Won't wait for the Riders and Hamilton. I'll do some "splainin'" now…

Saturday, July 12, 2008, 10:15 a.m.

I was wrong about Montreal and I was wrong about Winnipeg, but one thing I won't allow myself to do: Be wrong about the West.

Clearly — and we're only three weeks into the CFL season — the West is a dominant force and might just make the Eastern champion look pretty mediocre when Grey Cup time rolls around.

It became quite obvious on Thursday night, when the Calgary Stampeders went on the road, fell behind 11-0 after the first quarter, and then quietly and methodically altered their game plan and came back to beat what most people thought was a pretty good Montreal Alouettes team, 23-19.

Later on Thursday, the new-look Edmonton Eskimos, a team that improved dramatically in the off-season, eviscerated the Toronto Argos 47-28 and left the bumbling Argos stumbling out of Northern Alberta.

Friday night, came the old coup de grace. The B.C. Lions arrived at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg and demolished the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 42-24. It was actually 42-8 before B.C. went into prevent and let Ryan Dinwiddie come off the bench to fool the Winnipeg fans into thinking he was some kind of saviour (Troy Kopp did that once, too). 

Evidently, Winnipeg is awful. Who knew? It's a team that didn't get better in the off-season, made some bad decisions in the pre-season (Where are you now, Troy Westwood?) and has a head coach who believes it's everybody else's fault but his own. Doug Berry has lost his room and after Frday night's debacle, it doesn't look like he's getting it back.

Of course, it hasn't helped that he ignores Charles Roberts in the offensive scheme, allows Kit Cartwright to call the plays and couldn't replace Juran Bolden on the corner or Kyries Hebert at safety. Forget the punting game (Serna had a shaky 36.1 yard average), that horse has left the barn. Two things have contributed to Winnipeg's 0-3 start — the team did not get better in the off-season and the head coach tends to throw the people who work for him under the bus — with far too much ease.

Let's be honest, people are generally horrible to each other and coaches of sports teams tend to be more horrible than most, but when you need somebody to go to war for you, respect is a much better motivator than blame. 

In the meantime, the West is quite superior to the East in the CFL and only Hamilton, at home this afternoon, has a chance to stop what could be a most impressive Week 3 sweep.