October 11, 2022

Landry’s 5 takeaways from Thanksgiving Weekend

Jason Halstead/CFL.ca

Hello, A.J. Ouellette. How low IS your centre of gravity anyway? Is it somewhere in your lower shins? Your ankles? Just how low does a tackler actually have to hit you to take away your ability to run through that tackle? Oh. You say your centre of gravity is actually in your heels? Now it all makes sense.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND presented by Purolator
» Hills, Ticats grind out win over Roughriders
» 
Argos score late-game touchdown in win over Lions
» REDBLACKS overcome Alouettes in Thanksgiving Monday win
» Winnipeg wins West Division with victory over Elks

Here are the Thanksgiving Weekend presented By Purolator takeaways.

THEY’RE ALL IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION

Some pretty neat pretzeling of hopes and dreams came to us in Week 18, courtesy of the final playoff spot up for grabs in the East.

Hamilton’s win over Saskatchewan gave the Ticats reason to celebrate and the Roughriders reason to get religion, at least according to linebacker Darnell Sankey, who was asked to size up how his team ought to prep during their off-week, knowing they had given up control over that third place spot in the East. “I would say… really just… pray,” said Sankey.

Hamilton’s win gave the Ticats the concrete belief that they can re-animate themselves and make a run to a third straight Grey Cup appearance but, oddly, it also gave hope to the Ottawa REDBLACKS, even though Ottawa had fallen four back of the Ticats. Kind of a pretzel there. That’s because the REDBLACKS knew that they could dance out of their own grave to the extended dance club version of ‘Thriller’ themselves, if they could find their way out under the direction of new interim head coach Bob Dyce.

The REDBLACKS then went out and bolstered those aspirations by beating Montreal and you know who also felt great about that? Saskatchewan. Because that Ottawa win gave Sankey and the rest of the team the belief that their prayers, so far, have been answered and that Ottawa can give the Ticats a rough ride in those final two regular season games they play against each other. But then another emotional pretzel comes hot out of the oven, with Sasky getting to wonder if Ottawa might reel off a winning streak of their own, laying claim that final playoff position. And, all of a sudden, the Ticats aren’t feeling quite so much like they will be ending the season with two walks in two different parks. Emotional pretzel, anyone?

For Hamilton it’s win and win and win again and there’s nothing to worry about. For Ottawa, it’s win and win and win again and hope Saskatchewan does no better than a split with the Stampeders. The Roughriders need to win against Calgary and then win again against Calgary and then they’d have no worries. If the Riders do sweep Calgary and Hamilton does win this week, Hamilton can still lose either game to Ottawa and Saskatchewan crosses over.

And then there’s Montreal. Pretty comfy, for sure. However, lose again against Ottawa this week and they would be staring down the barrel of possibly letting a home playoff game get away and maybe even missing out on post-season entirely. From there, we have a plethora of pretzel-y playoff scenarios that can arise over the coming weeks.

Man. These pretzels are making me thirsty.

KICK HIM AROUND ALL YOU WANT BUT HE AIN’T QUITTING

 

That was some kind of punishment Argos’ quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson took in Toronto’s slightly weird and fortuitous 23-20 win over the BC Lions.

Belted around like Homer Simpson’s ‘Brick Hithouse’ persona, Bethel-Thompson stood in against a ferocious and punishing Lions’ pass rush, taking hit after hit after hit after hit. He was sacked only three times during the game but the number of hurries he experienced and smashes he endured just as he released a pass was enormous.

And just when you thought he couldn’t possibly take any more, all of a sudden he reached out and pushed the punched-out Lions defence over with three consecutive passes, a total of 70 yards, including a touchdown strike of 37 yards in a quick, one minute and twenty-six second drive.

“It’s not about what happens to you, it’s how you respond to it,” said Bethel-Thompson about his own tribulations as well as his team’s as a whole.

If we thought we might have an “I’ll leave when they carry me out on my shield” vacuum in the quarterbacking fraternity when Michael Reilly retired, McLeod Bethel-Thompson is proving that to be ill-founded gossip.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: The Argos social media team committed an offensive act when they tweeted, post-win, their own power rankings that had them surging to number one. That was not the offensive act, although if you live in Calgary or Winnipeg – maybe even in Vancouver or Montreal – you may see that differently. No, it was the placing of oatmeal raisin cookies at number ten on those rankings that really irked me. Oatmeal raisin cookies are amazing and this space will not stand for anyone choosing violence like that against them. I don’t care what the topic of anyone’s top ten list is, oatmeal raisin cookies come in at number one. Top ten cookies? Oatmeal raisin is numero uno. Top ten quarterbacks of all time? Oatmeal raisin cookies are number one there too. Top ten Woody Harrelson movies? Oatmeal raisin cookies top the list. You see what I’m getting at.

WES HILLS IS ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC

 

With songs he has sung, for a thousand yaaaaaards.

Well, 132 anyway. On 25 lugs. Hamilton’s powerful new star running back – and a revitalized offensive line – were the stars of the show in the Ticats’ massive win against Saskatchewan. How good were they?

“I don’t even have the vocabulary to explain how great they were,” said Hamilton quarterback Dane Evans after the game.

I think I can help, Dane, as I consider myself to be somewhat of a wordsmith when it comes to inventing cool, new lingo (or just mangling the English language, depending on whom you talk to). Here are some possible words that I think could be used to describe the O Line’s performance, coupled with Hills’ dominating night.

Blocktacular.
Runtastic.
Runtastically-blocktacular. No, wait. Blocktastically-runtacular. That’s the one.

“You just get outta the way and let them do their thing,” said Evans of the ground game’s runlentless efforts on the night. Sounds like a plan going forward.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: So, that David Beard trade has worked out well, hasn’t it?

TOP 10 THINGS THAT COULD STOP DALTON SCHOEN RIGHT NOW

 

Winnipeg’s Dalton Schoen is one of the lockier locks we’ve seen in years in the Most Outstanding Rookie sweeps. On Saturday night, Schoen caught three more touchdown passes and totalled 162 receiving yards in Winnipeg’s win over Edmonton. If you think there is nothing that can stop Schoen you would be wrong about that and I’ve compiled a list of things that could actually keep him from continuing his roll.

10. Winnipeg doesn’t actually have the football and the defence is on the field*
9. UFO abduction
8. Lightning delay
7. Game officials running out of footballs
6. Zach Collaros throwing to Nic Demski instead
5. Bomber fans in the end zone refusing to give him back after TD celebration
4. Jason Bourne
3. Him forgetting there was a game that day
2. End of the world
1. Oatmeal raisin cookies
*Subject to Schoen not playing defence as well.

THE TIME IS NOW, SASKATCHEWAN. WELL, ACTUALLY, IT’S NEXT WEEK

Two points up but with math and scheduling – and their own inconsistencies – working against them, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are hanging by the proverbial thread as they head into a bye week.

“We’re not out of it,” said Head Coach Craig Dickenson after Friday’s loss in Hamilton. “We’ve made it hard on ourselves but we’re still alive.”

If the ‘Riders are to beat Calgary even once (and they might need to do it twice) they will need to be a whole lot different than the team that got outmuscled by the Ticats. As CKRM radio analyst Luc Mullinder put it during the post-game show on Friday: “This is the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the whole year. Just a team that at no point was able to put it all together. At no point was able to get all on the same page.”

They all need to find that page. Pronto. Getting injured running back Jamal Morrow back into the line-up would also be quite helpful.

AND FINALLY… He’s doing it again. The weather cools. Ja’Gared Davis gets his own personal performance bonfire burning brightly.

The comment system on this website is now powered by the CFL.ca Forums. We'd love for you to be part of the conversation; click the Start Discussion button below to register an account and join the community!