What we learned in two days: Hamilton, B.C. and Winnipeg aren't as good as we thought and the CFL is dull.

I had one day of TV-watching and one day at Canada Inns Stadium, and now I'm lost.

First of all, I have to admit, I really believed the pre-season hype.

I thought, with a healthy Casey Printers around for the full six months and a healthy Jesse Lumsden just, well, kind of around, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats would be a pretty good football team. Boy was I delusional. The Tiger-Cat outfit that was drilled 33-10 in their home opener Thursday night against Montreal, was as dismal a football team as I've seen since the Jeff Reinebold-era Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

I believed, after the Tiger-Cats beat Toronto in the final pre-season game of 2008 that maybe, just maybe, Charlie Taafe had this thing figured out. Man, was I wrong. Poor ol' Charlie couldn't coach a dog in from a snowstorm with a pork chop. 

I watched Montreal in the pre-season and they were wonky at best. How Hamilton could lose at home to a much-too-old Anthony Calvillo and a head coach with no experience in 12-man football says a lot of bad things about the Tiger-Cats.

Later on Thursday night, I suspected the B.C. Lions would be better, but I wasn't surprised when Calgary beat them 28-18. On Thursday morning on the Mike Richards Show on Calgary's The FAN 960, I picked the Stamps to win simply because the combination of Henry Burris and Dave Dickenson at quarterback just seemed so much more skilled and experienced than the combination of Buck Pierce and Jarious Jackson. I was right. 

We were told B.C. was the best team in the West. Sorry, but I'm not convinced they're even a playoff-worthy team.

(OK, yeah, yeah, so Danny Maciocia's coaching in Edmonton so the Lions will make the playoffs.) 

Meanwhile, on Friday night in the press box at Canad Inns Stadium, Harvey Rosen of Broadcast News and I, sensed something ugly was about to take place by about the third minute of the fourth quarter of the Winnipeg-Toronto snooze-fest.

Two teams with spectacular offensive weapons put up a grand total of 39 points. Zzzzzzzzz! 23-16 is an ugly score in a Canadian Football League game between two teams with players such as Charles Roberts, Kerry Joseph, David Boston, Bethel Johnson, Derrick Armstrong, Jamal Robertson, Mike Vanderjagt, Kevin Glenn, Michael Bishop, Dominique Dorsey and Terrence Edwards.  

I don't get it. Either Steve Buratto and Kit Cartwright, the two offensive co-ordinators, are really lousy at their jobs, or the CFL has become an offensive wasteland where great players go to whither and die.

How these two teams, with all that talent, play a 23-16 game on a very nice night for football, is a mystery. I hate pulling out this old chestnut, but 15-to-20 years ago, when the likes of Dunigan, Ham, Hufnagel, Burgess, Clements, Brock, Allen, Flutie, and on and on, played quarterback in this league, the game was thrilling from start to finish. If you didn't score 30 points, you didn't have a chance. And often, if you didn't get to 40, you'd get drilled.

Now, if a team can scuffle around and score 20, it can win enough games to reach the Grey Cup.

The CFL used to be the most spectacular game in the football world. Now, it pales in comparison to the four-down game where Peyton Manning and Tom Brady play 37-35 extravaganzas. It's kind of sad. 

Winnipeg is not very good offensively. Toronto is only slightly better. And clearly, those are the two best teams in the East. 

It's time for a federal government study on why the CFL has become so boring. Maybe that idiot Senator Larry Campbell could conduct it.