Dave Chidley/CFL.ca
Close games, fireworks, controversy and a little trash talking combined to give us a pretty thrilling start to the 2017 CFL season. It started with a last-play finish in Montreal and was punctuated by Ricky Ray dialing back the clock to give Argos fans a lot to feel good about.
Highly encouraging
Toronto’s 32-15 win over Hamilton on Sunday afternoon was encouraging for so many different reasons, but I’m going to focus on three.
For Jim Popp and Marc Trestman, starting the season with an emphatic win over a top rival has to feel great. While the team’s new general manager and head coach, respectively, have only been on the job for four months, it sure didn’t look that way against the Tiger-Cats, as Trestman’s offence was on point all night and a few of Popp’s personnel additions looked pretty darn good, too.
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Ricky Ray was on point in the Argos’ 32-15 win over the Ticats on Sunday (David Chidley/CFL.ca)
I still think it’ll take some time for Toronto’s new dynamic duo to truly put their stamp on the team, especially in Popp’s case. In saying that, though, Popp was able to make a few key additions leading up to the season. As for Trestman, well, you could see his influence on the offence on Sunday, which leads me to point number two.
Last week we talked about why Argos fans should be cautiously optimistic about the pairing of Trestman and quarterback Ricky Ray. The 37-year-old Ray bears a lot of similarities to the last veteran CFL pivot Trestman worked with: Anthony Calvillo in Montreal. Trestman and Calvillo were dynamite together and Ray sure did look good in shredding Hamilton for more than 500 yards.
Ray was nearly unstoppable between the 20’s and looked as poised as ever in spreading the ball to eight different receivers. He was lightning quick through his progressions, finished with one touchdown pass and could have had a couple more if not for a few end zone drops.
There were legitimate questions about Ray’s future after last season and it took a while until we knew whether he was going to play another season or retire. After the way he played in Week 1 it’s hard for me to believe we were ever having that discussion.
Finally, I’m feeling pretty good about my pre-season pick of S.J. Green for Comeback Player of the Year after Week 1! Of course it’s very, very early, but I was just so happy to see him return to football with a bang.
Green had his 2016 season cut way short thanks to a catastrophic knee injury in Week 2, but he worked his tail off during the off-season to be back and better than ever. After being reunited with Popp and Trestman after a trade with Montreal, Green was devastating in racking up 124 yards on seven catches Sunday afternoon. The dude looked as good as he’s ever looked, and I’m happy for him, because when Green is right, he’s still one of the most physically dominant receivers in the game.
It’s one game and I expect a lot more from Hamilton going forward, so I’m not ready to anoint the Argos. But after an absolute nightmare finish to the 2016 season and an extremely turbulent off-season, they gave their fans reason to be encouraged to start the new campaign.
The good and the bad
There was so much good in Edmonton’s 30-27, barn-burner win over the BC Lions on Saturday night. Unfortunately, there’s one pretty big negative coming from it that looks like it’s going to affect the team for the rest of the year.
Let’s start with the good news, though, and it was Mike Reilly leading the charge in that regard. The Eskimos’ quarterback was explosive in throwing just eight incomplete passes and two touchdowns while racking up 315 yards through the air. Reilly led the league in receiving yards in 2016 and picked up right where he left off.
Despite changes around him, Mike Reilly picked up where he left off in a season-opening win (Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca)
Even more encouraging was who he was throwing to, or in this case wasn’t. En route to racking up all those yards, Reilly only hit Adarius Bowman twice for 13 yards. You won’t like to hear this if you were counting on Bowman for fantasy points, but that’s a really encouraging sign for this offence.
I still believe Bowman is the league’s best receiver, because he is so well-rounded. But with Derel Walker departing for the NFL in the off-season, the Esks lost one half of the league’s most prolific duo in 2016. Part of me wondered if Walker’s subtraction would make life significantly more difficult on Bowman with more attention paid to him minus another game-breaking foil. That’s why it was crucial for more targets to emerge in Edmonton.
Well, give a few of our writers some credit, because three of them picked Brandon Zylstra as the Breakout Player of the Year last week. Well, the guy didn’t disappoint in Week 1; Zylstra caught seven passes for 152 yards, including a 76-yard bomb from Reilly he almost turned into a major.
If Zylstra and newcomer D’haquille Williams can give Reilly reliable targets on a regular basis, two things happen. First, the team isn’t as reliant on Bowman, which is good. But, at the same time, it allows Bowman to be freed up a little more to rack up more big games like we’re used to.
Then there’s the ground game for the Eskimos, with John White starting the season with 104 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries on Saturday. After a slower start to 2016 as he came back from Achilles surgery, White was dynamite down the stretch last year and looks to have carried that over into the new campaign.
But Edmonton’s season-opening win came at a steep price. The feeling is linebacker JC Sherritt is set to be out long term after sustaining a suspected Achilles injury in the first quarter. The loss is big to begin with after Sherritt’s really solid 2016 season. It’s even bigger knowing the Esks are already without linebacker Cory Greenwood after he tore up his knee to start training camp.
Early word on JC Sherrit’s injury suffered Saturday night in BC isn’t promising (Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca)
I feel bad for Edmonton, because these catastrophic injuries to key players keep happening early on. Two years ago it was the aforementioned White, last year it was John Ojo, and this year it’s Greenwood and Sherritt. Unfortunately, Saturday’s Sherritt injury spoiled what was a sparkling offensive performance from the green and gold.
That felt good
You know, I was expecting Darian Durant to give us a fairly stock quote after he helped the Montreal Alouettes to a 17-16 win over Saskatchewan to open up the season on Thursday night. Instead, we got something pretty refreshing and totally honest from the longtime Riders quarterback.
“Of course it’s sweet,’’ Durant told the Regina Leader-Post following the win. “I was told that I wasn’t wanted anymore and I was sent away.’’
Let’s lay all the cards on the table here. Durant looked decent, but not spectacular, with some great moments in his Als debut. His new team, however, was pretty fortunate to come away with a Week 1 win as Sask was a Tyler Crapigna missed field goal away from being victorious. That doesn’t change how good Durant felt, and justifiably so.
Look, football is a business, and more often than not, it’s a cold and robotic one. Chris Jones and the Riders had every right to move in a different direction at quarterback. They felt it was time to move on from Durant, who turns 35 in August, and that’s 100 per cent their prerogative. On the same token, though, Durant has every right to feel good after getting over on his old team.
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Darian Durant meets with Kevin Glenn following Thursday night’s season opener (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Durant was there for 11 years, was at the helm for two titles and felt like he still had a ton left in the tank. Jones and the football department disagreed and the two sides couldn’t come to terms on a contract before Durant was eventually traded. I wouldn’t feel wanted in that situation, either, and I’d want to prove my old bosses wrong.
“He has the right because he’s in the position to choose the guys that he wants,” Durant said. “He chose not to have me there. At the end of the day, beating him was the best thing.’’
These two teams meet again in late October.
Quick hits
Speaking of honesty, we got it again from reigning MOP Bo Levi Mitchell on Friday night, this time on Twitter…and I loved it. I know there are some who reacted negatively to Mitchell calling out Ottawa REDBLACKS linebacker Serderius Bryant for some in-game trash talking, but I wasn’t one of them.
Mitchell is outspoken, he’s fiery, he doesn’t apologize and he’s consistent. Football is about entertainment, and I’m always entertained on and off the field by Mitchell. This league is about characters and Mitchell is one of them, and he has no problem wearing the black hat. There’s nothing wrong with that for me.
Oh, and then there was that game. What is it with the Stamps and REDBLACKS playing overtime games? They played two last year, including the Grey Cup game, and they kicked off this season going deep once again. All of a sudden, this is turning into a really heated rivalry, and I can’t wait for them to lock horns again on Thursday, this time at McMahon Stadium.
