Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Berg vs. Ferg returns for another season on CFL.ca as columnists Pat Steinberg and Marshall Ferguson debate over some of the league’s most contentious storylines. This week they put it all on the line with Grey Cup predictions.
It’s hope season in the CFL, the time when all nine teams have an equal shot at holding the Grey Cup high over head five months from now in our nation’s capital. And with hope season comes prediction time, when fans and prognosticators alike weigh in on what a new season will bring.
Last year, Calgary and BC held the two best records in the CFL while Ottawa, after an 8-9-1 regular season record, flipped the script after that, earning the single largest Grey Cup upset in league history to take home the championship.
All three teams are worthy of the discussion again in 2017 but for Berg and Ferg, it’s not so simple.
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While Pat Steinberg picks the BC Lions, a team that ascended to second in the CFL last regular season behind only Calgary, Marshall Ferguson is taking the Edmonton Eskimos — a team that won the Grey Cup in 2015 only to fall to fourth in the West last season, making the playoffs via crossover through the East.
Meanwhile, while hitching your wagon to Mike Reilly or Jonathon Jennings isn’t a bold venture, where does that leave Bo Levi Mitchell and the Calgary Stampeders, who last year went 15-2-1?
Is 2017 the year of Wally Buono and the BC Lions? Can Mike Reilly and the Eskimos’ prolific offence climb back to the top of the Canadian Football League mountain? Or are Berg and Ferg both wrong?
With the regular season set to kick off on Thursday, Ferguson and Steinberg make their picks:
| BERG VS. FERG: LAST WEEK’S RESULTS |
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CFL.ca |
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TOTAL |
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Steinberg – 302 (42%) Ferguson – 417 (58%) |
Steinberg – 138 (41%) Ferguson – 198 (59%) |
Steinberg – 440 (42%) Ferguson – 615 (58%) |
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BERG (1-1): WALLY’S WORLD IS BACK IN FULL FORCE
Pat Steinberg, CFL.ca
@Fan960Steinberg
There’s something about the BC Lions. In Wally Buono’s first year back on the sidelines, the Lions showed significant improvement in 2016 before losing out to Calgary in the Western Final. After a busy and impressive off-season, and building on last year, I think the Lions are set to be a force in 2017.
It’s BC’s offence that really jumps off the page to me. With his first full year as a starter in the books, Jonathon Jennings looks poised for more steps forward. Jennings’s ceiling is ridiculously high and when you factor in their group of receivers, this team’s aerial attack looks downright terrifying.
Emmanuel Arceneaux and Bryan Burnham made up the CFL’s second-most prolific receiving tandem last season, but there was some uncertainty as to the latter’s future. The Lions avoided free agency with Burnham, though, and extended him in February before they added another explosive piece in Chris Williams. You don’t see trios like that very often and, had Williams stayed healthy, all three would have been top five in receiving yards last season.
But while so much of the hype is on the offensive side of the ball, BC also boasts a pretty good-looking unit on the other side. I love that secondary and I’m really excited to see Anthony Gaiter and Chandler Fenner in their sophomore years, while T.J. Lee and Ronnie Yell don’t get as much credit as they probably should. Oh, and let’s not forget the guy who anchors things in the middle: Solomon Elimimian remains the most dominant linebacker in the CFL and I don’t see that changing much this year.
Finally, there’s an X-factor by the name of Chris Rainey, because he’s dynamic in so many different ways. Rainey is explosive in the return game, is an interesting option in BC’s run game and can catch the ball out of the backfield. Having a weapon like that is a huge asset for the Lions and I’m expecting another big year, if not bigger than 2016.
The Calgary Stampeders are at the top of the West Division mountain and they should be. They’ve been the benchmark for a decade and are coming off one of the most dominant regular seasons in league history. The Lions were the division’s second-best team last year and I think they’ve closed the game considerably, and I’ll take them as my Grey Cup pick.
FERG (1-1): QUIETLY UNDER THE RADAR
Marshall Ferguson, CFL.ca
@TSN_Marsh
In 2016, the Ottawa REDBLACKS triumphed in the most spectacular of ways. By the following morning, as the Grey Cup week haze began to lift and we all came to terms with the fact that ‘last night actually happened’, my next question became: Could the REDBLACKS return to the big game on home field in November of 2017?
My gut tells me that despite the immense talent in BC and Calgary, the Edmonton Eskimos could be asking themselves that same question about returning home for a repeat in 2018.
Mike Reilly embraced the Jason Maas offensive system in 2016 and flourished. Now in his second year, the offence should be even more comfortable. Yes, the Eskimos lost Derel Walker but I was on the sidelines for the Eastern Final in Ottawa last season and Walker faded to the point of being unrecognizable when compared to his early season self.
Reilly strikes me as the type of QB who doesn’t need a big name receiver or two. In the Maas system, he will spread the ball around – in what I predict will be a record setting way – and produce the way you expect a franchise quarterback to.
On defence, the Eskimos’ front four is as stout as ever and Defensive Coordinator Mike Benevides proved last season he can game plan for anyone in this league.
The real reason I like the Eskimos is that they are under the radar. Calgary has a chip on its shoulder but could reach due to the finish line being the only vision. BC has arguably the most talented team in the CFL but will have to learn how to access all that talent in a way that produces wins.
The Eskimos will have an up and down regular season: at times they’ll dance with the West Division lead, at other points they could suffer a bad loss or two but I believe at the end of the season they will peak at the right time with Mike Reilly winning MOP and that Green and Gold defence creating turnovers at an elite level.
Factor in the poetic justice that the Eskimos’ season ended on a snowy Sunday in Ottawa last season, the place of this year’s Grey Cup, and I become increasingly convinced the Eskimos could make it all happen.
We just might wake up the morning of Nov. 27, 2017 wondering if Edmonton can earn the right to play at home for a second straight championship in 2018.
DON’T SIT ON THE FENCE!
While both sides are pretty convincing, someone’s got to take it. Whose argument convinced you the most?
You can vote for this week’s winner both on CFL.ca and Twitter. Meanwhile, continue the conversation by tweeting @Fan960Steinberg and @TSN_Marsh.
The winner will be revealed in the following week’s Berg vs. Ferg.
