PAT STEINBERG
CFL.ca Staff
There was a lot to sink your teeth into from opening weekend of the 2011 CFL season, with some exciting fourth quarter comebacks and a last minute field goal mixed in.
One team showed why they are still a Grey Cup favorite after winning the past two, while the West Division left fans with a lot of questions needing answers heading into Week #2 of the season. More than anything, I noticed a lot of good things with the guys in the trenches, as a few offensive lines and a couple defensive fronts won the week in my mind.
DRAWING THE LINE
So yeah, Anthony Calvillo, S.J. Green, Jamel Richardson and the rest of the Montreal playmakers did their thing on Thursday night in the Als’ 30-26 win over the Lions, but it was the overall protection I was impressed with most on offence.
Calvillo had almost no pressure in his face throughout the game and it was especially evident early on as the Als got out to a dominant 27-10 lead at half. Josh Bourke may be the best left tackle in the CFL and has probably lead more people to Google Grand Valley State than anyone else in history, but the protection was great all across the line.
What was even more impressive was what happened when the Lions brought extra attackers to try and tilt the advantage – Brandon Whittaker inserted himself very well in pass pro. And it’s not like he didn’t have a productive night on the ground either, as 137 all purpose yards would have been impressive enough on their own.
On the other side, I wonder if Lions Head Coach Wally Buono was having some déjà vu moments watching his team toil in vain to get in Calvillo’s face. BC finished last in the CFL in quarterback sacks last season and they just couldn’t seem to get anything positive going on Thursday. It was one of the main pushes for Buono during the off season, so we’ll see how it improves throughout this season, but it certainly will need to take some steps forward.
Speaking of time in the pocket, it seemed like Ricky Ray had all the time in the world for much of Edmonton’s impressive 42-28 win over the Riders on Sunday night. The interior of the Eskimos’ line is very good, anchored by left guard Patrick Kabongo, who plays as important a role in that position as anyone in the league.
Granted, Saskatchewan’s front seven has gone through some change, but the front four especially had a lot of trouble getting any push at all and it allowed Ray to torch the Rider secondary.
Last year at the start of the season the Calgary media was wondering, ‘What about that Stampeders offensive line?’ and for good reason. It had gone through a lot of change, but it turned into a non-issue in very short order. That may still happen this season, but night one of Calgary’s season saw some suspect protection which seemed to rattle quarterback Henry Burris. Granted, Dimitri Tsoumpas sat out with an injury which certainly took its toll, but it is something Head Coach John Hufnagel said, “Needed to be better” following the game.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Watching the Argos play live Friday night, I sure did like a lot of what I saw. They may not be the most explosive team on either side of the ball, but they are very efficient and tough to play against.
Defensively, they stuck to the “bend but don’t break” philosophy perfectly, really ramping things up when Calgary got into the red zone. Offensively, I’m a little higher on Cleo Lemon than others seem to be, but I really liked how he calmed things down after the Argos fell behind late in the fourth quarter. He got the team into good field goal position with some smart passes with time ticking down and looked really poised in doing so.
Overall, Toronto looked really good marching back in a game they controlled for the majority.
“That’s what a championship team does,” Argos receiver Jermaine Copeland told me on the field after the game. “You gotta stay focused, you gotta compete to the end and we played for four quarters and came out with the victory.”
I’m a really big fan of Winnipeg head coach Paul LaPolice and it was tough to watch some of the struggles his Bombers went through last season. They didn’t do anything that made you saw “wow” on Friday night in taking a 24-16 win over Hamilton, but Winnipeg just did what they needed to do.
I guess my previous wow comment is actually inaccurate, because I sure did like what they did in the second half shutting out the Tiger Cats, so I’ll take that comment back.
Winnipeg has some nice talent offensively, but I don’t see them overpowering a lot of teams this year, so how they won on Friday is going to have to be the norm and I think it’s possible. The Bombers are well coached and very regimented and I’m looking for them to take a few steps forward this season.
We covered the Lions defensively earlier, but one thing I wasn’t really concerned with was when they had the ball. I thought Travis Lulay had a very strong game under centre and the team showed an ability to move the ball, something I think they’ll be able to do on a regular basis this season.
Lulay was well protected and showed once again why Buono pegged him a long time ago to be their starting quarterback. Now, BC needs to hone in when they have the ball deep, because they let a number of drives get away from them on Thursday night. I think they’ll be just fine in that department and they could have been a whole lot closer with the Als had they not stubbed their toes early on.
SPECIAL STUFF
Calgary has a bit of an issue now with their kicker, as it was health as much as anything else that made Rob Maver miss three of his four field goal attempts on Friday. He tweaked his leg injury during pre-game warm-ups and then aggravated it during the game and now the team needs to figure out what they’re doing going forward.
When asked if it’s a position his team needed to address, coach Hufnagel said bluntly, “I think we need to find a field goal kicker, yes.”
On the bright side, new Stamps returner Larry Taylor looked really good in his debut, averaging more than 24 yards per touch returning kicks.
Hamilton lost their season opener, but they have to feel a whole lot better about their kicking situation than they did last year. Justin Medlock was money nailing all three of his attempts on Friday night, including a 42-yard strike and he looked really good in doing so.
Toronto’s Noel Prefontaine was very strong as well and his 43-yard winner late in the fourth quarter really was a no-doubter.