Well, happy Monday morning here everyone. Welcome to the Mark Cast. Crazy
CFL weekend here. I have lots of thoughts on it. I have a
new feud with the at CFL account on Twitter. We can get into later
as well if you're interested in those shenanigans. But I think my timeline was
full of CFL people this weekend. I thought, my god, if you
were one of these like XFL or USFL homers that you know, support leagues,
would don't watch the CFL like you're probably you were probably missing out.
We'll get lots of thoughts here have Jason and Evan, guys, this this
had to have been the best weekend so far, right, without question.
Absolutely, this is uh the what people talk about when they talk about the
CFL being great, and we finally got to see that this week. Evan,
how are you doing this morning? Yeah, I'm doing great. You
know, it was. It was a great weekend of games. Like Jason
said, probably the best weekend of games I can remember in a long time,
at least I think since you know, the CFL came back after COVID
from that twenty one season, and probably even before that, you know,
I really started following the league and probably twenty nineteen. Started covering it in
twenty twenty one, but I really don't remember a slate of games that was
this good. I mean, that was really impressive. Well and it was
good to me at least like on paper, and not all of these a
look to that, you know, I don't think when they pick out Ottawa
had you know, Mark Hey matchup kind of on it and we can get
into that. And I was fine, you know, we left to go
in the Mariner game and I sit back, I go, what the hell
is going on here? But UH got people checking in Chanst Sam, we
learned the CFL is exciting. We have comments here, Shane coming in an
amazing weekend, Parson, Trevor Harrison, his family one hundred percent. I
think especially with Trevor just his life time in the CFL and all the different
teams are kind of everything else. I think that is a big you know,
felt kind of across the board. Any initial thoughts on that, Jason,
just about Trevor Harrison, aythink you want to stay off the top.
Yeah, obviously it's it's a devastating injury. They haven't quite rolled him out
for the season, which is I guess a good sign. But honestly,
I think that you know, it's sad because you know he is up there
in age. I think he's like thirty seven years old. So I mean,
at this point you got to start considering if this is maybe it for
him in the CFL. I don't think it is personally, but anytime you
suffer a major injury, just like we were talking about with Missoli last week,
it could be the end for him in the CFL. So sad to
see that, Yeah, thirty eight, Missoli's up there. I think with
Missoli's thirty five, I mean you get to the point. I don't.
It's only having the back to back injuries might be different in that regard.
Yeah, Evan, I mean, do we see Jevor Harris takes last nap
here on what was that Saturday tonight? Yeah, I don't know. You
definitely have to ask the question, and I mean the severity of this injury.
I think, really, you know, we'll determine that, like if
he does come back the season or if he doesn't, is he prepared to
play another year? I think the bigger question here is, you know,
and I had this written down, it kind of feels like the end of
an era, because in the event that, I mean, you could possibly
have you know, three guys who have been in the CFL for a long
time retire. You Trevor Harris, Jeremiah Massoli, Bolivi Mitchell. All those
guys came in the league like twenty eleven, twenty t twenty thirteen. I'm
pretty sure. So yeah, I mean, what, we'll see what happens.
Personally, I don't know. I couldn't see all three of those guys
going. I definitely think, you know, Bow maybe has the best chance
to stay. Trevor I still think, you know, has some in the
tank. I don't know about Missoli. We already talked about that, you
know so much last week. But yeah, it's just so heartbreak and really
to see all these you know, quarterback injuries, and not just to the
older guys, but I mean, you know, Matthew Schultz went down in
the in the Hamilton game, and you know, we're kind of entering this
state in the CFL where you're gonna have a lot of backups come in and
you know, we talked about last week about just how thin the quarterback depth
is some of these teams, and you know, the development of certain quarterbacks.
So it's gonna be really interesting to see, you know how teams kind
of you know, piece things together with all these injuries happening very good,
it's I mean different way. Yeah, just terrible. And like I said,
I mean you just saw it on all the faces there. I mean
I think that that speaks. And they had you know, shots in the
crowd and just you know here and he bringing Trevor and you kind of you
know, they're off to a decent start, right they were, went three
and one or whatever. I mean, the writer's looking good here. We'll
see any initial we'll get into the game. But any initial thoughts on Mason
Fine here? Jason, I mean, he had obviously that that Hail Mary
crazy, you know. I mean, he's gotten an arm and they at
least felt fine last season going with him with Cootie Vigardo kind of all of
that mess. Any initial thoughts on our man Mason. Yeah, My initial
thoughts from rewatching this game on Sunday because I didn't get to see it live,
was that Mason Fine has the athleticism to move around back there, So
I think that gives you a chance, especially with the state of a lot
of offensive lines in the CFL. It's pretty much a necessity unless you're a
guy that can read the defense super quickly get the ball in your hands quickly,
like a Trevor Harris. So I think fine, having that ability to
run around back there, we'll give him a little bit of a chance.
Yeah, James saying the sex with my bomber's ass and very had for the
Red Blacks and the Bombers will make people just checking in here Denzel talking about
Red Pricy. It doesn't seem like we're getting more voices here checking in at
least on my Twitter. People kind of invested in the CFL, which I
think is good as well. We can get into the first game. I
have notes we'll kind of go back, you know, we'll go and reverse
here. Lots of talk on the Edmonton game as well. I'm sure we'll
get to but this Calgary Saskatchewan, I kind of we were at the Mariner
game, so I knew the ending to this one before, you know,
and then watching it and replay, and it was funny because Jordan, they
came downstairs to see that the hail marriage. She's like, oh my god,
that's great. It's hit well you just got the way. I mean,
it's only there's only there's still you know, a minute laughter or whatever.
Evans should should Tevin there have have slid, shouldn't have gone down,
save some time and then get the the year. However that you have that
that final with Saskatchewan, that final interaction went down, Yeah, I mean,
you know he could have done that, but I I mean I appreciated
the way that the game ended. Um, you know, in my notes,
I just pretty much said, you know, redde Parentis is clutch,
and he's been in the CFL now for um over a decade. I mean
that game was interesting because you know, I kind of I stopped watching with
about two minutes left in the in the fourth quarter, and I went back
and you know, watched the end there a little bit that I missed because
I noticed the score you know, went into the thirties without being in overtime,
and I thought, oh, geez, you know, how did that
happen? So I ended up seeing you know, the Mason Fine kind of
the crazy touchdown to Tevan Jones where he kind of you know bobbled it and
with all the defenders, and I don't know that that was really interesting to
see. But yeah, I mean, you know, Calgary really needed this
when I talked about it last week when we were previewing, Um, this
week, just given the state of the West, I think this was a
must win game for Calgary and part of the reason if you want to talk
about Jake mayor here, Um, you know, he kind of returned to
his old form for really the first time this season. Um, finally looked
like again, you know, he was worthy of that starting job, you
know, worthy of being the franchise quarterback in Calgary. And I think it
finally made fans, you know, Stampeter's fans not have to worry about that
as much because for this first month of the season or whatever, it really
wasn't looking good. To be honest, there wasn't much to take away from,
you know, Jake Mayer's campaign, and you know, finally here he
is, you know, doing things. He's on the right track, right,
you know, UM finding multiple receivers even though his receiving corps you know,
might not be the strongest, and just really you know, all around,
I think he had a great game. Yeah, this lu fair hack
E. I can't even say this last name, ay one. I he
really busting onto the scene here, Jason, you have your Calgary shot on
how Darby? How did Arbay Mayor do today? Yeah? This weekend?
Yeah, I think I agree with Evan they he had his best game of
the season by far in this one. I think what was really encouraging for
me is that the rough Riders took away the Stampeter's run game, yet they
were still able to move the ball, and I think that was really encouraging
because I think they really relied on the run game to pick up first downs
in the first few games of the season. Here were really able to move
the ball with the passing game, which they were able to do in this
one, so I think that was very encouraging. I think the best team
won in this game. I think that's scatchwe having two punt return touchdowns.
They had didn't really do much on offense throughout the course of the game other
than that, you know, miracle play and a couple of other players throughout
the game. But I think, yeah, the better team won and Calgary
almost let it slip away at the end, but ultimately a huge win for
them, And we'll talk about it later. But I think with the injury
to Trevor Harris. I think it's pretty likely that Calgary will ultimately end up
hopping Saskatchewan of the standings as we go throughout the season. Yeah, it
was crazy because they hadn't until it was like that Hail Mary though Saskatchwan hadn't
had offensive touchdown there you had the two and Mario Alfred And it's crazy because
they always show, you know, for whatever that grocery giveaway is in the
CFL where they're like, oh, you know, Sally, you you know
if you get the punt return or whatever, like, oh, Sally,
you know, you in one hundred dollars And I thought it used to be
a million if there was two in the game or something like it was whatever
the giveaway and then today or whatever because he had it, I think it
was like fifty thousand and grocery points or whatever. Jason, are they rigging
this now or are you taking away of the million? Like, well,
I don't understand how this giveaway works. Yeah, well I'm not too invested
in it because Save on Foods is not even like a Canada wide company,
so it's not even They're not even available on Ontario where I live, so
I can't really get too invested on it. And I'm pretty sure that it's
based on kick return touchdowns, not punt return touchdowns, if I'm not mistaken,
which kick return touchdowns are pretty rare in the CFL. Yeah, no,
but he was good though, because yeah, you always see that.
I will say, No. I had a quick note here, the shape
hastererson of it all. Well, you live through him. He was the
first round pick for the usf L. Came in and you know he's like
their short yardage guy. But they're like, well, you know, they
want to give him some different looks, right, so the defense isn't always
expecting him whatever, And Shade took it was after I think, I don't
know if Trevor got dadamn. Shade took one snap and looked very frazzled through
the ball office. He was getting stacked in the backfield. That okay,
like Shay, I don't know if he still needs some season on that.
Evan, we lived through the Shan shape attager. They're you surprised here with
him in Saskatchewan. Um no, I mean he had short yardage experience in
the CFL, I think before he came to the USFLUM I'm perfectly happy with
Mason Fine having that job. You know, he's one of these guys we
always talk about year three in the CFL being the year for you know,
a jump and quarterbacks, and Mason Fine is in his third year and he's
spent all three years now with Saskatchewan, so he's had time to develop in
that system behind you know, Cody Fajardo and now Trevor Harris has gone down.
Um, I would like to see Shape Patterson maybe a bit. Um.
I think his time in the USFL, you know, really didn't go
as he expected or maybe as any of us expected. Um. I mean,
he got benched, you know, in favor of Paxton Lynch, who
at one point was also with Saskatchewan. I kind of find that funny.
But yeah, I mean, you know, I do think Shaye Patterson still
has potential as a passer. But you know, there's a reason, like
he was the short yardage quarterback now and he was a short yardage quarterback before,
because they have more trust and guys like Mason Fine, and personally,
I think that's the right decision. You know, I'm not saying Shaye Patterson
couldn't start a game here, but I just like Mason Fine, I think
a bit more. Again, would it hurt to have Shaye Patterson worked in
No, I would honestly like to see it at some point, just because
I feel like it would make things more diverse. But and you want to
talk to me, I think Mason Fine is the best option here. What
that's here, Jason? I mean Trevor was just getting beat up even before
the injury. I mean he had there was a couple of big sacks on
him and him him trying to scramble like it didn't feel like I don't knowing
that he got injured in the fourth I might seeing these hits arelier in the
game, right, and I'm paying attention to that any other thoughts and then
being able to keep him protected or not. Yeah, I think their offensive
line issues have started to resurface a little bit over the past couple of weeks.
I think chev has massed a lot of those issues by getting the ball
out quickly the first handful of weeks of the season, But I think ultimately
some of those problems are still there, and especially when they play against Calgary.
I think, you know, Mike Rose, their defensive tackle, who
I had rated as the eleventh best player on my top fifty players list going
into the season. He is a dominant defensive tackle, pass rusher, and
I think that, you know, he always plays his best against the scatch
one, and he did in this one. He had a sack right before
that Hail Mary played by Mason Fine that looked like it was going to end
the game. But I think that, Yeah, the issues versa scatch one
on the offensive line resurfaced the last couple of weeks, which is not a
great sign for Mason Fine going forward. We have this Timmy Lee Lewis as
well. Here I had the tweet saved him in on the neglist coming in
for Calgary. You know, we've talked about We've talked about Calgary, like,
you know, having all these injuries and lackably a weapons for mayor.
What did you make here of Tommy Lee Lewis here at Evan. I mean,
he had one catch and it was for a touchdown. Right, He's
gonna get worked into the offense more and more, I think, you know,
to be honest, him and Mark and Michelle on paper are probably the
two top options. Now. I was more focused on just how cool of
a story it was. I mean, we've talked, or you know,
Naylor has talked and other people have talked about, you know, their opinions
on the necklist and you know, is it really beneficial for the CFL.
But in this case, it was kind of cool. You know where Calgary,
you know, a team who would be looking at this guy for seven
years, you know, and like he was still doing find things in the
NFL seven years ago or even I don't even know when he when he was
like drafted or under. I don't know, I'd have to I'd have to
look back at that. I mean, I remember Tommy le Lewis when he
was with the Saints and everything. But I think it was just cool to
see, you know, they waited seven years to get him and he actually
came after all that time, you know, once his NFL career had kind
of faded out, and then in his first game, you know, he
has a touchdown first catch even in the CFL. So that was pretty fun.
I would hope to see him again get worked more into that offense as
time goes on him and Mark and Michelle. But yeah, I mean,
great, great story there. I thought that was fun. Anything else,
Jason Calgary is a scatchway, I think as you wanted to touch on.
Yeah, So Tommy Lee Lewis also had a punt return touchdown that was called
back. It was quite incredible as well. But uh yeah, so we
also did that in the game. I think that one thing with Calgary is,
yes, we talked about this receiver position for them and how it's been
an issue at the beginning of the season here. But I think that you're
starting to see the pieces if they can just play a little bit, you
know more with this same lineup, I think that they have enough pieces there
to potentially get back to those expectations we had before the season. I think
once Michelle gets more comfortable, once they get um, you know, um,
Tommy Lee Lewis more incorporated into the offense. Bagelton's having a great season.
It's great to see that from him after a down year from him.
So I think, you know, Kunabano is how you say that name.
He's played very well to start the season as well, had a big breakthrough
game in this one. So you're starting to see the pieces come to gather
a little bit for the Stampeders and it's good to see. Yeah, it
feels like they were trying to get Bagleton in Earlier in the season. I
think he had a couple of big drops if I remember I finally kind of
picking up there. Yeah, you talked about that the kick return. Yeah,
that was one of those like you get these and they showed and it
was like an illegal block or whatever. I mean, they go back and
show, but you know it's so excited and he's in the end zone and
then you're like, oh, yeah, eighty yards back here, you know,
whenever, kind of they gates the whole thing. And there was a
couple of plays this weekend like that. I know they had Glenn Sue.
There's always trying to point out like, well, no, like this is
You're not supposed to be that of sat like this is whatever. But Evan
any other thought said anything on this game? Yeah, I mean again,
yeah, Lutheranum, he was someone you know, I think I talked about
Treyodoms Dukes last week or the week before again, one of these guys to
kind of, you know, Calgary has is a good depth piece that you
know has an opportunity to step up. And you know Luther did that in
this game. I've been waiting for that from him for a long time,
I'm you know, and I would expect him to do similar things for the
rest of the season. I do believe he has a pretty high ceiling.
And yeah, I mean we kind of talk about Calgary's receiving corps, you
know, not necessarily lost, but just some maybe a room that could have
a bit more depth. But honestly, at this point, like it kind
of seems like every week they have a different leading receiver, so it seems
like a pretty diverse group there. And then yeah, I think Reggie Bagelton
is still kind of like the number one guy in that room, even though
he didn't have I mean, he had a pretty decent game this time around.
And then yeah, the other thing, James Vaughters, Julian Houser and
then Mike Rose, who Jason already talked about, all had two sacks each,
which I thought was pretty impressive and again, unfortunately, probably a reason
why, you know, Trevor Harris ended up going down because there was just
so much pressure up front. But yeah, I mean Calgary's defense, it's
not the first time, you know, they've done stuff like this. I
think they have a lot of good lineman. I'm up front, you know,
even outside of of Mike Rose. I'm just a really impressive unit all
around. And you know, again, it's such a shame to see Trevor
Harris go down. I think, you know, we sit here and talk
about this game and all the cool stuff that happened in the back and forth,
but that whole that injury really lingers, you know, just like last
week with the Jeremiah a Sole injury, which you could argue is worse because
that's officially season ending. It's his second major injury in two years. But
you get the point, right, It's it's just sad to see, you
know, things like that happened, and I'm glad that, you know,
we got around to talking about that. It looked really bad too, Like
I saw there because I had seen the replay on Twitter before I had watched
the game, and I'm like, oh my god, you know, it's
just one of those you can see. I just wanted to shout out.
So Dante Williams had that crazy pick where it was like it was a contested
ball and it bounced off with ever someone's helmet and he scooped to that for
Saskatchewan. Kind of a good defensive there. Anything else, Jason we can
get onto the next one. Just a brief note on Saskatchewan. I think
they really miss Roland Milligan in the second area. I think he's been a
really strong presence for them over the past couple of years. And I think
that Calgary was able to find a lot of open receivers in this one,
and I think, yeah, his presence was missed. All right, let's
go here over to this was this was the funny one. I'm sitting here,
I'm watching the game, Dorothy, we're working out, getting ready.
We're going to the Mariner game. And it was you know, eighteen three
and a half and I'm like, this is like I'm getting in the shower.
This is terrible. And then to see yeah, you know, I
guess Dustin Crum kind of willed this team back whatever to come, and you
know, the tie and the overtime and I'm sitting there at the bar watching
the overtime before we go to the game. Jason, how improbable was this
was? This comeback? Well? I was actually I went out to the
four JEFC game, which is the Hamilton's soccer team, so I actually missed
the last part of this game. So I left when it was I believe
it was twenty five to nine four the Blue Bombers with about seven minutes left
in the fourth quarter, and then I turn on my phone and it's like,
what the hell they won in overtime, and it's like very, very
improbable. I had to watch it the next day and fall and it was
just crazy improbable comeback, just like it was, just like I imagined it
would be when I saw that final score. I mean, you got to
give a lot of props to Dustin Crumb for sticking in there. He had
a rough first half, only twenty yards passing in the first half, but
he was able to restructure the game plan. The Red Blacks were able to
restructure the game plan and put him on the path to success, put him
on the path to success for the second half. And uh, honestly,
I think it was just super impressive and you know, really happy for Red
Blacks fans. They've suffered a lot over the past couple of years. Well,
I mean, yeah, there was a point in the first half where
it was twelve first downs to Winnipeg to zero for I mean they had they
had did not have a first down, and telling to think, about three
minutes left in the first half there, Evan, what did you make because
we were you know, I was in the chat. I'm like, Crumb
is crumbing, Like we're we're moving on, we're getting on the ship here
and then to come back, do you just him scrambling his tanasy? I
mean, what do you what? Do you kind of credit this victory too?
Yeah, definitely his ability to run the football. Um, I think
there was a lot to be you know, left desired sort of in the
passing department. And look, it's his first CFL start, So I'm not
going to rip on the guy. I mean, you know last week I
kind of said the same thing. I'm like, you know, his legs
are, you know, an extremely important asset, and this time it won
them the game. And I think it's really interesting, you know how we're
looking at this scenario where justin Crumb, you know, scores a late touchdown,
guess the two point conversion, wins in overtime, when he was so
close to doing all of that last week in Hamilton. You know, he
was like one yard short from the end zone and it could have happened then.
And I remember Jason saying, you know, he could have been like
the hero for Ottawa in that game, and look what happened this time around
him, and I think he was more than a hero. You know.
They were the commentators on TSN, or it might have been the panel,
you know, they were saying, like Ottawa, you know, has needed
a win like this. You know, they've waited so long, and again
they had a really long home losing streak for a while too, So it's
just great to see this happen. And I think, you know, just
the game as a whole, and we'll get more into the Winnipeg side in
a bit, but I think, you know, it was just so like
we talked about it last week, and this was the game where you're like,
okay, like you just kind of hope Ottawa hangs around. And for
the first like three and a half quarters of this game, it went just
as I imagined. You know. It was, you know, the more
experienced Winnipeg team, you know, pulling in front Ottawa just not really knowing
what to do. They were kind of lost. Yet they didn't even have
a first down until there was like three minutes left or something in the second
quarter, which is just unbelievable. But then suddenly, I mean there was
you know, it was twenty five to nine, and it was like,
okay, like you have to make something happen now. And I think the
moment that really, you know, changed the energy was the Brandon Dandridge pick
six offs at Claros. I think without that, you know, they would
not have done this at all. I mean, again, it's pretty impressive
that they did that, even with that late pick six. But I think
ultimately what really made, you know, or what caused Winnipeg to lose this
game rather than Ottawa winning, was their lack of a run game. I
think they were really you know, trying to well, they weren't forcing runs
because they threw a late pick six, but you know, their rushing attack
in this game was pretty much non existent Winnipeg's end. And I think when
you're trying to burn clock late and you don't have a run game, that's
usually a sign that you're going to give up some late points. And that's
exactly what happened. I mean, it was just so you know, one
of those games where you're sitting there and you're just constantly kind of pinching yourself
like this isn't happening. You know, this isn't happening. I love this
clip here. I loved this woman. Just so you know, I'm like,
you're beating ottawhile like it's over, James, I want to talk to
this final play and then again I want to get your thoughts on this overall.
But you know we had this tweet John Hodge here, right, you
know after all this, you know, how did hole on earth the Winnipeg's
defensive in the middle of the field open poor play, calling him poor tackling
and you know, lose checking in Winnipeg didn't know Crumb's tendencies, Like we
saw this exact same thing last week, Like, what do you mean we
didn't? We didn't. They didn't know his tendencies. Crumb had many,
many, many down the field runs. What did you make of just how
wide open he was on that final play? Well, I was watching Darren
Baumbing and the Bonfire Sports guys talk about this, and they were saying how
blitz heavy the Winnipeg defense was throughout this game. They just kept going blitz
after blitz after them, and eventually Dustin Crumb figured them out. And once
they once they figured out where they're blitzing from. Left a lot of vulnerable
areas, right, up the middle of that defense. It really confused me,
given how limited Attawa's passing game was, that Winnipeg didn't put a spy
in the middle of the defense use Big Hill as a spying linebacker there.
But I think instead they went blitz heavy and they kind of got burnt.
Wrote the end of this game was Darren I didn't watch? Was Darren justin
shambles? Actually? I think Zach was more beaten up about it. Actually,
I think it was like his birthday too, where it was. His
birthday was this week, and I think as well, I was probably a
devil. But you know, Darren's like, because he's a reporter, but
I mean Darren's like a little bit about you know, he go, that's
his famboy in there. A little bit I met he was in shambles.
Did you, Jason, do you look at this more as ye Winnipeg collapse
or autiwa winning the game? I think just because of the bizarre circumstances,
I think I take more from Winnipeg losing the game. I think that you
know, it's just a shark start. Contrast from how they were able to
close out that game last week against Calgary when they had that nice ten eleven
minute drive running the football. As Evan said, they could not get the
ground game going in this one, and I think that was just, you
know, a major factor why they couldn't close this one out. I think
on the second to last possession for Winnipeg, or the last one in regulation,
they actually got a first down that would have allowed them to kill a
lot more clock, but then it got called back due to a penalty,
and then they had to punt the ball away to Ottawa and that was that
was pretty much the rest is history. I had this shot here and we'll
talk more about this for the later but I said, do you believe in
miracles here at Red Blacks? Evan? What do you make here? We've
talked now Winnipeg having two bad losses, right, you know we had the
BC game and then this game, Evan, what do you make them within
the big Yeah? Well this, I mean this loss was just an embarrassment,
you know, for that team, given their experience, you know,
their depth, their reputation. I don't know how you lose a game like
that. And this is kind of, you know, proving a point that
I've been thinking get about now for a while and it's that maybe BC really
is pulling ahead in the West. Again. You can't speak too early,
but I mean, this is just an unacceptable loss. I mean, if
you are losing games like this, I mean, you can't even really be
talking about playoffs in Great Cup quite yet. Again, even though this team
has been in the past three Great Cups and one two of them, I
just think, you know, it was a complete meltdown and this is definitely
the low point in the Bomber season. I would imagine this is probably the
lowest it gets for them. I don't think they'll let this happen again.
But yeah, I mean, you know, like the win, you're snatching
defeat from the jaws of victory. I love to say that, and I'll
say the same thing for Edmonton a bit later, even though that was a
bit of a different circumstance. But yeah, I mean, you just you
can't let things like that happen. And it really makes me wonder, you
know, what's going to happen down the line, because this just doesn't seem
normal for this team, Like there's been so many years of just pure dominance,
and again, they still are one of the more experienced teams. I'm
not saying they're collapsing or whatever, but it's a bit different now. I
mean, this is, you know, not something that I think any of
us expected. And I agree with Jason, it's more of Winnipeg losing the
game than Ottawa winning the game. But I will say, you know,
again, if we want to go back to the Ottawa side here for a
minute, that stadium got really loud and it was almost like a college atmosphere
at the end where you had, you know, the players and coaches kind
of storming the field and rightfully so, I just can't tell you how much
the CFL has needed that. I think. I mean, just the whole
weekend of games was great obviously. I mean, you know, we haven't
even gotten to the Toronto Montreal game yet, which might have been my favorite.
But this was just so needed. I feel like, just you know,
comeback victories. You know a lot of back and forth shootouts, especially
Ottawa getting away. I said, you know, this win was for Jeremiah
A Soli just given everything that's happened, and it was just so much fun
that there's a lot of people that are missing out. I think I'll leave
it at that. Yeah, Jason, I mean it was very dead in
there for that first bit when it was it wasn't very terrible first half of
the way. What do you make of this in Winnipeg? I was looking
here, you know, they got Elex next week at home, so maybe
you know, you were presuming that's to bounce back for Winnipeg, But what
do you what do you make here? Because it was just a weird day
for them. I still think that they'll bounce back, But I think the
key thing here is they already take pick up their second loss of the season
already in week six. I mean, how long did it take them to
pick up their second loss last season. I think it was all the way
probably into like week thirteen or something like that. So that's kind of concerning
for the Blue Bombers given that they've already lost to BC. If BC wins
next week, regardless of what happens with Winnipeg, BC's effectively two games up
on the Bombers because they lead the season series there. So I think that's
a very important game in terms of the standings. But I think overall Winnipeg
probably is still one of the best teams in the league going forward. I
think that you know, the collapse notwithstanding, I think they'll be okay looking
here, you know, I mean we talk in Dustin Crumb in the big
game winn or whatever. I mean twenty six or forty two interception. I
mean he had a rough day, right, are we are? We?
Like? Are they Elex going to figure him out next week? Like this
elusive scrambling man or I mean what it? Because there's a lot more work
than he needs to be done here even though Ottawa won the game, right
Jason, Yeah, it'll be interesting because they're actually playing a Calgary next week,
So I think that will be an interesting matchup because both teams coming up
big, emotional, last minute victory. So I think it's gonna be interesting
to see what team comes out flat. We often see that in those situations.
So I think you'll be interested to see how Crumb moves the ball passing
wise, because I think at some point teams are gonna start to take away
his legs a little bit. I mean, he's such a dynamic runner.
You see him. He's basically what we want Cornelius to be in terms of
a runner, but he does it more effectively and knows exactly when to run.
So I think It's gonna be very interesting to see how he plays throughout
the weeks as teams get more film on him and interested to see how that
game goes next week against Calgary. It was an interesting note here and they
were talking about, you know, prew Cop with Winnipeg and like where he
got resigned from the USFL and maybe if he had waited and he could have
been the Red Blacks quarterback or you know, kind of because he signed so
early and now all that opened up. I mean evans like sliding doors here.
I mean, pru CoP's taking you know, he's taking short yardage for
Winnipeg. Is there a world where he's a better option for Ottaware? Do
you think they're they're gonna be good with Dustin here? Yeah? I think
Dustin Crumb was the right choice, you know. I mean, look,
pru CoP's familiar with Winnipeg and he's like a short yardage guy there. You
know, Dustin Crumb signed with Ottawa again like late last season. You know,
he's been with their program for a bit now, and I think after
you know, this win and the way he kind of put the team on
his back, I mean, how do you not root for that guy?
You know, how do you not say he's the best option. I mean,
that was just about the best thing you could have, and it finally
gives Ottawa fans, you know, that level of confidence. So yeah,
pru Cop I mean, I don't know, even in the USFL, he
wasn't an extremely impressive passer, not that he really had a big role,
but I think, you know, Winnipeg made the most sense for him,
just giving the familiarity, and you know, I think Ottawa already had their
eyes on again a couple of guys like they just brought in, you know,
Tyrrelle, Pigrome, Jake Dunaway, so you know, guys that they
were kind of familiar with. I mean, well, Pigrome was the guy
in Winnipeg who you know Prucock replaced, which is I guess kind of ironic
considering we're talking about this whole thing. But no, ultimately, I think
I think Dustin Crumb is the guy Alama was still had some really bad penalty
is they had that misconduct penalty that gave Winnipeg that touchdown early on, I
had there with like a bench penalty as well that Paul callback when they returns,
I don't know they still need to kind of clean that up. But
what do you make here now, Jason going in here with Bob Dace,
everything else and any other thoughts you wanted on this game. Yeah, it
certainly wasn't a perfect performance. There was also each team. I also had
a drop deep ball in this one. Ottawa had one just before the half
with a chance to make it a one score a game. I believe it
was savon scarboard that dropped the ball. It was a beautiful pass from Crumb
that really could have gotten going in the first half of that game. So
I mean it wasn't a perfect game by any stretch. Again, like you
said, the penalties that extended drives for Winnipeg, I think there was one
near the goal line that led directly to the touchdown the next play. So
I mean some things that need to be cleaned up, Broadwalk. But in
terms of where they were at before this game, they were looking at one
and four right in the face, and you know they were able to get
the win here, so that's it's a good thing. Yeah, I hadn't
know. Yeah, I had a couple of new ads. I had a
CFL like a new hat ad. I don't know if you've seen Have you
seen this commercial with all the people standing in the stairwell and they had like
all the different hats and there we had a couple of different ads. No,
we had that, and then there was like a flyover. I don't
know if we're trying to do some new some new marketing on there. I
did have a joke, you know, we talked about the CFL demos and
like the music and the country of music. The CFL Plus there in the
commercial breaks has like trap wrap instrumental music playing. So I don't know if
who's ever programming the CFO plus at least knows about their demographic sign here.
Pat's checking in prokop was a nice pickup. Wouldn't say great even any other
thoughts on this one. We'll move on to the shootout game. Not really,
I mean I just think Prue Cotmos's role at this point, like he's
not I mean, would you start him if Colaros went down? Sure?
Again, familiar with the system whatever, But yeah, I agree with Pat.
Nice pickup, not anything that you know, blows your socks off or
whatever. All right, let's get out of here. So Jason, we
had this, this was the big you know, was it Toronto at Montreal?
Coming down? What did you make of this one? Because this was
like the game of the weekend and then the rest of the weekend happened,
you know what I mean. Yeah, it was relatively clean played game.
I think both quarterbacks played pretty well. I think Chad Kelly just continues his
trajection towards becoming a CFL star here in his first year as a starter.
He made a couple of amazing plays where he kind of broke out of the
pocket and rolled out to his left and found guys in the end zone.
So I think, you know, he's looked really good. That Toronto receivers
were really good in this one. I think Montreal looked good offensively at times
in this one as well. But just and Nike enough plays at the end,
and I think that if this game was you know, at the point
this game was played, I was like, oh, this is the best
game in the CFL so far this season. But then we had Saturday's games
that both kind of overshadowed them in my opinion. So I think these are
the three best games we've seen so far this season. All happened this week,
So I think, yeah, this game was very entertaining. Yeah,
Matt mcnin if you're incorrectly reported in that Toronto as America's CFL team, I
don't like that. Chad's looking good here twenty one to twenty five three one,
like big Star, I have a couple of highlights here I can pull
up. But Evan, what did you make of this? And then the
further ascension of Chack Kelly. Yeah, I mean, you know, we'll
talk about the game first and we'll get into Chad Kelly. I mean,
I think the most impressive part of this game. Firstly, I think Montreal
should have won. I mean, this was one of their more complete games,
but Toronto just kept having these answers, you know, when they had
an answer at the very end of the game, which ultimately ended up being
the game winner. But yeah, I mean, you know, Chad Kelly
at this point, like, I don't know how you have any doubt in
the guy, Like I don't feel, you know, any doubt in saying
that he's, you know, a top quarterback in this league and we've talked
about that, you know already, just saying like, um, you know
how poised he is and how confident he is, and I mean he you
know, really, I think is just so prepared and so I could say
so many good things about him, right and this game was you know,
this was really I mean it shows why you know, he deserves all this
praise and hype. I think there were some people who were questioning, oh,
you know, why are we giving Chad Kelly so much praise when he's
only started you know, X many games. Like you have to remember,
Chad Kelly, you know, wasn't really talked about until he came in.
Like I've said it before, in that Great Cup last year, you know
when after MBT got hurt and you know, now here he is, you
know, becoming a superstar within a couple of games. So it's a pretty
quick ascension. But you know, I don't have any doubt and I have
full confidence and belief in him moving forward. Um. Just some other notes.
Um, David Unger who used to play for the tie Cats. Um,
he's having a pretty good uh game here. Um, he had two
touchdowns. I believe he had the last touchdown too. Um. You know
one of his two is the one that you know ultimately won it for Toronto.
I'm so good to see him get worked into the offense and then I
mean demonte Coaxy, if you want to pull up that catch, that might
have been, you know, one of the better catches I've seen ever in
the CFL. I mean that was, you know, just textbook. I
think you've already been showing it. I just haven't been paying attention. But
yeah, great catch by by Coaxy for sure, and again just goes to
show. Yeah. I mean we can talk about Chad Kelly lot, but
his receivers have been pretty good too. I mean he's got Cam Phillips,
Davarre Daniels who had a nice game, um Coaxy, you know, et
cetera, et cetera. UM. And then on the defensive side for Toronto,
UM, you know, Winton McManus and Dwayne Hendricks were pretty impressive.
Dwyn Hendricks had a two sack game. UM, so you know, good
for them. UM. But yeah, ultimately, I mean I think this
was Toronto's offense that really one of them. It was just such a complete,
you know, offensive clinic. You would say, Jason, I'll be
curious that it happens the next season because I think that you know, this
is good right now, and this is good for Toronto, and this is
good, Like I don't know if Chad Kelly is five six years CFL quarterback,
When did you make of this game? I think that I just think
that the story is Chad Kelly so far this season for the Toronto Argonauts,
I think that. I mean, that was really the only question I had
about this team going into the year. I thought that they retained so many
pieces of that great Cup team last year except for the quarterback. And I
think that Chad Kelly has even maybe even upgraded from mc cloud Bethel Thompson based
on what we've seen so far this season. I mean that offense is just
a well oiled machine. I think Ryan Dinwood does not get enough credit for
the game plans that he puts together. He's done a masterful job of bringing
Kelly along, making sure he doesn't make too many mistakes early on in his
CFL career as a starter. So I think that it's been really impressive to
see Toronto role so far this season. I think defensively, it wasn't their
best game on the whole, but I think that overall they played very well
this season, tops in the league, I think in takeaways and stuff like
that. So I think that going forward, Toronto looks like the team to
beat in the CFL. Unfortunately for me as a Tiger Cats fan. I
had a highlight here that they were showing with that forward with Cody here kind
of you know, faking out, How do we, Jason, how are
we making of Cody here? Continuing in Montreal. I think he's done a
really good job in terms of, you know, showing that he is healthy
this year. I think that it is just the biggest thing. I've said
that week after week on this show, But I think that the biggest thing
is that he can escape pressure. He wasn't able to do that as much
last week or so last year in Saskatchewan, and I think that is a
huge difference for him. You saw that one improvisation'll touchdown that the play looked
dead in the water, but he was able to spin out of it make
a play for the touchdown. So I've been pretty impressed by Fajardo so far
this season. Some of the receivers are really stepping up. I think a
couple of the guys that they have injured will be back probably in the next
few weeks here. Hopefully Greg Ellingson is one of those guys because he is
very much a difference making CFL receiver unhealthy. But yeah, I think Fajardo's
looked pretty well, pretty good so far season. It looks like a good
crowd here too. I mean just from that shot. Like I said,
I didn't I always saw this game on the highlights, but I mean,
it looks pretty phenomenal. Evan. I had this stat here at the show
at the CFL News. You know how many you know, because they've had
you know, two bias here now going into six weeks, but you know,
thirty two points, forty three, forty five, thirty five this team
can score. Like how I just it feels I'm tired, you know,
I like these rouge games in the eleven to twelve or wherever, having some
of these shootouts. That certainly helps. When we talked about the excitement this
weekend and everything else, what do you make about that's Toronto just being able
to put points on the board. Yeah, well, I mean, like
I said before, you know, well round a team, you've got one
of the best quarterbacks in the CFL. You've got an up and coming running
back and a j O Lett who also had a nice game against Montreal,
and then just a diverse receiving corps. I mean, you know, BC's
been scoring a decent amount too, and I mean look at their receivers.
You know, the more guys you can spread the ball around too, I
think the more you know, points you're gonna be able to score because someone
is always going to step up if you're not just relying on a number one
receiver all the time, even though that's you know, probably a nice thing
to have. But yeah, I mean I'm not shocked that Toronto is scoring
this many points. I mean they probably could have scored more in this one,
just with the way it was going, you know, all that back
and forth. It just feels and I don't know if it's just because we're
doing these recaps every week and my Twitter timeline right now, they does feel
like the CFLs A has a little something going Right now. I have an
article saved dry gotta look Steve Simmons posted. I'm talking like, you know,
ratings up this year and I've seen some controversy with that, so I
want to look into that, maybe reach out to Steve as well to come
on because he's from not before. But do you feel that, Jason,
like, is there a little bit of a kind of a buzz going.
Maybe that's not normally here. Yeah, I think it's It's hard to tell
because I mean, I think that the TV ratings a lot of it depends
on matchups, right. I think that certain teams definitely draw better on television,
and certain matchups definitely draw better on television. So it's good that we've
seen an upward trend, but I think we need to see it over the
course of the season and continue to build throughout that. So I think,
you know, I'm not taking too much away from it yet, especially now
that are including the RDS ratings as part of that that number so far this
season. So yeah, Pat once your thoughts Jason on the quarterback shortage here
and kind of running other options. We've talked to injuries and stuff, But
what do you make just overall kind of the state of the CFL with the
quarterbacks issue right now? Yeah, So this kind of reminds me of the
twenty nineteen season where I believe it was like seven of the nine starting quarterbacks
missed most of the season. I think, um, you know, that's
when you had Cody Fajardo break onto the scene, Dave Evans broke onto the
scene with Hamilton's so you do see some good come out of it. Hopefully
you see guys like Dustin crum Mason, fine, take that mantle and run
with it. But I think at the end of the day, you're not
likely to see that on a large scale. I think that you know going
forward that you need the guys to be experienced in the CFL. This is
really the only way you get experienced by having situations like this, but never
a good sign with like half the league is dealing with quarterback injuries that you
know, I just I just think that the depth in the quarterback position is
pretty thin right now around the league, as you guys have been saying.
But yeah, those are just my thoughts on it. Evan, anything on
this to add, Yeah, I mean, you know, I put out
a tweet, you know, saying, you know, this is the time
where the CFL really needs to be pushing proper quarterback development. And what I
mean by that is maybe taking away from some of the short yardage guys,
because now in the CFL, it's like the short yardage quarterback is a completely
separate position. But you're so focused on those guys, you know, just
rushing the ball for a couple of yards you're not actually working. I mean
I'm not, you know, there for CFL practices obviously, but it kind
of seems like these guys might not be as prepared to just start throwing the
ball when needed. So I think you look at, you know, what
the XFL is doing with like Jordan Palmer. I'm bringing a guy in like
that to just sort of assist with the quarterbacks, you know, develop them,
you know, then maybe you see more guys, you know, either
come in or just the existing guys you know, perform better. I mean,
I will admit, you know, it is hard to find quarterbacks in
any league. But you know, I don't think you can just blame all
this on oh, well, you know, the XFL and the us USFL
exists now, you know, and they didn't used to. When the CFL
is trying to find guys, hasn't made it harder. Yes, I'm not
trying to you know, steer away from that. But if you're gonna put
all the blame on that, I mean, come on, man, Like,
there's still plenty of options out there that you can work to, you
know, get guys up to speed and everything. So it's a tough issue,
you know, and to find guys that like right now we're just ready
to start. Um, it's very hard. I mean, you know,
Dustin Crum, like we weren't really sure about him, you know now clearly
you know he's got some traction. Mason Fine, I feel better about again
just because he's a year three guy. He's been in Saskatchewan system for a
while now, so I think he's ready to make the jump to a starter.
Um. Yeah, I mean, you know, we'll see what happens
in Hamilton. I mean we you know, we're gonna talk about that here
in a minute. Um, we'll see what happens with Matthew Schiltz and h
Taylor Powell, the guy behind him. Um, but yeah, I mean
they're not definitely is a shortage. Um, you can't you can't deny that.
Yeah, I thought Naylor was it had a really good spot on the
show this week and if you guys even it's you know, preview in week
six, but it's more just kind of nail or talking if you guys haven't
seen that yet, but yeah, talking. I think that Evan, that's
what kind of spurred our conversation about that, where he's like, uh,
you don't. Yeah, you're you don't have that traditional quarterback too, where
you're you're working at where you used to have claros and spent years kind of
be in the backup and learning from that or you know, Michael Riley or
kind of whatever that other stuff. The other interesting thing with the Nailer thing
was he was talking about like shilts and like he takes a lot of hits
and then of course like we you know, we see shilts kind of do
all that. But if you guys haven't seen that, I will say,
Evan, I agree with the Palmer thing where they're like, hey, we're
wanting to bring in all these XL quarterbacks right like we're starting from scratch where
there is a little b d E with the CFL sometimes where it's like,
well you it takes four years to like you got to learn our stuff,
and you're like, yeah, maybe if you kind of like guided some of
these guys along as opposed to like you know, trying to make training camp
and living health for people and like, well, you know, this is
our sport and you need to figure out like I think maybe you could help
develop that as well. At Jason, any other thoughts on the game or
this we'll get to the Hamilton stuff. Yeah. In terms of like,
I think it was a really good point that Dave made about the short yardage
specialists. I do think there's certain situations you look at the league, it's
like, if that starter went down, is the so and so backup actually
going to be the guy that's given the chance to start? Like I look
at Calgary, Jake Mary goes down, are they really going to start Tommy
Stevens Because I don't think he is very good as a passer from what I
have seen in the preseason and other times that he's thrown the ball. So
I think that he is the definition of kind of the player that Dave is
talking about. So yeah, I definitely think it's a point. But I
think, you know, going forward, I think that you know, most
teams with the three quarterbacks dressing now that we didn't have a couple of years
ago when we came back from the canceled twenty twenty season, I think that's
huge for the development of quarterbacks in the league, getting more quarterbacks in the
pipeline and playing time. So I think at the end of the day,
I think, you know, it's not as dire as people make out to
be. I think that you know, it's more mostly sorry, it's mostly
just the quarterback injuries. I think that are the biggest concern at this point.
How do we keep these guys healthy? I don't know, Yeah,
I mean because even like Winnipeg, like prucop like I'm not you know that
that is not a suitable replacement of his at Claris at this point coming to
the to the last game here and this was I've got Dave Campbell's schedule to
come on this week, and you know, Alex is going to be back
on the road. He's going to be on the road to Winnipeg. We're
going the schedule head dark days here in Edmonton, I think it was far
Han, it was already reporting yesterday tail or Cornelius taking h you know,
first first whatever snaps again, you know, starting snaps, h Evan,
what is the definition of insanity here? Like? What are we doing in
Edmonton? Yeah? I mean I can only talk about it so much,
right, I think every week it's like, you know, what happened to
Trey Forward? You know what's going on? Like how often you know,
can we put Cornelius in? And you know, yeah, I mean Cornelius
again kind of came back to earth in this game. I think last week
he had a decent performance again, nothing that was amazing, but again final
he looked like, you know, maybe he could hold the starting position.
Unfortunately that went away again this week. And yeah, I mean that play
that you're showing right there kind of explains explains why, you know, just
to you know, this game I really do think was winnable for Edmonton,
and there was so much talk, you know, going in this week about
Edmonton's finally gonna do it, They're finally gonna break the streak, They're gonna
win at home. It's gonna be a big deal. And it didn't happen.
I mean in the second quarter. I think it was end of the
second quarter, beginning of the third. That's when you can kind of see
the momentum shift. And yeah, I mean after that, Hamilton just completely
took over and it was the James Butler Show. From there, you had
Taylor Powell coming in from Matthew Schultz and throwing a touchdown on his first pass
as a pro quarterback, which I love hearing things like that. I was
so excited when that happened because I was watching I watched that full game,
but yeah, I mean just kind of a disaster for Edmonton. I mean,
again, how many times can you use that word? But it's just
so at this point it's almost expected. Unfortunately, It's just you know,
this team constantly shoots himself in the foot, and you know, how many
times is this going to happen before you know changes are made. I know
there was an interview that went up with the Victor Quee and he kind of
he was very honest, you know, talking about the situation with Chris Jones
and what the contract looks like. You know, how do you move on
from that in the event that you keep losing. But unfortunately, you know,
I think we can all agree and you know, maybe we talked about
this week or last week, maybe we didn't, but either way, you
know, this game was kind of like the last one that just looked like
it was in Edmonton's reach because if you look at the schedule after this,
I mean, I think Mike was saying they've got a clear path to O
and nine at this point, which is I mean, hell, that's halfway
through the season without a win, and I don't know. I mean,
maybe someone can tell me that has a bit more you know, history with
him, but I don't remember the last time that happened where a team started
oh and nine. I don't want to be I did not want BC to
be the team that gives out Like That's kind of my fear at this point
is like, you know, how is that gonna come? Jesuson what do
you make of this? I mean, obviously, as a tie Cats fan,
you're gonna you know, you're gonna take it to win here, but
this was a this was a babblock Fredmonton. Yeah, I mean, I'm
with Evan, I'm like, what else can you even say? At this
point, I'm actually gonna make a video right behind me here is all they're
losing, all the losses in the losing streak, so all twenty of them
are up there. I'm gonna go over how it started and how um you
know, when it made might end. But uh yeah, going forward,
I just I don't know what they do. I feel like they've really confused
everybody with how they've handled the quarterback position. I mean, I don't know
how much better, um, you know Jared Daggy would do at this point,
Like I said, I would start tray forward. I mean, even
if they lose more games, who cares because at least he's a guy that
probably will bring some excitement to your fan base. At this point, I
think that, you know, going forward. Um, you know, I
don't really think there's a bright spot on this team. I mean maybe,
like I think Stephen Dunbar a pretty good game against his former team in this
one. Kevin Brown running backs pretty good player as well. But I think,
you know, I'm going forward. I just don't think that this is
a very cohesive team at all. And it's sad because we saw Ottawa get
off the snide a couple of times with a couple of wins at home,
but Edmonton still stuck at all and six everybody else in the league at least
has two wins. Now, Yeah, I you know, I tweeted out
because if we were out, and I came back and ended up watching this
one as well kind of on demand, and uh, you know, I
I love Cray Taylor, Cornelia Year, you know, love the man for
a career CFL wins. I thought Dustin Nielsen had had a night. I
was trying to get him back on the show he was on before. I
don't know, if he lives in his DMS anymore. But um, you
know, Dustin was his Why don't he? I mean, I really really
enjoy that. I think that that's great, and it also helps. It
helps if I'm trying to kind of fast forward just a little bit to kind
of catch up on the on the games here, and it's like I just
got to wait for Dustin kind of disheart screaming about something. I know it's
a big take. Yeah, I don't know. I I had tweeted that
yesterday. I'm gonna say, you know, Evan and I are starting that
free trade forward. I want him off the alex if they're not going to
use him, but to get him on a team that's going to take advantage
of him. Um, Evan here at Hamilton. You know, Schiltz went
down right, you were talking with him. He should be fine. They're
getting tests. Like, what's the latest on Schiltz. Yeah, honestly,
I don't know. Yeah, I mean I send him a text and you
know, and send him best wishes and everything. At the time, he
didn't know what his injury was, and I'm sure he probably knows now.
I would expect it to come out, you know, probably today, soon
sometime. Yeah, I mean scary moment. And again, how many quarterback
injuries can you have? It's it's really starting to look like, you know,
some of these teams again, I mean, we just had this whole
conversation before about quarterback development and depth and things like that, but teams are
really starting you know, look, it's looking like they're gonna need to access
that more. And you know, fortunately Taylor Powell looked good in limited action.
A lot of the backups I think this week, you know, again,
Taylor Powell, Mason fine, like they all kind of stepped up,
you know, in limited action. Keep in mind, right, not the
full game, and did all right. Like Taylor Powell. You know,
his first pro pass was a touchdown, but he only completed two passes in
the entire game. So still a lot to figure out there. But yeah,
just from Hamilton's perspective as a whole, again, I like I said,
Taylor Powell looked good and limited action. We'll see what happened to Schiltz.
I think even if Schiltz hasn't been winning games for Hamilton's a ton,
I mean, obviously they won this one. You know, he was in
for a good chunk of the game. I think, you know, he's
still showed enough to where you can bring up the question, you know,
maybe you keep him as the starter even when bow Levi is healthy, because
in my opinion, he has done enough to hold that job again even if
the team isn't winning all the time. But that's kind of a separate discussion.
I think the real talking point here is m James Butler. He kind
of had his uh, I guess you'd say, breakout game. I mean
there was a lot of question, you know, the commentators on TSM brought
this up, you know, about how such a good year in BC and
then he came over to Hamilton and it's been a bit of a slow start.
But this time, I mean, this was about the best game you
could have asked for from him. And I know James pretty well. He
was one of the first people like I ever interviewed back in the day,
like three years ago, before he even came to CFL. Really, so
yeah, you know, I have full belief that he can keep doing this
and definitely needed I think for that offense, especially given how the receiving corps
has been. But another bright spot on the team this time around was a
target McAllister. I know we talked about him last week. He's someone that's
kind of blossoming into a larger role, you know, someone that I think
a lot of teams are starting to look out for, both on offense and
special teams, you know, as a returner. So good stuff from him,
and I hope he keeps that up. And yeah, I think that's
about it. On Hamilton's side. I mean again, this was just one
where you know, kind of a slow back and forth at the beginning,
but you know, a couple plays that they took advantage of, you know,
mistakes on Emmonton's end, they capitalized and pulled away pretty quickly in the
second half. Yeah. I had a tweet here Shield's not practicing today that
we'll get after the after practice. Jason, how are you feeling here in
tie Cats? What's your welfare check? I just hope they don't rush one
of these quarterbacks back. I feel like, if you have to start Powell
for a game or two, do it, because you can't get into situation
where you rush a guy back like Bo maybe comes off the six game injured
list and plays this week, and if he's not one hundred percent healthy and
re injurs and he's out for the season. I think that would be an
even worse outcome, So I'm really afraid of that happening. But I think,
yeah, I like what I saw from Powell, very limited sample size,
But yeah, about Schiltz, I agree with Evan. I think I
was ready to say that this is his team going forward. I think he
played well for three weeks in a row, and I think that, unfortunately,
this is the story with his career. He gets a few starts here
and there, and then he gets injured, and I think that's the unfortunate
fact. He can't be surprised by it. I don't think the tie Cats
are surprised that he got injured, just being kind of a thinner bodied quarterback
there. But yeah, just hopefully one of these two guys, bow or
Shill is ready to go for some point in the near future, because it's
gonna be very hard to win with a third string quarterback and Taylor Powell.
I mean, it'll be interesting to see Hamilton autable match between Powell and Dustin
Crumb. I believe that's who the tie Cats play after the Elks. But
yeah, I'll be interesting to see how they navigate this quarterback room going forward,
and yeah, again, Tyrick McCallister has played really well for this team.
I think he's the exact player that this team has needed. Has bought
a lot of speed to this offense. They don't have a lot of that
outside of Tim White, So I think McCallister is going to get even more
work in the offense going forward. He had another you know, dynamic kick
return in this one, and I believe it was called back, probably one
of the best you'll see all season, but unfortunately, like I said,
called back. But yeah, the Tiecats played pretty well in this one.
It's good to get a couple of wins on the board, but I don't
take too much from it because it was the Elks. Yeah, I mean
to me and Evan talked and them getting Butler back into it, and this
looks like a more normal stat line here. You know, ten of seventeen,
you know they had Crumb was like twenty six to forty two or something.
I mean, like you need to give these guys, like you can't
expect Crumb to throw that many times to play. Yeah, let's let's get
the Butler moving here. They're talking that you know, they came off to
buy a couple of weeks ago, and now we're trying to you know,
we're getting away maybe from the old June Jones style of kind of all this
stuff. The other thing I just whipped Cornelius and elks like, I just
don't know how you can how you can be bench here like consecutive weeks like
this and continue to play. You know, Taylor isn't pulled like for injury
here and pulled you know Daygi's in and like, you know, the announced
pers are like, well, if if Dagi succeeds you, he immediately almost
tore an interception coming in. I had here as well, Yeah, if
Dagi succeeds, he immediately takes a sack. We had the I had the
house called here by McAllister called back for the penalty flag. And then I
guess my last thing was there's all this made of the Chris Jones contract,
and it's been reported it's like four consecutive years or it's you know, one
contract over four years. I mean, Jason, it's so weird how ham
strung. I saw you even like Gary Ster and trying to talk about like
well maybe like the teams could buy out this and we could, they could
pay off the penalty over years, like trying to figure out how to get
out of this contract with Chris Jones. It's really weird. Yeah, the
whole football operations cap is just a real hinderance to that team right now.
It's limited the amount of coaches that they can have on staff, which is
obviously a huge disadvantage. I think that the tie Cats, I believe,
have like the biggest staff in the league versus what the Elks are throwing out
there. I think Jones does the defensive coordinating duties obviously head coach and GM
as well. So that's a lot of responsibility, a lot of hours to
be asking to put in four a guy that's with three very important positions.
So I mean, I think that has definitely been a factor that's contributed to
their demise here. And I think that in terms of the quarterback position,
like I said, I don't know what they do. I would start Trey
forward. But yeah, you know, my thoughts on that evant anything else
on this game here. I have my little ramp before we get out of
here. Yeah, I mean start Trey four and start the chant. That's
I think that's what I'm going to leave it on. What do you got
here, Jason? You've got Argos coming in? How are you feeling here?
Argos at home? I think it depends on the quarterback position. I
think that the Tiecats have beaten the Argos in the past couple of years,
a couple of times at home. I mean I did a video a couple
of weeks ago about how the Argos have generally dominated the Tiecats over the past
three four years here. But in general they usually when they win, it's
usually at home against the Argos, so I wouldn't be too surprised. Schiltz
was actually the only quarterback to beat the Argos last season, so if he's
able to go, that would be huge. But again, don't want to
rush anybody back from the injuries. Not overly concerned about one game, especially
in terms of the greater context of the CFL. But it's gonna be interesting
now with the playoff race kind of tightening up every team. At two and
three, Ottawa picking up that unexpected victory Montreal. I'll connection there you go,
Jason, are you back? Hear me? Yeah? So yeah,
I'm not too overly concerned about Friday's game. I think that, um,
you know the Argos will be favorites obviously, but I think the tie Cats
probably give them a game, and it's gonna probably come down to whether or
not one of those quarterbacks is healthy for them. Well here you go,
Well this is good, this is fun. I have my little rant here,
we'll get it. We have our little football talk. Evan likes knowing
that the feuds of the Mark Cash here, we've had the Marshall Ferguson's and
they could you done all this? This was just bizarre to me. Like
I said, I'm sitting at We're going to the mirror a game, so
everything, and I pull up CFL plus, I pull up the you know,
the game, and I'm watching. I just tweet out like you know
this, can you you know, do you believe in miracles here or whatever?
We're getting? You know, tweet out going to the mirror again.
And the next day I wake up and the CFL has tweeted out this like
repurpose this year and again this is like I don't care. This is like
you know, TSM broadcast whatever, like do everyone. But like they took
the screenshot that I had cropped like off of my phone and they tweeted this
out and you know, good night, and it's I mean, it's it's
a screen shot, right, And I said, you know what is going
on here? And I DM them, I'm like, hey, like you
know what is this year? They're like, oh, someone, because this
is a common to the point is this is a common trend I've heard like
CFL and they don't like to give content creators credit or we're shutting down on
YouTube channels and kids can't show you know, the recaps all this stuff.
And I said, like, I you know, I put it like what
I just given confusing. Oh no, like we didn't know that was your
someone else sent that to us, and I'm like, so then someone else
said it you and you didn't get like what is happening here? And so
we kind of went back and forth, and I just said, like I
don't understand this, like lack of like where the CFL. We don't want
like we're all in this together, but like we don't want to acknowledge.
People were like, I've never had any interactions with the CFL Twitter account,
Like I've been covering this league for three years. We're on here every week,
I know, Jason. Did that just seem like like if I am
I out on left field here, I just woke up. I was so
surprise. That's just bizarre that they use the exact same screenshot that they that
you took. But uh yeah, it's kind of weird to me. Like,
I don't I don't know why the CFL doesn't embrace the people that are
giving them free promotion really for the most part, and I think nobody's really
making too much money off of this. It's really just doing it out of
the goodness of their heart, and the league candidate embrace the people that are
really trying to help row the league going forward. So uh yeah, that's
the issue I take for that. I think I totally understand your point,
Evan. I want I know Evan is not gonna have a pen. THEYS
told me, they said, what was the word. They said, um,
well, I have the because I have I have the DM. They
said, we are we're reimagining our content creators strategy. More to come,
we hear you. So that's what they told me. So I don't know
if that means like we're going to start the embracing like Jason said that.
I just I don't know. I don't not understand that I just I woke
up a very bizarre So I officially we are at war with the at CFL
Twitter account. Anything else from you. You don't need to comment on this
if you don't want to anythink else from you before we get out. Oh
no, I don't. I don't think so. But it's great to hear
about all your feuds as usual. I love that. Well, you can't
we can't rest. We can have no rest in our hard done here.
But no, I mean, Jason, like this is you know, I
am not the best, most consistent or smartest thing ever. Like I will
be the loudest when there's things that I feel passionate about, and I do
feel passionate about, you know, leagues like the XFL and the USFL and
the CFL, like we are not the NFL, Like we need to embrace
people like you said, like we're spending you every week, and I'm like,
I'm sitting there yesterday Sunday morning, I'm rewatching the game. I'm taking
notes on my phone as I'm running on the treadmill here. If you do
you want the CFL on Twitter, so, like you know, this is
downe for the life, and I would just appreciate a little bit of like
hey, like we appreciate a good job, like we appreciate that. Like
even the XFL does that, like, hey, we appreciate you, like
thank you. So I don't know anyway, that's it for me. Evan,
you're working on anything coming out or Jason, anything you want to play
before we get out? Ah, not too much. I'm doing that emython
Elks Losing Street video. As you'll see it probably be out either tomorrow or
later today, so you should have checked that out on my channel. Have
anything else, I've probably got a couple of XFL related articles coming up,
but nothing too nothing too serious or extreme. Well good, Well, this
is I'm working the rest of the week. I think I have a good
show put together. I think Campbell's coming on, and then we got Ben
Grant coming on to talk argos, and then I'm working on a special.
I don't know if it's gonna work out, trying to get a cool XFL
in interview. We'll see if that works out. If you missed our chat
with Rust Giulio, I thought that was really great last week. He's saying
direct your player administration over at the XFL, talking to all their stuff,
so good. Episode Busy Summer didn't do as well as I would have liked,
so if you missed that one, got check that out. We'll see
you guys next time. Appreciate everyone, and we'll get out of here.
Thanks in nine nights