Heading to the Grey Cup

But now, things are not so funny. Ask the Toronto Argonauts who were steaming towards a Grey Cup appearance in their 150th year. They had a 16-2 record, tied with Edmonton for the best record since the 18-game schedule came in (I do believe the Calgary Stampeders, probably the 1948 version, had a perfect 14-0 record) and had been rotating starters in, ensuring everyone was fresh for the Eastern Final.

I know of someone who is an Argo fan and while I was happy for him for the favor, they gave Rider fans by beating the Godless Stony Mountain Blue Bombers at Mosaic Stadium for the Grey Cup, I could have warned him about the last time a team went 16-2 – the equally Godless Edmonton Eskimos who stomped through the CFL with an offense and defense that seemed unstoppable.

That is, at least until the western final when the Riders, held together with duct tape and chip on their shoulders that came from being one of only two teams to beat the Eskimos that year, stomped the Eskimos 32-21 in what must be the biggest playoff upset of all time.

The Argos did not seem to be as arrogant as the Eskimos were, but if I were Ryan Dinwiddie, coach of the Argos, I would have laid down in the 18th game and finished with a 15-3 record. Those teams can lose a Grey Cup, but they can also win one. When Toronto moved down the field efficiently, I thought it was essentially the start of a bloodbath, but then Montreal got a pick six deep in their zone and scored and the Argos were en route to nine turnovers and losing the eastern final 38-17. Fajardo had little to nothing to do with the win, other than not screwing it up.

Montreal’s defense got into quarterback Chad Kelly’s head and between being stopped on third and short, throwing pick sixes or fumbling the ball away, it seemed the Argos were not prepared to step it up for this game, or maybe they didn’t think it was necessary. Montreal’s defense, keyed by the addition of Shawn Lemon and Darnell Sankey, has given the Als a toughness on defense that was most apparent in the stopping of the third down games and the Argo running game. Montreal’s special teams added a touchdown of their own to clinch the win and Montreal, who I thought would finish first, made it in as the eastern representative.

So, while the Bomber fans reflect back to their years in Stony Mountain and imagine that Fajardo will be once again their shower room pinata, I suspect the Als will use Fajardo to do a short passing game, rely on his legs and the Montreal running game, and use their defense to teach the Bombers a lesson. Bomber fans at Incestuous Field for the Western Final will dispute that last statement.

They are convinced they are the Second Coming, which again is more a reflection of their time in the shower rooms of Stony Mountain Penitentiary than it is in any sort of reality. The Bombers used a blocked punt for a TD and Brady Ollivera’s running to down the Lions in the western final 24-13. The Lions tried to make it interesting, but BC’s offensive and defensive line play came back to haunt them in the western final. The Lions have a first-class receiving corps, but they do not have a consistent running game and unless you are BC and finish first in the west so you can host the western final, you will need to run outdoors if the western final is held anywhere else than Vancouver.

Winnipeg ran the ball down BC’s throat in the first half and other than a Hail Mary final throw in the first half that gave the Lions a touchdown, it would have been over at that point. BC was unable to sustain any kind of offensive drives, but they were able to keep Winnipeg from developing any offensive consistency. The Bombers may be doing just enough to win, if they are playing a team that hits them hard from the start and prevents them from doing what they want to do, then we may have a competitive game. If Bomber fans were honest, they would have to agree they get the benefit of calls like a Bomber receiver running right at a defensive back, falling, and drawing an interference penalty.

The media and fan circle jerk that has emerged around the Bombers has created an aura of entitlement that makes me think will only be topped by one thing – overconfidence and lack of respect.

The entitlement factor came back to me when recalling how this year I tried to get Kennedy’s residential school survivor practice jersey signed by the Bombers and in appreciation, Kennedy would provide four members with beaded lanyards made by my cousin Camy, a First Nations artist in Fort Qu’Appelle. The problem was after we dropped off the lanyards, the Bombers took the lanyards but did not autograph the jerseys. I had to curtail my tendency to verbally flay the Bombers when I requested, they send the lanyards back to Kennedy since they could not be bothered to sign his jersey.

They saw nothing wrong with taking the lanyards and not signing the jerseys, probably thinking that because they are the Bombers, they are entitled to the lanyards.

Now that I see village idiots like Troy Westwood predicting a bloodbath in the Grey Cup (I have two more Grey Cup rings than Westwood does so what does he know), I hope Jason Maas has a big enough bulletin board to post all the Bomber posturing and really get that chip going for Montreal.

BC had a suspect defense when it came to running against them, but I would say Montreal has addressed those concerns nicely with Lemon and Sankey and even if Adam Bighill continues to spear players with his helmet on second and short plays, I don’t think Montreal will be too flustered by what Winnipeg’s defense can do. Winnipeg will try to run again on Montreal, but Noel Thorpe should not be underestimated as a guy who can disguise defenses like Don Matthews could do once upon a time.

The addition of Lemon does give Montreal a guy with fresh legs to rush the quarterback, so Winnipeg may be thinking that Montreal will be vulnerable to the run towards Lemon’s side of the field, but I look at this like a great game of chess. Montreal will be setting Winnipeg up for their favorite plays by giving them some different looks so they can take advantage of them. Lemon will help Montreal’s pass rush and if there is anything Zach Collaros hates, it is a good pass rush that brings back his PTSD with Hamilton and Saskatchewan. Montreal’s defense has scored off Collaros before but had problems with stopping the run. Those games were before the arrival of Shawn Lemon and Darnell Sankey.

Those additions by GM Danny Maciocia will be the difference in Montreal winning a boring defensive battle 27-23. For Rider fans this has not been a great week, not just for the spectacle of two previous starting quarterbacks facing each other in the Grey Cup but for Nic Marshall getting cut after being arrested for a host of gun charges in Georgia.

I am not too bothered by the appearance of Fajardo versus Collaros.

When you hear from people on the sidelines about how Fajardo threw people under the bus, it makes his release from the Riders understandable and I look at it this way – if Fajardo managed to take a hard look at his behavior as a starting quarterback and did not repeat that in Montreal, then at least he learned something and became a better quarterback as a result of that. Maas, who bit the bullet for being the Riders offensive coordinator last year only to become the Als head coach is another guy who seems to have looked in the mirror and became the better as a result of his Rider experience.

The days of throwing Gatorade containers and breaking headsets seems to be over, but I had to chuckle at the F Bombs Maas dropped in talking to his players after the game. For those with poor memories, Collaros was traded to the Argos because the Riders had no confidence, they could keep him healthy and there were legitimate concerns about his life after football if he continued to get concussions. Toronto traded him to Winnipeg and Winnipeg had a better offensive line that could keep him up and keep him as whiney as ever.

The Marshall incident was just a matter of time as anyone who watched Marshall suddenly jog after receivers who caught balls deep behind him last season could attest to. Marshall with his gang tats just didn’t seem to care and the failure of Rider coaches or management to bench him for his lackluster defensive play only seemed to embolden the locker room mentality that anything goes, as long as it wasn’t hard, because there were no consequences to not playing hard. The disposition of the Marshall case probably won’t come until next year, but a conviction makes it all but certain he will not be back in the CFL. With all due appreciation to his past efforts, the time has come to say goodbye to Marshall. The elimination of the Argos means the interview of Cory Mace, the Argos defensive coordinator, will likely take place this week and the big question is who Mace will bring in in the crucial coordinator positions.

The choices seem to be between Pete Costanza (which from a Seinfeld fan perspective would be great fun) and Marc Mueller, who has a good relationship with Mace from their time in Calgary together and who had a trying year as the quarterback coach with the Stampeders. I would imagine the interviews with Scott Milanovich will also take place, unless Hamilton decides it is time to kick Orlando Steinauer upstairs and let Milanovich try to get the cats back to the big game.

Milanovich would likely have a nice choice of assistants and let’s be honest, this is all about building a new team culture from the mercenary Chris Jones years where buddies roamed the sidelines as assistant coaches, and no criminal record was too much to prevent you from getting onto the game day roster. The Riders plan to fill the job by the end of November so we got two weeks to go before the 2024 season gets underway, hopefully with Montreal Alouettes as the new Grey Cup Champions.

by Greg Urbanoski

Heading to the Grey Cup

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