Tag Archives: Calgary Stampeders

Four Games In: It’s Already Time for the Bombers to Overhaul the Mike Kelly Machine.

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have a lousy football team. No sense trying to sugarcoat it. The local 12 isn’t very good and head coach Mike Kelly needs to do some deep, critical thinking.

His offensive line is weak and he has no quarterback. Defensively, he had a better team earlier in the year when young Dan Oramasionwu started at nose tackle instead of the then-injured Doug Brown. Since Brown returned, the defence has been average, at best.

Friday night at Canad Inns Stadium the offence was put on display for all to see. It was, in a word, dreadful. The final score was Toronto 19, Winnipeg 5 (the Bombers were 3 1/2-point favourites), and there was a dearth of action — by either side –  for the final 25 minutes. For a lot of Bomber fans, it was just a good night to get really shit-faced. Extreme drunkenness probably took the sting out of the ineptitude.

On the upside, starting quarterback Stefan Lefors finally completed 50 per cent of his passes. Unfortunately, he was seven-for-11 for 30 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. He put three points on the board.

He was replaced in the third quarter by Bryan Randall who went one-for-five for six yards, one interception and an headache.

Ritchie Williams replaced Randall and was three-for-10 for 30 yards and got the Bombers down to the Toronto two-yard line, but like his colleagues, he couldn’t get the ball in the end zone.

Because the defence wasn’t absolutely horrible Friday night, it’s permissable to believe that the Bombers have some hope. The 42-30 win over Calgary was pretty good. Obviously, there is some up-side to this mess.

But after four games, this team have failed head coach Mike Kelly in one important way. Kelly guaranteed that this team would be entertaining. It’s not. It’s dull. The offence is sleep-inducing.

And that’s even worse than being 1-3.

* * *

COYOTES LOSE $60 MILLION IN 2008-09

For a number of years, we’ve been reporting that the Phoenix Coyotes have lost as much as $60 million a year on operations. We’ve taken a great deal of criticism for making the claim even though we’ve been able to document our reports.

However, in case you don’t want to believe anything until it shows up in the Globe and Mail, it showed up on Friday. The Globe reported that the Coyotes lost $60 million in 2008-09. Hate to say, I told you so…

Documents filed in Arizona bankruptcy court reveal that the Coyotes  lost more than $27 million last season on hockey operations and with interest payments and other costs, the Coyotes lost a total of $67 million last season. On operations alone, the Coyotes have lost more than $20 million for each of the last three campaigns.

Coyotes owner, Jerry Moyes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May and had a solid offer for the team from RIM president and CEO Jim Balsillie for $212.8 million. The NHL refused to accept that offer, however, because it would have meant moving the franchise to Southern Ontario. So now, while the creditors will be shortchanged by millions, the bankruptcy judge has called for an auction for bidders to keep the team in Phoenix. That auction is scheduled for August 5th.

Keeping that franchise in Phoenix is a stupid mistake. After stiffing the creditors, would you do business with an NHL franchise in Phoenix, Ariz.? I’d certainly want my money up front.

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“A Public Relations Nightmare.”….. Well, never mind.

Posted on July 11, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

This past week, Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike Kelly was called “a public relations nightmare,” by Winnipeg Sun columnist Paul Friesen.

Friesen’s exact words were: “Kelly has been a public relations nightmare — from breaking CFL rules to calling out the former GM to several clashes with the media — but (president and CEO Lyle) Bauer isn’t letting on that he’s concerned about that, either.”

Gotta love the mainstream media. Just write bollocks and see what sticks on the wall. Of course, are that many people reading, watching or listening anymore? The sellout crowd at Canad Inns Stadium on Friday would suggest that about 30,000 Winnipeggers, at least, don’t care what’s in the papers these days.

Seems, that for a public relations nightmare, Mike Kelly is the best thing that ever happened to the Winnipeg Football Club. I guess it just took a last second loss in Edmonton and a 42-30 shellacking of the defending Grey Cup champions to convince the same people who demanded change to accept it.

“It’s funny,” said Kelly this week. “People screamed for change. When I arrived, they said you have to change the quarterbacks. So I changed the quarterbacks. They said, you have to find a better defensive backfield, so we went out and improved the secondary. They said, ‘You have to make the Bombers more of a team-first operation,’ so everything we’ve done has been directed at team first.

“And yet, we hear that people still aren’t happy. I’ve known throughout my career that the only way you convince people that you’re doing the right thing is to win football games.”

Friday night, after a week of absorbing more loud media criticism, Kelly’s football team did exactly what Kelly expected them to do. They kicked the collective butt of the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders. 42-30 (21-4 at halftime) is a statement.

But even after the game, Kelly was still hearing about the alleged “Derick Armstong affair,” and his apparent lack of public relations skills which, one assumes, only matters to people who demand that the coach kneel and genuflect at the alter of the daily newspaper.

In fact, the “Armstrong Affair” wasn’t an affair at all. The talented wide receiver quit on his team. He maintained he was right and the coach said, “you’re not.” Armstrong quit. Period.

It was pretty simple, really. In fact, for the vast majority of Bomber players, the entire incident brought on a collective shrug. Armstrong said he was “disrespected,” or something to that effect, but the fact is, in the CFL, you’re “disrespected” the day you sign your non-guaranteed contract. Some people just don’t get used to it.

Kelly — a guy I’ve known for 20-odd years and a very, very decent human being — had Armstrong removed from the roster, but still let him back into the building to get treatment on his injured knee.

“This isn’t a kick-the-guy-out-on-the-street thing,” Kelly said on Wednesday. “I hope he (Armstrong) earns a paycheque in this league for a long time. It’s just not going to be here.”

The Bombers tried to trade Armstrong, but suddenly nobody in the CFL was terribly interested in a 30-year-old wideout with a bad knee and a newly-minted reputation for refusing to play when asked. On Thursday, he was released. This week, somebody will likely pick him up as a practice-roster player until he gets healthy. 0-2 teams have to take chances.

Still, without Armstrong, the Bombers offence played well. Quarterback Stefan Lefors threw a pair of touchdown passes to Terrence Edwards (who wore Armstrong’s gloves, but didn’t ride to Armstrong’s rescue by heading into the coach’s office and demanding that Kelly put Armstrong back on the team) while Lavarus Giles rushed for a pair of majors. They were his first, but won’t likely be his last.

The defence contributed five turnovers and one touchdown. The offence used the turnovers to put 28 of its points.

“The players wanted a day off on Saturday if they won,” Kelly said on the Tom and Joe Show on 92-CITI-FM on Friday morning. “But I told them, win or lose, we’ll be back on the field for a run on Saturday morning because even if we win, it’s just one win in July and you don’t win the Grey Cup in July.”

Perhaps not. But you do win the public relations war.

For whatever that’s worth.

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Three more little things bouncing around among my gray cells…

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

After a wonderful weekend of sports brilliance and silliness, I had a few little things banging around in my noggin. Here goes…

1) Two of the world’s greatest athletes rose to the occasion on Sunday. (Fact is, it was quite a day for Nike and Gillette. Their two most prominent spokesmen were both big winners.)

At Wimbledon, Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick, in a marathon, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 to win his record 15th Grand Slam title and the sixth Wimbledon championship of his career.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods, made birdie at 16 to go 13-under and win his own tournament, the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C. It was his third win of the year, the 68th of his career and moved him to the top of both the money list and the FedEx Cup standings.

I don’t think there is any doubt. We are now watching the two most remarkable individual-sport athletes in the history of, well, individual sport.

2) The National Hockey League’s free-agent frenzy continues and there were a number of local (Manitoba) moves this weekend.

Neepawa’s “Sherriff” Shane Hnidy signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Minnesota Wild; Winnipeg’s Tyler Arnason signed a two-way deal with the New York Rangers; Jason Krog left the Manitoba Moose and signed a two-year deal with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers; Jason Jaffray left the Manitoba Moose and signed a two-year deal with the Calgary Flames; and of the 20 players who selected salary arbitration, two were Winnipeggers, Nigel Dawes will go to arbitration with Phoenix while Travis Zajac will go to arbitration with New Jersey.

Throw in Colton Orr’s four-year $4 million deal to beat people up on behalf of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Cam Barker’s semi-legal RFA offer from the Chicago Blackhasks and it was quite a week for our local hockey stars.

3) It’s Week 2 in the Canadian Football League and it starts on Thursday with Edmonton at Montreal. 

On Friday, Calgary plays right here in Winnipeg — it’s the 2009 home opener — while Hamilton is at B.C.

On Saturday, Saskatchewan plays at Toronto. All four games are, of course, on TSN.

Meanwhile, over in Bomberland, 1,000-yard receiver Derick Armstrong, who refused to play in last Thursday’s game, did not practice Sunday or Monday and was apparently being shopped to other CFL teams. He’s probably finished as a Blue Bomber and a whole load of fans are righteously pissed at head coach Mike Kelly (even though Armstrong refused to play when called upon last Thursday and in a  team game, that’s just about as selfish as it gets).

Win or lose, it’s going to be a very, very interesting football season in Winnipeg in 2009.

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Oh, so sad, Lingerie Bowl VI has been cancelled. “We’ll play in our undies, but OMG, not nekkid!!!”

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

NFL Super Bowl Report No. 3, Monday, Jan. 26, 2009

 

TAMPA — I’d like to talk about football, but there is too much craziness going on…

 

1) Lingerie Bowl VI — The Really Big Game during the festivities of the past five Super Bowls — was supposed to be played at a vacant lot in Tampa this week, but after the neighbors complained, it appeared as if Lingerie Bowl VI was dead.

 

Then, in a magnanimous gesture, the folks at the Caliente Resort, a highly-regarded Tampa-area nudist colony, extended a hand to the Lingerie League, and told the organizers they could play the big game at the main field of the resort.

 

Eureka! The Lingerie Bowl had survived. Or so we thought.

 

On Sunday, the folks over at Caliente, which is actually a “clothing-optional” resort, told the Lingerie League that lingerie wasn’t acceptable. It was nude or no Bowl game. At a nudist colony, you are expected to be nude.

 

With that, a number of players quit. “We’ll play in our panties, but not in our girl-suits,” they said.

 

Organizers announced on Monday that the game was officially cancelled and that there was a good chance the league would fold, as well. 

 

Couldn’t the NFL help these girls out? I mean, come on, football in lingerie is just about perfect, isn’t it?

 

2) It has become pretty obvious over the last few weeks. If the Arizona Cardinals intend to upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, it will have to be done by Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald. 

 

After all, in last week’s NFC championship game Fitzgerald caught nine passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns, giving him an NFL postseason record 419 yards in his first three playoff games. Warner was equally as impressive in that game, completing 21-of-28 passes for 279 yards, four TDs and a QB rating of 145.7. 

 

If those two pull it off again, the Cards might indeed be the team of destiny. Trouble is, pulling it off against the No. 1-ranked defence in the NFL is a lot different than pulling it off against Atlanta, Carolina or Philly.

 

3) The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will make it official on Tuesday. Calgary Stampeders’ assistant director of scouting, John Murphy, will be the team’s new general manager and director of player personnel.

 

Down here in Tampa, the news arrived with a bit of a thud, but in fairness, it did not go unnoticed. NFL people know Murphy and the ones we talked to on Monday night thought very highly of him.

 

After all, he did play a major role in building the Grey Cup champion Stampeders. That looks pretty good on any football resume.

 

 

 

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The Grey Cup is over. Canadian teams about average at quarter pole, Steen goes to St. Louis and the Bruins a pleasant surprise.

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Congratulations to the Calgary Stampeders, certainly a deserving Canadian Football League champion after that 22-14 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday.

In one of the great snoozers in Grey Cup history, Sandro DeAngelis kicked five field goals while most outstanding player Henry Burris hit Brett Ralph for a touchdown as Calgary played just well enough to beat a Montreal team that put up 0 points in the second half.

 

So now that we’ve laid the CFL to rest for another season (at least until Mike Kelly is named Blue Bombers’ head coach later this week or early next week), it’s tim to catch up with the NHL.

 

We’ll do that by giving you an update on th things we’ve nattering about on the 92-CITI-FM morning show this week…

 

1) We’re just about a quarter of the way into the 2008-09 National Hockey League season and if the playoffs started tomorrow, only three of the six Canadian-based teams would be participating.

 

In the West, Vancouver is third, Calgary is seventh and Edmonton is 10th. In the East, Montreal is fifth but Toronto is 11th and Ottawa is 12th. Both the Leafs and Senators have a combined total of 14 wins, fewer than the first-pace Rangers.

 

Seeing Toronto out of the playoffs is no surprise, but nobody thought that, at the quarter pole, Ottawa would have seven wins in 20 games.

 

2) We’ve been talking quite a lot about the deal that sent talented Lee Stempniak to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo and centre Alexander Steen. A lot of Toronto fans have said good riddance to Steen, a young guy they felt was underachieving.

 

But while Steen always said he loved playing in Toronto, this trade is the best thing that ever happened to his career. In St. Louis, he’ll not only get some much-needed ice time (the Blues have three centres — T.J. Oshie, Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald — on the shelf), but he’ll play for a guy who adored his dad, Blues head coach and former Jets assistant, Andy Murray.

 

Stempniak is a worker who should help the Leafs, but Steen is a legitimate talent who will get ice time and support in St. Louis and in all likelihood will develop into an outstanding player.

 

3) Since we have just passed the quarter pole in this ‘08-09 NHL season, it’s probably time to look up, w-a-a-a-a-y up. To the top of the NHL’s Eastern Conference. 

 

See who’s on top? that’s right, the Boston Bruins.

 

Who would have thought? The 14-3-4 Bruins have 32 points and while they’re tied with the Rangers overall, they’ve played three fewer games. 

 

So how does it happen? Well, it would be nice to say the offensive brilliance of Marc Savard is the reason, but in fact, it’s not. It’s  defence and goaltending. From Zdeno Chara to Shane Hnidy to Tim Thomas, the Bruins are No. 1 defensively in the NHL and as a result, they are the No. 1 in the East.

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The CFL Conference finals. Are we looking at an All-Alberta Grey Cup?

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

This season, the West dominated the East. The tally was 22-6 when the Edmonton Eskimos went into Winnipeg and beat the Bombers 29-21 in the crossover semifinal.

 

Montreal hasn’t played well for seven weeks and Anthony Calvillo hasn’t taken a snap in anger in three weeks. Ricky Ray — and his receiving corps — has looked very good in the final month of the season.  

 

Out west, Calgary has owned B.C. all season. they should own them again on Saturday.

 

We are looking at an All-Alberta Grey Cup IN Montreal next Sunday. Could be fun. Especially for the Scott Taylor Reports on The FAN 960 in Calgary on Tuesday and Thursday and on the TEAM 1260 in Edmonton on Wednesday.

 

Let’s take a close look at the Conference finals:

 

Edmonton Eskimos (11-8) at Montreal Alouettes (11-7)

 

Saturday, 12 Noon, CT, TSN

 

The Eskimos became the first Western team in history to win the West-East crossover semifinal. In fact, last week’s win in Winnipeg was pretty easy. This week, the Eskimos go into Montreal, where the Alouettes lost 24-23 to the Bombers in Week 18. In Week 19, the Eskimos whipped the Alouettes 37-14 in Edmonton, but Montreal played without Anthony Calvillo. Of course, Calvillo hasn’t played well since he put up 43 points against sad-sack Toronto in Week 17. In fact, Montreal hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record since Week 14, way back on Sept. 28, when they whipped a banged-up Saskatchewan team 37-12 at Molson Stadium. Since then, the Als have lost to Hamilton, Winnipeg and Edmonton and beaten only 3-15 Hamilton and 4-14 Toronto. On Saturday, the Esks and Als play at the cavernous Olympic Stadium and that’s really not homefield advantage for the Alouettes. It’s West vs. East and I always pick West first. 

 

Pick: Edmonton

B.C. Lions (12-7) at Calgary Stampeders (13-5)

Saturday 3:30 p.m. CT, TSN

Last week, B.C. won on the road in Regina. There is no tougher place to play. That means could certainly take out Calgary this week. Calgary beat B.C. in Calgary 28-18 in Calgary way back in Week 1. Calgary beat B.C. 36-29 in B.C. in Week 9. And Calgary wasted B.C. 41-30 in Calgary in Week 19 in a game B.C. had to win to play host to the Western semifinal. Calgary has B.C.’s number and the Stamps put up a lot of points to get to 13-5. If Henry Burris avoids brain farts and Cameron Wake, Calgary could blow the Lions away. It’s time. It’s time for an All-Alberta Grey Cup.

Pick: Calgary

Last Week: 0-2

Season: 45-21

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CFL Picks: It’s semifinal weekend and we love the Bombers and Riders…

Posted on November 8, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Granted, weather has a lot to do with our selections this week.

 

Here in Winnipeg, it’s absolutely dreadful. We had snow on Thursday, it stayed on Friday and it’s coming back on Saturday. A weather warning has been issued and at 7 a.m. it screamed “high winds and freezing rain.”

 

Ahhhh, what a great day for football.

 

In Regina, the 7 a.m. forecast predicted low clouds and cold, cold, cold. Perhaps minus-13 by game time.

 

It’s time for the runningbacks to take their rightful positions at the top of football’s food chain…

 

Let’s take a closer look…

 

EASTERN SEMIFINAL

Edmonton Eskimos (10-8) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-10)

12 Noon, CST, TSN

 

This is when the CFL’s crossover playoff becomes silly. An 8-10 team gets homefield advantage against a 10-8 team. It’s time to reward to good football and cut out this East vs. West charade. Perhaps, next season, the CFL’s tall foreheads will come to their senses. As it is, however, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will play host to the Edmonton Eskimos in the crossover Eastern semifinal at Canad Inns Stadium and, amazingly, the 8-10 Bombers are 2 ½-point favourites. More than 26,000 tickets have been sold for the game, a game that Milt Stegall guaranteed the Bombers would win if Winnipeg sold 30,000 tickets and sold out the ballyard. It doesn’t look good. The two teams split the season series, but the Bombers won here in Winnipeg and they were the hottest team in the CFL in the last two months, going 6-2 down the stretch. If head coach Doug Berry does nothing but run “Thunder and Lightning,” Joe Smith and Fred Reid, the Bombers win by two touchdowns. The banged up Bomber defence is almost 100 per cent healthy this week and it will shut down Ricky Ray. The winner heads to Montreal for the Eastern final next week

 

Pick: Winnipeg

 

WESTERN SEMIFINAL

B.C. Lions (11-7) at Saskatchewan Roughriders (12-6)

3:30 p.m., CST, TSN

 

During the season, this series belonged to B.C. The Lions won the only game in Regina, 27-21 on Sept. 20, and then they split in Vancouver: Saskatchewan won 26-16 on July 4, when the Riders were healthy and red-hot and then lost 28-23 to the Lions on Sept. 13, when they had 19 players on the injured list. This week, Saskatchewan is healthy again and they’re coming off three straight high-scoring wins over Hamilton, Edmonton and Toronto. B.C., meanwhile, is heading south. The Lions lost 41-30 to Calgary in a game they had to win to play host to Saturday’s semifinal and they’re 2-2 in their last four. B.C. is a passing team (RB Charles Roberts is out for the season) and a windy, cloudy day in Regina, won’t help an indoor team with a passing offence. The winner heads to Calgary for the Western final next week. 

 

Pick: Saskatchewan

 

Last Week: 4-0

Season: 45-19

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Brown’s vision the Bombers future?

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ defensive tackle Doug Brown has the complete scenario already fixed in his mind. He’s been thinking about his vision of the future for a few weeks now and as self-fulfilling prophecies go, he’s starting to believe it might actually come true. 

“Remember in 2001, when an 8-10 team from Calgary that didn’t even deserve to be on the same field as a 14-4 team from Winnipeg, went into Montreal and beat that Winnipeg team in the Grey Cup? Remember?” Brown says, raising his eyebrows.

 

“Well, this year, I have a funny feeling we might turn the table. An 8-10 team from Winnipeg, a team that started 2-8, goes all the way to Montreal to play a 13-5 Calgary team in the Grey Cup and beats them. It sure sounds good to me.”

 

Brown isn’t making any predictions. He’s been around too long and he’s obviously too smart for that, but a guy who made history this year by becoming the first Blue Bomber player ever nominated for three outstanding player awards – most outstanding defensive player, most outstanding player and most outstanding Canadian – has a funny feeling that this struggling Blue Bombers outfit might just have the talent and emotional wherewithal to win the Grey Cup. 

 

Last Saturday afternoon, the Bombers completed the CFL’s 2008 regular season with a 44-30 shellacking of the last-place 3-15 Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Bombers wideout Romby Bryant caught a couple of touchdown passes from Kevin Glenn, Casey McGahee ran back a punt 57 yards for another TD and Fred Reid carried 14 times for 160 yards. Of note, Casey Printers likely played his final game in Hamilton while Milt Stegall probably played his final regular season game for Winnipeg.

 

It could have easily been called a meaningless exercise, except for one not-so-little thing. It meant the Bombers finished the season 6-2 over their final eight games and because of that, there is now a firm belief within the confines of their own locker room that this Winnipeg team is good enough to win the Grey Cup. 

 

This Saturday, the Bombers will get a shot at the 10-8 Edmonton Eskimos in the Eastern semifinal at Canad Inns Stadium, a place where Winnipeg went 3-0 in the final seven weeks of the season. With the addition of Jason Armstead, Zeke Moreno, Willie Amos, Joe Smith and Kai Ellis the Bombers have improved dramatically in recent weeks and with injured players such as Ike Charlton, Joe Lobendahn and Barrin Simpson beginning to return to the lineup, this is not the same team that started the season 2-8.

 

“Kudos to our front office for pulling the trigger on some important moves in September,” Brown said, shortly after Saturday’s win. “We’re the hottest team in the CFL right now, 6-2 down the stretch. But to beat Edmonton next week – and don’t worry, we’re not looking past Edmonton — we’re going to have to play our best game of the year. They beat us in their place and we beat them in our place, but to beat them again, we’ll have to be very good.

 

“But if, somehow, we can get through these next two playoff games and run into Calgary and then beat them in the Grey Cup, you’ll be able to go to Wikipedia and look up the term ’What goes around comes around’ and our picture will be there.” 

 

Saturday, Winnipeg will play host to the Eskimos in the Eastern semifinal. Sure, an Eastern semi with teams from Edmonton and Winnipeg sounds ridiculous, but it’s not the first time West has gone East in the crossover. In four previous West-to-East crossovers, the East won all four.

 

And there’s another little bit of history that plays right into Doug Brown’s vision.

 

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Week 19 in the CFL. The final week of 2008. Bring on the playoffs… please…

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Thank goodness it’s over. After all, with the exception of the battle for playoff positions in the West, the CFL hasn’t been particularly interesting for the past three weeks.

Could it be that 18 games are too many?

 

This week, we will get to find out whether it will be Saskatchewan or B.C. playing host to the Western semifinal. And that’s it. On Pro Line, three of the four games are considered blowouts this week. Winnipeg will play host to Edmonton in the Eastern semifinal at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg (1 p.m. CST on TSN) while Calgary and Montreal have each wrapped up first in the West and East respectively.

 

Other than that, the only worry this week is who or how many will be banged up and unable to perform in the playoffs.

 

In the meantime, let’s take as close a look as we possibly can at Week 18, a week that look an awful lot like pre-season…

 

Saskatchewan Roughriders (11-6) at Toronto Argonauts (4-13)

 

Thursday, 6:30 p.m. CT, TSN

 

Michael Bishop is back in Toronto for a rare end-of-season Thursday night game, even though there is a chance he might not play all that much. Riders head coach Ken Miller also has Derian Durant and Steven Jyles and who knows? All three of them could play. As Saskatchewan gets more of its players back from injury, the team just could be playing its best football of the year (judging from last week’s 55-9 demolition of Edmonton, they probably are). Kerry Joseph, meanwhile, has been a bust in Toronto, ever since he was dealt from Saskatchewan to the Boatmen before the season began. Last winter, GM Eric Tillman lost his Grey Cup-winning quarterback (Joseph just wanted too much money and was too old) and his Grey Cup-winning coach (not many people thought Ken Miller would be a significantly better coach than Kent Austin) and his team is even better than it was last year at this time. But who knows? Prhaps the Argos will win one for coach Don Matthews. Or, maybe not.

 

Pick: Saskatchewan

Montreal Alouettes (11-6) at Edmonton Eskimos (9-8)

Friday 8 p.m. CT, TSN

Hard to imagine what’s worse. Last week Montreal was beaten 24-23 at home by the then-6-10 Winnipeg Blue Bombers while Edmonton went on the road and lost 55-9 in Regina. In their own special ways, both games were lopsided upsets (Montreal should have won by three TDs) and both losing teams left the field embarrassed. The Eskimos have been blitzed in their last two games and have allowed 98 points. The Edmonton defence is ready for an overhaul except that there is only one game in which to do the overhauling before the Eskies haul ass to Winnipeg for the Eastern semi (isn’t there something odd about an Edmonton-Winnipeg Eastern semifinal?). Marcus Brady is set to start at quarterback for Montreal.

Pick: Edmonton (holding my nose)

Hamilton Tiger-Cats (3-14) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7-10) 

Saturday 1 p.m. CT, TSN

Wouldn’t you love to be Marcel Bellefeuille? He was the interim head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, went 1-6 in the job and because of all that success, had the interim tag removed from his title. His record isn’t as good as the guy the ‘Cats fired, but Bellefeuille got the guy’s job anyway. Poor Charlie Taafe should sue for unlawful dismissal. The ‘Cats are awful and Bellefeuille hasn’t done much to make them any better. Winnipeg, meanwhile, has improved dramatically since the addition of Jason Armstead, Kai Ellis, Zeke Moreno and Joe Smith. Brendan Taman should be executive of the year. The Bombers have won five of their last seven and should win again this week.

 

Pick: Winnipeg

B.C. Lions (11-6) at Calgary Stampeders (12-5)

Saturday, 4 p.m., CT, TSN

If Calgary actually tries, the Stamps should blow away a B.C. Lions team that is pretty good, but not that good. If Toronto happens to upset Saskatchewan (which they won’t), the Lions could be playing for home-field advantage in the Western semifinal. As they probably won’t be playing for anything at all, this will simply be a battle of two of the league’s superstars: B.C. defensive lineman Cameron Wake and Calgary quarterback Henry Burris. I like Burris, if he plays more than a quarter.

Pick: Calgary

Last Week: 2-2

Season: 41-19

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Week 18 in the CFL. Will Saskatchewan or Edmonton be the crossover team?

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The six CFL playoff-bound teams are all set: Montreal and Winnipeg will play host to post-season games in the East. Calgary, Edmonton, B.C. and Saskatchewan have all made it in the West, but we still aren’t sure who will play whom.

That’s because one of those Western teams will morph into an Eastern team and play the Eastern semifinal in Winnipeg on Nov. 8. That team will be Edmonton if they lose to Saskatchewan on Saturday night, but the Roughriders have been so ravaged by injuries this year that it’s hard to imagine them beating a good opponent anytime soon. And Edmonton IS a good opponent.

 

Frankly, if I were Edmonton right now, I’d throw the game, rest my stars and finish last in the West. Playing in Winnipeg in the Eastern semifinal on a cold, November Saturday as opposed to playing in Calgary or Saskatchewan in the semifinal would be a lot more inviting. When you consider the West is 22-6 against the East this season, playing the Bombers would be a lot better than playing against a Western rival.

 

So that’s it. All that’s left in the CFL regular season is to determine which team finishes in which spot in the West.

 

So does all this sound familiar to you? It should. The league has been like this for almost the entire season and now the CFL is finally — we’re told — discussing a change to the concept of divisional alignments.

 

In fact, I’ll be on the Saskatchewan Roughriders pre-game show this Saturday evening (around 5 p.m. CDT) with host Roger Currie, discussing my column in last week’s National Post where I suggested the CFL needed to go to an non-divisional, eight-team format as soon as possible.

 

In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at Week 18…

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