THE CANADIAN PRESS
The most telling thing I learned from Week 1 of the 2015 CFL season is this: The football gods still have a penchant for sadistic behaviour. How else do you explain the brutal injuries to battle-back warrior quarterbacks like Darian Durant, Mike Reilly and Dan LeFevour? The CFL has gone to great lengths to protect quarterbacks and still, devastation on opening weekend. Tell us what we did wrong, football gods, and we will correct it. Because Travis Lulay is in action this weekend and we’ve had enough of your obnoxious cruelty already.
The world owes Stampeders’ defensive end Charleston Hughes an apology. Well, if not the world, at least the voters in the annual TSN Top Fifty Players list. Number 36? Oh no. An injury slowed him down last season is all. He’s given notice to the rest of the league that he is once again at full speed. Four Tackles, two sacks and two pass knockdowns against Hamilton serve as a calling card. Forgiven?
Is Trevor Harris ready, we all asked? He answered with an emphatic “yes” in the Argos’ 26 – 11 win over Edmonton in Fort McMurray on Saturday. 24 of 27 for 347 yards and three touchdowns are Player of the Week type numbers. While one game is much too little a product sample to anoint Harris as the next great CFL QB, it is obvious that he has what it takes to guide the Argos in decent fashion until Ricky Ray returns. Where Harris’ actual ceiling is, well, we’re about to find out.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers allowed one sack. One. This is the same team that allowed quarterback Drew Willy to be sacked 67 times in 2014. This is what you call an upgrade. Willy’s QB efficiency rating from game one? 169.6. This is what you call a correlation. He completed 22 of 25 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns (also POW-like numbers). Because its much easier to throw a football when you’re looking at receivers and not the sky.
Drew Willy looked like a different quarterback playing behind his new-look offensive line. Who else from the Bomber offence benefited?
Paris Cotton cuts like a diamond. The Blue Bombers’ running back gave fans a little taste in 2014 and head coach Mike O’Shea was betting on him being the real deal when he let Nic Grigsby go. Good call. Cotton showed his feature back capabilities again in the Bombers’ win in Regina. Along the way, he left a wake of defenders clutching at air.
Saskatchewan’s Anthony Allen is not one to be outdone. He averaged 9.3 yards a carry for a total of 102 yards, one breakaway 42-yard scamper included. With Kevin Glenn taking over as the number one QB in Saskatchewan, Allen’s abilities will be big. Glenn has always shown he is a much better quarterback when the opposition is given a steady diet of ground game, allowing him to be picky with the air option.
Sleight of hand award of the week goes to Calgary receiver Jeff Fuller. His amazing catch, midway through the fourth quarter against Hamilton had one in my viewing party exclaiming “that’s the catch of the year!” We’ve got a long way to go but that reception has set the bar awfully high. I hear someone showed a replay to Criss Angel and he said “What the hell?! HOW?”
If the Ticats and Stampeders are going to burn barns the way they did Friday night, give me an 18-game season of them facing each other. Especially with the bad blood that seems to be brewing between them. And you wonder how the Ticats are going to look once they get the likes of C.J. Gable, Luke Tasker and Eric Norwood back in their line-up. Because they looked pretty formidable even without them.
The Ottawa REDBLACKS’ offence is gonna be alright, after all. 2014 was a dismal mess and the 2015 pre-season was no better. While their win in Montreal was not a masterpiece, really, it did show that all those new receivers in the line-up are up to the task of moving the sticks and finishing drives. Quarterback Henry Burris threw for 263 yards. Last season that was more like a two game total. Maybe three. Show us that smile, Hank. Now, about those three interceptions….
Still got it: Brandon Whitaker, Johnny Sears, Jerome Messam, Jonathan Hefney.
Finally: Give me a team of Keon Raymonds and I will rule the world.
