October 22, 2018

#TotalPickEm Recap | Week 19

The Canadian Press photo

Week 19 in the Canadian Football League thrilled, dazzled or disappointed, depending on your allegiance.

Saskatchewan and BC scored key West Division victories, while Ottawa reasserted itself in the race for first in the East.

There’s a new leader atop the #TotalPickEm global leaderboard — reminder: $5,000 end-of-season grand prize — as user javawaken‘s strong 3-1 week propelled them into first place; former leaders broncodc6 and tigercats4ever now sit in third and fourth place respectively.

Let’s take a look at how the four games shook down.


Friday | Hamilton 31, Ottawa 35

A slim majority of pick’em players took the REDBLACKS in the early game of Friday Night Football’s doubleheader, and were rewarded handsomely as Trevor Harris and his Ottawa (9-7) squad took care of Hamilton.

The loss was a big-time step back for the Ticats (8-8), who are troublingly now 0-6 against three top teams (by record) in the CFL (Calgary, Saskatchewan and Ottawa).

Adding insult to injury for Hamilton was the season-ending physical injury — a broken clavicle — suffered by star receiver Brandon Banks.

While it’s difficult for anybody to sweep a home-and-home in the CFL, consider Ottawa next week; the Ticats will be reeling from the loss of their spiritual and receiving leader in ‘Speedy B’, and as it stands will need to go 2-0 and get help to win the division.


Friday | Edmonton 32, BC 42

To call the nightcap of Friday’s doubleheader a western shootout wouldn’t do it justice: Both offences flat-out balled.

Travis Lulay tossed four majors — and a pair of interceptions — for the Lions (9-7) en route to a massively important 10-point win, while coordinator Mike Benevides’s Edmonton defence had no answer.

Much has and will continue to be made of Edmonton (8-9) head coach Jason Maas’s bizarre late-game decision to, while marching down the field, elect to kick a field goal with two minutes left instead of continuing down towards the end zone.

The reality is the Esks will need to win out to have any chance at a playoff spot, while the Lions are dancing into November with a spot secured. Who saw that coming when BC began the year 3-6?


Saturday | Toronto 26, Montreal 22

It took them 59-plus minutes, but the Toronto Argonauts (4-12) pulled ahead for good with 50-odd seconds left to down Johnny Manziel and the Montreal Alouettes (3-13) on Saturday.

Argos QB James Franklin chucked a pair of interceptions, but atoned for them with two majors — including the final-minute winner — on the ground.

These two teams will face each other again in Montreal in Week 20, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to pick Manziel to get his first CFL victory against Toronto next week.

With that said: Neither team has shown any consistency at any point this season, making the back end of the home-and-home difficult to predict.


Saturday | Saskatchewan 29, Calgary 24

Well, well, well.

70 per cent of people picked Calgary (12-4) because, well, with both teams coming off Week-18 losses it was tough to predict what would happen on Saturday night at McMahon and the majority of people naturally reverted to the historic trends.

Then got burned.

Saskatchewan (11-6) has won 8 of 10, and its defence looks capable of stopping a herd of runaway moose right now. Keep an eye on Chris Jones’s Riders moving forward.


Week 19: 1-3

Season: 46-27 (.630)