Morning-After Thoughts (Week 4)

Is there any doubt that professional football is the most difficult sport to predict? This week, all four road teams won. The most surprising game, obviously, was the last one. No one, not even the most homerific of Riders fans, thought that Saskatchewan would beat Montreal. You gotta love the CFL.

1. The biggest story of the week is the injury suffered by Anthony Calvillo. His health will have a direct effect on Montreal's fortunes. He is the best in the game right now, so losing him would hurt a lot.
2. I don't normally comment on the things said in the pre-game show on TSN, but I sat mouth agape when Milt Stegall began Friday's broadcast by saying that it might be time for Wally Buono to step down. Not because I think he's wrong – I don't – but because I wasn't expecting to hear that. I'm not Stegall's biggest fan (I find him to be rather arrogant), but I do like how he's not afraid to speak his mind.
3. The Lions finally found a rushing attack. If BC can continue to run like they did against Hamilton, they will find a way to win some games.
4. Jerome Dennis talked an awful lot prior to the Hamilton-BC game, and none of what he said ended up making a bit of difference. First, he didn't play. Secondly, his tips clearly didn't pay off, as Kevin Glenn had his best passing day of the season. Maybe Dennis should keep his mouth shut in the future.
5. The refereeing in the Cats-Lions game was terrible, even by CFL standards. There were more than a couple questionable calls, but by far the stupidest was the objectionable conduct penalty on Dave Stala for punting the ball out of the end zone following his first touchdown. Only a lunatic would throw a flag there or defend a flag being thrown. Does everyone forget the celebration that made Stala a YouTube sensation in 2010? I hope the league issues an apology to the Tiger-Cats and Stala for that moronic call.
6. So Cleo Lemon leaves the Argos-Bombers game with an injury, forcing Dalton Bell to play the majority of the game. This gave Bell his chance to seize the starter's role for the Boatmen. Bell came in with the Argos leading 17-6 and proceeded to do absolutely nothing. Lemon actually looked decent during his time in the game, but Bell had the opportunity to take the starting job and failed. Looks like it will be Lemon back behind Centre in Week 5.
7. If Buck Pierce stays healthy and plays all season, the Bombers will win more than they lose. With that Defense, the Bombers only need capable QBing to win. With magnificent QBing, they'll win a lot of games.
8. Chad Kackert is making me wonder if Cory Boyd is really as good as we all think, or if it is just that the Argonauts know how to run the football.
9. It looks to me like Winnipeg and Toronto have switched places from a year ago. The Argos are falling, and fast, while Winnipeg looks like they might be ready to make some noise.
10. The hit that led to E.J. Kuale's ejection has been the source of much debate over the last two days. For the record, I agree with the call. It was a dirty hit and Kuale deserved to be ejected.
11. The hit, as well as some other calls, had Jim Barker whining after the game. Suck it up, Suzie! You lost because Winnipeg was the better team. Maybe you should teach your players not to take cheap shots at the opposing QB. Jeremaine Copeland and Ricky Foley need to shut up too. Too much whining from coming from Argoland.
12. Is there a better Quarterback-to-Receiver combo in football than Ricky Ray to Fred Stamps? As far as I am concerned, they are the best. I would take that combo over any other combo right now.
13. Edmonton looks to be turning into a Running Back factory. Arkee Whitlock, Calvin McCarty, Jerome Messam and Daniel Porter could probably all start for teams in this league. That fact that Edmonton runs four deep at Running Back will be a huge plus come playoff time.
14. I would like to take this time to apologize to all the Eskimo fans out there. I was wrong, wrong, wrong about Edmonton. I thought they'd win four games this year; they've won four in July. The Esks are for real.
15. I just don't get Calgary. They confound me more than any other team in the league right now. I just don't know what to think of them.
16. Did Ricky Ray and Henry Burris switch bodies at halftime or something? Ray had his mojo working (his completion percentage was horrible, but the Eskies were up big), and Burris couldn't hit the broad side of McMahon Stadium. Then in the second half, the roles were reversed. Burris came out of the tunnel with his A-game, while Ray couldn't complete a pass to save his life.
17. Why is it that recently, whenever Montreal and Saskatchewan meet, there must be some weird ending? We all remember the 13th Man, then there was the Canada Day shootout, and now we have the Hugh Charles fumble. Why on Earth were the Riders running with 26 seconds left in the game? Take a bloody knee!
18. OK, I get it, Jamel Richardson and S.J. Green are both big Receivers who wear the same face mask and visor and have similar numbers (Richardson wears 18, Green wears 19). Can we stop with the look-a-like comparisons now? I don't need to be reminded of it every week.
19. Whenever anyone starts a sentence with, "I'm not trying to say that [Player X] is like [Player Y]," you know they will immediately compare those players. During the Saskatchewan-Montreal game, a graphic was shown that compared Anthony Calvillo and Darian Durant based on their early careers. The stats showed that Durant was better at this stage than Calvillo was, but that's misleading. Instead of going on a 10,000-word diatribe as to why, I'll just say, can we please put a moratorium on comparing anyone to Anthony Calvillo? He's one of the five best QBs of all time. No one in the CFL right now deserve mention alongside him at this point.
20. After last week's stellar showing in my picks, I crashed back down to Earth, going 1-3. My lone win makes me happy because it was the Ti-Cats. Losing on Toronto and Calgary didn't surprise me. Those were the two toughest games to pick, in my opinion, so far this season. So I thought I'd get a .500 week because there was no way that Montreal would lose to Saskatchewan. *shakes head* Hopefully I'll do better next week. After going 0-4 in Week 2, I bounced back with a 4-0 showing. Maybe this week's 1-3 will correct itself and I'll go at least 3-1 next week.