The final Thursday Night Football game of the CFL season features Edmonton's trip to Tim Hortons Field to battle the Tiger-Cats.
Marc Trestman brings his Argonauts to Montréal for Friday Night Football.
Saturday is an all-West doubleheader as Calgary hosts Winnipeg in a pure afternoon game in southern Alberta. After the dinner break, the Roughriders are under the dome in Vancouver.
If you haven't jumped on the ESPN+ bandwagon, you will have to rely on highlights for CFL coverage.
Ottawa will take the break this week.
TSN
Thursday
Edmonton @ Hamilton, 7:30p
Friday
Toronto @ Montréal, 7:30p
Saturday
Winnipeg @ Calgary, 3:30p
Saskatchewan @ BC, 10p
Bye week: Ottawa
CFL kicks up Diversity Is Strength campaign
The CFL coaches wore the Diversity is Strength shirts this past weekend. This is a continuation of the campaign from last season. Each team picked a person to be represented: the Saskatchewan representative is Neal Hughes, who is part Métis, who had a 11-year career with the Roughriders.
So glad the CFL brings sunlight to this concept.
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The Saskatchewan Roughriders have the distinction of being the only team to lose to Montréal and the only team to beat Calgary. The Roughriders scored a defence touchdown and a special teams (blocked kick) touchdown in the first half. The Saskatchewan defence made Bo Levi Mitchell play second guesses all night.
The Roughriders might not have missed Duron Carter, but the league is less interesting without him around. Playing him full-time on defence didn't help his situation. If a team needs a deep threat down the stretch, Carter might get a call.
Then again, how has Bakari Grant not been signed. Grant had 84 receptions for 1,033 yards for the Roughriders in 2017. Grant and Rob Bagg were cut by Saskatchewan. Bagg is now back and the Roughriders go into trouble for releasing Bagg, who was injured when he was released.
Teams have deep options if they are smart. Grant and Carter should be playing in the CFL.
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McLeod Bethel-Thompson and the Toronto Argonauts are not blowing out opponents. Comebacks have been part of the recipe for the Argos. The Toronto rise and Hamilton fall means the southern Ontario teams are tied. The Argos will likely get to win 3 straight by traveling to Montréal this week.
Antonio Pipkin looked good in Edmonton for the Alouettes, which makes you wonder how he ended up behind Drew Willy and Jeff Matthews on the depth chart. Pipkin will likely be #1 since #2 Johnny Manziel is still on concussion protocol.
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Lewis Ward was a security guard last season. This year, Ward has now hit 24 straight field goals for the Ottawa RedBlacks, including 7-for-7 in Hamilton earlier this month. Ward broke the record by a first-year player, which was 21 set by Luca Congi.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
Andrew Bucholtz covers Canadian media issues for AwfulAnnouncing.com. Bucholtz had a poignant story on how the CFL Web site covered the Johnny Manziel concussion situation, specifically on Wednesday with a prominent sunny headline while the concussion protocol announcement was buried. You could write this off for bad Web site management, but the CFL should be more mindful over how the Alouettes handled this story.
Manziel weighed in on a podcast but wasn't available for reporters during the week. Manziel noted during the podcast that he had a headache when returning to the sidelines, a fact he didn't disclose to coaches.
We got a story on Tuesday morning, which might have been true, that Manziel had symptoms but they were tied to a prescribed medication for a previously diagnosed medical condition and then missed practice to have blood work done.
Whether the player is Manziel or a player that plays mostly on special teams, every player should get care. The Alouettes kept playing Manziel after the hit. You watch the replay and Manziel doesn't look good. Even with Montréal's depleted quarterback situation, someone else should have been out there to finish the game.
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As we saw in Winnipeg and Edmonton this past week, the smoke from the Western wildfires has spread far and has been really bad. The smoke in Edmonton could have postponed the game Saturday night with Montréal in town. The Edmonton situation was so bad that had the game been on Wednesday or Friday, the game would likely have been postponed.
The air quality at game time in Edmonton was 3. Wednesday and Friday had scores of 10.
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Kate Beirness makes her final CFL appearance hosting the panel. The U.S. viewers don't get to see the pregame so our observation is limited to intro and halftime. Beirness has been fine but hasn't shown much personality. Rod Smith shows a little bit of personality in that role. Hope Beirness is having fun in the role.
The flipping of primary crews has been intriguing with Rod Black and Glen Suitor matching up as well as Chris Cuthbert and Duane Forde. Forde sounds way better with Cuthbert and Suitor can be more of himself with Black. Things will eventually get back to "normal" but this is fun in the interim.
Matt Dunigan was the right guy to have there for the upset in Regina on Sunday night.
photo credit: CFL/TSN
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