The green from Saskatchewan travels to La Belle Province to start out the week in the CFL. As we noted earlier, if you are a Roughriders fan living in the nation's capital, this is the closest your team will come to playing live. Montréal is not that far away.
We finally get the 2021 Grey Cup (and 2019 Grey Cup) rematch as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats go to Winnipeg on Friday night. ESPN2 will have that game in the States.
The Saturday doubleheader has a very early dose of the Battle of Alberta in Calgary. The late game has the Toronto Argonauts in Vancouver in what was the David Braley Bowl.
ESPN2 will have the late game on Saturday.
After playing Winnipeg twice to start the season, the Ottawa RedBlacks enjoy a nice summer weekend.
ESPN2
Friday
Hamilton @ Winnipeg, 8:30p
Saturday
Toronto @ BC, 10p
TSN
Thursday
Saskatchewan @ Montréal, 7:30p
Friday
Hamilton @ Winnipeg, 8:30p
Saturday
Edmonton @ Calgary, 7p
Toronto @ BC, 10p
Bye week: Ottawa
No lead is safe. Duane Forde noted this after Hamilton surrendered a 24-0 lead with the 33-30 overtime loss to Calgary.
Your humble narrator tuned in with the partial comeback in place early in the 4th quarter. Even I had my doubts that the Stampeders would come back. I was wrong.
A 1-1 Hamilton team would have been ½ game out of the East Division lead.
2022 CFL Week 2 preview
The editor voice within would "kill" the idea of using "kill" in a sports headline. While we like the enthusiasm of Montréal owner Gary Stern, his prediction that the Alouettes would "kill Toronto on Thursday" was over the top.
With a worldwide pandemic and the hell that is happening inside Ukraine, this is just sports.
Stern reportedly apologized for his words. As for the game, Toronto pulled out the 1-point win in the home opener.
The Argonauts scored 2 rouges in the first half, rouges that literally create the margin of victory. Toronto also scored 2 points on missed field goals while the Als had a point for a missed field goal.
Had there been more touchdowns, especially from the Alouettes, those points might not have mattered too much.
Montréal has a position of strength with Vernon Adams Jr. and Trevor Harris as quarterback possibilities. Coach Khari Jones went with Harris in the short term because Adams got COVID-19 this week.
2022 CFL Week 1 preview
Ottawa didn't play Winnipeg in 2021. The RedBlacks are done playing Winnipeg 2 games into the 2022 season. Ottawa is tied with Hamilton and Montréal for second place after completing its schedule with the Blue Bombers.
Only Montréal and Toronto have played a division game. RedBlacks fans can see some optimism though one of these teams has to finish last. The 2021 season was the first one in a long time where only 1 East team didn't make the playoffs (Ottawa).
2022 CFL preview
Dustin Neilson and Glen Suitor spoke with new Edmonton president Victor Cui, who spoke of being patient with progress for the Elks. This is difficult to do when your home losing streak now stands at 9 games, worst in the team's long history. The final home game in 2019, all of 2021, and the first home game in 2022.
The Toronto Argos get very little support but if you go to an Argos home game, odds are very good you will see an Argonauts win.
Cui's goal of moving forward was sidelined when Suitor made another reference to the old racist nickname.
Edmonton fans really need a home win live in person this decade. The next Elks home game is July 7 hosting Calgary.
Any recommendations for the softest sponges for a sponge bath? pic.twitter.com/Om6WRIOUcQ
— Dan Clark (@DanClark67) June 20, 2022
Saskatchewan is 2-0 (along with Winnipeg and Calgary with BC at 1-0) but that second win had a few issues. Centre Dan Clark suffered a broken fibula. The wave of players giving love to Clark as he was being carted off speaks volumes to his impact on and off the field.
The Roughriders made Suitor tear his hair out with 14 penalties for 134 yards. Saskatchewan might have played down to its opponent but the Elks weren't the reason for being so undisciplined.
Why the Canadian ratio is so important in the CFL
Odell Willis retired as a member of the Edmonton Elks. Willis spent 11 seasons in the CFL with every single West Division team, especially Edmonton where he was the "Mayor of Commonwealth."
Willis had been with the Toronto Argonauts but never played a down for them. On February 2, 2018, Willis was with the Ottawa Redblacks for 17 minutes.
Willis was fun to watch going after CFL quarterbacks.
2022 CFL preseason schedule
The ritual for your humble narrator has been to deactivate the CFL app after the season ends and then add the app when the season starts. Can't find the app for Android at the moment.
The app didn't do much other than give the upcoming schedule and allow us to watch the 8-minute video summaries of recent games. Still, that was helpful.
The CFL needs an app and a good one.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
Rod Smith and Duane Forde with Matthew Scianitti were in Toronto on Thursday and Hamilton on Saturday. No hotel rooms needed.
Marshall Ferguson made his 2022 CFL debut on TSN in Ottawa on Friday with Glen Suitor with Claire Hanna. Dustin Neilson also didn't need a hotel room to cover the game in Edmonton on Saturday with Suitor with Sara Orlesky.
logo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @DanClark67
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