CFL Week 10: What Did We Learn? - podcast episode cover

CFL Week 10: What Did We Learn?

Aug 14, 20231 hr 4 min
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

We went LIVE to react to CFL week 10 on Monday, August 14 at 8am PST.

Join me, Evan Willsmore, and Hussey's Huddle as we take your comments and calls LIVE and react to the 10th week of CFL 2023 games, CFL week 10 as a whole, as well as the things the CFL is doing well, and things the CFL can work on in the future.

Week 10 CFL games include the CFL Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the CFL Edmonton Elks, the CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders at the CFL Montreal Alouettes, the CFL Calgary Stampeders at the CFL BC Lions, and the CFL Ottawa REDBLACKS at the CFL Toronto Argonauts.

Transcript

Well, happy Monday morning here on the marcast. Early Monday, one of our correspondents, Evans, got to fly out. We had a live correspondent at the game this weekend. That moving up our production values there, but lots of talk about today. I thought this was a tremendously exciting weekend. We gotta get in everyone here. The Thursday obviously highlight of my life here just in terms of the roller coaster. But we'll get through everything. Jason,

how are you doing? I'm doing good. Read how are you? We're good that Evan, Evan traveling for the Mark has this weekend spend time in BC. How is that? It was great? You know, we'll get into that. I mean that game specifically was over pretty quickly, but you know, it was definitely always nice to see, you know, a CFL team play, or especially BC in this case, given how well they've they've been this year. But yeah, overall, it was great, great

experience. I always love coming up here. Yeah, I message Evan, I said, if the Evanton game hadn't happened, you probably could have left halftime at BC. But then you're like, you don't you don't know, no leader, stay've been here. But I can't wait to get to the Thursday game. But we'll get through everything else we had here. Just I guess the notes real quick breaking whatever this tie Cats trade to kind of fill in, right, Mason's injured and Della Gallas died doing good? Jason,

what do you make of this? And we'll get Evan's thoughts. Well, I was reading that the tie Cats punter Bailey Flint is actually he's injured right now, so maybe that's the reason behind the trade for them. Pitkin didn't played for them. I think he signed a couple of weeks ago with the Tiecats, didn't really get into any meaningful snaps, so I mean, I

don't think they lose too much from that. Pipkin actually was briefly a CFL starter back in twenty nineteen, actually won the job in Montreal over Burning Adams, so he does have a bit of CFL experience. Has played a little bit with DC over the past couple of years as well, so maybe he gets into the starting lineup. Was the scatch one they really struggling right now with their quarterback situation. We'll get to that, and yeah, I think

that's the reasoning behind the trade for both themes. And then you had some insights as while we were talking of Kim. Yeah, I mean, you know, Saskatchewan needed a quarterback, and I think they went after somebody who had a bit of experience in the CFL. You know, obviously Antonio Pipkin isn't a botafied starter, but he you know, has been with multiple teams at this point. He does have that experience in the league. And I mean, he wasn't with you know, Hamilton for that long, so it's

not like they were really latched on him. And now Hamilton just acquired Mike Glass, who was with the Allouettes in the preseason, so it kind of works out both ways. And you know, I guess Hamilton gets a new punter to a high upside global punter, I believe. So I don't know, I mean it, I think it's all right. You know, again, Saskatchewan is in kind of a desperate situation, and it's it's rare that you see a quarterback punch or trade, or even a quarterback trade in general

nowadays. But you know, it looks like Antonio Pipkin has a greater chance to appear in some games in Saskatchewan than he did in Hamilton's Yeah, I, like I said, I Jamie and I, you know, runs the green zone up there, and we're friends on Twitter and I kind of gauge Saskatchewan kind of welfare checks on his tweets and you know he's gonna you know, fins not doing good. They're dele galu, you know, kind of end of the world. So we'll get to Saskatchewan. But yeah, definitely

kind of figuring that out. And then that we do your miss we have to talk. Nathan Work had this big you know, we can talk because I know they play that. I want to get Evans taken during the BC game when they played it during the game. But you know, we still exist, you know, Nathan Work and the CFL. We're playing all that. What did you guys think of this? Uh, we'll go Evan for just kind of really live viral. I mean Patrick Mahomes was tweeting about this

kind of Nathan Work standout. Yeah, well it was pretty cool. You know. So I was at a Lions game last year when Nathan Roorke was starting one of his last starts really before he got injured, and it was just so cool to be there, you know, at the game in BC and then they're showing that a year after. You know, I had been there when he was starting. All around. I mean, just a great

play. And you know, whether or not you knew Nathan Rourke going into that game, I think you know, I mean, he really took the NFL by storm. I mean, that was one of the best preseason plays I think we'd seen in a long time. And the fact that it came from him, you know, of course us everyone who was on the stream, you know, we know who he is, we know what he did last year before the injury, but a lot of people didn't. For a lot of people, this was the first time they had really heard of Nathan

Rourke. And you know, we always talk about your welcome to the NFL moment being you know, one where you kind of get humbled pretty quickly, But I think this was the opposite, you know, this was this was I mean one of the best plays you could ask for. And I think just in that one play, I mean that might give him the backup job. I don't know, but there was a lot of confidence around him generally and outside of that play too. I mean, he looked really good.

It wasn't just that one play. That he had. I mean, he was in there for a good chunk of the game and really had some other plays too that looked promising. So yeah, it was. It was great to see Nathan do that, and even better to be in BC where you know, people really appreciated it. And I don't think they played the clip until it might have been between the third and fourth quarter, that pause,

like during the TV break, so it took him a bit. We thought it might it might happen at halftime because the play had happened pretty early on in this BC game, but you know, I guess it didn't get to the media team or whatever. But I'm still I'm still glad they got around to showing it because I was a bit worried that they working to capitalize on that and it would be a great opportunity to engage with the fans. You know, your old quarterback going to the NFL. You know, he's fighting

for a shot and then he does something like this. I mean, how can you not like that? Yeah, CFL doesn't shake me as the quickest movie that departs. And that's like yeah, because Mike's like, they they gotta play this right now. That I was like Mike like, let's we'll be happy if they play it by the time the games everye They tweeted the steazy nay, it owns your franchise. I had to. I had the old man google like what steezy means, and make said it was like an

old Brooklyn term, like me in school or whatever. Jason, did you like this? Like we I don't know. I feel like we get made fun of sometimes for the XFL, Like when our players do stuff, it's the same thing. I mean, it's like you're either CFL feels the same way. Hey, this is our child out here. Someone commented on one of them, like I would hear it was, you know, CFL legend Nathan Work and they said, I would hardly call him the CFL legend.

He played really good for half the season and the bailed. Yeah, I mean, just to echo with Evans said, it was, you know, you can't ask for a better start in the NFL for for Rourke, and I think anytime you see a player that played in the CFL or one of these other leagues thriving in the NFL, I think it's really exciting. I'm just always happy for the player, and I'm really excited to see what he can do in the coming weeks and if you can earn a spot on this

Jacksonville jack Boards roster. Yeah, they had. Farhan had the quote they were talking with Peterson. Yeah, they had, like Naylor was down there and far I mean they really all all hands on that, you know. I mean know Farhan was back for the BC game, but he had been traveling last week I think for training camp. Naylor. Yeah, Peterson was saying incredible poison all that. So that's cool. I mean, it's exciting,

but I didn't think you think that was fun. Like I was hardly called this the CLA Andie Murray said, this guy's gonna get murdered here on the on the thing. So let's get to the games here, exciting games and nothing apparently play it according to the CFL website here but the big time win last night, like Chad Kelly dustint crime really coming out too here. But this this Shag Kelly video game number is four hundred and seventeen yards.

Jason, do you want to start on this incredible run? It looked like it was in danger, but then Argos by the time I had the game on, they had kind of put it to bed. Yeah, So I think that this was a really fun game, especially in the first half. I think it was probably the high scoring first half that we've seen so far this season. And I think that the big thing coming out of this game

is that Chad Kelly really stuck his claim in the MLP race. I thought that the last couple of weeks it looked like maybe Zach Claris was like statistically it looked like it wasn't very close. But I think that this with a four hundred yard and a four touchdown game, it really makes it more of an interesting race here, and I think it's gonna be a really interesting thing to follow the rest of the season. And I think that, you know, for the Argos, it was just good to see them get back on

track after you know, an injury pliged week last week. So I think that, you know, all signs are good for the Argos going forward.

Evan, what did you make of this? And I thought it was funny they had the graphic up and Mike was tweeting the CFL had Chad Kelly of twenty eight for twenty one to temphs and then Mike had the tweet at the office and be like though it was twenty one twenty eight, it's still are still an incredible performance even if we're doing twenty eight completions on twenty one the

Times What did you make of this? But by Jack? Yeah, dare I, dare I bring up the stats issue again, but all of us, No, this game was definitely kind of your your shootout of the week. I know Edmonton and Winnipeg got pretty high scoring, but of course that was a completely different tale in my opinion, just in terms of how the game flow went. I mean, this was pretty back and forth. Toronto, you know, pulled away in the second half, but like Ottawa wasn't

going away. And you know, a lot of the credit in this game was going to go to Chad Kelly because this performance really did separate him. You have people like Emery Hunt saying, you know, if he's not MP, I don't know who is at this point. I mean, yeah, maybe Zach Claros, but I would definitely lean towards the direction of Chad Kelly. This was a great bounceback performance from Toronto, you know, after what happened last week when Kelly got injured and Cam Dukes had to come in against

Calgary. I thought they bounced back really nicely here. Just an all around complete performance again, you know, I sometimes it's hard to believe just how high scoring their offense. And I mean their defense is, you know, on par I think, you know, the term defense wins championships is used a lot, and I think their defense is definitely, you know, up to the task. I know Robertson Daniel had two sacks in this game and

he I think set the argos. I don't know if it's all time team record, but he had sixteen tackles last week, which was the most I think for an individual in the game. I don't know, maybe you get Mike Mitchell to clarify that, but I'm pretty sure it was some record.

So yeah, all around great performance from Toronto, But I really want to focus on Ottawa and what enough people in the media or not enough people rather in the media are going to say, is I mean, this was arguably dust and Crumb, you know, his most complete performance of the season, you know, from a passing perspective, I don't think we've seen this from him yet. Where he goes out there, you know, has a high completion percentage, you know, just shy of three hundred yards, three touchdowns,

no turnovers. You know, in previous games, we've talked a lot about, you know, his ability to run. I mean, yeah, he can throw the ball. He's a quarterback, that's what he should do. But it was more of his running ability that stood out, you know, for those couple of weeks where he was starting, maybe outside of that

first game or whatever. But this game, you know, you can really focus more on his passing and what he did through the air, and I think that's really important, and even more important maybe was the guy he was connecting to a lot, Jayalen Acklin. I've personally been waiting a long time to see Jalen Acklin have a performance like this this year. I know it's been a slow start for him coming over from Hamilton, just kind of getting

adjusted. And I think, you know, had Jeremiah has solely been the start of this season, you might have seen more of Jaleen Aklin just given that familiarity. But yeah, ultimately, you know, I thought this was a great game, you know, one of the more entertaining ones of the weekend. And you know, while Toronto ended up being the team that won, and you could argue that they were more impressive. I mean, I think this was a good sign for Ottawa, you know, getting back in

the right direction. I mean, Toronto is such a tough opponent. It's gonna be hard to just win outright against him. But if you can go out there and you have a guy like Dustin Crumb, you know, with such a complete performance, if you go out there and show that, I think Otto was in a good position for the rest of the season, and that especially matters. You know, we talked last week about the standings in

the East. I mean it's either going to be dum or Hamilton. And I know they haven't had those divisional games go their way, but I mean, if they can just keep winning, you know who's going to stop him?

Right? Yeah, we need to And I want to have a really deep dive here when we get to the Jake Mayors e ad All in Calgary, because here we have Destin Crumb. Like you said, Evan, he I really thought he was a one trick pony and it's kind of been this whole time and Crumb sanity and well he's just running like he's just scrambling whatever,

putting you know, putting up almost three hundred yards. I mean, he's doubling what Jake Mayer did in the BC game, and I know BC lockdown, but you know Mayor's had I have the stat here when we get to the game. You know, a third of his games whatever this year been under one hundred and fifty yards pass. I mean he's really been struggling to kind of get the ball down the field or you have you know, Destin Crime, you're tween ninety two and then Kelly the fourth seventeen and see

if I'll needs it tweet this out. Almost nine hundred yards of offense here. You know, chunk plays all over the place. CFL football is most entertaining. What did you make of Destin that, Jason Well? I thought, like Evan said, it was probably his most complete effort of the season, and the way that he was able to move the ball with his arm

and this one was very impressive. It was even more impressive considering they were going against the really good Argo's defense that you know, at points in this game, they were just moving up and down the field. I thought the running game got going at times as well, even though the averages really don't reflect it in the box score, but I think that that was a good sign for them. But my biggest concern for them is on the defensive side.

Like their secondary has been very poor over the last like five or so games. I think they've allowed over three hundred yards in the last like five games straight, So I think that's a huge concern for them. A lot of wide open receivers. Demorris Daniels a couple of those times he just was just wide open right behind the defense. So I think that's a huge concern and issue they'll have to fix if they want to be a playoff team this

year. But yeah, the offense was very promising. Yeah, imagine here I got on the game, like I said, when Toronto are really putting the game to bed here in the last quarter, you know, imagine having Andrew Harris on your team and not even really needing him. I mean, he's like an after that at this point, AJ just running running all over everyone, running down the field, really thought, I mean, just another

stand that performance. Right, he was kind of nicked up, right, I think he's been not kind of a peaked the last couple of weeks. But good to see him again with that, and I don't know, I mean the argos look really good. I know it was kind of fluky last week. Evan, What do you like did come to bounce back like this? I mean it wasn't just Chad's back and we're not you know, we're just I don't know that we kind of had our game plan back at Placement.

What did you make of Toronto having such a bounce back game. I mean it was a couple of things, you know. I mean, being at home always helps. I just think overall, I mean, yeah, having Chad Kelly in for the full game, you know, really I think the balance between the run game and the receiving game is important as well, because in this game he had, you know, a j Lett who you know, had one of his better performances of the season, although he's become

pretty consistent at this point, I mean that in a good way. He had that combined with a guy like Davar Daniels, who I think had three touch downs. You know, once you combine those, I mean, if you're going to have that kind of balanced performance where you have a rusher close to one hundred yards and a top receiver who's kind of catching everything that's thrown his way. They also had another hundred yard receiver there too, and camp

Phillips. You know, it's just it's an offensive explosion essentially, and I think, you know, I mean, we'll get into BC, but I think it's sort of a similar type of hunger, you know, where you come back. You know, you're you lose to a team that you you know, either weren't supposed to lose two or you lost in dramatic fashion, you know, and you want to make sure that people don't lose confidence in you. So then you go out and you spin it the other way and

you blow the other team out. So that's kind of where I'm at on that. How do we feel about Ottawa here, Jason in terms of looking good? You know, obviously three and six here, it could be better. I don't know. I mean, I feel like they have a lot of pieces. Is there in that fear going forward? Yeah? I mean, I'm just trying to think how many wins they'll probably need to get into

the playoffs. I don't see Hamilton racking up a whole bunch of them in this last half of the season here, So I mean, it's really gonna come down to how many wins they get. Obviously at the end of the season, and I think that, you know, the biggest problem with them is they cannot beat Hamilton for the life of them. And I think they've already lost the season series to them. They have one more game left, but you know that could be another huge game later on this season when they

go to Ottawa. So I'm really interested to see how that plays out. So I think that it's gonna come down to you know, I haven't really broken down the schedules for each team, but the remaining schedules for each team I think is what's going to really come into play here, because I mean, Montreal is looking really good. I mean, even with the loss his name had, I mean really good, kind of getting those pieces and you know, we're gonna get Cuddie back and kind of do all that. I

mean, they had tremendously. We'll get to that. But the tremendous game this week, even with all that, I don't know, I just feel like they've suffered a lot this year with them as always, evit all and everything else, and I just I don't know if there's enough there, but I do. I do think it's cool that Dustin Crum, like you know here, It's cool to me like here, we're thinking, like believe I

that's going to be the story of the season. The quarterback here, we have this guy like no, you know, no one thought comes in plays great kind of rallying that Evan. Then the other takeaways from Toronto or Ottawa. No, I mean, I'll just kind of go back to the whole standings point for a bit. I think, you know, Ottawa, like I said earlier, I mean, yeah, they lost the season series to

Hamilton, and that puts them in an extreme disadvantage unfortunately. But I mean there's still in I mean, you know, we're going on week eleven, there's still a lot of time to make up for that. Again, I think the way Ottawa played yesterday, if this wasn't against you know, Toronto, I think I mean maybe I don't know, you throw Winnipeg in there. If it wasn't against either those two teams, I think they probably would have won. And I don't know BC two, So maybe that's maybe maybe

that's not validating my point very much. But ultimately, again what I'm getting at here is, to me, it was such a complete performance, especially in the in the first half. If they can carry that momentum moving forward, in their games. I mean, I think they can turn the ship around pretty quickly, more quick than a lot of people expected. I think, well, yeah, and I would agree. I mean in terms of it's just it's tough with with the divisions and now it's all like you know,

laid out there. The other thing that I'm just interesting with that Toronto and all of this because they're going on there their third bye week here, third bye week coming in and then a long stretch because I've been trying to work through the Toronto office to get some people on the show and they say, you know, follow up with this after the last buy herb here is tweeting out, Yeah, Dan, July third had been their last home game.

Now they play, they played the game. I think they've only had three home games this season now going on to buy I mean, it's just crazy, this crazy scheduling. I don't know. I mean, I'm really kind of concerned for Toronto down the long run here where you got to play however many weeks in the row here, Jason, any thoughts on this kind

of this extended second half of the season. Yeah, I mean, I'm just so over all these you know, every team, one team happened to be off every week and like just you know, every team playing like a different number of games at this point of the season. Like yeah, like you said, Toronto's already to have their third bye week and they played like two games less than some other teams. So I mean, I'm just getting frustrated with it at this point. I mean, we're living with this for

since twenty fourteen when Audible came back into the league. But I mean, this is just the biggest reason selfishly why I want that tenth team just to fix all of these you know, buyo week issues so we never have to deal with it again. It's just weird. I don't know. I just think there's such a better way you could do it. And the comments I always see is like even with the bias, I mean, there are better ways and not having trying to have the week one off and not doing this

and not doing that, Evan anything else on this game. We'll move on. No, Okay, all right, let's get here. Is this is this? Uh we got the BC one here. Let me get out of this. H you know this was a coming out party here, Evan was here. I'll let Evan get first takes on this we had our live correspondent Calgary at BC. Yeah, this game was I mean I was there for you know, I'm trying to get up there the BC for a game every year now, and you know, this one very similar to when I went

last year against Edmonton. After the first quarter, really, you know, by definitely midway through the second, like you already kind of knew which way it was going to go. So I don't know that has its pros and cons. I've been very fortunate, you know, last year I saw Nathan Rourke obviously have a career game, and then honestly even you know that this was one of Vernon's better games of this season, and I've been wanting to

see him in person for a long time. So extremely happy that he was able to bounce back off the injury and comes in and you know, kind of, I think any doubt and you could definitely tell amongst the crowd any doubt that they had in Vernon coming off that injury, thinking he might be slow or it might take him a bit of time to get up to speed.

All that went away, you know, within the first couple of plays, because they scored on their first drive, and you know at one point, it was seventeen nothing, and I'm just like, all right, well Timmy as well. Yeah, I think you said it perfectly, Reid. Had the Edmonton game not happened, we would have just wrapped it up right then and there. But ultimately, from a more you know, statistical perspective, yeah, I mean this game was over very quickly. I thought Vernon

Adams did a great job. They were really more it was definitely more pass heavy that they had Jaquamazelle in the lineup, but they didn't really need much of him, to be honest. Between him, between Keian Hatcher and Alexander Hollins, those guys were, you know, doing their job and doing it like nobody else. You know that those were the guys that really stepped up this week obviously. And then yeah, I mean Calgary, I don't know,

I was disappointed. You know. Last year I saw Edmonton and I understood the position Edmonton was in, and I said, Okay, when I come up for a game next year, you know, I'm going to try and see, you know, maybe a more competitive opponent. And Calgary. I mean, look, I understand Calgary hasn't been great this season. Right, We've talked a lot about their issues and their struggles, and at this point it's going to be hard for them to even keep up with Saskatchewan.

I think we'll see how their situation plays out. But ultimately, you know, Calgary was just extremely disappointing. I expected a lot more out of them, and you know, Jake Mayer, I don't know. Again, I've I've been a fan of Jake Mayer for years now, and I was excited to see him in person, but the excitement quickly went away, you know, after I realized he just wasn't going to be able to do much and

there wasn't a lot of opportunities. So yeah, I mean, you know, very slow day for him, very slow day for the team as a whole. Again, they just they had no answer. You know, that's a I think we say that too much in football. Oh the other team didn't have an answer? Well, they really didn't. I mean, Vernon, like those guys were just ready to go and Calgary wasn't. That's that's

the main takeaway I had from this game. Is as boring as that sounds, it was just, you know, there was really no hope for the Stamps even you know, again, by the second quarter, I was like, well, it's gonna take an absolute miracle. I mean, Jake Mayer is gonna have to play, you know, the game of his life to get back in this one. And yeah, clearly that didn't happen. So overall, you know, look, I was impressed. I mean BC clearly you know, making their steak. You know, we're still in it in

the West. Part of me did think that this was gonna happen, just because we talked at length last week about their loss to Winnipeg and how obviously it's a good football team, they just need to have a really good bounce back game to kind of, you know, reassure that confidence and everybody, which is exactly what happened. So in terms of the blowout aspect, I don't know. Part of me maybe expected that. I just didn't want to admit it, but yeah, overall, you know, BC a game that

they definitely needed to stay at the top of the West. And I think if you're a Calgary fan, you leave this game with a lot of questions. I don't know, I mean, having been there in person, there's just a lot of questions, like, it's to a point where would you

even want to see that team in the playoffs. I think, yeah, they were showing the flashbacks like we've been vernon last year because he had come in when Nate went down and showing the oh, they have these crazy games last year, Like it is a far cry from these committed the matchups last year and those were some of the highlights of the season last year for BC.

Jason, what do you make of this? Well, I think that this game really does showcase the difference in coaching philosophy on offense for both of these two teams. You know, look at BC, they take shots down the field, they take risks, and that's what you need in the CFL to seed in a three down league. You need to create big plays. It's very hard to be that methodical offense and you know, you know,

score a lot of points during games. And then Calgary on the other hand, very conservative offense, very few passes beyond ten yards, a lot of you know runs, a lot of you know, short pass a lot of screens, a lot of slants, and I think that just doesn't get it done right now in the current CFL. You look at the teams that are thriving right now, it's the teams that are willing to push the ball down

the field even look at we'll get to it. Drew Brown this week with the Winnipeg he came into the game and they pushed the ball down the field and had success. So I think that was really missing, especially when you consider that BC got burned by Winnipeg last week by the past deep down the field. So I think that it was very disappointing that Calgary didn't test that. And I think that it's just a very concerning situation, like Evan said, in Calgary right now, and I you know, one of these teams

is gonna have to make the playoffs in the West. This catchworer Calgary. Don't know who it's gonna be, but unfortunately we're gonna have to see one of these teams in the play offs this year. And that's another general theme of the season so far. I think there's really only like four good teams. I would have said only three a couple of weeks ago, but I think Montreal is really rounding into form and becoming that fourth team. But other

than that, I think it's kind of a waste land. The rest of the teams of the CFL right now, well, it's crazy and I had the stat here. I know, I had this save with Hodge. You know, Mayor's always throw him for fewer than one hundred fifty yards and three of his nine starts this season, I mean he had if you go back on here, he had one hundred and thirty one yards total. Vernon had

like one hundred and fifty in the first quarter. I mean, it was crazy, like the stats because I had seen I was rewatching the game yesterday. I had seen the stats coming out of the game, rewatched it, and I'm like he had and I'm looking up. This is crazy. I mean, yeah, Kean Hatcher really coming into form. I can't decide kind of who who is the standout receiver for BC here. You know, we had Dommini crimes out again. It's just incredible to me the talent that Vernon

has there. But yeah, Jake, something's wrong there. I mean, it was a bad weekend for the Dickinson brothers. I saw that tweet out as well, you know, both of them kind of getting slashed. Is there enough to salvage here, Jason for Calgary? I think that, Yeah, it's it's really tough, and I think this is a good example of

a you know, like it's we've seen guys in the CFL. The first ten or so starts or fifteen or so starts have a lot of success, and you know, like people will say, Okay, they're they're they're gonna be the next guy, but then they you know, the next fifteen starts are really another test of itself because of you know, the defenses get film on them and they really really figure them out. And I think this is very comparable to the Dane Evans situation that we had last year, and I

think that Mayer could still turn it around. I think some of these issues are due to coaching and just kind of the staleness of the play calling in Calgary, but I do think a lot of it is on Jake Mayre and I think he needs to get better obviously for this team to win going forward.

Yeah, Evan, you what do you attribute that to? They had that Farhan had the quote He's like, well, I tied with Jake and h he doesn't want to be known as assistant quarterback and he wants to be able to do all this and okay, well whatever they need me to do. I mean, do you blame Mayor's regression kind of on him? Or on the coaching. They're both. I mean, I think it's a bit of both in every situation, but because I was at the game on Saturday,

I do blame it more on on coaching philosophy. That's not to say Mayor has a lot of work to do, and of course I still believe in him. I've gone on record saying that. But I think ultimately what this is is, you know, Jason said it perfectly where you know, BC has been this team now for really, I mean going back to last year since they had Rourke. You know, they're not afraid of anything,

you know, if they're like they're just gonna throw it up. I mean that first drive, like it was just you know, big play, big play, big play, touchdown done, you know, and then and they did that again. They kept doing that, and then that's how you know the game was already out of reach because Calgary kept trying this conservative system and you know, I was really waiting for Jake Mayor to throw a couple of

deep balls, but it didn't happen. And ultimately, yeah, I mean in the three down League, I mean, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna repeat everything Jason said. I mean, you have to you have to create big plays, you have to do what what teams like BC and Winnipeg do on a regular basis, even Toronto now, you know, and these are all the teams that are you know, rising to be the top of the

league. And then the true Gray Cup contenders are the teams that have these sort of explosive, dynamic offenses where you have you know, multiple receivers that can go down, you know, and do their thing ultimately. So yeah, I mean, I think it's really more coaching philosophy. I think Calgary was, you know, just way too conservative. And I can get being conservative early, but I mean if you looked at that score going even to you know, in like the second quarter, I'm like, they gotta start

moving and it just never happened. It just never came. And BC like they they just kept doing it. I mean, you know they you know, it was to the point where they put Dom Davison you know, in the in the fourth quarter because it was already so far gone. And you know, when when the team's putting in another quarterback, you know, in

the fourth quarter, you know, because of a score. I mean that's when that's when you feel embarrassed as the losing team because then you're you know, I mean, I shouldn't even have to say that, but you know, ultimately, yeah, I mean getting back to just Calgary's sort of stance. I mean, if you're gonna I still, as crazy as it so sounds, I still think they have a game or two to kind of figure

things out. And I think, just given sort of what I could see from where I was sitting in the overall atmosphere, like there is a frustration there and I think that this game really reminded them of what they need to figure out, even though they've had a couple of positive moments this season, and I think, you know, coming off that win against Toronto, I think they thought they did have some momentum, but clearly BC's just a different

a different beast when they're fully healthy. So I don't know. I think Calgary has a game or two to figure it out, but I don't know if they dropped. If they dropped the next two and they go to three and eight, I'm taking Saskatchewan for the playoff spot already, and I don't really I know, Saskatchewan might even have more questions, but you know, they have an extra win right now, and I feel more confident about that, even if I don't know what I said last week. I was kind

of on defense. I think I leaned towards Calgary, but I don't know. Now that I've seen him in person, I think my opinion has changed a bit. Well, it's just crazy here we get cold even carried back right because he hasn't played I think since Week one. It's like seven carries furs. I mean, they just didn't do anything here. It's just remarkable to me, how like futile this offense is. Jason thoughts on that, and then I want to get thoughts on how kind of Vernon looks coming back,

but just how just future. I know you're talking like no big shoe, but they didn't do anything. Yeah, they just they you know, last year they were a pretty like conservative offense. They didn't really get too many big plays. I think, you know, maybe Willie Henry was really their their deep threat you could call it. But I think that, you know, they were able to run the ball very consistently last year, and

they just haven't been that dominant running team that we saw last year. And I think that that's a big reason why they're a significant the worst team that they were a year ago. The other thing Vernon coming back, and they made notes him having the knee brace and did he need more time off day's beat up? So Vernon came back. He had one. There was one point where I think one of his o linemen like stepped on his toe or

something. But he looks pretty good. Did you how did you feel like he came because I mean that's the one thing with Vernon as I do feel like he you know, is a little fragilely sometimes. Jason first, Oh, oh yeah, I thought it was really good to see Vernon back in the fold. I think that the biggest thing. He was moving around very well. He had that classic you know Vernon Adams play extension ability and you know, improvisational ability to you know, throw a couple of touchdowns in this

game. So I thought that was really impressive and really good to see. And you know, if he could just play like he did earlier this season, which he did in this game, I think that this team is one of only really three teams in my opinion, that can win a Great Cup this season. Evan thoughts on VA. I mean, yeah, he had about as good of a performance as you ask for. He had one, uh sort of mishap. It was towards you know, they were getting ready

to score. I don't know, it might have been at the twenty or something, and he tossed an interception. I would say that was more his fault. But you know, other than that, I mean he cleaned that up pretty quickly, and you know that they didn't have a problem get getting back in it. I mean, it's certainly slowed down. I mean, had that not happened, it might have been you know, forty four to nine or whatever. But I mean, yeah, like you can't you can't

fault him for that. Other than that, I mean he was he was dealing left and right and clearly. I mean you can tell, like you know, this week it was Kean Hatcher and Alexander Hollins, but you can tell he doesn't have hesitation going to his other guys either. It's just kind of who's ever there at the right time. I mean, you know, I cannot tell you enough about how diverse the BC Receiving Corps is and that having an opportunity to see that in person only made me feel better about them

moving forward. And again you talk about possibility of winning a Gray Cup. I think that receiving core diversity will be the ultimate factor in that considering them make it as far as that game, Yeah, I think And they were commenting that too. Vernon doing a good job dishing it out right. And I think we've talked to here on here before, like BC, none of them need to be hero ball, you know, they're happy kind of having the ball go around. Yeah, I thought that interception was was quite poor.

The mystery by Vernon. I think that whatever the defensive guy jumped back in and kind of picked that up. But what I liked and it start it guy was getting to the point where BC really does have kind of like that running up ability where they can kind of play volleyball. And it felt like that like I don't know, I mean, I know, we just you know, we'll get to the Edmonton of it all, like Calgary.

Winnipeg is not Calgary, you know, like Calgary. I don't see you know, them them being down twenty points like oh yeah, they're gonna come back here and they're gonna rally. I mean, BC can really pile it on and I think it's exciting. Jason in terms of you know, obviously the mishap and everything it gets Winnipeg here, but do you still felt pretty

high on BC and kind of their chances. Yeah? Absolutely. I Like I said last week, are on our preview show for week ten that I think it was just to burn the tape kind of game last week for BC, and they really did put it behind them and that really beaten inferior opponent pretty badly. Here, anything else on this one, Evan and the other notes? I had the clip we had where they were getting all geeked out with the Nathan Marker value. Do you have anything else on this one before

we move on? I mean, yeah, I guess we can talk about

the clip that you're showing now the Rourke thing again for a bit. It was a really cool kind of segment because at halftime that you know, they had Wally Bono going into the Wall of Fame and you know, everyone was really excited about that, and then we kind of thought that from the sort of entertainment in person perspective, it was over, I mean, besides the rest of the game obviously, but then they had that and it was kind of a nice, you know, little I was I don't want to say

I was surprised at how many people there knew who Nathan Work was, and they weren't just a casual fan who was visiting Vancouver for the weekend and went to the game and were confused as to why they were showing NFL highlights. I mean, it made me happy knowing that other people around me were aware of Nathan Work's accomplishments last season. And of course, I mean I'm not saying that you know, BC fans or casuals or anything. That's not the

point. I'm just saying, you know, in the CFL nowadays, like I mean, there were people around me who didn't really understand, you know who, like Vernon Adams was, what his career you know, meant, and things like that, and you know, I mean, yeah, I get it, like we're not all, you know, CFL analysts like you shouldn't be. I mean obviously, you know, especially in the Vancouver market, like it's not even I mean, yeah, it's it's an important sport,

but it doesn't really compete with the Canucks or anything like that. So yeah, I mean, you know, it just made me happy to see, you know, people knew who he was. And I can't remember if they like you know, tried to give a bit of introduction like former BC Lin's quarterback Nathan Work or they just showed the clip and expected people to know.

But either way, it was a really cool moment nonetheless, and I'm glad, I mean even from the promotional side, like you had the Jaguars, you know, sort of like taking the clip from the game, you know, and it's very rare that you'd see an NFL team, you know, showing a clip from the CFL like that. I don't really even remember, you know, the last time that's happened. So it was just kind of a good moment all around. And you know, the players obviously,

you know, cared about it too, as you can see there. And I saw it, you know, given how close I was there to the home bench, and yeah, I mean overall, you know, it was it was just a ya. I'm glad that I was there for that specifically because I saw it last year and I just know the importance of you know, him as a quarterback, and really, I mean again, Rourke, you have to remember, he's a he's a Canadian national. He's from Victoria on the other side in Vancouver Island. I think it would be a lot

different if he was just some American import. And I'm not saying that changes the dynamic of things, but like Work's a local guy, you know, so that adds to the whole sort of story and the eating of it as well. Yeah, I wouldn't. I think Don Kind posted his article about it, and I sent it to the group. But I just said, we matter, we still matter where the CFL, We're still important, Jason, anything else on this, anything else on BC. We'll get to this

Montreal game. Yeah, No, I think it was just really cool to see that, and yeah, let's move on to the next game. So this I was at Barbie Friday night with with the wife, caught up on this a little bit. A Mariners had a good nine to win over the Orioles as well. Is this accurate stat line that Caleb Evans of eight of thirteen? Yeah, that's crazy, man. Yeah, they didn't throw many passes. This is uh blowout here Ballsy, I was following him on Twitter.

Michael ball was in in MONTREALI said I have it this sketch one by four I think, and then I tweeted up to the game, I said I have Montreal by twenty five. Plus here, and this is quite the blowout. Jason, what did you make of this twelve to forty one? Well, the first thing I have to say is that I is wrong about the Alouettes this season, and I think a lot of people had them finishing

fourth in the East coming into the air. I had them finishing with five and thirteen record, and they've already hit that five win total already this season. So I just have to say right off the bat that I was wrong about them, and I will be making a video this week about the Alouette season so far. But I thought that in this game, Caleb Evans did a fine job billing in for Cody Fajardo. I mean, he is what

he is not a great passer of the football. I think we saw that from his time in Ottawa, but I think they did a good job using his legs in this one. Walter Fletcher and Jeshuin Antweet with a really good job billing in for William Standback in this one. So I thought that was really good to see for Montreal, and their defense just continues to be a force so far this season. I mean, this is just a crazy game, and I had I had my stats here, I have these tweets like

tired of hearing short week long travel excuses. Saskatchewan needs to be professional travel It's by charts now they have long hours, lack of to blaming the coaches' lack of preparation. Evan, do you feel like this scatchem Wark Friers embarrassed themselves here Friday night? Well, I mean I certainly think that they you know, they could have put up more of a fight. I mean, that's that goes without saying. I had picked Montreal last week to win this

game. I favored them slightly in this matchup, but I don't think, you know, again, given just where Calgary is, like, they can afford a loss like that, as crazy as it sounds, and even though they have a losing record now, I don't see I didn't see this hurting them as much just for the one game specifically. I worry more about Saskatchewan moving forward over the next couple of weeks, especially with their quarterback situation. You know, I think Mason Fine got hurt, so then you fell back

on Jake Dela Galla, who didn't exactly have the best performance. Now you've traded fr Antonio Pipkin and it looks like it's going to be a tandem between Dola Galla and Pipkin for the starting job, or you know, maybe they'll play both of them kind of figured out. There's a lot of questions there, so they can I think they can move on from this game, you know, don't worry about it right on in the next one, as all the coaches say. But but there's a lot of questions there that I think,

you know, we'll need to be answered very soon. Gayson, what did you make of this? Because people have been they've been calling for Della gal the whole time. Here Mason goes down and, like Evan said, didn't do particularly well. What did you make of the rough risers? Well, I think it just adds to that whole narrative that tall quarterbacks can't succeed in the CFL. I mean, it's a limited sample size. We'll have

to see him start a game. I think there would be a second queer start, because I think he started one last year when a bunch of players were out with COVID. So I'm very interested to see how he plays in the next game, but I'm not too optimistic about it. Obviously, they trade for Pipkins, so maybe he gets into the lineup of Dolla Gallis struggles. But the quarterback situation is not pretty right now with Saskatchewan, and I

think it's the main source of the troubles. What's the long term play here, because I mean they're not I got this. I mean, I know it's the West. I mean they're not dead here. I mean they're third in the West four and five. You know, obviously they have a losing

record. Now, I don't know what's what's your game plan here if you're Saskatchewan Jason Well, I mean I think I think I would probably go with Pipkin if if, if in a couple of weeks, dollar Galla is not showing anything, like Evans said, they could afford to draw up a couple more games because of the sad state of that third place race in the West

Division. And I mean, like I said earlier, I think there's just a lot of bad teams in the CFL right now, and I think it's not looking good for the potential divisional or the first weekend of the playoffs because I think that there seems to be such a gap between those top four teams and the rest right now, in the CFL, and I think that, you know, Saskatch one going forward has a decent chance of making the playoffs

still, but I don't even think it really matters. I think they're gonna get clawbered by BC or Calgoy's gonna get clawber bytes BC, no matter who makes it. In there was Pipkin, wasn't he? Was he NBC last year? Right? Wasn't he? Yes? Or of the year before one of the Yeah, because we had Right, we had Nathan and then we had the other Canadian guy. My too many rosters, Key jack up. We had the backup quarter in the Canadian quarterback? Was it Michael Michael Connor?

And I think Pipken was in there when Burke went down and that was when I called put him. But yeah, Michael Connor got injured and then they put in Pipkin and he wasn't doing I think was it like he was our short yerage guy. It my knowledge of that, too many rosters, Key track up. Evan thoughts on this Montrell looking good? I mean, I don't think Montreal scored forty points in all this season to this point, especially without CODI figarda, what do you make him? Montreal Yeah, it

was really interesting. So you know, on paper, this was gonna be the Cody Fajardo revenge game, but that didn't happen and you had Caleb Evans in the lineup. Now, Caleb Evans has been in the CFL for a bit. I believe he was with Ottawa at some point, so he has a bit of experience there at quarterback in this league. And he didn't have to do a lot in this game really from the passing perspective. I mean, he completed eight passes and next hell scored forty one points, So that's

how you know you've had a pretty good day. But he was effective as a runner. I think the biggest story in this game, though, outside of Caleb Evans, for me, at least on the Montreal side I'll get back in the Saskatchewan in a minute, would be Walter Fletcher. You know,

there was a lot. I mean, it's taken a long time for you know, Montreal's run game to kind of get going, and you know, William standback finally over the past couple of weeks is showing, you know, his potential that he had before the injury last year or I mean, well he came back, but Yeah, it wasn't very effective anyway. You know, Walter Fletcher kind of I think stepped up and really, you know, again, Montreal, I was more impressed with their run game this time

around than their passing game. And you know, I've talked so much this season about their receivers, especially Austin Mack, who still had a big play in this game. But but really I have to give credit to the run game here between Walter Fletcher, you know, Caleb Evans the quarterback, and then jesshren Antwee, who I think is I mean, I don't I don't know a ton about Jesshrehn Antwee, but I'll tell you I was impressed with

him in this game, even on limited touches. I think all around, that's a good sign moving forward because you know, I think a lot of people look at that roster and they go, well, if there's no standback, then what do we do. Well, honestly, you know, it kind of benefited them not having stand back in the lineup this time because it got it. It gave these other guys Fletcher and Antwee, the opportunity to run the ball, combined with Caleb Evans, who's a more mobile quarterback than

Caleb Cody Fajardo. Excuse me. It worked out pretty well, I'd say, so that they at least have that to fall back on, you know, because to be honest, look, Montreal's winning, but their offense has been very up and down over the course of the season. So I'm interested to see if they kind of stick with this run first philosophy, which is kind of almost untraditional, i'd say at this point in the CFL and the really any football league in general. But I don't know. I really liked

what I saw on the ground from them. So moving on to Saskatchewan here for a brief minute, not a ton to talk about here, right, I mean, this was a pretty lopsided game. I will say it's It's kind kind of funny how I've complimented the rough Riders passing game for a majority of the season, regardless of who the quarterback is. I thought, you know, Mason Fine did a decent job getting it out to receivers, a

lot of the receivers that I like on that team. And then I had also said, you know for weeks that Jamal Morrow really wasn't the guy, and then I needed to see more from him, you know, because they had a very lackluster run game and in this one it was the complete opposite. You had the passing game, you know, kind of completely fall apart because Mason Fine gets hurt, Dolla Galla comes in and you know, just

isn't ready that day, you know. So yeah, and then you have Jamal Morrow, you know, rushing for eighty one yards on eighteen carries kind of be in the you know, big ball carrier bell cow woever you want to call him, And you know, it was just kind of it was just kind of funny how that panned out. Although I will say Jared Stearns, you know who I said I really liked on the broadcast last week,

was the leading receiver again for Saskatchewans. So definitely, I think for them an underrated West up and moving forward, regardless of who the quarterback is. And again I've I've said it nauseam. They have a lot of receivers. I like a lot of receivers in general. I like in the in the

CFL this year. But yeah, I mean overall, Saskatchewan a tough loss for them, But even though you lost by nearly thirty points, if I'm you know, if I'm Saskatchewan, I'm not really panicking too much because it's gonna take a lot of losses for your spot to really be in jeopardy. And even if Calgary jumps over them at some point here in the next couple of weeks, I think, you know, they still they still, in my opinion, have an advantage. We can't burn the tape every week.

Every I just burn it doesn't matter, doesn't do I'm hankering to talk some Edmonton so anything else on this When Jay said, I want to make sure you get out your points out, yeah, I just wanted to talk a little bit more about Walter Fletcher. I think is one of the most underrated

players in the entire CFL. It's unfortunate that he doesn't get as much of a chance because it's very hard to dress two American running backs on a CFL game day roster, so when standback's healthy, he's off in a healthy scratch. So I think he's really one of the top six or seven running backs in the league. He just doesn't get the attention and the opportunity. And I think if he was on a different team, it would be if he'd be a lead guy somewhere. You saw it. With that one screen pass,

he took almost the house sixty eight yards. So I think he's just really exposed to player a really well rounded running back. So it was really good to see him performing this one. All right, So that's good, good, good, texted Tim Kapper. I said, man, you had to quite the weekend here with the blowout of Saskatchewan, but now I want to get to this. This was the greatest to me, one of the greatest nights for better or worse as CFL this season. We I had worked

all day. I was just getting in the shower and I was listening to the game, and you know, trade forward comes in and everyone we're okay. You know, justin Don apparently started the free trade forward. Even though I think Evan and I take credit for that, we just didn't say that. I'm local, provincial, you know sports TV. But you know, Trey four comes in, handoff, they score everything, you know. So I run up Sarahs and Dorothy because we were gonna go out to theater.

We're said, we're not going out. I said, we're watching this game. I said, We're sitting at home, had the game on watch every snap of this this was the most exciting night of my life. Texta Dave Campbell after the game, I said, I'm so sorry. He said, that was really rough. Initial thoughts on this one. We'll go to Evan first, that initial thoughts of the what could have been that they'd free trade four and then the epic collapse here of proportions. Yeah, so it was.

It was really funny because when this game was going on, I was on a flight up here to Vancouver, right, and when I left, like we were on the runway and I looked at the score and it was like twenty two to nothing. It was one of Edmonton kind of peaked right, and then I was like, oh great, like we're gonna land and there's gonna be this big buzz, like my phone will be, you know, blowing up how Edmonton won like a bunch of notifications finally break the streak.

And then I so then we land plane lands of Vancouver. It's like a two and a half hour flight, so the game has been over by then for probably a good half hour. And I checked my phone. I'm like, let's look at the score, like how much did I meant to win by? Did they get the forty points? Or whatever, and then I looked and I was like, hold on a minute, like that that

can't be right. At first, I thought it was Edmonton thirty eight Winnipeg twenty nine, and I was like, okay, so Winnipeg made a formidable effort. And then I was I looked again and I'm like oh. I was like what, no, that that can't And then I looked and I looked around, and then I got on Twitter and and I was like, oh no, oh, the worst of course it happened Edmonton where they went up twenty two nothing and still couldn't get the job done. So I don't

know, my excitement immediately went away. And then I just I was really sad, you know. I was just I was sitting there. I was like, I, you know, I have really no connection to this team, but I still feel for Chris Jones and all those guys. I mean,

they were like what. I was watching that game, like, you know, as to play, and you know, I was about to take off or at least following along with it, and everyone was just so happy, Like there was this atmosphere like we're finally gonna do it, We're finally gonna win, and we're gonna do it at home against a team that's competing

for a Gray Cup. I mean, finally, after you know, literally months of suffering, you're you're in a position where you can do that, and then it all just fell apart, and you know, they got too excited, I think, too fast, and you know, I didn't really get an opportunity to look at the later highlights from this game. I know Drew Brown came in and did some nice things. We'll get into that, but it's just it's, you know, Hamilton, not Hamilton, excuse me,

Edmonton. It just there's an we're in week what is this week ten? Now there's still a new way to lose every week. It's it's like I feel, I really thought we had hit the point of the season where like there was a low, and it just it somehow keeps getting lower. At least at least there was a high point, like at least they had a lead, but like, can you even celebrate that when you lose another game and just the opportunity, like it just it all goes to waste so

quickly. And it's not the first time that this type of thing has happened, So I don't know, man, I I there's just it's one thing to lose a game and get blown out. It's another thing to you know, be up in a game, have a ton of confidence, think you're going to do something, and have that all go away in the blink of an eye. That's my ultimate takeaway from this one. Yeah, Jason, you you've said on here that you don't believe in Churson's but you think that

Edmonton's curse it does. It does feel that way here. I did have my tweet and then we'll get Jason's thoughts. I said, if even like so, even if they ax louse, imagine if tray Forward had played weeks ago. That was my takeaway at the end of this was, Yeah, Edmonton lost and there was this epic class but uh, there's no excuse now, why why trade Forward hadn't played, you know, start of the season. Halfway through? I mean, I think Chris Jones I had here,

and maybe Chris Jones should be fired on principle. What did you make of this? This was truly a remarkable night. Yeah, what do you even say at this point about the Elks? I mean, you know, we were sitting talking weeks ago about has this team hit rock bottom. I mean, is this rock bottom or did they after lose a thirty point lead. I mean, I just, you know, my heart hurts for that team right now. That whole fan base is just like I was going to be

so happy for them. If this was the game that they finally broke the streak, would have been the perfect scenario to win against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Kind of shut up those Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans that have kind of been, you know, gloating over the last couple of years, getting a little bit big, big ego. I think, you know, at the end of the day, it was just a very disappointing, you know, effort in the second half. It just seemed like they had lost the game already,

even though it was still within reach. And I think that it was just drive after drive after drive. And the most disappointing thing was the fact that Winnipeg had a backup quarterback in there. I mean, no disrespect to Drew Brown, but he was going up and down the field, came off in off the bench cold, and he just found a way to just put drives together and it was really really impressive from that perspective. But Melton.

I mean, I just have no words for them right now. Yeah, there was I saw the tweet coming out where Chris Jones had said that tray Forward played, you know, well enough to earn a second second start next week. I said, I hope so, I hope so. But but that was the thing, and they also had the comments out that tray Forward said, yeah, I felt like we played too conservative the second half and we gave the game away. As said, I wonder why Chris Jones doesn't

like Trey Forward here. It's probably because of things like that. But it was just crazy. We had. This is what I don't get, Like we've we've talked at nausea oh Cornelius and like he's so athletic and he can run. Tray Forward had a rushing touchdown the first first quarter of the game. He had as mini rushing touchdowns as Taro Cornelius has had the entire season. Like I'm tired of hearing this elite, elite, you know, athletic

rushing ability of Cornelius. We did see Zach Claros get injured, he had to pick six. Looked very reminiscent of Taro Cornelius. Here. A couple of weeks ago, the Dustin Niel say, yo, why does he are you kenning me? Which I guess now is like famous. I saw Awful announcing our buddy over there, Andrew doing the article on that. Jason, how impressed were you? I know I had your tweet here? How impressed were you with Drew Brown? Because I mean you're thinking claris goes down,

like this game's down. I mean there are already a Claris is down. And then Drew Brown played I think better than I can't if you were a Winnipeg fan, I don't think you thought that Drew Brown was going to play as good as he did. Yeah, it was almost unbelievable. What was the stat line? Over three hundred yards and four touchdown passes. I mean it was dearly flawless. Like what really impressed me was just how many deep

shots this guy was taking. And Winnipeg's playmakers just really took over in the second half, just said we are not going to lose this game. Kenny Lawler had the most ridiculously easy looking one hand catch in the end zone I've ever seen. Dalton Shane had a couple of big plays in the second half. Brady Oliver I really took over. Edmonton just could not stop the run in the second half once again, and I think obviously that's been a big issue for them this year. So, I mean, Drew Brown was very

impressive in my opinion, in this game. And yeah, I think it's all the rose to it. I laugh here sometimes they just make notes on my apple on my eye. Sister Olivery just struck the ass out of that. Dude. I just trying to just go back. So I remember said this, Yeah, this was the thing like Winnipeg, not not every team can do this and go down and come back and be down, you know,

twenty two zero, but really crazy impressive on that. My I got ten percent left on my headphones here, Okay, hopefully it just beeped at me. Hopefully it'll make it through the podcast. Evan, any other thoughts Drew Brown. I don't know what what's have you heard? What's the update on Claro's Like, is he is he day to day right now? Yeah? I don't know. I mean, I'll talk about Drew Brown for a minute because until I get an update on on claro side, I can't.

I don't know what's going on there. Again, I didn't watch wall of this game. But I will say Drew Brown, you know I was. I mean, once I saw the stat line again, once I figured out that Winnipeg actually had won the game, I looked at Drew brown stat line

and I mean that was amazing. But you know, Drew Brown, the reality is, I mean, I don't want to say this should be expected, but you know, Drew Brown is one of these guys we always talk about, you know, year three in the CFL, and I don't think a lot of people understand that Drew Brown has been with the Blue Bombers since twenty twenty one. He was undrafted in twenty twenty out of Oklahoma State and then you know, signed with the Blue Bombers later on, like he's been

there since. You know, he's got a great cup under his belt already. He has a lot of things. He's had a lot of chances to learn. So Drew Brown isn't necessarily some stranger, you know, some unfamiliar face. You know. Yeah, he's unproven, well at least unproven until now. But you know this, like, Drew Brown, in my opinion,

was one of the more I think higher backside or higher one. Am I trying to say higher upside backup quarterbacks in the CFL that I could think of, and I'm we just haven't had a chance to talk about him this season because you know, all the you know sort of light gets you know, shined on Zach Claros and rightfully so it was the same thing in Toronto where there's so much effort put on too, you know, the shoulders of Chad Kelly that I think Brian Scott and Cameron Dukes, I don't want to

say they become afterthoughts, but they come into the game, Like Cam Dukes came into the game last week and everyone's like, Oh, who's this? Who's this? Cam Duke's fella? In BC, I think it's a bit

different because Dan Evans was a starter. Now he's a backup, so people already familiar with that, whereas Drew Brown kind of came into the league and really had the work you know, his way up, and I mean everyone has to work their way up, but but you know what I mean, Drew Brown, you know, he wasn't like this was He's always going to be in a reserve role. I think as long as he's in Winnipeg again.

Besides unless an injury happens in this case, but clearly he's up to the task and I wouldn't hesitate, you know, starting Drew Brown in another game. Now, keep in mind, I understand, like you know, dust and Crum, it was a similar thing where Jeremiah was solely got injured. Dustin Crumb came into the game, performed really well. Then he had the start and took a step back. So maybe we see that with Drew

Brown if that becomes a possibility. Again, I don't know that the situation on Claros or what's going to happen there, But ultimately, yeah, Drew Brown extremely impressive. And then Trey Ford if if you want to talk about the other quarterback in Edmonton, Yeah, my takeaway was the same. I think is everything that we'd already discussed. You know, why why didn't he

play earlier? Like again, this I wouldn't say this was an elite performance from him, but yeah, like for Edmonton standards, this was this was pretty damn good. You know, this was a great considering this was his first game and the first action that he's seen. Like, I mean, yeah, that that was about one of the better debuts you could ask for. And I mean I I think ultimately, yeah, he still has what it takes to be a starting quarterback, and I want him to continuously start

again. I mean, he got that team off to their best start of the season. Yeah, they couldn't finish the job, but I'm sure, like if we want to look at the strictly positive takeaways from the out side, you know, I think with out Trey forward in that position, like just Taylor Cornelius do the same thing, because I don't think so. I

really don't think so. And it just kind of seemed like even if trey Ford wasn't like a complete one eighty from Taylor Cornelius, he just gave a sort of refreshed feeling to that offense that they really needed after whatever it was, eight games, you know, two months. So so overall, I think the trey Ford decision was the right call, and I really hope, I really really hope he can be the one that wins them a game.

Please please, I really need to see that. Yeah. That So, here's my question for Jason, and we'll get put the plane down here pretty soon, is this is this sustainable with trey Ford? Because you know, we see this and you know, people come in and Okay, we weren't able to game plan. I mean, obviously Trey was announced as a starter, but Winnipeg trying to figure all that out, like is this or can

you replicate this week after week? I think so because tray Ford, one thing about him is just he's a different kind of athlete than what we usually see from a CFL quarterback. He is easily the most athletic quarterback I think in the CFL, even just day one starting last week, right, So I think that's going to give him an opportunity alone, gives them a different element to that offense, and it really did open up the playbook for them.

But I think maybe they're limited in some aspects in terms of the passing ability, but they weren't getting anything done in the passing game with Tara Cornelius. There was one play in this game where Ford hit a beautiful deep ball to Dylan Mitchell and it was like, all right, let's go. And I think that was when they had they were up like twenty two to something in the game, and the very next play, Kevin Brown coughs up a fumble and that was just kind of, you know, epitomizes the Edmonton elk

season so far. Yeah, and they had that drive where they was like penalty penalty, penalty just gave Winnipeg. I think it was like late and the third just gave him the whole way back. And yeah, I mean you still see, I mean, Elk's gonna Elk like it's still it's still the same, still the same fundamentals there. Like I said, I think we were talking before on here, because of course we were laughing like there's no way that Edmonton beats with a pig. But circle this here, crumb

sanity comes to Edmonton here, we're gonna have that. I think that is your week twelve. I think Edmonton breaks are great because they were at twenty two games right now, right, I think that is the day here on that Sunday, August twenty seven. I say, circle your calendar. That

is what happens there. We'll get out of here, seeing Evan. Any other thoughts on this one from you, No, I don't think so, although if you want to, if we want to get in here to the games for next week, briefly, I mean, yeah, I would have to agree that Ottawa Edmonton game, I want to say Edmonton's gonna win street. Yeah. Week eleven. That would be the week after next, all right, well, hey still, I mean I think that might be. I think you might be right. I would love to say they would win

that game. I mean they might. They might win at Hamilton too, honestly here in week eleven, but I don't know, Like I think that home win matters a lot more for them, Jay saying anything else that, Yeah, Edmionton here coming to any feel your tech guts. Well, it's worth noting that they won in Hamilton last year and trey Ford's first ever start, so I think it's definitely possible that they win. But I think Hamilton coming off a bye week, should be better prepared for them this year.

But you know what could happen? Yeah, Evan's got to hop off. Get this plan. Yeah, Winnipeg at Calgary here, I think that's kind of a cake walk. Montreal at Ottaway that's probably the exciting one on Saturday, and then I don't think I would put any money in the world on BC going then and it's absolutely trucking the ass outs Gotchawan here. I think that that's going to be good. Evan will hop off anything else from you now, I think that's it. For me, But I'm looking forward to

next week's slate of games. I'm sure, I mean, if if Edmonton wins and Hamilton, I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about. And I mean that to me that that one really stands out now, just given what Trey Ford's done and you know the kind of state of the Hamilton franchise. I think, yeah, make sure if you're watching the video game, the thumbs up. I want to make sure we have as many thumbs up on this video as people watching the stream right now. That would be good check

out as well. Jason's going to be doing his stuff coming up this week, Jason, anything else from you, Nope, I think we'll put this one to ben get Onto next week. Awesome. Yeah, I just that was thrilling Thursday night, even with the loss. Thrilling and thrilling. Really appreciate that. Thanks everyone figuring out this week what we're gonna do, and we'll see you guys out watch out online. I'll be posting stuff. We'll see you guys next time. Thanks,

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android