The Labour Day weekend games are a highlight but the revenge games should not be ignored. The Montréal Alouettes shift their "revenge" to the B.C. Lions and make their longest road trip for the Friday night game.
The Banjo Bowl starts the Saturday doubleheader from Winnipeg. The Battle of Alberta continues in Edmonton in the nightcap.
BMO Field will host the Battle of Southern Ontario in the Sunday night contest.
The Ottawa RedBlacks get to rest this week.
TSN
Friday
Montréal @ BC, 10p
Saturday
Saskatchewan @ Winnipeg, 4p
Calgary @ Edmonton, 7p
Sunday
Hamilton @ Toronto, 4:30p
Bye week: Ottawa
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Toronto and Montréal will have new QBs this week for very different reasons. The Alouettes are trying to kickstart the offence by putting in Rakeem Cato for Kevin Glenn. The Argonauts are going back to the bench since Ricky Ray will miss the rest of the season with a punctured lung.
We don't know exactly when this happened though there was a point where Ray got up slowly. And the Toronto offense did suffer down the stretch.
Former Hamilton QB Dan LeFevour will likely get the honours to start at BMO Field.
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The B.C. Lions are significantly improved, especially when on the road in the East. Back to back wins in Ottawa and Toronto, combined with a rout in Montréal early last month and at Hamilton in July, is huge given the Lions are the furthest west team in the CFL.
Staying in eastern Canada between the games did help. A financial sacrifice that can show benefits on the field, especially if you are based as far west as Vancouver.
The Lions also don't have to worry about going any further east than Winnipeg except for possible crossover playoff contests and the Grey Cup in Toronto.
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Toronto completes a pass for about 7 yards. The catch is apparent on replay though the referees ruled the pass incomplete. The CFL has a review policy to correct such wrongs. However, the league tweaked the rule to make such challenges more difficult, where coaches lose a timeout right at the start.
The Argonauts didn't challenge the play; the next play resulted in a Hamilton interception for a touchdown. Ouch.
Having been to 3 live CFL games this year, the challenges seem long in the stands. But if the new policy results in plays not being correct, then the system has failed. In-season changes almost never work out well.
When Toronto went for it on 3rd down late in the game, Scott Milanovich launched a challenge knowing it would likely fail. So we had an unnecessary challenge that easily failed while a necessary challenge never happened. That is a replay system that was broken unnecessarily.
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TSN was very excited to mic up the Hamilton-Calgary game back in August. The quarterbacks and head coaches were on microphones throughout the game. Since they knew of the microphones, they made adjustments as to not give away too many secrets. Didn't get a chance to see that game. If you did see the telecast, let us know what you thought of the experiment in the comments section.
The CBC could have used that experiment in 2005 during the Canadian Media Guild strike that left the telecasts without announcers. At least those telecasts would have had relevant sound.
The CMG strike was a significant reason why the CBC lost CFL rights after the 2007 season.
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OneRepublic will headline the 104th Grey Cup Halftime Show on November 27 in Toronto. I should stop asking why. There are good Canadian bands that would benefit from the exposure. Was Robin Daggers not available?
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The final ESPN2 regular season CFL ratings ended on a tumble. The August 25 B.C. Lions game in Ottawa drew a below-average mark of 112,000 with 49,000 in the key 18-49 demo. Are that many older people watching the CFL?
Those ratings were impressive compared to the August 26 game with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Edmonton. That game drew a pathetic 53,000 viewers with 20,000 in the 18-49 demo.
That game was definitely on the drawing board though originally on ESPNews. The doldrums of August combined with NFL preseason didn't help. Glad that ESPN2 isn't afraid to carry teams such as Saskatchewan, but the Roughriders are really not good this season. Edmonton did get out to a huge lead as well.
Then again, you can't justify watching the games if they will disappear in the second half of the season. Shift the second-half telecasts to a Disney-owned non-sports network or see if TNT is game for some Canadian football.
Short of a last-minute switch, the next U.S. TV game will be the playoffs in November.
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The teams switched Labour Day assignments. The theory is that the #1 team needed to cover the prime-time game.
Chris Cuthbert, Glen Suitor: Ottawa @ Montréal; Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan; Toronto @ Hamilton
Rod Black, Duane Forde: B.C. @ Toronto; Edmonton @ Calgary
I thought the mic'ed up telecast was great. It was eye opening as to how much detail gets communicated and how much the players need to study up their playbook. However, it is hard to know what isn't being said that would normally be said without the mics.
Posted by: Tyler | September 13, 2016 at 10:41 AM
exactly. there are merits to the idea. But you feel like you are getting a conversation knowing that people are listening in to what is being said.
Posted by: Chad | October 20, 2016 at 10:12 AM