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Missed the second week of the Canadian Football League season? Here are all the headlines from another interesting slate of games.
Ricky Ray was stretched off BMO Field
This was undoubtedly the biggest story to emerge from the second week of the season. There were scary scenes in Toronto, with the Canadian Football League legend stretchered off BMO Field in a neck brace after being tackled awkwardly in the third quarter.
Fans everywhere held their breath because things looked pretty dire, but Argos Marc Trestman later said that Ray was alert and communicating with the medical staff as they took him from the field. There was a worry of paralysis, but that seems to have been dispelled by reports that Ray was able to move his fingers. He’ll have an MRI to determine the extent of what’s said to be a neck injury.
Fingers crossed the early positive prognosis is correct. The CFL needs its superstars and there aren’t many bigger than Ricky Ray. I hope he’s back on the field sooner rather than later.
In the meantime it’s James Franklin in charge of the Argo offence. Toronto have a well-timed bye next week before welcoming Edmonton into BMO Field in two weeks.
Chris Streveler nearly single-handedly beat Montreal
I wrote last week about Chris Streveler, the first rookie to start out of college in the CFL since Anthony Calvillo back in 1994. He was impressive against Edmonton, but against Montreal on Friday night, his first road start, the South Dakota graduate was lights-out, completing all but six passes (22 of 28) for 246 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 98 yards on ten carries in the 56-10 dismantling of Montreal.
Suddenly Blue Bomber fans who were worried that the injury to starter Matt Nicholls was going to derail their promising season are breathing a little more easily.
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Bo Levi Mitchell had a game for the ages
The Calgary quarterback, already on track to become one of the all-time greats for a franchise that has had its fair share of brilliant signal-callers, had a night out on Saturday in Toronto, torching an Argonaut defence that had absolutely no answers for anything Bo was doing in a Grey Cup rematch that didn’t come anywhere close to living up to the hype.
The Stamps had a comfortable 41-7 win and Bo completed 90.9 per cent of his passes, going 20-22 for 324 yards and three touchdowns. He had that Stamps offence humming, getting great production from star receivers Eric Rogers and DaVaris Daniels.
Here’s a mouth-watering prospect: Calgary and Ottawa bringing their high-powered offences to McMahon Stadium on Thursday night next week. It might be one of those shootout games where the last team with the football wins it.
Ottawa started their season emphatically
The Redblacks certainly put themselves on the CFL map on Thursday night, notching a resounding 40-17 win over highly fancied Saskatchewan in the Canadian capital.
One week after we lauded the Rough Rider defence, it was shredded by quarterback Trevor Harris through the air (345 yards and two touchdowns) and William Powell on the ground (94 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries) and basically unable to stop anything Ottawa was doing after the first quarter. And the Ottawa defence was phenomenal. They are going to be a handful for a lot of teams this season.
Plenty of people will tell you that the Redblacks, if Harris remains healthy, can be the best offence in the east division, and Thursday night was a preview of what’s potentially to come. Behind Harris finding his superb trio of star receivers – Greg Ellingson, Diontae Spencer and Brad Sinopoli – and Powell on the ground, Ottawa rolled up 459 yards of total offence while holding the ball for 32 minutes. Those are impressive numbers no matter how you look at them.
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Jeremiah Masoli led Hamilton to an impressive road win in Edmonton
This was a giant moment for a rebuilding franchise, beating the highly fancied Eskimos in Commonwealth Stadium – something that doesn’t happen often – on Friday night, and doing it rather handily: 38-21.
Masoli had 332 passing yards and three touchdown throws in addition to 59 rushing yards, and his stellar performance will for at least one week quiet the noise surrounding high-profile back-up Jonny Manziel, and just when the polarising quarterback might take over the starting job. It’s Masoli’s team at the moment, and Friday night’s performance proved as much. Don’t sleep on Hamilton.
Zac Collaros sustained a concussion
During the preseason there were concerns about the porous Saskatchewan offensive line, and those worries came to fruition on Thursday night when Collaros left the game after taking a sack, out through concussion protocol. That paved the way for Canadian Brandon Bridge to enter at quarterback, and the offensive output that followed wasn’t great. Bridge was a disappointing 13-22 for 145 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
There’ll be plenty of interest in Regina this week as to Collaros’s status going forward. Clearly the CFL needs it’s stars, and based on Bridge’s sub-par effort in relief, Rider head coach Chris Jones definitely needs the signal-caller he brought in from Hamilton in the off-season starting.
Montreal are terrible
Not that this is exactly breaking news, but the Alouettes couldn’t get out of their own way on Friday night in an inept performance at home in their supposed new era under former NFL and NCAA head coach Mike Sherman, losing 56-10.
Drew Willy isn’t the right quarterback for the franchise. That much seems certain, but the Als don’t have much waiting in the wings. Backup Jeff Matthews played in the last quarter and didn’t seem any sort of upgrade. This is a dumpster fire and I wouldn’t be surprised if Montreal don’t win a game all year.
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