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Last Sunday was one of the strangest, memorable days of the 2022 season.

While at work Sunday morning we heard of the tragic events at the James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon and shortly afterwards heard about the suspect being seen in Regina. When I was heading home to change before the game, I saw a train derailed outside of Mosaic Stadium and Rider and Bomber fans walking out of their way to avoid the derailment and make it to the stadium.

It was kind of an omen.

Once I made it to the game, the first half went well for the Riders as they got a touchdown, settled for some field goals, but let the Bombers hit passes over the middle and deep to get a 17-17 tie at half time.

Then the wheels fell off as the Bombers took advantage of Rider penalties and gullible referees to stall a few Rider drives and emerge with a 20-18 win, capped by an interception of Cody Fajardo that should never have been thrown, although it is an open question if that is due to Cody or offensive coordinator Jason Maas who called the questionable play while driving for perhaps a game winning field goal.

As the Riders were driving, I was hoping to see some ball control offense that would run down the clock and not give Winnipeg a chance to come back and while the Riders did well, a penalty on Duke Williams who was on the sidelines and not dressed blew up a Rider drive and then former Rider Garrett Marino hit Zach Collaros and although the play was not called a penalty, it ultimately resulted in the Riders releasing Marino.

I was not a fan of how Marino acted when he sacked Jeremiah Masoli, but I thought the media and the league got into a feeding frenzy that struck me as wholly hypocritical.

When Collaros was with the Riders and getting hit like a pinata, hey there Simoni Lawrence and Jackson Jeffcoat, while Lawrence did get a two-game suspension, it was not Lawrence’s first offence and there were no calls about cutting him from Hamilton.

Instead, there was clucking about tough football and poor Zach Collaros, and what a shame it was the Riders had to rely on Brandon Bridge and whoever the Rider third stringer was. The whining from Ottawa especially after injuring defensive lineman Pete Robertson but downplaying that seemed to feed a self-righteous streak among an old and tired TSN panel whose best days are behind them, not just as players, but as people who can provide insight to fans about what they saw.

I watched the replay of the hit on Collaros who had pitched the ball out and was knocked down by Marino. Did Collaros need to be hit after getting the ball? Perhaps not, but the hit was not an intent to injure, it was a football player doing what he is paid to do, hit people.

The Riders had hoped that Marino’s suspension would be served quietly, and the Riders could get away from the constant questions of hacks looking to boost ratings by asking questions about the Riders and Marino. Instead, the embellishment by Collaros fed by the self-righteous anger of Winnipeg coach Mike O’Shea led to the release of Marino who had a target painted on his back that even if standing on the sidelines doing nothing like Williams, he would still by lynched by the media and opposing fans.

The cost benefit of having a playing like Marino was surpassed by the cost of the distraction he was posing to the team. One hopes that Robert Woodward who was an amazing lineman last year who tried the NFL this year makes his way back to Saskatchewan to be more than an adequate replacement but that is dreaming at this point.

The good news is that the Riders could have won. The bad news is again they shot themselves in the foot. Now they go to Winnipeg and hope to do better this time.

Ottawa shocked me by beating Montreal 38-24 in a game we could not see because of TSN televising the US Tennis Open. Nick Arbuckle of Ottawa has a lot of questions due to the number of teams he has been on and not really played for, but he has shown himself to be a more capable quarterback than Masoli who is great between the 30-yard lines but a dud when it comes to scoring touchdowns.

One would have though Montreal would have had its act together but NOOOOOOOO, Montreal is the CFL equivalent of the International House of Pancakes, nothing but flipping to see there. Ottawa kept itself in the playoff race with a win there and it will be fascinating to see how they do in the remainder of the season.

While I blew my predictions on the first two games last week, I did have a win when Toronto beat Hamilton 28-18. With Hamilton quarterback Dane Evans out with an injury and a lot of counselling, Hamilton relied on a postal worker named Newman who tried.

Hamilton blew it with their selection of Evans, but they couldn’t see how Evans would self-destruct on a regular basis this year. Hamilton hosts the Grey Cup next year, a sop for hosting the Grey Cup during Covid which drew friends and relatives, and while the team has been to the last two Grey Cups and lost, they will spare their fans and not make it to the playoffs this year.

Toronto by comparison has a good offense, but their running game will be their downfall along with inconsistent play from the law firm of McLeod Bethel Thompson. Toronto has a team good enough to finish first in the east but whether they go further depends on the grace of God.

Edmonton tried to keep it close to Calgary but lost 26-18 to wrap up the weekend. Edmonton is a tire fire that is majestic to contemplate, a monument to the hubris of Chris Jones and the memories of the Edmonton fans who harken back to the five Grey Cups in a row over 40 years ago that Edmonton fans feel is a divine right.

Jake Maier was not that impressive as the Calgary quarterback, but he showed he could win and move the club and considering Bo Levi Mitchell is sitting on the sidelines, that is as good as Calgary could wish for.

Now this week, BC goes to Montreal and adding an element of intrigue is Vernon Adams Jr., who lost his job in Montreal and got traded to BC when Nathan Rourke got injured and apparently Michael O’Connor as well.

The trade was good for BC because they get a Memorex of Rourke in Adams, but the thing is Adams does not have the consistency of Rourke. Adams is streaky, but at 8-2, this is all BC needs until Rourke returns from his injury.

Montreal fired Khari Jones as head coach because of discipline issues, but Montreal is showing it is not discipline but consistency that is the problem. You never know which Montreal team is going to show up, one that turns the ball over repeatedly or one that beats other teams over the head until they give up.

From what I am hearing, Adams will not play the whole game and may not even start. That may not matter because BC has a good defense and if they can get inside Trevor Harris’s head, the sky is the limit. The quarterbacking conundrum is what might trip up the Lions, who have their own amazing strip bars to go to so Montreal’s strip clubs will not be the must see as they are for say, Edmonton.

So, we have a good team with unknown quarterbacking versus an inconsistent team with inconsistent quarterbacking. Did I mention Montreal is for sale and Randy Ambrosie screwed that up by not having the club go to Eric Lapointe because Larry Tannenbaum wanted a friend on the CFL board of governors.

BC should win this one 27-21 if the Lions can get at least a Matt Nichols game manager type of quarterbacking and not turn it over to an opportunistic Noel Thorpe defense.

Toronto goes to Ottawa and while all 11 Argo fans are wondering about booking their Grey Cup tickets to Regina, the Argos are facing an interesting situation in Ottawa. In case no one noticed, and apparently no one did, Nick Arbuckle beat one of the teams that traded him away in favor of a quarterback named for not one, but two characters in Planet of the Apes.

Arbuckle is an interesting story because while he showed potential in Calgary, his movements around the league without finding a regular job had fans like me wondering if there was something wrong with him, like, say, a Carson Wentz allergy to Covid vaccines.

It turns out that Arbuckle, who Ottawa head coach Paul La Police may not have wanted two years ago, may be the person to help save the Redblacks season. Ottawa has an underrated defense that does better the less they are on the field and if they get competent quarterbacking and even touchdowns that Jeremiah Masoli could not produce, healthy or injured, they can be competitive.

Toronto’s Achilles heel will be their running game and uh, it still is not there. Arbuckle will be motivated to beat another team that gave up on him and as Edmonton finds out, you jerk Arbuckle around at your own risk.

Toronto has an opportunistic defense, but let us be honest, they played Hamilton the last few weeks and I suspect the LeBoldus Golden Suns, my old high school team, could beat Hamilton, so drawing any conclusions from a series that verged from intriguing to annoying is a fool’s errand.

I like Toronto beating up Hamilton because it showed Toronto had more of a team core than Hamilton does. This time Toronto will have to measure itself against an opponent who have a better overall team than Hamilton and a quarterback who is hungry for revenge.

Go with revenge. Ottawa 24-17.

Calgary goes to Edmonton and the losing streak in Edmonton is now longer than the City of Leningrad was under siege from the Nazis in the Second World War. So, the question on the minds of the 24 people who were turned away from Costco and forced to seek shelter in Commonwealth Stadium to make up what is left of the Elk is whether this week breaks the streak for the Elk.

Long answer – no. Edmonton was competitive in Calgary but the constant experimenting by Elk head coach Chris Jones is not creating any consistency by which a team can grow together and hopefully learn to win.

Maier did not look as sharp as he did against Winnipeg, but he still won the game and I suspect as he shakes the rust out the Stamps will play better. Calgary has a better running game and Edmonton is a one trick pony with Kenny Lawler making highlight reel catches.

Edmonton fans would like to see a competitive team win a game but this season long training camp that Chris Jones is running is not making it possible. Jones is clearly angling for next season for his work to bear fruit, but in the meantime, there is a whole fanbase in Edmonton that is tuning out and feeling alienated.

Tough. Edmonton is a sanctimonious fan base and deserves to lose. Calgary should win this one 34-20.

Finally, the game that Bomber fans are looking forward to – the deflowering of the Riders on the cracked concrete floor of Dollarama Stadium in the Banjo Bowl. I thought if the Riders had a chance to beat Winnipeg, it would be last week.

Here is a little-known nugget. Winnipeg is undefeated on the road but has one loss at home. The release of Marino may mean Collaros is not going to get the Oscar to go with his second Most Outstanding Player award and the Riders getting two time count penalties in their own stadium raises questions about coaching and playing competence, especially at this stage of the season.

What I am curious about is whether the Riders can commit to a running game considering they cannot block worth a damn on passing plays. Willie Jefferson had his way with both offensive tackles and Jefferson must get into Cody Fajardo’s head to get him to screw up.

On the other hand, nothing makes a team more frustrated than a team that can run on you and make life miserable, and Frankie Hickson is a running back who runs angry and makes like miserable for defenses.

Relying on the running game takes away the need to audible too much at the line of scrimmage because Winnipeggers will be screaming like it was the reopening of the Zellers and Winnipeggers will tell you the quality of life in the Manitoba backwater became worse when Zellers closed, and seniors had nowhere else to go for their whining sessions.

Winnipeg should win big, but I suspect the Riders are like a blind pig rooting for an acorn – one day it will find success. The Riders have lost five in a row to the Bombers, Winnipeg is utterly confident and rightfully so, and I am picking the Riders because it is my cat’s 18th birthday today and maybe this week, the greased pig that is the Riders 2022 season will finally find that acorn or truffle.

RIP those who died needlessly on the James Smith Cree Nation and Queen Elizabeth II.

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