2019 Grey Cup is now wide open

Calgary for its part placed Bo Levi Mitchell on another six game injured list, looking to separate his salary from the salary cap rules with his pectoral muscle injury.

Nick Arbuckle played not bad for Calgary, but Arbuckle’s passing game consists of short passes, occasional deep shots and just trying not to turn the ball over.

Calgary was kind of a unknown factor despite being defending Grey Cup champions as they had a host of players and some coaches to replace heading into this season.

Losing Mitchell was kind of a mixed blessing for the Stamps because they have now freed up some money for some NFL cuts at the end of the month who might be ideally timed to help Calgary drive for back to back titles.

Linebacker Alex Singleton would be the prime get for the Stampeders but it seems he is more likely to stick with the Philadelphia Eagles. However there are other players who might shake out and make life in Calgary more interesting for the last couple of months of the season.

But you cannot argue about a game where both teams combined for over 1,023 yards in total offense. Unless you were Calgary Head Coach Dave Dickenson who was whining after the game about how his team had the game taken away on official calls.

The problem with this theory by Dave Dickenson is that it ignores how Calgary had toyed with officials in previous years when receivers would run into defensive backs to draw contact penalties. There were a few calls in the Calgary Montreal game that could have gone either way, but Dave Dickenson should stop whining and maybe get away from the Jason Maas school of whining and blaming everyone but himself for his team’s failure.

The other big story came on Thursday night’s game when Winnipeg blew BC out of the water 32-16 but then lost Nichols to what is expected to be announced as a rotator cuff injury. Winnipeg had reached out to Kevin Glenn, much like the Riders did when Zach Collaros went down, and Glenn turned them down, which means the injury is probably more severe than what Winnipeg announced on Thursday.

This raises an interesting question of how much Nichols’ injury will affect the Bombers. Nichols has been labeled a “game manager”, which to the Bombers credit, they have made caps with Game Manager on the front and Nichols’ number on the side or back.

I would think Nichols absence from the Bombers would not be as bad as say, Andrew Harris’ absence would be. Harris has emerged this season as the Canadian with the most yards from scrimmage and the early favorite for the most outstanding player.

If Nichols is down for an extended period of time, Harris will have to increase his workload to take pressure off of Chris Shreveler, the backup who would be kind some day. Streveler is a flamboyant type of quarterback and impressed a bit when he filled in for Nichols at the start of the 2018 season when Nichols went down. Winnipeg won one game and lost three before Nichols came back.

Again, depending on the severity of the injury to Nichols, I would think the Bombers would likely look to make a trade for someone and perhaps that someone is on the roster of the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos have a ton of quarterbacks, although recently acquired Collaros was again placed on the six game injured list and James Franklin has yet to come off the injury list.

Jim Popp could help strengthen his club with a trade, perhaps for draft picks, although Toronto has not been efficient in their drafting, even with the league gifting them some territorial picks along with Montreal. For Winnipeg, this will be a good way to answer the question that while Winnipeg’s starters may be good, especially on defense, they don’t have enough depth to help the team weather whatever injury outbreak may hit them, as it hits all teams.

Winnpeg better savor their first place at the halfway point of the season.

The next few weeks get positively medieval for the Bombers as they face the Eskimos, then face the Riders for their Labour Day-Banjo Bowl set-tos. The Bombers lose those three, then suddenly the Riders, Eskimos and Stampeders all move into the mix for first place and the last couple of months will be positively epic on the prairies.

Edmonton managed to roll over Toronto 41-26 to move into second place, although beating Toronto is something good teams should be able to do. Trevor Harris managed to throw for over 400 yards for the Eskimos, but again, Edmonton is now a rhythm passing team and if you can throw off Harris and his timing with his receivers, they haven’t mounted much of a ground attack to make them truly multi-dimensional.

When it gets colder and Edmonton will be forced to rely on a ground game, it will be interesting to see how this team responds. When Edmonton is good, they can be very good, but when Edmonton gets off the rails, they are like a helpless kitten trying to bat around a ball of yarn. It looks cute but ultimately it just goes nowhere.

Probably the most boring game of the weekend was Hamilton beating Ottawa 21-7.

Dominique Davis has his moments as an Ottawa quarterback, but their offensive playing calling by committee has this offense being inconsistent at best and a far cry from the seemingly polished offensive powerhouse that beat the Riders 44-41 at the start of the season.

Ottawa is also pretty helpless on offense and while Davis looks like a quarterback and seems capable of making throws, he lacks judgement and that unfortunately comes with experience and coaching. And without a consistent offensive presence to help mold him, this looks like a rebuilding year and probably a year out of the playoffs for Ottawa as Montreal now appears to be the real thing.

For Hamilton, the win may not have been spectacular, but it demonstrated that Hamilton can probably be pencilled in as the Eastern conference first place team, but they shouldn’t book their hotel rooms for Calgary just yet. Dane Evans is an adequate game manager, but Hamilton’s offense seems tardy to get underway and if they are playing Montreal who seem to be more rounded team, then Montreal could well get out of the East and represent at the Grey Cup.

Now who would have thunk that at the beginning of the year?

So now we have some interesting games this week, starting Friday when Winnipeg goes to Edmonton. Winnipeg is already a game up due to beating Edmonton in Winnipeg, but now things get interesting because of Nichols’ situation.

If Chris Shreveler starts for the Bombers, the thing for the Eskimos to do is to throw as many looks at him as possible and keep Shreveler in the pocket until he can be sacked. Shreveler does OK when scrambling, but Edmonton leads the league in quarterback sacks with 30 and Winnipeg has 22. When it comes to protecting quarterbacks, Winnipeg’s O line has given up 14 sacks while Edmonton has only given up 3.

I kind of thought Winnipeg would be good for a narrow win, but now I think that will be Edmonton’s fate to narrow beat Winnipeg and move into a tie for first place. Winnipeg’s season may not be in free-fall – Nichols may miss just one game or Streveler may actually demonstrate something more than just running the ball wide, but for this week, Edmonton is the marginally better team 24-23.

On Saturday Ottawa comes to Saskatchewan and Rider fans have to hope that following their bye week and going into it with a weather gift from the league, the Riders can actually move to 6-3 and maybe a game behind first with a win against Ottawa. This may be easily said than done.

For whatever reason Ottawa has had the Rider’s number since the Riders bounced Ottawa in the 2017 Eastern Semi-Final. The Riders first game against Ottawa at the start of the year had Dominique Davis hitting every deep pass possible and making Nick Marshall look like the Marshall of the Rose Bowl Parade.

This time Ottawa does not have the relative advantage of surprise and with enough film, it seems teams are managing to put Davis in a corner, to paraphrase Dirty Dancing. With Ottawa’s poor offensive showing the last couple of weeks, combined with the Rider defense doing two scoop and scores against Montreal, I’m not thinking of another 44-41 win, but these two teams are relatively evenly matched. Ottawa should come into this game feeling relatively confident of themselves considering how they have played the Riders at Mosaic Stadium, but this time,well, the clock will have run out on Cinderella.

The Rider offense will find itself after spinning their wheels against Montreal and the defense should be able to play better pass protection than it did the first time they played Ottawa. The Riders move to 6-3 and it sets up their home and home with Winnipeg nicely with a 28-21 win.

Hamilton goes to BC for another catfight and here are some factors to consider. Teams heading to the west coast and playing the late game will be starting at 10 pm according to their body clocks. That rarely works for eastern teams.

The other factors are that BC has probably the second best strippers in the league and when you have been held in Hamilton since the beginning of the year, you really do need to get out and live a little. This might count against Hamilton, but Hamilton players are probably more comfortable in strip clubs where the dancers remove their teeth, much like Hamilton’s fans do when they go to football games.

BC has tried to make some adjustments on their offensive formations to give Mike Reilly time to pass, but Winnipeg still racked up seven sacks of Reilly. BC’s season ended when Hamilton came back to win 35-34, stunning the Lions and psychologically ending the team’s will to win.

Hamilton will continue that roll because BC is just too much of a tire fire to do anything except maybe catch a team napping. Hamilton might be too tired to play for this game, but in all honesty, BC could spike Hamilton’s Gatorade with melatonin and it still wouldn’t be enough to slow Hamilton down. Hamilton wins this one 33-21.

Finally on Sunday we have Touchdown Atlantic make a comeback when Montreal plays Toronto in Moncton. The talk of the Atlantic Schooners has simmered right down, with apparently the plan to build temp stands in Moncton until maybe something is done in Halifax.

Toronto may have a lousy offensive line and some learning challenged people on defense and a running back in James Wilder Jr. who is more interested in being a wrestler than being a running back, but they are still better than BC.

However, Toronto is not playing BC. They are playing Montreal who with Vernon Adams Jr. at quarterback and now Jeremiah Johnson at running back, have a more balanced attack than most teams in the east.

With a win, Montreal would firm up their plans to host an eastern semi-final and who knows, maybe get into position to challenge Hamilton for first in the second half of the season. Montreal has hope, Toronto has uh, questions, and for Montreal hope and talent trumps questions for a 30-21 win.

by Greg Urbanoski

2019 Grey Cup is now wide open

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