Stubbornness, sloppiness and silliness mark notable moments as CFL season draws to a close

Calgary though threw the heck out of the ball and the result was that Winnipeg had to try to make long drives to stay within shouting distance of Calgary and hope their defense would come up with some turnovers. Streveler had hurt his wrist and Calgary made it clear if Streveler was going to run, they were going to hit him.

Winnipeg had two back up quarterbacks, Sean McGuire and Zach Collaros who might have been able to complete a longer pass than five yards, but O’Shea was determined to stick with Streveler, presumably to back up his rhetoric that this was Chris Streveler’s team now.

While many Winnipeg fans were supportive of Streveler, liking his determination when running, Streveler has emerged as this year’s version of Brandon Bridge – a quarterback who if his first read was not open, pulled the ball down and ran. Failing that, he would try a short pass and hope his receivers could make someone miss.

So the loss to Calgary does not rule out Winnipeg from maybe finishing first. If the Bombers beat Calgary and then Calgary loses to BC on the final weekend, and if the Riders lose twice to Edmonton, the Bombers could finish second and host the western semi-final. However that appears to be a situation made possible only through human sacrifice to the Dark Lords that lurk in Winnipeg.

O’Shea wants to make a point about building a team oriented culture in Winnipeg, and while on some levels that is admirable, the fact of the matter is Winnipeg can win only with a ground control game that takes minutes off the clock, has to score on almost every drive and somehow has to figure out how to get pressure on the opposing quarterback.

One of the more interesting things about this game was how Calgary went deep on a consistent basis, giving Bo Levi Mitchell all the time he needed to find open receivers. It was much the same as what happened against Saskatchewan as the Riders were also unable to mount much of a consistent pass rush against Mitchell the week before.

Winnipeg has the ultimate player ideally designed to knock down passes – Willie Jefferson – but Jefferson has been missing in action. He did not show up on the stats sheet which means either Calgary has come up with a way to neutralize him or Jefferson is not being engaged.

So if Calgary can throw the ball deep on a consistent basis, confident they won’t see much pressure on Mitchell who can then be patient and wait for patterns to develop, and they can stop, mostly, a running game and a short passing game, who then can beat the Stamps in the playoffs? That is a question Winnipeg is going to try to answer this week as they wrap up their regular season against Calgary and hope to score a win and hope for a BC upset to maybe finish in second place.

There were other games this weekend, with Toronto giving Montreal a run before falling 27-24 when Tyler Crapigna was short on a potential game tying field goal. The Argos are an interesting team because McBeth Bethel-Thompson is not that far from leading the league in passing yardage despite not being a young enough quarterback to be considered the foundation of a team.

The problem with Toronto though seems to be talent and a defense that cannot make the needed stop when the chips are down. For Toronto these last few games are basically audition tapes for next season as the Argos under new GM Mike Clemons trys to figure out how to build sustained excellence in a city that thinks it is above the CFL.

One of the interesting things in Toronto is how the new CFL cap on football administration may be handcuffing the team’s ability to make a coaching change. The cost of Chamblin’s salary will be something that will handicap Toronto’s ability to find a coach and a staff that can both team and motivate a team.

While you might be able to spot Chamblin the ability to coach defense, although the way Chamblin moved Richie Hall out of the way in Saskatchewan because Chamblin wanted to be the new Chris Jones makes me hesitant to label Chamblin as a defensive guru. With John Murphy moving from consultant to player personnel guru, there seems to be a window opening for Toronto to perhaps recruit and find players to plug and play in their system.

For Montreal, their loss against Winnipeg last week has put them in a relatively unusual position – Montreal has finally made it back to the playoffs, but they are not able to catch Hamilton for first. So for the next games, one coming up Friday against Hamilton, Montreal has to choose between resting starters to avoid losing them in games that will not really count in their final finish, or sending a message to say Hamilton that the Eastern Final will not be the cakewalk Hamilton fans might think it is.

Montreal played down to the level of Toronto and while that might be understandable, for Montreal to capitalize on their playoff rush, they will have to raise their intensity and their level of execution. It is great to have comeback wins, but for Montreal, they need to send a message they are ready to play at an even higher level to make it back to the Grey Cup.

The one blowout was perhaps the least expected – Hamilton blew the doors off of Ottawa in getting a franchise record 13^th win with a 33-12 win. Hamilton has played about eight games against teams with a winning record and has emerged with a 5-3 record. Hamilton has also beaten Edmonton twice but Edmonton is at 8-8 and that is mediocre at best.

So for Hamilton, the amazing thing has been how back-up quarterback Dane Evans has responded with the playbook not being diminished but opened up so Hamilton can reach their peak performance. There is an if with Hamilton, that will likely become apparent at the Grey Cup assuming Hamilton gets there.

Hamilton has no sustained running attack and if the weather slows down their aeriel attack, then Hamilton is vulnerable in a Grey Cup game. For Hamilton, the next two games will be good to develop a sustainable running game and then using their break to the Eastern Final to finesse and figure out how best they move to the Grey Cup podium.

For Ottawa, the rest of their season is just a continuation of perhaps the biggest miscalculation of the offseason by any team. Ottawa let most of their offense walk and placed their trust in Dominque Davis who has impressive arms but not enough sense to move the ball on a consistent basis.

Ottawa lost their offensive coordinator Jamie Elizondo just before the season after he was refused interview opportunities in Saskatchewan. The results of using Winston October and then Joe Paopao at offensive coordinator have been pretty underwhelming and for Ottawa, there is perhaps one more chance for GM Marcel Desjardins and Coach Rich Campbell to put the pieces back on a team has seemed to have perfected the barely 500 or just under 500 record and then got hot in the playoffs.

The Riders win against BC was not unexpected, but again, just like with Montreal playing down to Toronto, the Riders played down to the level of the Lions and allowed them to stay in the game longer than necessary. The Riders were coming off a loss to Calgary that was a measuring stick towards whether they were ready to be considered first place and Grey Cup contenders.

So while the Riders got the win that was expected, they should have stomped a BC team that was starting a back up quarterback who saw limited action this year and had been eliminated the week before. The Riders did use their running game with William Powell more effectively, but when a team fumbles the ball trying to make the extra effort play, it shows a team that might have some confidence issues and needs to stick to the business at hand of winning games.

So this Friday we have Calgary at Winnipeg to put the wraps to the Bombes regular season and provide Winnipeg with a last gasp try at second place. The Bombers and Stampeders season series is tied at a game apiece and a win by Winnipeg would give them 11 wins, tying them with Calgary and Saskatchewan.

The Bombers will not pass the Riders in the standings, but they have a bit of a long shot with Calgary. For O’Shea, this game might be his last in Winnipeg as he is a free agent coach at the end of this season and the odds are pretty good he will be going to Toronto to help rebuild his former team. O’Shea is taking a lot of heat for putting Streveler back in the game when he was clearly limping and unable to mount much of a passing attack.

If Streveler is unable to perform, the Bombers may want to see what McGuire and Collaros can do. Collaros cames with a big caution considering his concussion history, but if he can help the Bombers beat Calgary and who knows, maybe even beat the Riders in a semi-final or final, all will be forgiven.

The feeling I get is this is coming to a last hurrah with this edition of the Bombers. If O’Shea goes, Paul La Police should be front runner for the head coach job, but it will be interesting to see if Richie Hall is retained as defensive coordinator.

Winnipeg put out a bunch of money to a few players and some of them – Adam Bighill, Willie Jefferson and say, Matt Nichols, have gone missing in action this last month. Hamilton rolled the dice with Streveler and I imagine if Calgary thought hitting Streveler was a great idea this past week, it should be even better considering who is waiting on the sidelines this week.

This is kind of a gut check for Winnipeg. If Calgary wins and knocks Streveler out, then Winnipeg is sunk in the western semi-final and Calgary might well dust their lockerroom in anticipation of a Grey Cup appearance. If Winnipeg wins, and this might depend on how they win, that team might just believe it is three wins away from winning a Grey Cup.

The Bomber season may well hinge on what happens in this game. They are a desperate team that has a big donut hole at the quarterback position and a tendency to just run because their passing game is unable to operate. So let’s say Winnipeg actually wins one – 28-27, because it will be a coolish night in Winnipeg where getting hit in the cold will hurt a hell of a lot more than it would in say, July, when Bomber fans were booking their spots on the Grey Cup parade route.

The other Friday night game is Hamilton at Montreal and this may well be a preview of the eastern final because no one expects Edmonton to do much in the Eastern semi-final. This will be an interesting test of a Hamilton team which is setting regular season records and could be considered the greatest regular season Hamilton team in history.

The problem with that is as the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos can tell us, a 16-2 or 15-3 regular season record looks good in the books, but in a one game playoff, anything can happen. Montreal has come a long way from starting the season with Kavis Reed as GM and Mike Sherman as head coach to having Khari Jones take over and give this team reason to believe.

Montreal and Hamilton haven’t played since week four and Hamilton won the first game 41-10 and then Montreal came back the next week and won 36-29 for Vernon Adams Jr’s first win as a Montreal quarterback this year. Montreal has tried to build a consistent running game and use Adams Jr’s experience and mobility to stretch defenses.

If Hamilton is vulnerable, it will be with their intermiddent running game. If Montreal can hold Hamilton to no running yards and force them to the air where their cornerbacks are pretty good, it should be an interesting game.

So while there is the prospect of Montreal wanting to send a message, this may turn out to be a glorified exhibition game as both sides may decide to play a lot of back-ups and not tip their hands to any potential strategies for the Eastern final. Montreal may think that having beaten Hamilton once already, they don’t need to prove anything further and can keep their cards hidden until the eastern final.

So let’s split the difference since I imagine Montreal would want to build some buzz heading into the eastern semi-final by appearing competitive with Hamilton, but not too competitive that someone gets hurts. Hamilton wins this one 28-22.

On Saturday we have the prospect of Ottawa going to Toronto to determine who will finish last and therefore gets the first pick in the 2020 CFL Draft. While Toronto has been inconsistent, at least offensively it is better than what Ottawa has tried to put out on the field.

If my suspicions about Hamilton-Montreal as an exhibition game are correct, then this is the exhibition game of all exhibition games. Toronto is trying to build some kind of culture of winning while Ottawa is probably thinking they are at ground zero and will have to see which players on their roster can play, and which should be sent to European leagues for further seasoning.

This is going to be either an entertaining exhibition or an a mind-numbing exercise in futility. I am going to guess futility is the big winner in what should be the lowest watched game of the game as Toronto wins 26-25.

Finally we have the Riders going to Edmonton for their first and only visit of the year as the two teams wind up their seasons playing each other. Edmonton has qualified for the playoffs and is coming off a bye week which may see the return of Trevor Harris to give the team and fans some home for the playoffs.

However Edmonton’s inconsistency and the lack of ability to develop an offensive system that can transcend a rhythm quarterback like Harris will likely mean Jason Maas will walk the plank at the end of this season. You could argue there are injuries and other explanations for the Eskimos inability to move up the western standings, but one of the biggest reasons is the Eskimos tendency to shoot themselves in the foot because of lack of discipline penalties – an attitude that starts with Maas and his frequent rampages on the sideline.

I don’t know if Maas has been doing hot yoga in an effort to find some inner peace, but this game could be Maas’ last as a head coach in Edmonton. If Harris is back, expect Edmonton to try to go deep to show Maas’ vision of the offense can work and can beat the hated Riders and provide some hope to the Eskimo fans who may have tuned out this season.

The Riders come into Edmonton doing enough to win in BC but not enough to show they should be considered a viable contender in the west. Not having played Edmonton yet should be enough to not have any preconceptions this should be an easy game, and if Logan (I’m No Wolvervine) Kilgore takes snaps for the Eskimos, the Riders should not think just showing up will guarantee them a win. The Riders will be getting the best shots of all teams for the rest of this season and while first place is plausible, but perhaps unlikely depending on the play on the Bombers versus Calgary, the Riders need to ensure they are as healthy as possible heading into the playoffs and more importantly, figure out new and exciting ways to stop the run and rush the quarterback.

The other thing for the Riders to work on is their passing game. Shaq Evans made the statement he is the best receiver in the CFL, but since he made the statement two games ago, he has been rather pedestrian and the point should be raised that Evans is not a cold weather receiver.

A receiver who cannot catch when the weather gets cold is not a useful member of the team and the Riders for the next two weeks will have to determine which of their receivers can catch in cold weather, and which should perhaps be watching from the sidelines in their street clothes.

Because this is the first time these two teams have played each other this season, it is an open question to determine how these teams will respond to each other. I suspect the Riders will play down to the Eskimos level and if Winnipeg beats Calgary and opens the door to the Riders getting first, the Riders should do just enough to win 25-22.

by Greg Urbanoski

Stubbornness, sloppiness and silliness mark notable moments as CFL season draws to a close

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