The CFL throws the crowd a mild curveball by blowing off football on Thursday night to have a Friday night doubleheader. The preview runs today because the CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule runs on Friday.
The Edmonton Elks travel to Ottawa after hosting the RedBlacks on Sunday. The Elks made some changes since Sunday night.
The second half of the Friday doubleheader is the first of 2 straight major rivalry games. The prairie teams give us an early debut as Winnipeg travels to Saskatchewan. The Roughriders are the better team so far over the Blue Bombers, even as this rivalry has been one-sided in the other direction.
The Friday night games will likely overlap, which wasn't as bad for U.S. viewers when ESPN+ was the option.
We get another major rivalry Saturday night as the Toronto Argonauts travel for about an hour by bus to Hamilton. The Tiger-Cats had a week to reassess a struggling start to 2024.
BC makes its only 2024 visit to Calgary as the CFL week finishes up on Sunday night. The Lions won at home earlier this year with the distraction of a sellout home crowd and a 50 Cent concert. Neither of those will be an issue at McMahon Stadium.
CBS Sports Network has the weekend games in the States.
Montréal needs a week for Cody Fajardo and Marc-Antoine Dequoy to recover. The city is an amazing summer destination, something the players can explore with a bye week.
CBS Sports Network
Saturday
Toronto @ Hamilton, 7p
Sunday
BC @ Calgary, 7p
TSN
Friday
Edmonton @ Ottawa, 7p
Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan, 9:30p
Saturday
Toronto @ Hamilton, 7p
Sunday
BC @ Calgary, 7p
Bye week: Montréal
2024 has been the year of the Canadian receiver in the CFL. Ontaria Wilson is an American and both Wilson and Justin McInnis had stellar performances over the weekend. Wilson caught Zach Collaros' first passing TD of the season for the Blue Bombers. McInnis had 14 targets, all of them caught.
Dru Brown of Ottawa was a lot healthier, going 26 for 38 for 480 yards in the squeaker over Edmonton. The RedBlacks had 3 receivers go over 100 yards: CFL newcomer Kalil Pimpleton (4-153), Dominique Rhymes (7-131), and Justin Hardy (5-110).
Zach Collaros, Brady Oliveira @ rookie Ontaria Wilson led a Blue bomber offensive outburst in a heart stopping 41-37 win over Calgary. Oshea’s gutsy decision to go for a 2-pt convert on the winning TD allowed Wpg to clinch the season series vs Calg. Mega win for Bombers.
— Bob Irving (@BobIrvingCJOB) July 13, 2024
Why did Winnipeg go for the 2-point conversion late in the 41-37 win over the Stampeders? The 2-point conversion gave the Blue Bombers a +1 point differential in the 2-game series, the first tiebreaker.
This unfortunately was the last time these 2 teams play in the regular season. They deserve a 3rd game. Given the way Calgary plays on the road, a playoff game at Princess Auto Stadium would be unfortunate for the Stampeders.
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Usually we talk about the excitement of the last 3 minutes of the second half of a CFL game. Calgary in Winnipeg was outrageous (a word we rarely use) in the final 150 seconds of the first half. The game deserved to be tied at 23 at halftime.
Calgary was up 13-9 at the 2:30 mark left in the first half. Collaros connected on a touchdown to Ontaria Wilson. The Blue Bombers then had a Pick-6 from defensive back Deatrick Nichols with a 55-yard interception return.
Jake Maier completed a 32-yard TD pass to Erik Brooks. The Stampeders added a field goal to end the first half. The teams scored 22 combined points in the first 27:30 of the game and 24 points in the final 2:30 of the half.
The Stampeders also scored 23 first-half points against Montréal the previous week. They left the offence in the locker room in La Belle Province. The Stamps scored in the second half but suffered another frustration road loss.
2024 CFL Week 5 preview
The BC Lions had a watermelon smash for the second year in a row with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Vancouver. Some Roughriders fans are known for wearing watermelons on their heads to keep cool.
Both undefeated teams lost over the weekend. Toronto used offense, defence (a very easy Pick-6 to Wynton McManis), and special teams (Janarion Grant with a kickoff return going 103 yards for a major) in Montréal. Cody Fajardo had a hamstring injury and Caleb Evans took over for the Alouettes.
Montréal had a club-record 13-game run that included the 2023 playoffs and the Grey Cup.
Edmonton and Hamilton are the only CFL teams without a win in 2024.
Ottawa snapped 8-game road losing streak in the win over the Elks. Edmonton has lost the last 3 games on a game-winning field goals as time expired and 4 straight by exactly 3 points.
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Edmonton Elks record by starting QB since Chris Jones was hired in 2022:
— John Hodge (@JohnDHodge) July 15, 2024
Tre Ford, 5-8
Taylor Cornelius, 3-16
Nick Arbuckle, 0-3
McLeod Bethel-Thompson, 0-5#Elks | #ElksCharge | #Edmonton | #CFL
Edmonton finally said goodbye to Chris Jones, head coach and general manager. Jones had gone 0-5 in 2024 and 8-33 in his second stint coaching the team.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jarious Jackson is the interim head coach while assistant general manager Geroy Simon is the interim general manager.
Glen Suitor has been on Jones to play Kevin Brown more at running back and went extensively on Sunday about how Eugene Lewis was sharply underutilised in the Elks offence. We agree wholeheartedly with Suitor's observations.
Jones is a defensive-minded coach and the offence has suffered in part because of that approach. Jackson, being responsible for the offence, is now in charge so we will see what new wrinkles may come.
Other teams (Winnipeg, Montréal, Calgary) incorporate backups at times. Jones has been steadfast on not playing Tre Ford, even for a single play. We anticipate that will change under Jackson. This isn't a knock at McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who has had good numbers. Chris Streveler has a different energy with the Blue Bombers. This can confuse the defence and in football, confusion is good. Dakota Prukop has had his moments and could use a few more.
We noted Hamilton's rough starts in recent years. The Elks started 0-9 in 2023 and Jones had to be dragged kicking and screaming to play Ford at quarterback. Ford won't make the Elks great but a bit of Ford makes better a real possibility.
"The Edmonton Elks no longer need to worry about the CFL football operations cap in terms of money owed to former coaches or personnel executives."
We noted this in our 2024 CFL preview. We knew this was a possibility.
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2024 CFL Week 1 preview: Opening week
2024 CFL preview
It all starts in one week. Here is the gane day schedule for the attempt to break the current CFL Guinness World Record "Fastest time to visit all CFL Stadiums"#CFLGWR @CFL @GWR @cflffc @CFLonTSN
— Chris Tymofichuk 🇺🇦 (@Xpeggr) July 5, 2024
Bobby Dubeau holds the world record for fastest time being at all 9 CFL stadiums: 364 hours. Chris Tymofichuk is aiming for a new record at 362.5 hours.
Tymofichuk was at Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Edmonton this weekend to start his quest. The middle 3 (Regina, Hamilton, and Calgary) will be the roughest stretch this coming week. The final 3 stops are out east (Montréal, Ottawa, and Toronto) the following week.
Tymofichuk is raising money for the Michael Cuccione Foundation, funding childhood cancer research. Debeau is in on this and has offered his support.
Here is the 2024 itinerary:
July 12 Winnipeg
July 13 Vancouver
July 14 Edmonton
July 19 Regina
July 20 Hamilton
July 21 Calgary
July 25 Montréal
July 26 Ottawa
July 27 Toronto
If he makes all 9 games, Tymofichuk would see Calgary, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan 3 times; BC, Toronto, and Ottawa twice; and Edmonton, Montréal, and Hamilton once.
Your humble narrator has been to all 9 CFL stadiums, though previous versions in Hamilton and Regina, plus Moncton. This took several years.
We are sad that often Canadians don't travel within their own country. Good on Bobby Dubeau and Chris Tymofichuk to show the power of Canadian travel and, of course, the CFL.
30 years went by fast! The most amazing thing about the 713 yard passing game by @MattDuniganTSN? The game wasn’t televised. https://t.co/6Z8NaWnI2O
— Gord Miller 🌻🇺🇦 (@GMillerTSN) July 14, 2024
Sunday was the 30th anniversary of the all-time best passing performance based on yardage. Matt Dunigan went 33-52 for 713 yards with 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions for Winnipeg over Edmonton.
The fun part about this collection of clips is that Gord Miller and Matt Dunigan have called a few CFL games together. Miller also did hosting work for the CFL on TSN back in the day.
We say records can be broken yet having a hard time wondering who and how that can be done.
2024 CFL preseason schedule
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
Toronto @ Montréal: Marshall Ferguson/Duane Forde/Kenzie Lalonde
Calgary @ Winnipeg: Dustin Nielson/Matt Dunigan/Brit Dort
Saskatchewan @ BC: Rod Smith/Glen Suitor/Shantelle Chand
Ottawa @ Edmonton: Dustin Nielson/Glen Suitor/Brit Dort
Shantelle Chand handled sideline duties in Vancouver. If you were wondering, Farhan Lalji watched the game via CFL+ from Rome.
logo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @BobIrvingCJOB; @JohnDHodge; @Xpeggr; @GMillerTSN
photo credit: TSN/CFL
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