Landry's 5 takeaways from Week 7

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

Hello, Ottawa.

That west end sure was weird on Friday night, just ask Lewis Ward and Boris Bede, the field goal kickers who had pretty perplexed looks on their faces after their attempts down there.

Tell me, do planes ever go missing when flying over that portion of Lansdowne Park?

Here are this week’s takeaways.

THE BATTLE HAS BEEN WELL AND TRULY REJOINED. TWICE

The Calgary Stampeders’ big win over the BC Lions gave us reason to believe that not one, but two fierce competitions are heating up.

Firstly, the team itself played its best game of the season (outside of taking 12 penalties for 180 yards, that is), knocking off the Lions, 25 24, at McMahon Stadium. Time to go on a little heater? “Everybody has a really good taste in their mouth right now,” said Calgary quarterback Jake Maier after the win.

Secondly, Calgary receiver Jalen Philpot sure does appear primed and ready to renew the lifelong sibling rivalry he has with his brother, Montreal receiver Tyson Philpot, who has already cemented his status as a CFL star.

Jalen had a good night for the Stamps (one fumble aside), pulling down six catches for 79 yards and his touchdown reception was as good a catch as anyone’s made this season, a work of art combining strong hands, great leaping ability and a dramatic landing that saw him come down juuuuuuust in bounds.

“More confident every week,” said Philpot, who had to miss all of last season with a torn hamstring.

One Philpot doing Philpotty things was something special. Two Philpots spurring each other on to the greatest of heights of Philpotty things?

We all win.

THEY JUST NEEDED TIME FOR REFLECTION AND A VISIT FROM THEIR MORTAL ENEMY

And a blocked punt. And a 31-yard fumble recovery touchdown. And to play very, very physically.

The Hamilton Ticats came off the bye with a record of 0-5, and even if they let a mistake-prone Toronto Argonauts team get back to within stealing distance on Saturday night, they got what they desperately needed — a win — to ensure they did not fall completely out of touch in the East Division.

The fast and physical nature of the game the Ticats played stood in stark contrast to the previous five.

Defensive tackle DeWayne Hendrix put it this way, in a post-game interview with TSN: “If the move don’t work, turn it back to power.” Those seem to be the orders that the Ticats’ defensive line will march with for the rest of the season as the unit put the rest of the CFL on blast with a relentless effort.

It wasn’t perfect but it was much better. “We saw a lot of things that we’ve been waiting to see,” said quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: Block a punt? You get a kiss from Hamilton special teams coordinator Dennis McKnight. The precedent’s been set, Dennis. Question is: Will you expand the reward zone to include other big plays?

YOU THINK THERE’S NOT A LOT GOIN’ ON? LOOK CLOSER, BABY, YOU’RE SO WRONG

Sometimes a foot soldier spends so much time in the muck doing all the little but crucial things a football team needs to win that the opposition can flat out lose sight of him when it comes to the bigger things.

Especially if that guy’s a newbie.

In Saskatchewan’s 19-9 win over Winnipeg on Friday night, Roughrider rookie fullback Clint Ratkovich was that guy.

The Riders pulled a fast one on the Blue Bombers, bringing in Ratkovich to block for AJ Ouellette on a second and short at the Winnipeg
15-yard line. Right? Riiight?

Instead, Ratkovich burst from his tight end position, straight down the field and into the end zone where he was so wide open, you could have seen him run away for three days. Quarterback Shea Patterson played easy pitch and catch with him for the major.

That broke a 6-6 tie in the third quarter and sent the Roughriders on their way to their fifth win of the season.

“The ‘Rat Dog’ does so much for us,” said head coach Corey Mace at his post-game presser. “He’s a stud on special teams, he plays fullback, he plays tailback. If we ever got into a jam and need him to play receiver, he could do that. He’s a pro’s pro.”

Beware the guy you’re not aware of.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: Mace is all about the nicknames. In addition to calling Ratkovich “Rat Dog” during his media avail, he also called AJ Ouellette “The Cowboy,” Shea Patterson “Sugar Shea,” and Kian Schaffer-Baker “Schafe.” If I’m honest, Corey, that last one is kinda meh. Workshop something new, perhaps?

BONUS TAKEAWAY: In retrospect, the decision to part ways with Mason Fine and Jake Dolegala in favour of Patterson is being shown to be a very good one indeed.

THIS NEW NORMAL IS JUST PLAIN WEIRD

While watching the Blue Bombers lose their fifth game of the season – they lost four all of last year, three each of the two years prior to that – it struck me how really weird it is seeing the CFL’s flagship of consistency and thoroughness lose another game in which they’ve made what we’d consider uncharacteristic mistakes.

Zach Collaros rolling to his right was about the most terrifying thing a CFL defence could face but there he was on Friday night, sprinting right and then throwing an ill-advised pass into traffic for an interception with the Bombers in scoring position. There was linebacker Adam Bighill getting beat, one-one-one, in the open field after apparently wrapping up his target. Receivers going offside on a critical drive at a critical moment of that drive. And Nic Demski hauling in a big catch only to have the ball driven out of his possession, deep in Saskatchewan territory.

This kind of play from the Bombers is going to take some getting used to. Unless, of course, they can get back to making what has become all too characteristic once again uncharacteristic.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: A reminder that Adam Bighill plays full speed. Every. Single. Down. After getting blasted by the Bombers’ middle linebacker on the last play of the game on Friday night, Patterson shook it off as just football. “That’s just him making a play,” said Sugar Shea, when asked if he felt it was a dirty play. “That’s on me. I can’t hold on to it that long. Maybe got a little too cocky. Veteran linebacker came and sent me a message. Respect to him.”

GONNA TAKE MORE THAN JUST A COAT OF PAINT

Often when teams let go of a coach, there’s a bump in the performance of that team straight away. Opponents are wary of what’s been considered a bad team coming into a game with fresh oxygen boosting their blood flow.

In the case of the Edmonton Elks, it did not appear that a boost was in evidence in the team’s 20-14 loss in Ottawa, and the team now sits at 0-6 and at the very bottom of the CFL standings.

However.

Interim head coach Jarious Jackson didn’t really have a lot of time to instil anything new in his troops, having gotten the job just four days ahead of Friday night’s game.

Maybe their Week 8 home game against Hamilton will be different. Jackson is optimistic he can get his club on the track of winning ways, saying so during Friday’s post-game media scrum.

But, he added, “that window is closing.”

BONUS TAKEAWAY: That Ottawa defence is surging, y’all.

AND FINALLY… We see you, Ajou Ajou. You too, Deandre Lamont.

Landry’s 5 takeaways from Week 7

The Canadian Press