The Saturday tripleheader is back. First, Friday Night Football has the teams with the longest Grey Cup droughts in Winnipeg.
That Saturday tripleheader starts in the late afternoon with games based in Ontario. Edmonton goes to the nation's capital in the late afternoon. Saskatchewan will bring its traveling fans and find plenty of room in Toronto. Montréal ensures a bit of late-night fun as the Alouettes are in Vancouver.
Once again, we have no intra-division games.
Calgary misses out of the fun but will use the rest well.
TSN
Friday
Hamilton @ Winnipeg, 8:30p
Saturday
Edmonton @ Ottawa, 4p
Saskatchewan @ Toronto, 7p
Montréal @ BC, 10p
Bye week: Calgary
You know it’s going to be a good game when you got a champ cheering you on 🙌🥎❤️#ToujoursGame #Montréals
— Alouettes de Montréal (@MTLAlouettes) September 21, 2019
Ça ne peut être qu’un bon match quand une championne comme @Bandreescu_ est là pour t’encourager 🙌🥎❤️ pic.twitter.com/O3lZKhN4KC
U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu saw an incredible CFL comeback in Montréal.
There was one of those amazing CFL comebacks on July 27, 2017. Montréal had a solid lead in Winnipeg. Even Rod Black thought the Alouettes were going to win. Montréal was up by 12 points with less than 2 minutes remaining. Andrew Harris scored on literally the last play of the game as the Blue Bombers won 41-40.
I had that deja vu in the opposite direction on Saturday as the Alouettes had a furious comeback in similar fashion for the 38-37 win. The Als scored 2 touchdowns, including a 96-yard TD drive with 6 seconds left on the clock.
Montréal scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. Winnipeg only had a 3rd quarter field goal in the second half. Vernon Adams Jr. finished the game with 488 passing yards and 4 touchdowns.
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Vernon Adams Jr. will sit out the game in Vancouver over a play with Winnipeg's Adam Bighill. The frustration from Adams was unprofessional.
Matthew Shiltz gets the nod over Antonio Pipkin for the Alouettes at quarterback in Vancouver. James Franklin is back to being the starter in Toronto as Saskatchewan comes to town. Dominique Davis and Jonathon Jennings will share time for Ottawa as Edmonton is in the Canadian capital.
Chris Streveler will be the Winnipeg quarterback for the rest of the season. Matt Nichols is undergoing shoulder surgery and will be out for the rest of the season. The intriguing element of the report is that we don't know which shoulder is the injured one for Nichols.
Edmonton moved Trevor Harris to the 6-game injured list, so Logan Kilgore will be starting for awhile.
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Hamilton scored the first 24 points; Edmonton scored the next 24 points. The Tiger-Cats did win the battle of the field goals late in the game with the Lirim Hajrullahu winner off the upright and in for the win.
Logan Kilgore wore #15 on the night Ricky Ray (also #15) was admitted to the Wall of Honour at Commonwealth Stadium. The Esks comeback helped validate Kilgore's performance in place of Trevor Harris.
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Bo Levi Mitchell has never lost to Toronto. The Argos hadn't been home in awhile. The fans knew what was coming.
The Toronto Argonauts are not eager to share attendance figures. We did find out that the last home game drew 9,819 at Toronto. The Hamilton games in Guelph drew a lot more. The Toronto "home" game in Moncton in 2019 didn't draw much more. The "home" game in Fort McMurray, AB in 2015 only drew 4,900.
The Argos will do better in attendance on Saturday since Saskatchewan fans travel well.
The Argos aren't good. BMO Field is a nice setup for the Argos but the fans aren't coming.
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Mike Reilly actually gave way to Danny O'Brien to mop up in a rare BC Lions blowout win. The Lions owned the game in Ottawa as the RedBlacks continue to struggle. Ottawa finished up with Will Arndt at quarterback.
Ottawa did beat Calgary (road) and Saskatchewan (home) to start the season. The RedBlacks last win was August 2 against Montréal.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
This week's Edmonton-Ottawa game may not seem too exciting but is crucial for the crossover. Edmonton has lost 4 in a row but is still 3 games ahead of Ottawa for the crossover with 5 games remaining. The RedBlacks have lost 6 games in a row.
An Esks win puts Edmonton 4 games up with 4 to go, reducing the crossover magic number to 1. The crossover can't happen if the teams are tied.
Hamilton clinched a playoff spot and a home playoff game. Winnipeg and Calgary also clinched playoff spots.
When a controversy over racism erupts in Canada it happens in the most Canadian way possible. pic.twitter.com/zAnca5cGdN
— Jim Jefferies Show (@jefferiesshow) September 25, 2019
We have a long-standing policy of not invoking the full nickname of the Edmonton CFL team. The Jim Jeffries Show on Comedy Central in the United States looked into the issue of the Edmonton nickname.
Jim Jeffries, who is Australian, mentions the more sensitive U.S. nicknames such as the Washington NFL franchise. Jeffries travels to Edmonton as well as northern Canada for the report. There is a lot of well-researched information for a "comedy" show.
The fact that the team URL is edmontonesks.com is a sign that the team knows the nickname has concerns. We have suggested the Edmonton Elks as an alternative.
The Jim Jeffries Show airs in Canada on the CTV Comedy Channel.
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Keith Urban will be the halftime entertainment at the 107th Grey Cup on November 24 in Calgary. While we prefer Canadian entertainers at the Grey Cup halftime show, Urban is a legit country star in a Grey Cup held in southern Alberta. We figure Glen Suitor is very happy with this selection.
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If you watch an Ottawa RedBlacks game in person or on TV, you can't help but notice the large condo building at 1035 Bank Street. One of the condos, not like the others, is up for sale. RedBlacks co-owner Jeff Hunt is putting up his condo (#307) on the market for $2 million.
The condo has a very nice view of the Rideau Canal. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home has 1,141 square feet of living space and a 1,200-square-foot terrace. There is a hot tub with a privacy screen as well as an outdoor fireplace wall. The outdoor kitchen includes a barbecue, refrigerator, and granite counters as well as an outdoor TV.
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Chris Cuthbert and Duane Forde matched up together in Toronto and Ottawa. Since the week was East-focused and Cuthbert likes doing 2 games in a week, the teams were divided. Dustin Nielson got his 3rd regular season appearance on the CFL on TSN, this time with Glen Suitor in Edmonton. Nielson got to handle the interview with Ricky Ray in the booth.
Rod Black and Matt Dunigan both had fun in Montréal. Cuthbert is clearly an unselfish person, giving Black and Dunigan a great game in a great city. Cuthbert seems to like doing the latest game possible when traveling, sacrificing himself by calling the dog game in Ottawa.
Twitter captures: @MTLAlouettes; @jefferiesshow
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