Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
As someone who is still eating Halloween candy, gets confused by the concept of an “RRSP” and once thought that a Sedan was a type of car like an Audi, I may not be the best person to dispense life advice, but here goes.
When it comes to this week leading up to the Eastern and Western Finals, I want you to get rid of all your preconceived notions about who is going to win or lose. Sometimes it is better in life to be a leaf bobbing in a river. Don’t try to fight the currents of your own reality, just float and let things happen. That is how I feel about these two playoff games because let’s all be honest, we have no idea who is going to win. So instead of bellowing to the heavens your prediction, I say you need to relax and go in with an open mind because anything can happen.
Right now, Saskatchewan fans are scoffing at this idea, and I get it. The Roughriders had a better record playing in a far tougher division and throttled the REDBLACKS last weekend. Did you see how efficient their offence looked on those first two touchdown drives? Kevin Glenn managed to keep Brandon Bridge firmly stapled on the sideline as he pushed back on the narrative about his post-season failures with a near-flawless performance. So naturally they’re going to win, right? Not so fast.
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Rico Murray and Naaman Roosevelt fight for the football during a regular season meeting in Regina (Johany Jutras/Argonauts.ca)
No Western team has ever gone to the Grey Cup since the crossover rule came into existence in 1997, so history is not exactly on the Roughriders’ side. Yes, Saskatchewan went 2-0 against Toronto, but in both games the Argonauts held a double digit lead and when you look at the statistics, neither team dominated. This is the point where you scream at me for my Toronto bias. Fully deserved. But when you dig a little deeper, you’ll remember that in Week 6, Toronto did not have the services of Victor Butler and Cleyon Laing, who were both injured just five days earlier in an Argonauts win over Ottawa.
I’m not trying to offer up excuses for that 38-27 Argonauts loss; just some explanations for why Saskatchewan won way back when. Toronto’s defence is far healthier and if there is one matchup that favours the Argonauts it’s their pass rush (tied with Calgary for the league lead with 50 sacks) going up against a Saskatchewan offensive line that gave up 44 sacks.
So then, should Toronto be the favourite, considering the Argos are fully rested and a different team than the one that went 0-2 against Saskatchewan? Ricky Ray has put up monster numbers to end the year, so should Toronto be the obvious pick? Of course not. Did you see what Marcus Thigpen brings to the Roughriders offence!? Saskatchewan was last in rushing this year but you wouldn’t know it with the late-season addition of Thigpen. That 75-yard touchdown run was a sight to behold. Just a perfect combination of speed, vision and downfield blocking. It’s easy to say the Argonauts are different squad, but the same can be said about the Roughriders, with the added dimension that Thigpen brings to an offence just loaded at receiver.
Now, let’s move over to the main event, the game we have all been waiting for, Calgary versus Edmonton! This contest is just filled with confusion! You have an Edmonton team that won a lot of close games to start the year, then lost six in a row, many by blowout, and now is riding a six-game winning streak after beating Winnipeg 39-32 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Their opponent, Calgary, has been the class of the CFL for a decade, and at one point was 13-1-1.
So what do we make of Calgary losing its final three games by 50 points? Was it simply the Stampeders taking their foot off the gas after wrapping up home field advantage? Dave Dickenson rested key players down the stretch and with memories of last season’s Grey Cup loss, I can understand players not going all out to end the year. For them, their only goal this past month was to get healthy for the playoffs. So will they just flip the switch on Sunday and look like the team that beat Edmonton 39-18 on Labour Day? Maybe. But considering they haven’t played a meaningful game in over a month, isn’t it safe to assume they will be rusty? We won’t know that until somewhere in the first quarter of the Western Final, but if there is one team that will push Calgary, it’s Edmonton …. Right?
We have spent plenty of time looking at the impact that C.J. Gable has had on the offence but the bigger story may be on defence. In that 39-18 loss to Calgary, Edmonton, for a variety of reasons, did not have Aaron Grymes, Almondo Sewell, Odell Willis or John Chick in the lineup. They will all be on the field on Sunday. Edmonton’s defence was at its worst during that six-game losing streak, giving up 35.5 points per game. But that all changed due to guys getting healthy, or the return of Grymes from the NFL, or the trade for Chick. The Eskimos finished the regular season allowing fewer than 23 points per game and were leading Winnipeg 39-16 with under 10 minutes to go.
On offence, Mike Reilly, Adarius Bowman and Brandon Zylstra destroyed Winnipeg’s secondary as Reilly threw for 334 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions behind an offensive line that kept their quarterback clean. I may not know much about what is to come this weekend, but I do know that Edmonton is a much better team than the one that Calgary beat in back-to-back weeks in September.
Of course, this all just leads back to the biggest mystery of the playoffs, the Calgary Stampeders. The offence sputtered down the stretch, but how much of that was about injuries and indifference? We should see Calgary at full strength at receiver with Marken Michel expected to join Marquay McDaniel, DaVaris Daniels and Kamar Jorden. I don’t remember the last time I saw all four healthy and on the field together. Hell, Calgary is getting so healthy that even Cordarro Law may return after missing the entire season. I have no idea what a fully healthy and motivated Calgary team looks like but damn am I excited to see it on Sunday.
I have absolutely no idea what Sunday will look like but I’m wildly curious to see how it all plays out.
