What we’ve learned through the first half of the season

After such a long time away from the Canadian game, it’s hard to fathom we’ve already hit the mid-season mark on the 2021 CFL calendar.

For nearly two years I wandered around on radio, podcasts, and articles right here on CFL.ca looking for answers to so many interring questions left by two draft classes, two free agency periods and a Canadian football void the size of a pacific Douglas Fir.

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With that in mind – and just a few weeks out from Turkey time – let’s gather ‘round and say thanks for the things we’ve learned through eight glorious weeks of CFL football.

THE BOMBERS FORMULA WORKS

Mike O’Shea doesn’t exactly give off those mad scientist vibes, but the style with which his team plays, and the personnel who fit that style perfectly, means Winnipeg has winning in the CFL down to a science right now.

No more than 25 pass attempts, lean on Andrew Harris, crush the pocket to create turnovers and make up for a shaky kicking game in 2021 with exceptional coverage teams play from everyone asked to step up, including global players like Les Maruo and Thiadric Hansen.

It’s not broken, they won’t change it until someone proves ready to beat Winning at their game and at this rate you’ll also have to do it at their house come playoff time.

CANADIAN LINEBACKERS ARE SPECIAL

There have always been a couple of names here or there that wave the flag for linebackers but let’s be honest, the majority of Canadian LBs are running down the field on kick coverage units, not racking up the tackle and forced turnover numbers.

All of that feels different in 2021. In speaking with CFL on TSN colleague Duane Forde this week, he explained how below the radar Canadian linebackers have been fantastic and committed to this season.

Cameron Judge and Henoc Muamba have paired up in Toronto while Bo Lokombo and Jordan Williams have excelled in Vancouver. Sprinkle in Jesse Briggs in Winnipeg, Micah Teitz in Saskatchewan and you start to see the trend of not just active Canadian linebackers, but productive ones emerging as team leaders right before your eyes each week.

THE LIONS ARE FOR REAL

Part of this is the Lokombo-Williams linebacking duo mentioned above, but it is much, much more. Lucky Whitehead has been a revelation, at times playing Batman with Bryan Burnham taking on the role of Robin – what a terrifying thought that is for defences – while the secondary are amongst the best at creating turnover opportunities in the entire CFL.

Most importantly, the offensive line play has dramatically improved from 2019 which through the same point of the season BC was allowing a sack on 10% of called pass plays. By keeping Micheal Reilly upright, the Lions really haven’t had to change the pass-happy offensive philosophy much, they’re just getting a significant amount more production from the aerial attack.

VA’S STYLE IS HERE TO STAY

I understand if you want to criticize Vernon Adams Jr. for his daring deep throws because “they don’t connect enough” or “they should’ve just gone for the first down.” To each their own, but I can’t get enough of the 2021 Alouettes approach.

When William Stanback re-entered the chat I wondered if head coach Khari Jones would put VA’s deep throws on lockdown and ask the ground game to win Montreal games. While Stanback has been a force, as expected, the Alouettes have not just maintained their 2019 vertical passing game to compliment the big back, they’ve doubled down on it, challenging defensive backs even more to make plays with the ball in the air.

With so many extended handoff completions, swing screens, bubble, quicks and jet pop passes, it’s more than welcome in my CFL viewing experience to see a team who wants to snap it in the gun, drop five steps and take a shot with regularity.

BACKUP QUARTERBACKS ARE IMPORTANT

Through eight weeks, no less than seven CFL teams have used their backup quarterback for a significant chunk of at least one game due to injury or performance. Only Montreal and Winnipeg have barely used their QB2, ironic when you consider all the questions at the start of this season for Winnipeg revolved around something like, “Zach is great but can he finally stay healthy?”

So far the answer is yes, and let’s hope it stays that way.

Starting quarterbacks have taken 93% of snaps in 2021 with backups taking 6.9%. Of those QB2 snaps 16.6% are sneak situations, and 83.4% are ‘live’ or regular snaps.

As for the much discussed QB3 situation brought on by Ottawa’s double dip into quarterback injuries on the same night last week, the only emergency QB to play this season was Nate Behar who took five snaps accounting for 0.1% of the 3,399 snaps from scrimmage through Week 8.

Backups are important, but developing everyone is most important because you never know when a ‘no-name’ backup will make their debut and need plenty of help around them as shown by Caleb Evans impressive debut for Ottawa this week.