When the Raiders meet the Trailer Park Boys

Masoli was pretty quiet, not calling for Lawrence to be thrown out for his actions, but uh, I guess Lawrence was a teammate at the time and hey, Hamilton won that game.

While Masoli was calling for apologies for all over, he maybe should have apologized to Ottawa fans for being chronically unable to do much if anything from the 30-yard lines to the end zone. Between the 30-yard lines Masoli is a wizard but after that he runs out of steam. For what Ottawa is paying him, the fans deserve better.

The Riders defensive line was hollowed out as a result of an injury to Pete Robertson and the suspension to Marino and the Riders chose to not start Charleston Hughes in favor of starting people who could play special teams.

The result was the Riders, or Raiders for all the bashing they took, had no sacks while giving up five on Cody Fajardo who almost went out with injury considering he was wearing a knee brace.

Fajardo tossed a pick six in the last minute and the Riders, who started the game with a scrum with the Argos, have definite anger management issues to work on.

Then to add to the Potemkin experience of the Touchdown Atlantic experience, the Riders announced at home that several had tested positive for Covid, making things murky for Friday and gametime.

I reference the Potemkim village, which is basically a happy front placed in front of a slum and which the Touchdown Atlantic experience demonstrated. An interview with the Mayor of Halifax indicated there is no political appetite for money for a stadium, the Atlantic Schooners, who are supposed to play, were not involved in the event or its promotion, and the funniest thing I heard was the game ranked third behind the Halifax Jazz Festival and a Pride Parade.

The time may have come for the CFL to downsize its stadium expectations to where 15,000 to 20,000 may be more realistic and financially doable. And if the private sector gets off its notion that the public should pay for it while the private sector reaps the profits, well, things might happen. But apparently not in Halifax.

Edmonton went into Montreal and provided a spectacular comeback 32-31 as Montreal’s offense went into the tank in the second half. Cornelius Taylor, despite being named for two characters in Planet of the Apes, is a work in progress that apparently wins and that is good enough for Chris Jones.

Montreal has yet to trade Vernon Adams Jr. To Edmonton and I think Nick Arbuckle may find himself in Montreal at some point. Trevor Harris continues to be a streaky quarterback and when he goes dry, nobody drinks.

The game of the week was Calgary going to Winnipeg and the fun thing was listening to Calgary fans stating the Bombers didn’t beat us, the refs beat us. If there is anything more insecure than a Stampeders fan feeling disrespected it is a Bomber fan fresh out of Stony Mountain Pen.

The Bombers are still at the top of the CFL and their injury list is not as impressive as other teams, although neither is their running game. The Bombers may be holding onto to global warming this fall to justify not running the ball, or they will be trading for Andrew Harris to comeback for the ultimate Hollywood ending, but that feels a little risky to me.

The Bombers though are 6-0 so what the hell do they care what I think?

I picked Ottawa to beat Hamilton because I saw Dane Evans weeping and gnashing his teeth and figured his confidence was shot, while Ottawa had traded for Nick Arbuckle whom Paul LaPolice did not want a couple of years ago and had him on the sideline. The result was a closer than expected game that Ottawa should have won, but didn’t, but makes me think going through the east may be easier this year.

Montreal goes to Ottawa and Montreal should be better, but isn’t. Ottawa is doing things right, but not getting the breaks. Something has to break in this game and that should be Ottawa’s defensive secondary. Montreal wins this one 34-27.

Hamilton goes to BC and while it was nice to see Evans celebrate finally winning a game, he continues to have problems with ball security but that could be tied to an offensive line that is of Swiss cheese variety.

I don’t know what BC did to deserve all the early bye weeks, but two weeks to ponder their loss to Winnipeg has given them an idea of where they are now and what they have to do to improve.

For BC to be contenders, that means beating the teams they are supposed to beat and Hamilton, like any eastern team going west, is going to have problems adjusting to the time zones, strip clubs and whatever else is going on in Vancouver.

BC may not be a real contender yet, Calgary proved it was in its game against Winnipeg, but BC is a young club and let’s see what they learned against Hamilton in a 36-24 win.

Winnipeg goes to Edmonton and the Elkaholics are giving their fans a lot of excuses to drink. Their win against Montreal was pretty sweet, but Edmonton is headed home and they have not won at home in over a year.

Winnipeg could start Dru Brown since Edmonton is more interested in seeing players on the field and evaluating them in game conditions that maybe winning. If Winnipeg’s running game is going to take off, it should be against the worst run defense in the league. Winnipeg wins 41-14.

Finally, the Argos come to Riderville and who they face will be interesting depending on the reaction to the Covid tests. Both teams have penalty problems, the Riders have pass protection problems and I’d have to say while Toronto should be favored, it is only Tuesday and anything can happen, including a Rider 27-17 win

by Greg Urbanoski

When the Raiders meet the Trailer Park Boys

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