CFL Thoughts

The Saskatchewan Roughriders head into Montreal this week having lost seven of their past eight regular season games. That's a stunning turn of events for a team that had been among the most consistent from 2007 until the midpoint of 2010. The Roughriders were an elite team in 2009 but last year were only 10-8 on the season and scored marginally more points than they gave up. Go back to that 2009 team and consider the removal of two dominant playmakers on defence in Stevie Baggs and John Chick, and two on offence in Andy Fantuz and Rob Bagg and you start to understand why the Roughriders don't have the playmaking ability they once did. Take four players like that off any team - two of whom are Canadians - and it's going to make a difference. The result is that a player such as Jason Clermont, who couldn't crack the Riders starting lineup two seasons ago as a 31-year-old is now a regular at age 33.

- It's been a source of concern for a few years that ball security continues to be an issue for Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant. Eight turnovers through three games isn't an atrocious statistic but it's not good either. It's the kind of thing that can be masked by a team with a strong defence and lots of playmakers on offence. That used to be the Roughriders. It's not anymore.

- Not only have the Roughriders not won a game this season, more shocking is that they haven't had a lead.

- Edmonton's 3-0 start to the season means Kavis Reed is having the best start to a CFL head coaching career since Ken Miller went 6-0 with Saskatchewan in 2008.

- It's always the course that quarterbacks in football get too much credit and too much criticism, but is it possible to overstate the way Edmonton's Ricky Ray has been playing so far this season? A year ago there was a quiet debate going on over whether Ray was in decline and should the Eskimos begin the process of passing the mantle to someone else. Good thing they didn't. Having already thrown for 1,000 yards this season without a single interception, Ray has put together a stronger trio of games than he has in at least five seasons.

- Speaking of quarterbacks, one has to think that Cleo Lemon's time as the starter in Toronto is on the clock. Lemon now has 20 CFL starts on his resume and the consensus is that his development remains very much a work in progress. The Argos still don't have a dependable receiving threat beyond 34-year-old Jeremaine Copeland, which hasn't made Lemon's cause any easier. But in a league where 4-5 games is the average time a new starting quarterback usually gets to prove his worth, Lemon is in overtime. There's certainly reason to believe the Argos were willing to go in a new direction to begin this season. But an injury to Dalton Bell and the fact Steven Jyles is still recovering from the shoulder injury he suffered late last season, have made what would have been an interesting competition, a win by default for Lemon.

- If Jamel Richardson is the best receiver in the CFL, Fred Stamps might be the second best. Stamps' talent got lost a year ago in the disaster that was the Eskimos but he still managed 1,223 yards. Like his quarterback, Stamps has begun this season at a very high level and looks poised to have a big season with 316 yards through three games.

- James Harrison, the supremely talented but judgement-challenged linebacker of the Pittsburgh Steelers was, more than once, almost a Montreal Alouette.

- There are lots of ingredients that have gone into Edmonton's turnaround but a couple of big pieces have been provided by players who were essentially left on the door step. Adarius Bowman was once a legitimate NFL prospect who participated in the Senior Bowl at the end of his college career. But a bad case of the dropsies in Winnipeg last season made him available to anyone this off-season. Same with Jerome Messam who was offered up for trade this spring after running afoul of Wally Buono's rule once too often. Dealt for a conditional draft pick to Edmonton, he's already got 193 yards and two touchdowns. Interesting note about Messam: he must be the only Canadian player even to be completely passed over in the six rounds of the CFL draft but then offered an NFL invite when the New York Giants brought him to their mini-camp.

- TSN's Duane Forde is right about Toronto running back Chad Kackert. He does play a lot like former Ottawa and Hamilton running back Josh Ranek.

- It's hard to think of a single play that caused more carnage - short term and long - than the throw from Winnipeg's Joey Elliott to Terence Jeffers-Harris late in the fourth quarter of the Blue Bombers game against Calgary. If Jeffers-Harris had simply dropped the ball, the Bombers would likely have hit a field goal and gone up by nine with Elliott finishing the game healthy. Instead, Jeffers-Harris caught the ball, fumbled, allowing Calgary's Keon Raymond to pick it up and dart towards the endzone. Raymond didn't score but on the tackle, Elliott tore his ACL, ending his season. And Raymond's return was enough to set Calgary up for the game-winning score.

- Another reason the Blue Bombers defence looks so good is the play of defensive back Jonathan Hefney. The CFL's outstanding rookie in 2009 spent most of last season trying to crack the Detroit Lions roster. When he returned late in the year it didn't always appear he was fully committed to the cause in Winnipeg. This season, Hefney appears to have picked up where he left off in 2009, breaking up several plays against the Stamps with his tremendous coverage abilities.

- Other than the 14 points Calgary scored directly off, or as a result of turnover, the Stamps had just two field goals and a single. Given the Bombers concerns at quarterback, they may need that kind of defensive performance the rest of the way.

- Edmonton receiver Chris Bauman finally got into a game during Saturday's win over Hamilton. The former no. 1 overall pick got a decent raise as a free agent during the off-season when he left Hamilton for the Esks. But he wasn't able to get on the field during Edmonton's first two games of the season and has just one catch for 12 yards on the season.

- It appears that Winnipeg's Odell Willis is ready to emerge as the best pass rusher the CFL has seen since Cameron Wake. Willis leads the CFL with five sacks and has been a constant presence in opposing backfields so far this season.

- B.C.'s Shawn Gore, who a year ago was in camp with the Green Bay Packers, is the only Canadian among the CFL's top 14 in receivers thus far this season.

- Toronto linebacker Ejiro Kuale and defensive tackle Claude Wroten were roommates with the LSU Tigers when they played together 2004-05.

- The Bombers suffered a big loss when Kito Poblah had to be added to the nine-game injury list after Winnipeg's season-opener at Hamilton. But another Canadian, Cory Watson, the ninth overall pick out of Concordia last spring looks like he is ready to be a playmaker based on his play during the season's opening three weeks.

- The NCAA and NFL both have rules that state the whistle is blown and the play dead when the helmet of a ball-carrier comes off. The CFL needs to follow suit. Calgary's Henry Burris and Saskatchewan's Tristan Jackson both were in peril last week after their helmets flew off and defensive players continued to hurl themselves in their direction.

- The Stamps seemed to have more success against Winnipeg during the second half of last week's game when they went to using double tight-ends. It will be interesting to see how many teams follow suit.

- There had been lots of noise in Edmonton during recent seasons about the Esks wanting to add more run to the run-pass balance. This year they're finally doing it. Through the first three games of this season, Edmonton leads the CFL with 422 yards rushing and an average for 5.9 yards per rush.

- With the Esks at 3-0 and two other teams in the division at 0-3, what are the chances now that Edmonton doesn't make the playoffs?

- After having their best offensive output while veterans Arland Bruce and Maurice Mann were out of the lineup Saturday, the Ticats may have some interesting roster decisions to make heading into this week's game at B.C. You have to think that rookie Chris Williams and his five catches for 38 yards and two touchdowns against the Roughriders has guaranteed himself a role.

- Speaking of run games, what's going on with the B.C. Lions. Trailing early in games is part of why the Lions haven't been able to run the ball but that alone doesn't explain why B.C.'s ground game has been so impotent, with just 158 total yards, behind what was supposed to be an improved offensive line.

- One big difference for Hamilton's offence on the weekend was field position. The return game came alive for the Cats with Marcus Thigpen returning five punts for 93 yards. The Cats weren't as productive on kickoff returns but there's good reason for that: Saskatchewan kicked off just once all day.

- It used to be the signature of a Wally Buono team that it would come out of the gate quicker than most teams in the league. But over the past four seasons, the Lions are 3-9 in weeks 1-3.

- Three years ago the Toronto Argonuats had both Kavis Reed and Rich Stubler on their staff. But the combination of Stubler as head coach and Reed as defensive co-ordinator proved to be a disaster as Stubler was fired with a 4-6 record while an aging defence faded badly. Too bad the Argos didn't simply make Reed and Stubler change roles because in Edmonton the Reed-Stubler combination in reverse is working out just fine.

- Not wanting to sound the alarm bells in Montreal, but if the Als can't sell-out Percival Molson Stadium on a beautiful July night, when Anthony Calvillo is poised to become the CFL's all-time leader in touchdown passes Montreal and they are honouring Ben Cahoon and his family, just when are they going to sell it out?

- Montreal's Eric Deslauriers may have seemed like an unlikely recipient to catch Anthony Calvillo's record-setting TD pass. But although he had just seven catches in the past two seasons combined, Deslauriers hasn't gotten many opportunities. Given that he once led the NCAA in cactches during his sophomore season at Eastern Michigan, there's still reason to believe he may emerge as a CFL difference-maker.

- Since Eric Tillman was hired in Edmonton on Sept. 14, 2010, the Eskimos have gone 8-3 in regular season games. The Saskatchewan Roughriders over the same period have gone 4-7 excluding playoff games. You don't have to tell anyone in Saskatchewan about the optics of that.

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