The Rookies

I’m in Calgary this week for the Grey Cup, the CFL championship game, which features the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes. It should be a great one. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. Eastern/3:30 p.m. Pacific, and I’m planning to live-blog the game over at Sporting Madness. Before that, here’s a little preview to get you prepped for the game.

Media interview Roughriders' coach Ken Miller (centre) at a breakfast with the Grey Cup (background) this week

Saskatchewan:

Number of Grey Cups won: Three

Last Grey Cup victory: 2007

Coach: Ken Miller

How they got here: Finished first in the CFL West Division, then knocked off the Calgary Stampeders 27-17 in the West Final to advance to the Grey Cup.

Key player: Running back Wes Cates. Cates is a rushing and receiving threat in the Ray Rice mould, and a very good one. He was key to the Riders’ Grey Cup win in 2007 and was their top player last year. He’s had a down year thanks to injuries, but if he can get the Saskatchewan rushing game going, that could be the crucial key to their success. Otherwise, Montreal will be able to drop too many men into coverage and pick off quarterback Darian Durant.

Montreal:

Number of Grey Cups won: Six

Last Grey Cup victory: 2002

Head coach: Marc Trestman

How they got here: Finished first in the league with a 15-3 record, then demolished B.C. 56-18 in the East final.

Key player: Quarterback Anthony Calvillo. Calvillo won his third Most Outstanding Player award and his second one in two years this week. He may be 37, but he threw for 4,639 yards and 26 touchdowns while completing 72 per cent of his passes and was only picked off six times. However, the Alouettes are a surprising 1-6 in Grey Cup games with Calvillo at the helm. Not all of that is his fault, but this edition of the team certainly goes as Calvillo goes. If he has a typically brilliant day, they’ll win. If not, he may drop to 1-7.

Alouettes' QB Anthony Calvillo receives his third Most Outstanding Player award Friday.

Thanks for reading The Whole 110 Yards this season! Be sure to stop by Sporting Madness for my other Grey Cup coverage and my live blog. I’ll have one final edition of the Whole 110 Yards posted early this coming week to wrap up the game and the CFL season that was.

After a hiatus thanks to other work commitments, I’m back with another issue of The Whole 110 Yards, just in time for the start of the CFL playoffs today. I’ll be taking you all the way through the playoffs and will be bringing you on-the-ground coverage from the Grey Cup in Calgary in two weeks. However, we still have two playoff rounds to get through before then. Without further ado, let’s get to the breakdowns of the first round. Start us off, Jim Mora!

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Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray (Sacramento State) gets a pass off before being hit by Saskatchewan linebacker Jerrell Freeman (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor) Sunday.

Welcome to another installment of The Whole 110 Yards. As always, check the CFL home page for statistics, video highlights and broadcast schedules. Comments, questions or suggestions? Leave them below, or send them to me via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.

The Week That Was: This week saw plenty of action in the CFL, but the overarching theme was a all-but-decided East Division and an up-for-grabs West Division. There are still seven weeks on the schedule, but the 9-2 Montreal Alouettes have all but clinched the East title. They maintained their three-game lead at the top of the division with a 33-14 thumping of the 3-8 Winnipeg Blue Bombers Sunday. Meanwhile, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats strengthened their hold on second place in the East with a 24-17 win over the Calgary Stampeders Friday, improving their record to 6-5. Barring an unexpected implosion on the part of the Alouettes, a division title doesn’t appear in the cards for the Tiger-Cats, but they do seem set to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
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Hamilton wide receiver Marquay McDaniel (Hampton) makes a catch Friday against Toronto defensive back Jason Shivers. The Argonauts rebounded to win 25-22 in overtime and improve their record to 3-7.

The Week That Was: It was an interesting week in the CFL, complete with Saskatchewan’s 55-10 thumping of Winnipeg in the Banjo Bowl, the Stampeders pulling off a late comeback to knock off the Eskimos and Montreal getting revenge on the Lions at home. All three results were significant, and both the Calgary-Edmonton and B.C. – Montreal tilts were excellent games. Still, my vote for game of the week goes to the Toronto Argonauts’ improbable 25-22 overtime victory against the Hamilton TIger-Cats. It was the first home win for the Boatmen under head coach Bart Andrus, and their triumph snapped a five-game, 405-day home losing streak that predated Andrus, stretching back to last season.
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Pacman Jones won't be making it rain in Winnipeg any time soon.

Apologies for the delayed edition of The Whole 110 Yards this week; a nasty little thing known as work intervened and killed my blogging time. As always, leave feedback and suggestions in the comments, or send them to me via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.

There were a couple of interesting CFL games last week, including the Edmonton Eskimos’ thrilling 31-30 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts’ failure to kick a game-tying field goal in the last seconds of their 23-20 loss to the Calgary Stampeders. We’ll get to those games in detail shortly, but the most fascinating news of the week actually comes from the “Off-field Story of the Week” department. As SI’s Jim Trotter reported Monday night, cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones (West Virginia), he of the strip club troubles, was set to become the newest member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. This made sense from a few different perspectives, but unfortunately for both Winnipeg fans and CFL writers, didn’t come true. Winnipeg was clearly very interested in Jones, and their director of player personnel, John Murphy, was quoted by Trotter as saying the deal was all but done. Unfortunately, it looks like management pulled the plug after a few days of speculation, and received plenty of applause in the local media for not signing Jones (but criticism for even pursuing him). I’ll explain why I disagree with that below, but first, won’t someone please think of the strippers?
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Edmonton receiver Fred Stamps (Louisiana - Lafayette) hauls in a game-winning catch against Calgary Thursday.

It’s time for another installment of my weekly CFL column. Video highlight reels of each game, as well as scores, stats and U.S. broadcast schedules can all be found on the league home page. As always, if you have comments or suggestions for future columns, leave them below or e-mail them to me. Read the rest of this entry →

B.C. defensive end Ricky Foley sacks Saskatchewan QB Darian Durant Friday. The Lions won 35-20, increasing the storm of questions around the Riders' quarterbacking situation.

It’s the second week of my adventures in CFL column writing. Video highlight reels of each game, as well as scores, stats and U.S. broadcast schedules can all be found on the league home page. As always, if you have comments or suggestions for future columns, leave them below or e-mail them to me.

The Week That Was:

It was a crazy week in the CFL, complete with a shutout in Montreal, a clash of passing and running offences in Hamilton and a surprisingly close game in Calgary. Still, my vote for the most interesting game of the past week goes to the B.C. Lions’ 35-20 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Vancouver Friday night. This game had it all, but it deserves special notice for marking a potential turnaround. Heading into Saturday, the Riders were sitting pretty at 3-2 and looked like the best team in the West. Meanwhile, the Lions were reeling at 1-4 and had just came off a brutal loss to Hamilton. Only a few of us nuts thought they might win this one. The victory improves their record to 2-4, while the Riders fall into a three-way tie for first in the West at 3-3. The game itself was a roller-coaster ride, including five interceptions, a couple of fumbles and a bizarre special-teams play.
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B.C. linebacker Javy Glatt tries to pull down Hamilton running back DeAndra Cobb Friday night. The Lions lost 30-18 to drop to 1-4, and Glatt lost his starting job to new signing JoJuan Armour.

This is a new column idea we’re trying out. To help you survive the NFL and college football offseason, I’ll bring you an update on the Canadian Football League every Tuesday. If there’s certain features you’d like to see included, let me know in the comments or at andrew_bucholtz at hotmail.com. If you’re looking for highlights of any of the games, you can check them out at CFL.ca. Read the rest of this entry →