The CFL will run a speed round as the league gives us 4 games in about 26 hours. The Alouettes make the long road west to Vancouver for Friday Night Football.
Saturday has back-to-back-to-back games. The Banjo Bowl starts things off in Winnipeg. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are in the nation's capital in the middle game. The rematch of the Labour Day Battle of Alberta is in Edmonton.
Toronto needs to reflect on its loss to Hamilton on the bye weekend.
TSN
Friday
Montréal @ BC, 10p
Saturday
Saskatchewan @ Winnipeg, 3p
Hamilton @ Ottawa, 6p
Calgary @ Edmonton, 9p
Bye week: Toronto
Even in Hamilton's (finally) first win of the 2017 CFL season, the Tiger-Cats made plenty of mistakes. But the team got quite a few breaks, something that had been missing from the Tiger-Cats arsenal. The wind shifted in the 4th quarter so the Toronto Argonauts didn't have the weather-induced momentum. A key fumble recovery for a TD. A missed FG that would have sent the game to overtime. And a few interesting referee calls on the field late in the game.
Plenty of storms off the field and one large storm on the field and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are 1-8.
The other big winner Monday night was the Ottawa RedBlacks being in first place all alone after Labour Day. Ottawa had the momentum Thursday night; Montréal did not. The RedBlacks have the tiebreaker even with one more game between the two teams next week. Drew Willy didn't do much better in relief of Darian Durant.
Despite a rough start, the RedBlacks are the best in the East right now.
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Saskatchewan and Calgary have dominated the Labour Day weekend games in recent years. That momentum doesn't always carry over to the next Saturday. The Roughriders need to prove themselves to be road warriors out west, even if Winnipeg is to their east. The Roughriders have 4 of the next 5 games away from Mosaic Stadium and that one home game is against Calgary.
The Esks have lost 3 in a row; despite a 7-3 record, Edmonton has been outscored for the season, scoring 279 points while giving up 295. Saskatchewan at 5-4 is a +62.
Edmonton gets a boost with the signing of receiver Derel Walker, who excelled last season for the Esks. Walker just got released by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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Travis Lulay is now the starter in BC after the Jonathon Jennings meltdown after returning from his shoulder injury. Lulay came in at Ottawa and almost led a comeback in the Lions' last game.
BC can finish fourth and make the playoffs, but the Lions have to stay ahead of Saskatchewan for that to happen. The Roughriders win on Sunday did not help.
The Lions have lost 3 in a row. BC almost made it a clean sweep in Ontario and Quebec; the loss in Ottawa was the team's only defeat in the Eastern Time Zone all season.
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With 9 teams, having a rematch of the Battle of Southern Ontario and the Montréal-Ottawa contests weren't viable. If Halifax or Moncton ever got a team, you would have the 5 rivalries all set: Prairies, Alberta, Southern Ontario, Als-RedBlacks, and the polar opposite teams in Vancouver and the Maritimes.
Toronto and Hamilton don't play each other until September 30 and that game is also in Hamilton. The Als and RedBlacks have a week in between their games.
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Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor are usually out west for the Labour Day games. With the Battle of southern Ontario moving to prime time, Cuthbert and Suitor went east on Labour Day. In 2017, they stayed west and Rod Black and Duane Forde were in Hamilton. A poor Tiger-Cats record gave Black and Forde the eastern assignment.
The TSN studio crew were at Tim Hortons Field and got caught in the rain. Jock Climie helped fill out the fourth seat as Chris Schultz is still out of action. Unlike last season, we haven't seen as many rain delays in the CFL in 2017.
Look for Gord Miller and Matt Dunigan to call one of the Saturday games this week.
photo credit: TSN/CFL
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