Morning-After Thoughts (Week 4)

Another week down, and still more questions than answers. The beauty of professional sports is its unpredictability, and the 2010 CFL Season has had more than its fair share of that. From one week to the next you never know what is going to happen. You have to love the CFL!

1. I think it is safe to say that parity has arrived in full force in the CFL. No team has looked unbeatable, and no team has looked completely inept every week. Bad teams look good some weeks; good teams look bad, but mostly everyone is clumping around the middle. This is going to be one long and crazy CFL season.
2. Two teams that many thought would get to the Grey Cup, Hamilton and Edmonton, are a combined 1-7 after four weeks. Fans in both towns must be pulling their hair out (I know one Steeltowner who is for sure) because of the failure of their teams to produce. It's still a long season, but this is not the way any team wants to start the year.
3. Every week a new team looks like they can't be beat: Calgary was that team in Week 4. Nobody thought the Stamps would even come close to Saskatchewan, and when all was said and done, Calgary had pounded the previously undefeated Roughriders.
4. Cory Boyd is the real deal. Three straight 100-yard rushing performances is one heck of a start to a CFL career. Boyd is a potential star in this league. As well as Jamal Robertson has played for the Lions, Boyd's play has made the decision to let Robertson walk in free agency not seem as stupid as it looked back in February.
5. Doesn't look like the Bombers will miss a beat with Steven Jyles. From the looks of it, they might not even need Buck Pierce.
6. All respect to Montreal, but their slow starts might be a sign of them showing their age. This is one of the most veteran-laden teams, and while that has many positives, it also has some negatives. The positives outweigh the negatives, but age will eventually catch up with Montreal, and despite a 3-1 start, that catching up might be beginning.
7. Cory Boyd and Terence Jeffers-Harris have to be the front-runners for Most Outstanding Rookie. If not them, then who?
8. Another week, another big dropped pass. Emmanuel Arceneaux dropped a sure TD pass, and like Fred Stamps before him, the drop proved to be costly. This is starting to become an epidemic.
9. Was I the only one who saw Dante Marsh pull his pants down? You never know what you'll see on live television.
10. What has to happen to Arland Bruce for him to get a pass interference call? Yes, one was called on him, but it seems as if he gets consistently mugged by opposing DBs and yet nothing ever gets called.
11. Are you kidding me? That Fred Stamps catch was ri-donk-ulous! To use volleyball parlance, he 'set' it to himself, then took it for a big gain.
12. Solomon Elimimian seemed to be all over the place for the Lions, yet he finished with only one tackle and one fumble recovery. Never has one player done so little, yet seemed so important.
13. One 'play' by Elimimian that won't show up on the stat sheet was his dirty, dirty, late hit on Cleo Lemon. How that wasn't called for roughing the passer is beyond me. Bad missed call by the refs.
14. Is it just me or is Rod Black useless? He says things sometimes that make me shake my head in disbelief. He was talking about a potential retribution hit after the aforementioned Elimimian-on-Lemon hit, and he said, "I wonder if that is any residue from the earlier hit?" What the hell does that mean?
15. While I'm on the subject of bad announcers, could Glen Suitor be any more obvious about his Roughrider bias? I don't think I've ever heard him say a bad word about Saskatchewan, nor do I think anything the Riders have ever done is poor. It's getting to be farcical.
16. I don't want to be too negative, so I will say that Chris Cuthbert continues to show why he may be the best play-by-play man in all of pro sports. Duane Forde is also very good. He may not have much of a personality, but he's a better colour commentator than Suitor, and his knowledge of the CIS is unrivaled. Both men deserve to be commended for their unparalleled excellence.
17. Does this week's signing of Joey Elliott by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers mean that Kerry Joseph's CFL career is over? Sure seems like it to me.
18. I have to give some love to Travis Lulay. He made some mistakes, but he played a pretty good game in the Lions' loss to the Argos. Not too often does a Ginger brother (yes, I am a pale and freckled redhead) get some shine in professional football. Here's hoping fellow Ginger-in-Arms Jared Zabransky of the Edmonton Eskimos will soon get his chance to shine like he did at Boise State University.
19. Six INTs in six quarters for Henry Burris is not good. However, it looks like he shook that off and delivered one heck of a performance. If he doesn't go interception happy in Toronto in Week 3, the Stamps are undefeated.
20. Maybe I should get out of the prognostication business, for I now have an 0-4 stain on my record. Going 0-4 in a week is almost as hard as going 4-0, but I have yet to do the latter. I selected all away teams in Week 4, and every home team held serve. Terrible. My season record now stands at 5-11, so it is going to take quite a bit for me to get back to .500. Oh well, I never said I was a prophet.