Weekly Predictor: All in on the Alouettes

Jamie Nye

CFL.ca

@jamienye

Week 9 in the CFL saw the Bombers re-claim their place at the top of the West Division, while humbling the Lions.

The Toronto Argonauts showed their biggest flaw which is depth at quarterback.

The Riders and REDBLACKS had as wild a ride in the stadium as the rides outside during the exhibition in Regina.

The Montreal Alouettes needed a dominant fourth quarter to overcome the pesky Tiger-Cats.

This week, we get a quarterback and coach looking for a statement against their former team and a young Canadian quarterback getting his opportunity to show it’s been a mistake keeping him off the field in Edmonton.

But as the weeks move on, the games themselves are getting harder and harder to predict. Even for me 😉

Winnipeg at Edmonton
Thursday, August 10
9:00 p.m. ET

Tre Ford has been the most talked about quarterback yet to take a snap in the CFL this season. Now is his time to prove all the pundits right who were calling on Chris Jones to make this move weeks earlier.

The test just so happens to be against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who smoked the BC Lions in Week 9.

Yes, it won’t be easy for Ford, but for Elks fans – and CFL fans – at least it provides some intrigue in a David vs. Goliath type game.

Now remember, before we start saying this is a gimme for the Bombers, the Bombers did lose to a one win Ottawa team just four weeks ago with Ottawa’s fourth string quarterback making his first start.

Here we are a month later with the Bombers against Ford, who was relegated to fourth string duty behind Taylor Cornelius, Jarret Doege and Kai Locksley before Locksley’s release earlier this season.

But don’t think for a second I’m predicting an upset. What the Bombers did last week was an absolute clinic in football and did it against what some were considering to be the new ‘best in the west.’

We were wrong. It’s still Winnipeg. And Winnipeg wins on Thursday night.

PICK: WINNIPEG

Saskatchewan at Montreal
Friday, August 11
7:00 p.m. ET

There were two games I had circled on the calendar after CFL Free Agency wrapped up: August 11 and September 30.

The latter is Bo Levi Mitchell (fingers crossed he’ll be healthy) against Calgary and the former is this week’s game between Saskatchewan and Montreal.

Cody Fajardo and Jason Maas were blamed for a much of the issues in Saskatchewan last season with the lack of scoring and the perceived issues with leadership. They feel like the scapegoats. Fajardo has expressed that he felt like the organization gave up on him.

Well, we know it wasn’t Jason Maas who gave up on him as Maas made sure to make him his QB1 quickly in Free Agency to replace the now injured Trevor Harris, who took off to Saskatchewan.

Now Maas and Fajardo have the chance to show Saskatchewan they may have decided to rid themselves of the wrong people.

In Saskatchewan, they’ll ride Mason Fine into his fourth-straight start after Fine was able to get his first win as a starter on Sunday against Ottawa. Fine faces his former coordinator and the man he backed up and replaced at the end of last season.

There is no lack of storylines for this football game, but unfortunately for Saskatchewan there is a lack of rest time.

You know how I feel about a short week and one with travel. It’s not a great schedule for Saskatchewan who will have to fly out Thursday after only three days off and then play a strong Montreal team.

We’ll see who has the book on who. Does Jason Shivers have a better feel for the quarterback he saw in practice the last three seasons in Saskatchewan or does Jason Maas have a better feel for what Shivers will try to do on defence to attack Fajardo?

It’ll be a great chess match, I just wish Saskatchewan had more time to prepare.

PICK: MONTREAL

Calgary at BC
Saturday, August 12
7:00 p.m. ET

The BC Lions are going to be one very angry cat on Saturday against the Stampeders. Like the Bombers were feeling a little disrespect going into last week’s game vs the Lions, BC will want to punch back immediately after being humbled in Winnipeg.

Too bad for the Stampeders, they’re the team BC plays next.

One issue, though, is how healthy the quarterbacks in BC will be. Dane Evans didn’t finish the game against Winnipeg and Dominique Davis looked out of sync trying to move the ball down field.

Will Evans be healthy? Will Vernon Adams Jr. be able to make a return from injury? Evans was available to come back in the game was the word from Rick Campbell after the game, so I’m assuming they’ll have at least one of their top two quarterbacks behind centre on Saturday.

Calgary played well against Toronto and took advantage of Cameron Dukes struggling to move the ball after Chad Kelly left the game.

There were no major mistakes for the Stampeders that came back to bit them, so they’re hoping it was the start of a run to start one of the toughest stretches of their schedule.

PICK: BC

Ottawa at Toronto
Sunday, August 13
7:00 p.m. ET

Toronto without Chad Kelly will be in trouble. Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie quickly pondered if Kelly is at all questionable for this game against Ottawa, that maybe they rest him knowing he has a bye week coming up.

While Toronto won’t want to give up any ground in the division, they have control of it right now, they also can’t risk making Kelly’s injury linger for possibly the rest of the season.

The other benefit is Toronto’s defence will always give them an opportunity, which they were doing against Calgary. Toronto’s offence just couldn’t get in a rhythm without Kelly.

Ottawa’s Bob Dyce can not be impressed with his team’s effort or attention to detail against Saskatchewan. There were pre-snap penalties and the offensive line was completely dominated up front by the Riders.

And it’s not like it will get easier vs. Toronto.

Dustin Crum is starting to find out really fast what it’s like when defensive coordinators start game planning for you and Toronto’s Corey Mace will be ready.

Crum couldn’t find room to run against Saskatchewan and when he couldn’t run, he wasn’t able to make many big plays with his arm either.

While I don’t know who will play quarterback for the Argos when I make this pick, I have more faith in Toronto’s overall game to give them the edge whether it’s Kelly or Dukes throwing the ball.

PICK: TORONTO

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