This might be as close as Edmonton will get to the 2024 Grey Cup by traveling to Vancouver to face the Lions. The Elks suffered a 22-0 shutout in Edmonton's only 2023 trip to the West Coast. This starts the week on Thursday night.
The 2023 East final rematch is the Friday Night Football game as the Montréal Alouettes come to BMO Field in Toronto, home of that division final. The Argos surprisingly start out 2024 with 3 home games in a row.
Winnipeg is looking for its first win of the season in Calgary in the Saturday night contest. The Stampeders have not defeated the Blue Bombers since a home win on the final week of the 2021 regular season.
The Sunday battle of Hamilton at Ottawa is more a battle of the bottom of the East Division. The clash would have been the Jeremiah Masoli bowl game if Masoli was healthy enough.
CBS Sports Network has the weekend games in the States.
This marks the first CFL weekend full of division games. The balanced schedule means fewer division games since every team plays the others home and away.
Saskatchewan gets time to enjoy its perfect 3-0 record with Saskatoon berry pies where the crust is made of lard.
CBS Sports Network
Saturday
Winnipeg @ Calgary, 7p
Sunday
Hamilton @ Ottawa, 7p
TSN
Thursday
Edmonton @ BC, 10p
Friday
Montréal @ Toronto, 7:30p
Saturday
Winnipeg @ Calgary, 7p
Sunday
Hamilton @ Ottawa, 7p
Bye week: Saskatchewan
Was it love at first sight for this Bombers fangirl tonight? 😍 #CFL pic.twitter.com/IIz7DarZQp
— Rider fan (@GreyCupBound) June 22, 2024
The CFL is very proud that 7 of the first 8 games of the season were decided in the final 3 minutes. The home opener in Montréal, complete with the unveiling of the Grey Cup champion banner, would not be one of them.
The Alouettes led the Ottawa RedBlacks 30-1 at halftime. Cody Fajardo ended up 28-for-35 for 393 yards and 3 TD passes: 2 to Reggie White Jr. and one to Tyson Philpot.
DeVonte Dedmon’s 101-yard kickoff return was the major highlight for Ottawa.
IS THIS THE DAGGER?!@ahollins13 HAVE A DAY 🫡#CFLGameday on TSN & RDS
— CFL (@CFL) June 22, 2024
📲: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/GjwzVCNPy7
BC and Winnipeg struggled in the first half. The Lions should have scored more points than they did. The Blue Bombers almost put up a late TD at the end of the first half, passing up a safe field goal. The lead changes in the second half were exciting. The Lions had the edge and came out with the 2-point win.
The Blue Bombers are 0-3, 0-2 at home. Winnipeg is only 0-1 in the division. Seeing this game reminded us that the road to the West Division may not go through Winnipeg but indeed Vancouver and possibly Regina.
Zach Collaros has no TD passes so far. This is a true statistic though given that Chris Streveler plunges for TDs, this isn't as bad as it sounds. Still, the Blue Bombers offence is sputtering.
Nice to see Winnipeg honouring Andrew Harris, who started with the BC Lions and excelled with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The joy of bringing Harris in the beginning was that he was from Winnipeg and good.
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Edmonton in Toronto felt like homecoming, given all of the former Argos up north these days. Felt bad for Boris Bede, who was likely hoping to kick a winning field goal at BMO Field. Turns out the Elks didn't try a single field goal while Lirim Hajrullahu, the kicker the Argos signed while releasing Bede, did kick the winning field goal.
The Elks and Tiger-Cats both have struggled with the act of winning a game, a close one where a little bit more effort is needed. In this sense, the Elks are way ahead of the Tiger-Cats. Chris Jones might have a decision to make: play Tre Ford in some fashion or lose his job. You get the impression Jones would rather get fired than play Ford.
Imagine if Edmonton used Ford like Winnipeg does with Chris Streveler. Jones will never do so, even to keep his job.
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The backup quarterback battle in Saskatchewan was notable as Shea Patterson beat out Mason Fine. Normally that wouldn't matter too much but Trevor Harris suffered a significant knee injury in 2023. Harris hurt the other knee (left) and didn't return in Regina Sunday night. Patterson did okay but the offence slowed down.
The Roughriders have a bye and don't need to talk about Harris and his health. Not yet at least.
The kickers forced changed in the #CFL with chips in footballs.
— Jamie Nye (@jamienye) June 21, 2024
But it came at a cost.
Sergio Castillo, Brett Lauther, Sean Whyte and Lewis Ward all fined for violating the CFL Code of Conduct/Social media policy.
Your humble narrator was happy that the CFL kickers stepped up about the concern over the chips in the footballs. Turns out that the concern cost the kickers money in fines.
The CFL fined Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicker Sergio Castillo for violating the league’s Code of Conduct while the league handed out fines to Brett Lauther (Saskatchewan), Lewis Ward (Ottawa), and Sean Whyte (BC) for violating the CFL Social Media Policy.
Ottawa punter Richie Leone was also critical comments about the chipped footballs on social media yet received no fine. Maybe because he was a punter and not a kicker??
The response from CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie was about as terrible as one can imagine.
Are we witnessing the best collection of #CanadianReceivers in @cfl history? As of right now there are 4 Canadian receivers in the top 10 and 9 in the top 20. When the season ends how many will be in the top 20 and top 10? @CFLonTSN @cfl #PaperPlates pic.twitter.com/TrzO5gpcJY
— Milt Stegall (@MiltStegallTSN) June 25, 2024
We have given love for Canadian quarterbacks when they get a chance to play. Why not love for Canadian receivers? They know the rules and nuances of the game, from 1 foot in bounds to the wider fields. They even know the rules, as opposed to the American receiver CJ Sims for Edmonton who didn't return the ball out of the end zone late in the game, giving Saskatchewan the win.
The CFL’s first-ever augmented live streams are coming to TSN+, powered by @GeniusSports.
— CFL (@CFL) June 18, 2024
The all-new enhanced data feed is available all season long.
🗞️: https://t.co/32M1ENGypk | #CFL pic.twitter.com/HfPAMxQyid
My expectations are showing penalties that are called and better angles on borderline plays. TSN is offering an enhanced data feed for its viewers, but only on TSN+.
The CFL uniforms have a few advertisers these days. The Montréal situation is a bit more unusual. The 2 sponsor patches on the Alouettes uniforms are both companies under the tutelage of Pierre Karl Péladeau, the relatively new owner of the Montréal Alouettes.
Even more unusual is that TVA Sports is the rival of RDS, the French-language outlet that does the CFL rights. There likely isn't a rule against this. RDS carries all the Alouettes and Ottawa RedBlacks games among others in the CFL package. RDS running inadvertent sponsorships for its primary rival is not what the company would want.
The Montréal Alouettes drew a sellout crowd of 23,035 fans for the 2024 home opener with the unveiling of the Grey Cup championship.
3 Down Nation has an intriguing article on Péladeau and the possibility of a new home for the Alouettes. The capacity has been in flux, going from 20,202 to 25,012 in 2010 but then back to 23,000 soon afterward.
The issue is more the lack of amenities at Percival Molson Stadium. I've sat on those bleachers and they aren't terribly comfortable. The location is ideal and it's not like the team is going back to Stade Olympique any time soon.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
Marshall Ferguson made his 2024 CFL on TSN debut with Duane Forde with Kenzie Lalonde for the Grey Cup banner unveiling in Montréal on Thursday.
Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor with John Lu were in Winnipeg for the rematch of the West final on Friday night.
Rod Smith and Forde stayed in Toronto Saturday night with Paul LaPolice again on the sidelines. Smith and Suitor with Brit Dort were in Regina on Sunday night for the Tiger-Cats and Roughriders rematch.
Matt Dunigan had the week off as Jim Barker filled in for Dunigan on the panel. The pattern so far is that the Sunday game only has 3 people on the panel. This feels deliberate and we are reluctant to believe in coincidences. Cost cutting is the obvious reason but these moves seem so petty.
logo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @GreyCupBound; @CFL; @jamienye; @MiltStegallTSN; @CFL
photo credit: TSN/CFL
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