eye on here,
I tweeted out, going in, I watched part of the game, and
then I had to take my wife out to dinner and I kind of watched
the rest. Driving home, I tweeted out, is this the Bell Leave
Mitchell experiment over? And I had auto corrected it to Bill, So I
had is the Bill Leave Mitchell era over? And I had a lot of
people saying, like, well, he certainly is playing like Bill Leave right
now. Jason, this was your guy kind of watching coming in here.
What did you make of your tie casts losing here to Winnipeg thirty one to
forty two? Well interesting, interestingly enough, I was gonna say, like
when we were talking to the livestream, I said, when I was looking
for were the passes for bowleviy or were they going to come up short or
they know? Is it going to be a lack of arm strength from him?
And honestly I did not see that. It wasn't a physical problem from
him. It was mostly him overthrowing passes in this one missed a ton of
deep open receivers in this game. So I think if he can improve that,
take a little bit of heat off those passes, get more chemistry with
receivers, I think he could play significantly better going forward. I didn't see
anything from a physical standpoint that could limit him going forward. So he looks
healthy. He just needs to play with more consistency, more accuracy, and
we'll see if he can do that going forward. But honestly, I don't
have that many concerns given how poorly he looked in the first half against Winnipeg.
Evan thought that Bolivi, Yeah, you know, it's an interesting conundrum,
you know, bo Levi, I think has definitely been on a bit
of a downward turn in the past couple of years, and you know,
whether that's age or situation, and it's kind of hard to tell, right
you know, I was hoping, you know, maybe he'd have more of
like a bounce back in week one here Again, Winnipeg is an incredibly different,
difficult opponent excuse me to be going up against to start your season.
But even then, you know, I was watching him and I just didn't
really you know, again, it's week one. You know, let's not
overreact these are all knee jerk reactions, like we keep saying, But you
know, I'm a bit worried, I think because you know, it's a
big period of change for Hamilton. You know, they're definitely going through a
bit of a rebuild. You know, Jeremiah Assuli is gone, Dane Evans
is gone. You know, Bolivi is kind of the guy. I mean,
you've got you know, my guy Matt Schiltz behind Mitchell, who you
know, I think could you know, still be a decent starter in the
CFL. But you know, it's a lot more. Hamilton kind of went
from having you know, two of what we're you know, once viewed as
like the top quarterbacks in the CFL really because even when Dane Evans wasn't starting,
you know, he was viewed as a very good passer. But now
you have you know, an older Bolevi, Mitchell and then a career backup
in Matt Schiltz. Is just kind of like, you know, this is
one of those more interesting situations in my opinion, to see, you know,
how that kind of plays out throughout the season and if Bolivia really can
bounce back or if he really is sort of in that period of his career
where it's just going to be more gradual decline. And that's nothing against Bolivia.
You know, he's a great I mean, he's played in the CFL
for I mean longer than I can remember. Because I'm a I'm a young
guy, you know, and I've watched him for many, many years.
But you know, it just you kind of have to ask yourself, you
know. I mean, he gets a fresh start here, and you know,
I think it's going to take a couple of weeks before I can really
again get a solid opinion on that. But right now I'm not sold on
BLM. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's one of those
things. This week one, it's a new offense on that. Butler looks
really good. Hey, you that was obviously kind of the big lot coming
from BC over there. Jess, what did you make of Butler, Tim
White looking good? Kind of the rest of you know, everyone they kind
of under believe. Well, I think they were mostly getting open and bo
was just missing them a lot of the time and mentioned a couple of those
deep passes. Butler did cough up a key fumble in this one, so
that's something you don't like to see. But I think Butler overall looked to
be very good and could give something to this running game that they haven't had
for a few seasons. Hambleton not known traditionally as a team that runs the
ball lot, so it's good to see them commit to the running game a
little bit more in this game. So we'll see what Butler does going forward.
But I think that they have enough they're on the offense that I have
confidence in them going forward. But we just need to see it and see
see them gel more together. I did see. I got an email.
I think like great Cup pre sale was going on today. I think they
were already dealing, which I feel so early to me, but they wanted
like tie Cats fans here buying right now, get into the Gray Cup kind
of before before, kind of crafts the bed here Evan, what did you
make you know? Winnipeg looking good? Claros is always, you know,
Brady OLIVERA, it's so good, you know, you know obviously you had
the Edre Harris now that for years and now Brady there everything else. What
did you make of Winnipeg? Fantastic? That's the one word I'll say to
describe Winnipeg. I mean, they have been sort of, you know,
the top of the top at the CFL now for a couple of years,
and it doesn't look like it's gonna stop. I mean, you know,
Colaros had probably one of the best first halfs I've ever seen by a quarterback,
at least during my time watching the CFL, and that was in Week
one. You know, he had one hundred and eighty nine yards just in
the first quarter and he had damn near three hundred by the time you know
it was halftime. So yeah, it was extremely impressive. And then you
know, you look at the supporting cast, Brady olivera, Nick Demski,
you know, even Rashid Bailey got in there a bit. You know,
Winnipeg hasn't lost a step clearly. You know, they are still I think
setting a standard in the CFL, and that's good to see. Might be
annoying for some, especially someone like Jason if you support Hamilton and you know
how many times Winnipeg has hurt you in the past, but at the end
of the day, you know they are playing, you know, some of
the best football that you can ask for, and that's really good just for
the league as a whole. Jason thoughts on Winnipeg. Here's just continuing to
look just you know, in the league of their own. Well, this
is just an all time team at the top of their game, just not
much really more. You can say Zach Claries is clearly the number one quarterback
in the CFL. All due respect to how Burnond Adams played in Week one,
but Zach is clearly still the top dog. They have just such a
compliment of receivers. Kenny Lawler didn't even play in this game. He's dealing
with some kind of passport kind of problem, but he's expected back later in
the season, so that's going to add another element to that offense. I
mean, I think all their Canadian guys played very well on offense. And
then on the defensive side, Willie Jefferson is just one of the most freak
like defenders I've ever seen play in the CF valleys. These long alligator arms
Um and just uh well maybe not alligator arms, They're not exactly the longest
dons, but he has these long, freak light arms, can knock down
passes at a rate that I've never seen. Um just such a dynamic player,
and they just have so many playmakers throughout this roster. They played so
many big games together. Um, just so much trust in that team going
forward. In turn, you know, if I'm a BC light, i
am a BC lion. San Evan is, well, how are we feeling
with the West here? Is it's still going to be owned by Winnie Bake
here? Jason? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think,
um, you know, maybe we see BC Calgary round in to form throughout
the season. But I think if Winnipeg gets that first place in the West,
gets the West Final in their home building again, I think that no
one's really going to stop them on their way to the Great Cup. This
year, Chris Heresy were talking about Clara's getting They were covering them here,
talking about Clarens getting snatched up by the NFL, Like why is that?
Like why did work at all the accolades here? We're like, immediately go
and work to the NFL? Like what about Clarens here? Claris has been
lighted up for years? Any thoughts, Jason, I think it's mostly just
due to an age thing. I think that you Rourke was pretty damn young.
I think he didn't really have too many stops in the NFL. Like
I think he was just in one rookie minicamp before he came to the CFL,
so I think he's like twenty three, twenty four years old, so
he's still a guy that the NFL covets. Whereas you know, we've seen
year and year out in the CFO historically, the older quarterbacks don't really get
that chance. You know, Anthony Calbio, Henry Burris, those guys that
were great later later in their career in the CFL, they just didn't get
a chance because the NFL doesn't view them as having that potential to grow.
In terms of anything else from this, Evan Jason, there we Jason,
as a Tie Cats fan, how do you feel coming out of this performance?
Because obviously we can be analytical about it, but how do you feel
as a fan? Well? I expected it because I'll give you guys a
stat The Tiger Cats are two and fifteen in their last seventeen Week one game,
So I mean, I just expect the Week one loss at this point,
especially given a really tough matchup, So I'm not too concerned. I'll
be very concerned if next week when I go to Toronto to go see them
play, if they lay a similar performance. But as of right now I'm
not too concerned given the opponent and that it's Week one, and then anything
else from Winnipeg Hamilton. I mean, you know, just going back to
that Zach Colaros thing for a minute, you know why he wouldn't be in
the NFL. I mean at this point, I mean, yeah, certainly,
like Jason said, age is the number one reason. I mean,
Rourke is in a completely different position in his career. You know, it
was only in the CFL for two seasons. But you know, you look
at a guy at Claros, I mean, if I'm in his position,
it's like, why would you leave? You know, because you're not going
to go and start in the NFL. I mean, yeah, you're very
good, but at this point, you know, you can stay in Canada.
You're making you know, good enough money, you're playing well, you're
competing for a great Cup every year. They're still going to do it again
this year, which is like the fourth year in a row, which is
ridiculous, or at least that's what it looks like. I don't think anyone
would really argue with that. So yeah, I mean, you know,
for Colaros, at this point, I think it's just you know, wrote
it out in Canada and you know, have a great a great time.
And there's been many quarterbacks yeah like that in the past, you know,
Henry Burrows, Anthony Calvio, everyone. Jason said, you know, those
guys just kind of wrote it out in Canada, and I think they ended
up being a lot more successful there than they would have been just hanging around
in a couple of NFL camps. Jay Thompson says, I feel like we're
in You're in the golden age with all the leagues. I'm very exciting.
You know, we're rolling through here, We're rolling through XFL, USL all
that Chris here, he's a show's fan number one on that so and that
we had was it the Jersey King guy. He's excited about the CFL.
We're getting a lot of our all football guys here learning about the CFL company
there. So exciting there going through. I was excited to watch this game.
I did watch this game in full yesterday kind of on demand on Fubo.
I read Black Years Auletts. This was a really weird game, Jason.
Let it let you make of just the thesis of this game from the
beginning. I just think it was sloppy overall from both teams. Honestly,
I think that Cody Fajardo played well enough in his Montreal Alouett's debut. He
played a relatively clean game, but again you saw him take a lot of
sacks, a continuing trend from his time in Saskatchewan. Nick Arbuckle, on
the other side, I just don't think he's in. I don't think you
could win games with him in the CFL, and it's been proven over the
last couple of years here in multiple different stops. And I think if Jeremi
Mozzoli isn't back soon and healthy and playing at one hundred percent, I don't
think this team was going anywhere this year. Yeah I was. I'm trying
to find my tweet ear outan give your thoughts. I'll pull up my funny
tweet the hatch from this game. Yeah. Well, I mean I definitely
agree with the arbuck will take. I mean, this is fortunately for auto
offense. This should just be a sort of, you know, fill in
for a couple of weeks before Massoli comes back. This isn't what you have
to ride with for the whole season. But you know that game. I
think you know Attawa the fact that they were in you know, that much
of a striking distance, you know, one touchdown. I think that was
a big credit, you know, to their defense. You know, having
the reigning defensive player of the Year Lorenzo Malden. You know, he was
still doing his thing, and but at the end of the day, yeah,
their quarterback play kind of hurt them. And you know, on the
Montreal side, I was really impressed with Austin Mack, the receiver. I
know, obviously Montreal's down a couple receivers right now, and he was someone
that was kind of, you know, asked to step into a larger role,
especially with this being his first year in the CFL. But he was
fantastic. Kay on Julian Grant as someone I'm really hoping we'll have a breakout
season this year. You know, I've had my eyes on him throughout the
entire offseason. And then yeah, you want to talk about Cody Fajardo here
again, I thought he was all right, you know, a bit above
average. It wasn't anything, you know, to blow your socks off.
I mean he had the again big throw to Austin Mack to start the game,
and that kind of put Montreal in a pretty pausitive position really for you
know the rest of the game. But yeah, I mean there's still a
couple of things, you know that he could have done a bit better.
You know, didn't have a passing touchdown in that game. Was kind of
more of a manager than everything. You know, stand back, you know,
being back in there, I think helped a bit. And again you
know, sort of the receiver stepping up um and then on the defensive side,
I know we haven't talked too much defense on the show, but you
know, Montreal having Siante Evans back really proved to be um key in that
game. Him coming over from Hamilton. I mean, he was in Montreal
before in twenty nineteen, I believe, but it was nice to have him
back, and he definitely you know, made it known that he wanted to
be back and that that was a good spot for him. He was very
successful from what I remember with Montreal the last time around. Yeah, here
and I had here there are our owner, Pierre. They're saying when Codie
got sacked from a fel ib eighty seventh time, they're saying, oh,
Pierre really is enjoying what he's watching right now, like he does not look
like he's enjoyed what he's watching it all. He looks like he's watching the
start quarterback. I didn't get the thing with Cody because like Cody came out
hot and like he seems like you always get that, especially in the CFL.
You know, you that hot first drive, we're going. He had
the huge bomb to Austin mac Okay, here we go, We're going.
And then it felt like the rest of the game, they go, we
we got to get the run game going. We gotta get stand back going,
we gotta get stand back going. I didn't get that, Jason,
Why didn't they give Cody? Was it he didn't have enough time to throw
the ball, Like, why didn't we go back to trying to get Cody
to pass where I think he was fourteen of fourteen of twenty one. I
think it comes down to all of their injuries that they have at receiver and
obviously the loss of Eugene Lewis this offseason. Jake Winnicky also left out the
door, but a guy named Reggie White was their second leading receiver last year.
He's on the sixth game injured list to begin this season, so it
was really important for guys like Austin Mac like Evans said, to step up.
So I think that's a good sign for them going forward. But I
think as for why they didn't lean on the passing game more, I think
that, you know, I think they saw that their offensive line was struggling
as well, but also the lack of receivers I think is the biggest thing
for Montreal and why they didn't intempt to throw the ball more in week one.
Yeah, Evan, it felt like, you know, I was trying
to figure out the right meme for this. Like Cody, he had no
protection in that the Saskatchewan. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna go
here that I'm gonna go here the Montreal and kind of have the exact same
issue. It just absolutely get my ass beat, Like Evan, what did
you make just of Cody? It just felt like he didn't have any time.
I mean time and again, the weapons for me are the big thing,
right, I mean Montreal, you know, took a huge hit in
the offseason losing Gino Lewis, who I personally think is the best receiver in
the CFL. And we'll get to more of his performance with Edmonton last night
in a minute. But then Jake Winnicky too, you know who's now in
Saskatchewan. I mean it was a really rough loss having those two guys.
I mean, the one guy I'm really interested to see when he comes back,
it's not Reggie White, but it's Greg Ellingson, you know, because
I think Montreal would definitely benefit from having that veteran presence. And I feel
like even though Ellingson is older, now, you know, he might not
be exactly playing at an all star level. Um, you know, having
a guy like that where Fajardo can just kind of, I think, lean
on him because right now, you know, it's like Austin Matka and Julian
Grant saw these you know, sort of unproven younger guys. You're not sure
what they're gonna do with the ball, you know, so so I think
that definitely a role as to why, you know, Cody maybe didn't have
the best night that he could have. Yeah if Yeah, Julian Grant looked
good, Austin mac had a couple of really good grabs, Like I don't
know if Okay, now maybe we have more trust in this receiving core,
like we didn't really know and it was a lot of unknownced but it felt
like when they went to it and like Austin came up clutch either when he
needed to a couple different times. I don't know. Do you see them
adjusting that philosophy going forward, Jason, in terms of throwing the ball more,
Yeah, yeah, just in terms like okay, now, maybe we
kind of have a little bit of an idea of what we can do.
Yeah. Absolutely, And I think a lot of it will probably be matchup
based. I think Ottawa going against the reigning most out saying defensive player,
Lorenzo malden So I think they got a lot of pressure on Montreal that maybe
other teams won't. So I think that's a factor. And I think if
they if they get healthier in the receiving core, I think that will be
an influence on whether or not they passed the ball more. Going forward.
We have here insights at Tim Kapper. Go back and watch the sack.
Stand back missing the blocks with the cause of many of them. He admitted
as much to me post game. But I appreciate bad appreciate bad Evan any
comments on Tama's comments here. I mean, yeah, stand back, you
know I said earlier. I mean, he definitely helped but it was it
was also a bit forced and you know, he did not have his best
game, especially by William Standback standards, because people forget, I believe he
was hurt last year, but you know, prior to that, I mean,
he was one of the top running backs in the CFL. You know,
no one was stopping that guy, you know, hundred yards every game.
I mean, he kind of I think last year you could probably argue
that James Butler is maybe the top back who's you know now in Hamilton and
helping out their run game. But I've always been a big will Standback fan,
and I hope that, you know, he can sort of take some
of that pressure off for Jorda as the season goes on. You know,
I hope that they can kind of get him back in the groove after not
having him there for as long and to just you know again, because you
know, some of these guys like that are on the sixth game injured list,
you know they're not going to be coming back right around the corner.
You know, that's the decent chunk of the season that they could be missing.
So you know, I hope again Standback can get back in there.
And you know, I think again, Montreal's offense wasn't suppointing by any means.
They did a lot with you know, sort of the situation that they
were presented with. Again, Austin mac blew me away. That was phenomenal.
I think, you know, I was talking to Emory Hunt and he
was saying, yeah, this guy, you know, should still be in
the of the NFL. Excuse me, it's a shame that he isn't because
he was kind of stuck on a couple of practice squads between I think it
was you know, Giants, forty nine ers and Titans something like that.
But yeah, I mean, bottom line again, gets Standback more involved,
you know, maybe that boosts things. I did feel like Emory watches every
single game of football that's ever played. I love Emory, friend of the
show every and he works for CBS Sports Network, but like, you know,
he's watching the LF, he's watching the USL, he's watching all this
stuff. The thing was stand Back. Yeah, it did feel like he
finally got like one big run at the m Yeah we're sixteen, We're sixteen
of forty two here, you know, with two point six average. Like
it felt like, okay, we're finally we're going, we're going, We're
going to the detriment, and then they finally got a little bit at the
end. But I don't know if it was worth sacrificing that much of the
game philosophy. Jason, any other thoughts on that, and we'll get to
Ottawa. Well, I think it's interesting because stand back finished the season when
he came back from the injury last year. It was kind of unexpected,
but he ended up coming back and playing about the last month of the season
and he didn't look too good and that carried over to this one. So
hopefully he can take it up, pick it up going forward, get back
to that guy that was averaging five six yards per carry in twenty twenty two
story twenty twenty one, that is, and I think that he can get
back to that level. But they also have other running backs they can use.
Jess when Antwe had a really good season for them last year. Walter
Fletcher is a guy I really liked, so they have options in that backfield.
Maybe they should get these guys more involved in the passing game with all
those wide receiver injuries that they've had, So I mean, I think that's
a consideration for them going forward. But I'm kind of concerned about stand back
poor performance carrying over to this season. I agree here speaking of poorer performances
Ottawa, Nick Carbuckle, I don't believe, is it. I don't think
he is the answer to any question ever here maybe except who I don't want
as my quarterback. Evan, what did you make of Nick Arbuckle's performance here
for the Red Blacks. Yeah, well, you know I was saying it
earlier. Fortunately for Ottawa fans, this isn't the long term thing, right,
You're hoping Missoli comes back. And again, I know Missoli's aging,
I know he's more injury prone, and he's coming off a pretty big one.
Right. The fact that you know this injury of his is lingering into
the following season, this is a bit concerning, but it is expected at
his age, you know, with Nick Arbuckle, Yeah, I mean at
this point, he's kind of a journeyman backup, you know, sort of
like the Ryan Fitzpatrick that you have in the NFL. Been with a lot
of CFL teams, you know, it hasn't necessarily been a full time starter
in a while for my understanding, but yeah, you know this was to
me. I mean I don't know, I would have hoped for a bit
more out of him, especially because this game for Ottawa did still feel like
winnable. Like again, it was a really weird kind of matchup, Like
the fact Ottawa was really in it at all was a bit interesting, considering
Arbuckle through three interceptions. But yeah, you know, Ottawa, I mean,
I really hope, and you know, we'll get to it with Edmonton
too, but I really hope this is the year Ottawa turns things around,
because it just feels like for the longest time, you know, last year
they were building, you know, building a lot of hype around, getting
guys like Jeremiah Massoli and Jayalen Acklin, you know, and trying to build
the culture there. But so far it just hasn't really worked out. You
know, last year Massoli got hurt and then from there things just kind of
fell apart. Unfortunately, you know, they still have a pretty good defense
again headline by Lorenzo Malden, who we've already talked about. But yeah,
I mean the bottom line is, you know, right now, Ottawa is
still in a hole and they still need to pull themselves out of that hole.
Sorry, I'm just laughing here Chris says, stand back. Maybe it
should maybe stand back and block his ass. We're talking about them assignments for
the blogging Jason, when did you make up the garbuckling. Then we'll get
into the rest of kind of Ottawa. But just this is this is this
gould be his last stop here as the starter, as a guy that's been
given a chance to start, and I definitely think it's the last chance because
he's been in what three or four spots now backup to bow leave by Mitchell
in Calgary twenty twenty one with Toronto than Edmonton to begin last year. So
yeah, this is like his fourth opportunity to have a good amount of games
to start here, and honestly, he just hasn't made the most of it.
I think that the turnovers really piled up for him in this one.
You saw that last year with him where he had just like a brutal I
think it was like two to eleven touchdown interception ratio last year. You can't
have that, And I think that when you look at this game the box
score, that's what really stands out. Cody Fajardo no turnovers in this game,
Nick Arbuckle with three, So I mean, I think that's a really
crucial thing in this game. He forced it into double coverage a couple of
times, which was pretty disappointing. And I just don't think he has it
from a physical standpoint. From a mental standpoint, I think he can be
a backup in this league still, but I don't think anybody should view him
as a starter or even a stop gap option at this point. Well,
and Jason, they weren't even good interceptions, Like you said, it's like
we're throwing in it's double car It wasn't even it wasn't even close. I
mean sometimes you get these flukey whatever, okay, bounce off whatever, the
guy scoops them like. It wasn't even close. It really felt like it
was poor decision making at that point. Yeah, absolutely they were clean and
it wasn't am I. So it was just such a weird game because it
didn't The Red Blacks like missed a couple of field goals too. It was
a horrible day for special teams and friend of the sort Richie Leone had you
know, had the miss and like the fumbled he's trying to put and then
he had the bad kickoff and all that. But was it was so close.
It felt like Ottawa really could have won this. Am I am I
misremembering that that Ottaway had a couple of missfield goals. I don't think Ottawa
missed any field goals. I don't, Okay, Okay, I'm not too
sure. I know Calgary Renee Paradise miss missed a couple of field goals.
It's an opening game, okay, but no, the difference is I think
Ottawa just didn't score any touchdowns and that's really the end of the day,
a problem for them that's been dating back a couple of years now with this
offense. Evan thoughts on the rest of ottawas hands Nick Carbuckle, I mean,
yeah, Ottawa, you know, on the special teams front, I
think the one thing that really did them in was they had a there was
like a couple of plays that they had to redo because of flags that would
have been good for Montreal, and then the one that actually counted for what
I remember, it was like a fumbled snap on third down and it pretty
much set up Montreal with an automatic first and goal. And it's just you
know, those little things like that again, I mean, you know,
special teams, it's something that's overlooked in all aspects of football. Doesn't really
matter which league you could even go down like the arena level. You know.
It's one of these things where it's like to me, like that is
sort of the difference in the game. I think the major thing here is
yet Fajardo didn't turn the ball over once and Arbuckle was throwing interceptions left and
right. I think that's what it ultimately came down to there. But yeah,
special teams definitely, I think hurt Ottawa more than it helped them in
this one, even if they didn't necessarily miss out on direct points. I
do like that was it when really Richie kind of felt with the ball.
Okay, we sat hackled him. It was like the five yard line or
something. Then we come back from break and Montreal was penalized back, Like
was that the whole thing last year? Like, Okay, we got to
get rid of Cahary, like, but on Montrial, like there's no discipline.
And remember at the end of the year and they had the field goal
and all that, it was all down like they had to redo. They
can't get like we still have Montreal. I like that ongoing storyline. The
Montreal still does not disciplined. They can't figure that out, Jason any of
their thoughts on this one. Well, it's funny you say that because Harry
Jones is now the offensive coordinator in Ottawa as well, So I mean he's
involved with this on all angles. So yeah, not much more from me.
Well, I guess before we get off this, so how do we
if we're fans of these teams, like Evan, how do you leave?
As a Montreal fan? How do you leave? Are we feeling good bad?
How do you feel about this? I feel confident in the fact that
the offense was still able to produce even if it wasn't perfect, knowing that
you're down, you know, a couple of your top options. And then
I also leave knowing that, like your defense also stepped up, which again
should give you again more confidence. From the Autowa perspective, I don't know
if you're an Outawa fan, I think you're just waiting for Massoli. I
don't think anything really counts up until he comes back and the offense actually has
a decent option. Again, their defense, in my opinion, is still
one of the top in the league. But you know that's not gonna matter
if you still have a zero, you know in the lost in the win
column, you know, for the next couple of weeks. So again that
that's where I stand on that same question for you, Hassavier, you know
bother these teams kind of your thoughts, how do we leave a week one?
Well, the good news is it's a long season, so they have
lots of time to work out the kinks. Um. You don't necessarily have
to have this juggernaut record to make the playoffs, especially in the East Division.
So I mean, that's a good thing for these teams, but I
think, you know, it's a huge win for Montreal, like because you
know, this could ultimately go down to a tiebreaker at the end of the
season between these two teams to get into the playoffs and getting that early East
win. That's another thing about the CFL that I don't think I brushed on
on the live pregame show was that the CFLs put a lot more of these
in conference games like early on in the season. Like last year, we
didn't see that too much. We usually see East versus West games all the
way up until the first five six weeks of the season. So the fact
that we're getting a lot of these rivalry games early in the season means that
we're getting more consequential games for the standings early in the year, so we're
learning more about these teams each week. It was at a conscious choice.
I mean, why did they decide to go that route. I'm honestly not
completely sure why they decided to do that. Maybe it was that fans were
complaining that certain teams were playing each other too many times back to back in
the middle of the season or towards the end of the season. We saw
Toronto and Hamilton play four times in six weeks last year, which was kind
of ridiculous. So I'm glad they're kind of spreading it out more and I
kind of like it better this way. Yeah, I didn't do I think
we did like a deep dive analysis at the schedule when it came out.
There's certainly been long enough, but yeah, I mean even next week Edmonton
at BC, Winnipeg at Saskatchewan, Hamilton Toronto. Yeah, I mean,
it definitely seems like we're trying to kind of line up some of these consequential
you know, we have one so then we get into these fun like three
game weeks and all of that stuff. In here. I love the CFL
schedule and that in terms of last game going on here, this was we
had the big thirty two thousand, We're getting Victor Queen kind of packing the
back in the Commonwealth there, Evan, what did you make of this?
Edmonton still cannot win at home? Here are going down seventeen thirteen against Saskatchewan.
Yeah, you know, I really thought Edmonton was going to pull through
on this one. It looked like, you know, for most of that
game that they had a fighting chance, and I was I'm still waiting for
the day where Edmonton can win at home because, like I don't know,
the lot I think the last time Edmonton won at home, Michael Riley was
starting for the BC Lions, so it's it's been a long time, which
is, you know, I feel I feel really bad for their fans,
especially because they had such a huge crowd at that game, and it really
did kind of come right down to the wire there at the end of the
fourth quarter. But ultimately, yeah, I thought this was a pretty entertaining
game, you know, from early on, you know, Saskatchewan from what
I remember, came out pretty hot and then Gino Lewis had a you know,
one hundred and two yard touchdown that really you know, got Edmonton kind
of back in the fold, and then from there they kind of slowed down
until the end. You know, you kind of had a slow second and
third quarter from when I remember a couple of field goals. But yeah,
ultimately, you know, I think for both of these teams, you know,
it's for Edmonton, I'm not sure if it's a step in the right
direction because you didn't get your you know, home win that you've been looking
for for almost four years now, I guess three and a half years.
But for Saskatchewan, you know, it's you're one to oh and considering you
only had six wins last year, you know, even if it wasn't pretty
and you're beating a team by four points that hasn't been that great in recent
seasons, it's a step in right direction again, especially with the new quarterback
and you've got a lot of there was a lot of new people on that
side of the Saskatchewan ball. The team almost didn't look recognizable to me.
You know, I was looking, I'm like, who are all these guys?
You know, outside of maybe Jamal Morrow, you know, there wasn't
there wasn't very many there that I could really you know, put my finger
on. I guess you would say, JESSU, what did you make of
it? Jess I still can't believe coming out and I wanted to get into
the goal line stand. That's kind of its own thing here at the end.
But just overall, Elk's still not yeah coming through. Yeah. I
was heartbroken for them. I was cheering for them hard in this game,
but ultimately I thought it was a pretty sloppy game. But I was more
entertained by this game than I was the Ottawa Montreal game on Saturday night.
I think there was more big plays in this one. I mean, you
know, I think that with these new look offenses, it's pretty interesting to
see how they work out. I think Trevor Harris threw a really, really
poor interception that led to that goal line stand, that goal line opportunity for
Edmonton that we'll talk about in a few minutes. But I mean, at
the end of the day, I think, you know, just really for
the Edmonton fans and how they didn't get a win here, and I mean
I'll be cheering for them going forward, but it really feels like what a
missed opportunity. For this team, especially with the big crowd they had there.
Yeah. Do you think they'll be able to replicate that again, Jason,
because it's like, you know, the same and I know like BC
does the big concerts and all that stuff, but like to be able to
get so many fans in there, haven to be so close heartbroken. Do
you think they get them back next time, because I think it's like week
after next, right, Yeah. I think having the guaranteed win tickets helps
definitely having free tickets to some of these fans that I don't believe it was
all the tickets, but I think a certain percentage of them or guaranteed win
tickets, so that will certainly help encourage some of the fans to come back.
But at the end of the day, if this losing just keeps persisting
the struggles of the team, I mean, I think that they'll probably have
something in the twenty thousands for next game, better than what they were having
last year. But I think at the end of the day, they're probably
not going to see that same thirty two thousand. I think it was for
this home opener, given what we saw in Week one. Yeah, I
think it was like a select number Kate was saying on the thing like,
oh, there's still like nine of these special tickets left. I'm like they
have been pushing this for months, like how are there's still nine? How
do you have thirty two thousand people? And because not criticizing the crowd,
there was a great crowd, like how do you have thirty two thousand people
there? We still have nine of these special Evan, what do you like
the golden ticket thing? Or we a fan of that? You know,
I actually haven't heard much about that, so I'm kind of interested to dive
deeper into that. I wasn't really familiar with it. Yeah, you get
like you there's a certain section that if you buy a ticket there, you
buy a week one and then you are able to sit in that seat every
week for free until they win again. Oh that's yeah, that's an interesting
one. I you know, maybe well for those fans, maybe it's a
good thing that Elkston win yesterday. But from the you know, just general
football perspective outside of golden tickets, I mean, you know, we talk
about uh, you know, week one game sort of you know, being
sort of like, you know, they're kind of you got a knee jerk
reaction like you're you know, still a bit rusty. But for Edmonton,
it's like you kind of have to start shaking off the rust a bit quicker
than the rest of the teams because at this point, and I think even
you know, Chris Jones and the rest of Edmonton staff, no, like
the excuses have kind of run out. You know, you had your chances
to develop players and you know, bringing guys and whatever, and they're doing
that, you know, I like, you know what Giroy Simon and all
them are doing, you know, building the team. I think they definitely
have some interesting players, but you know, to it gets to a point
where it's like, but you have to win games, right, That's what
football is. It's a winning business. You need to win in order to
keep your job and to be successful and to compete for great cups. And
Edmonton hasn't been doing a lot of that, you know, in a long
time. So, um, I hope, you know, I wish the
best for them. I'm really hoping. I I'm kind of itching to watch
every Edmonton home game in full this season until they win that home game.
I really want to see that happen. That's like kind of it's top of
my list from like the analysts slash fan perspective. But we'll see what happens.
You know, I genuinely thought it was going to happen yesterday, and
unfortunately I was wrong. So we'll have to wait another I don't know when
their next home game is, but I'm sure you can probably check that it
is it the it's Toronto, right, I was looking on here at Toronto's
coming in whatever week after the next. I think it was funny. I
thought a friend of the show, John Hodge, tweet like Edmonton. I
think it was him that said Edmonton, they wanted to raise up kind of
a mediocre quarterback, right, we're gonna surround him by an elite receiver.
Sin it's kind of the other way around, right where he's almost ragging them
down. Like that was the same thing last year when they paid up for
Kenny Lawler. I like, we're gonna make him be the highest paid receiver.
I'm like, who the hell like for Nick, it's like buying the
Ferrari for your brother, Like, who are you? Like? What are
we doing with this Jason? In terms of this goal line s down,
I think it was Milt Stiegel kind of was talking at the end of the
game, I was watching like kind of to me, exemplified everything about this
right here, you have three opportunities to go in get the score. What
did you make up? Kind of distance Saskatchewan holding them up incredibly disappointing.
I think that you really couldn't ask for a better opportunity to take the lead
in that situation, first and goal from the one yard line, and I
think your offensive line just has to win in those situations. There's really no
excuse, there's no h you know, there's a there's a one yard neutral
zone in the CFL. You should be able to win those situations at least
if you have three cracks in it. So that's very disappointing. I think
that I have questions about Kayle Locksley being the short yardage quarterback for Edmonton because
usually you want a bigger guy running that just to have a little bit more
power, to get a bit bit more of a push forward. I don't
think he gives you that. It's pretty much a pretty small guy. So
very very disappointing. And I think, to go back to Cornelius, I
think that you know, in general, if you take away that one hundred
and two yard play. He played pretty awful in this game overall, and
I think, you know, going forward, we need to see that consistency,
get that completion percentage that you know, efficiency of this offense up.
I think that's the problem. They're just not gaining first downs consistently enough,
and that's a problem that's been persisting for a few years in Edmonton. Do
we see tray Forward here, like, what is the deal with that?
Do we see him come in Jason and then we'll go to Evan? Well,
that's what I'm wondering. I think, how long until they make that
decision to either go to tray Forward or go to Kai Locksley potentially who's been
around for a couple of years now with the team. So I mean I
think that you know, obviously, I think they give it a couple of
more weeks, but I think if that doesn't happen, I think that that's
when you start to consider going to another option, because Chris Jones has to
win some games. Like you guys were saying, yeah, Evan thoughts on
Cornelius. I know we're fans of him and attract him, but kind of
anything else at Edmonton here, Well, this whole quarterback room I really want
to talk about for a minute because I'm a big Kai Locks fan. But
as Jason said, you know, he said it perfectly. I don't know
if he's exactly a short yardage quarterback as you typically see in the CFL.
I would like to see him on certain package plays where maybe you know,
they run. I don't know, it doesn't necessarily have to be a run,
but you know, i'd like to see him throw the ball a bit
more. And I know he can play a bit of receiver too, so
maybe something you know, in that realm. It would be really interesting for
them to kind of shake it up, like nothing really hurts at this point
given the position there. And uh yeah, Trey Forward for me is the
one that you know, I would really love to see him, you know,
get a couple starts in this season, especially given that he's a homegrown
Canadian talent. You know, a lot of the talk last night was you
know, surrounding Taylor Cornelius and you know, Chris Jones talking about, oh,
you're gonna see it this year. You know, it's year three.
We've been working on this for a while. But if you don't win games
like you know, Jason said, outside of that one hundred and two yard
play to Gino Lewis, I mean, Taylor Cornelius essentially did nothing, you
know, and that's I mean. I liked Cornelius. I thought he had
a high ceiling when he was in the XFL and twenty twenty with Tampa.
I was really excited to see where his career would go. And eventually he
landed in Canada and he's been there, you know, since twenty twenty one
now. But at this point, you know, I'm really pulling for Trey
Fod to just come in at some point. Again, I'm not saying Cornelius
should lose his job, because again it's only week one, right, You're
gonna give it a couple of weeks. You're gonna see how it is.
But if I'm you know, coaching in Edmonton, or you know, I'm
doing personnel stuff or whatever, you know, I think that leash is pretty
short because even last year, I mean, Cornelius is all time you know,
win lost record. It's like four and sixteen or something. You know,
it's atrocious, and I don't know what his touchdown to turnover ratio is,
but I can't imagine that it's much better because last last night, outside
of that, again the big play to Gino Lewis, you know, he
had two turnovers, probably like one hundred passing yards. You know, that's
just not acceptable for a team that's trying to you know, win, And
I feel like it would be such a great story. And again this is
very hypothetical, but imagine if you had, you know, Canadian quarterback Trey
Ford start a home game for the Elks and that happens to be there or
you know, first home win and again three and a half, four years
whatever. I think that would really help sort of build the culture there in
Edmonton and kind of get fans back in the stands and then maybe you maintain
that number within the twenty thousands. Jason, any other thoughts on that or
I do want to touch down on just to Scatchewan kind of as a whole
before we get out of here at the hour. Anything else you want to
head on. Well, I think with you know, with this whole quarterback
situation, I think that Taylor Cornelius, I think one of the strengths of
his game right now is like running and scrambling around, and I think that's
what tray Board would give you. So I think that, you know,
when you look at it like that, I think that maybe tray board would
be the better option to go to if these struggles continue. To see another
couple of games like this from Cornelius Jason. Any thoughts here on Trevor Harris,
how the ore boy look here coming in? You know the new look
at Montreal outlets a little bit. Well, I'm not the biggest fan of
this move just to Scatchewan as people that have watched my channel. No I'm
I've called Trevor Harris an East Division quarterback. But at the end of the
day, I think that there were some good things from Harris in this game,
some good timing routes. You know, he's gonna do his thing.
He does what he does well, but you all obviously know his limitations and
he can make some real stupid throw sometime. That second interception was inexcusable for
a bettering quarterback of over ten years, and the CFL could have gave Edmonton
to win there if Edmonton could just Couldburt one play at the one yard line.
So I think Trevor played okay at times, but overall, I think
that they're looking for more from him. Any other thoughts for me before we
get out of here. Yeah, I mean to just touch on Trevor Harris
for a minute. I mean I thought he did okay again, you know,
he might be entering this sort of phase of his career. I kind
of view him and believe I'm Mitchell in a similar circle. It's like,
all right, like, are we gonna you know, bounce back with a
new team. Not necessarily saying that, you know, Trevor Harris was bad
in Montreal, but it's like, are you going to have another career year
or you're just gonna kind of keep, you know, going on to decline
by the way, I know I was talking about it. Do you read?
But I cannot believe Trevor Harris is thirty seven years old. That like
blew my mind. I because I think believe I was like thirty four.
I thought him and you know, Trevor Harris were the same age. And
when they were saying that he was, you know, thirty seven, I
was like, that can't be right, Like that seems really like, you
know, I know he's been around for a long time, like Jason said,
You've been the CFL now for like a decade. But it just never
really crossed my mind that, like, you know, he was that old,
like that was, you know, shockingly old for me. Yeah,
yeah, he's older than I am. Yeah. And now Jerremen Mizzolway's like
thirty six. Yeah, like yeah, some of these guys are older than
we think. And I think believe I mentioned I know if McCloud Adam Thompson
returned to Toronto, bolie By Mitchell actually would have been the youngest quarterback in
the East Divisions this year, believe it or not. Well, this has
been fun. I appreciate it. Jason and I will be here on Monday's
doing this. Evans, welcome back as always, I kind of said in
our group stream, like anyone's welcome. I just like to spread the bird.
Now we've had Andy doing the XFL, pat do and the USFL Like
I just never wanted to be an obligation here, but welcome anyone. Anything
else from Jason or Evan before we get out, because I know Jason's got
to go get some stuff done. Not much for me, I think,
you know, good overall Week one. Excited for Week two. Evan?
Anything else for me? What are you going to be looking forward to here?
This week. Yep, I would say the same thing. You know,
I hope that you know, as the weeks go on, you know,
some of these teams where there's a lot of questions, we're able to
figure things out. And you know, you say that every season, right,
And I hope that you know, the teams that are doing well continue
to do well. You look at Winnipeg and BC teams like that again,
hoping for continued success and hoping that the teams below that can rise up well
perfect that hopefully we can bring some fans, like I said, like and
subscribe, Pat and I will be back here tomorrow. And then we're still
trying to figure out I got an email at Jeffrey over at XFL figuring out
what is the rookie draft schedule for Friday, because I think we're going to
try to go live to talk about that. So lots of excitement here.
I appreciate you guys. Let me get this outro staff here and we'll see
you next time. Thanks. People in nine Night shift