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Transcript

“LYRICAL ELOQUENCE” The CFL Outsiders S03 E03 · The CFL Outsiders

• 0:36
  Hey kids, welcome back to another episode of the CFL Outsiders.
• 0:42
  I remain as always, you're 100% impartial, completely unbiased, and Just tickled pink host, old man shouting at clouds.
• 0:53
  Joining me this week on our expert fan panel, we're back down to two.
• 0:58
  We've got
• 0:59
  Apparently wearing Montreal cap for a Hamilton fan.
• 1:03
  MJ, what's up with that?
• 1:06
  Hi everyone.
• 1:07
  I was supposed to wear my Casey Printers jersey, but my kid and I have a little side bet this year that if it's an alloettes game and I pick the other team to win and the
• 1:16
  alouettes win, I have to wear aloettes gear.
• 1:18
  So here I am in my alouettes hat.
• 1:22
  It's not a very good start of the season for me at all.
• 1:26
  I fe I fear I thought somehow you'd lost a bet due to for that.
• 1:31
  I sure did.
• 1:32
  Hopefully this is the last.
• 1:34
  Ha ha.
• 1:34
  A and they are jumping in from somewhere in the wilderness of the world.
• 1:38
  We're not sure where this week, it's our roving reporter, GT.
• 1:43
  Hey everyone.
• 1:43
  Good morning from Gdansk.
• 1:45
  it is nice to be here again again at four o'clock in the morning.
• 1:48
  And this week I am once more no I'm not.
• 1:51
  This week I'm drinking water.
• 1:52
  I've probably had enough beer in the last two and a half weeks to carry me over.
• 1:56
  So I need a little bit of dry out period already on vacation and I'm going to the water.
• 2:01
  So we'll see if that impacts the quality of the content this week.
• 2:05
  But we'll do our best.
• 2:07
  Yes, a not terribly controlled experiment, but we'll see what the results are.
• 2:11
  Well, we've never been one for much control here, so
• 2:15
  No, that is that is true.
• 2:17
  well I'll tell you I'm I'm in a good mood because well, first of all, you know, did you manage to stay awake through that weekend of football?
• 2:25
  Boring, huh?
• 2:28
  Even that was without the two best teams in.
• 2:31
  Two really good games, I thought, and an ugly game between the two lower teams, but they weren't in the playoffs last year and it was still exciting as hell.
• 2:40
  So I thought that was great.
• 2:42
  Plus on a on a personal basis, I've got my new knees healed up to the point that I'm hitting the treadmill for about twenty minutes a day now and feeling really encouraged
• 2:53
  about that.
• 2:53
  I'll be back out hiking again.
• 2:56
  I'm hoping maybe by the time we record next week, we'll see.
• 3:01
  But I just wanted to open with a a couple of things.
• 3:05
  I did want to mention we're getting more comments and I like that.
• 3:08
  I'm picking out one every now and then that tickles my pink, as I said earlier, and putting it out.
• 3:13
  And this is I have no idea how to pronounce this this username, so I'm going to go phonically with it.
• 3:20
  Adam I Kangle Ten.
• 3:23
  I'm sure it's something different than that.
• 3:25
  But anyway, apparently you have a fan in Adam I Kangle Ten MJ, because his comment was
• 3:31
  I see.
• 3:32
  one, MJ Ford Cinema.
• 3:35
  Ha ha ha.
• 3:36
  Yes.
• 3:37
  So we we love the the feedback, whether it's just like that or if you've got something you wanna throw a c uh a criticism at us, anything we do wrong or whatever you feel like
• 3:47
  saying, please jump on in.
• 3:49
  This is getting to be fun and it's a lot more fun as we interact with our audience more.
• 3:54
  So thank you for that.
• 3:55
  you thought if you thought that was a little over the top last week, you do not you do not want to read me and my sister's text convos.
• 4:02
  Cause that was nothing.
• 4:06
  We really tried to keep it.
• 4:08
  that gave us the comment here and our title for last week which was Dazzling.
• 4:13
  Alrighty, jumping right in.
• 4:15
  Not too much news this week, so we're gonna try a couple other things.
• 4:19
  And to start us off, MJ apparently has a game about the World Cup to I guess honor the fact it's starting soon, maybe.
• 4:30
  World Cup starts this week.
• 4:33
  Yay!
• 4:34
  That's uh that's football for you non-American people.
• 4:38
  Yeah.
• 4:39
  Um so I thought we'd just play since uh GT's such a big fan of European football, I thought we'd play a little a little soccer game for the in honor of World Cup.
• 4:50
  are you either of you Ted Lasso fans?
• 4:53
  Yeah, it was all right.
• 4:54
  it.
• 4:54
  It's been a while.
• 4:56
  I'm I enjoyed it, but it's been a while, so my memory may not be that good.
• 5:00
  so we're gonna play we're gonna play a Ted Lasso game.
• 5:02
  If Team Canada needs a coach to step in last minute to help out, which current and past CFL coach would you be sending to help Team Canada in World Cup this year?
• 5:16
  For soccer.
• 5:17
  Hmm.
• 5:18
  If Ted Lasso can do it, someone from the CFL can.
• 5:22
  to be a special teams coach for the kicking side of it.
• 5:27
  I'm gonna go with Jeff Rienbold Seeing as I saw him on T V last week.
• 5:30
  All right, well I've I would go with Wally Buano based on his Italian background.
• 5:34
  He probably grew up playing the game in the streets of Montreal at some point in time, so I w uh at least had some idea of of at least the game is how the game is played as a
• 5:43
  coach.
• 5:43
  Other than that, I don't know that anybody else would.
• 5:45
  So I would go with Wally Buano.
• 5:47
  Alright, I chose Kahari Jones because he does a good sideline dance, just like Ted.
• 5:55
  Okay.
• 5:55
  Yeah, that makes sense actually.
• 5:57
  Yeah.
• 5:58
  Exactly.
• 5:59
  Just like Ted.
• 6:00
  Spoiler alert, you're gonna ruin it for people.
• 6:03
  Yeah, go ahead.
• 6:04
  and Wally Bon is a good choice 'cause I don't think he loses it much of anything.
• 6:10
  His record's pretty darn good.
• 6:12
  More questions in the game or
• 6:15
  no, so good luck Canada.
• 6:18
  Or I'll cheer for ya.
• 6:19
  Canada.
• 6:21
  I am such a fan I don't even know when their games are, but go Team Canada.
• 6:26
  All I all I know is that by the time by the time I get back they'll might already be eliminated, so it's all right by me and all the hubbub will be over.
• 6:34
  So
• 6:34
  Yes.
• 6:35
  Or you might get lucky enough to be on a plane full European football fans and have a hell of a trip back.
• 6:41
  They do know how to party.
• 6:42
  you know, surprise surprisingly enough, having been here, there was a Euro some sort of Euro competition in Budapest when I was there.
• 6:49
  some one of the multitude of made up uh championships that soccer has all over the world.
• 6:55
  uh and that was it.
• 6:56
  That was a big deal.
• 6:57
  People were flooding into Budapest for this game.
• 7:00
  But other than that, I've heard very, very little.
• 7:02
  it may just be be where I am, but I'm not seeing or hearing a bunch of people talking about it off the like every restaurant.
• 7:08
  No one's asking me about it or anything like that.
• 7:11
  So it is interesting, seems to be interestingly low key right now.
• 7:15
  So I imagine it will grow as it gets into games that matter.
• 7:18
  'Cause again this thing's a month long, so and nothing matters until the last, you know, two weeks.
• 7:24
  So maybe that's what it is about.
• 7:26
  I was in England earlier this year and all I heard about was soccer for two weeks.
• 7:34
  Yeah, it was I went on a tour of Old Trafford.
• 7:38
  It was so exciting.
• 7:40
  There she's bragging again.
• 7:41
  my two my two European panelists here.
• 7:44
  yes.
• 7:45
  Well, I don't want to go negative on it, but the stuff that I've been seeing online, international fans are not pleased with a lot of what's going on with this World Cup.
• 7:55
  So that's where I say it'll be interesting to see how well it goes over.
• 7:59
  But get away from that.
• 8:00
  We're here to talk about Canadian football.
• 8:04
  CFL and the brand new rules.
• 8:06
  One of the new rules is the modified Rouge, which we were first told was that if the ball bounced in the end zone and out the back end of it, it was not a point.
• 8:17
  And then we found as the season started that if it bounced out the side, it's not a point too, which has been an interesting wrinkle.
• 8:24
  So I just want to ask, what do you think about that?
• 8:26
  Is it working?
• 8:27
  Is it better?
• 8:28
  Is it worse?
• 8:28
  What's your opinions?
• 8:29
  Well, if you like, I'll start.
• 8:31
  I mean it look it looked it looked a little silly because we're not used to it yet.
• 8:35
  So I think a lot of that was was more just people's visceral reaction to that's very different.
• 8:41
  So but it did look odd in all the cases where the guys watched it and didn't try to retrieve it.
• 8:46
  And whether whether it worked or not and whether it will work going forward, I don't like the rule.
• 8:52
  I always said that uh as long as it touches the ground, you should have to
• 8:55
  play it no matter where and you should have to play it it's only if it goes out of the through the end zone in the air that I think it should be no point.
• 9:02
  if it rolls out and you don't touch it, you should be an awarded point if it's touched the ground.
• 9:07
  But anyways, it it is what it is.
• 9:09
  as I thought about it more is
• 9:11
  all of them seem to roll out the side and that's because we're still kicking to the corners because of the goalpost in the middle of the end zone.
• 9:19
  So I wonder if next year kickers will be kicking it more into the middle of the end zone because the goalpost will be at the back of the end zone so they won't be interfering with
• 9:28
  your kick so much.
• 9:29
  so even, the coffin corner, so to speak, uh maybe isn't as much in play as much as you're just trying to land it in the end zone next year in the middle.
• 9:38
  So that might be, uh change it next year and we won't have as many rolling out the side as we did this past week and we may have throughout the year.
• 9:46
  Or they may look look at it and say, you know what, it does look silly and we need to go back to having a rouge for if it goes out the side of the end zone.
• 9:53
  I have like I guess two comments.
• 9:55
  Like my first is like they tried to kill this Rouge and in the bomber Calgary game there was three Rouges.
• 10:01
  And so I was like by killing it you've made it strength, you've just made it stronger.
• 10:08
  But in all seriousness, I watched Javon Leak.
• 10:13
  There was a kick and he was just behind his ten-yard line, was probably around the eight, and I watched him stand there
• 10:20
  And watch the ball roll, roll, roll out the end zone for a no rouge, and then the ball got placed on the forty.
• 10:27
  and that was the same thing in the Calgary and Winnipeg game too, where, as much as I was okay with no point in that on that one where Calgary kicked it into the end zone and it
• 10:37
  went out the side.
• 10:38
  on the kickoff after the touchdown, and then for the ball to come all the way out to the forty, I thought that's too far.
• 10:44
  The my immediate thought is that's too far.
• 10:47
  If nothing else, the offense should have to drive the ball more than two plays to be in field goal range to be able to win again like to be able to win that, like Winnipeg did
• 10:56
  full credit for them doing it.
• 10:58
  But nonetheless, um I just felt like that's too far to bring the ball out of the end zone.
• 11:04
  so I think and especially if the again next year when they shrink the field, that'll be that's ridiculous.
• 11:08
  That it comes all the way out to the forty.
• 11:10
  You're at midfield already, you're almost in field goal range.
• 11:13
  So
• 11:14
  Yeah, it was it a greater like d did my entertainment value go up by watching Javon Leek stand there and watch a ball.
• 11:22
  no, absolutely not.
• 11:23
  Yeah.
• 11:24
  Was was that more entertaining for me as a fan than a rouge?
• 11:28
  Where like if it was a rouge, he would have played that ball and fielded it and ran.
• 11:32
  He would have.
• 11:34
  So instead he just stood there, dynamic returners are standing and just watching balls roll and
• 11:41
  For a touchback, and that's that's not entertaining to me.
• 11:44
  This it looks silly.
• 11:46
  It looks silly.
• 11:47
  Like for me personally, I was not a fan of that at all.
• 11:49
  And I'm not sure if they looked at the optics of that when they were going through these rule changes.
• 11:54
  Yes, well I will say that yeah, I he even if he was gonna give up the the rouge and just ran up and touched it down, you wouldn't spend the two, three seconds watching a ball
• 12:05
  rolling around for no reason.
• 12:07
  And if you're trying to speed up the game that makes a little more sense.
• 12:10
  I do have a few thoughts on this.
• 12:12
  I agree with with you, GT.
• 12:14
  I think they're getting what they're trying to do, which is more scoring by bringing it out to the forty.
• 12:19
  But to me that seems
• 12:21
  Blatantly unfair.
• 12:22
  If you give up a rouge, then the forty.
• 12:24
  I can see that.
• 12:25
  But if you're not giving up a point, to me that should be the twenty yard line.
• 12:29
  I never liked the the idea of moving it all the way up to the forty for anything.
• 12:33
  I'm just not a fan.
• 12:34
  I think that's too close.
• 12:35
  going back to last week when I was, talking about kneel downs, the part of the game is the offense has to work too.
• 12:41
  They have to score.
• 12:43
  and if you give so much opportunity, it becomes
• 12:46
  It just it becomes redundant for a while I think we've the game has swung too far in the field positioning uh to the offense rather than the defense and rewarding the offense for
• 12:58
  things that they really didn't do, and now all of a sudden they get it all the way up there is like, Yeah, that's too much.
• 13:03
  It's too much.
• 13:04
  Well I think they thought that this would force coaches to gamble on third down and no one was gambling.
• 13:11
  They were just kicking it and it was rolling through the end zone.
• 13:15
  Yeah.
• 13:16
  the other thing is to your point about the coffin corner GT, I don't know that they'll kick in the middle because again, when you put a punt straight down the middle, you're
• 13:24
  opening up either side.
• 13:25
  Two-way goes for the returner.
• 13:27
  That's why they're always you know this.
• 13:29
  That's why they're always trying to punt outside the hashes.
• 13:31
  I know you didn't get to see as as all of the Edmonton game, but if you looked at that, Julian dropped a couple of punts
• 13:37
  straight down the center to about the five yard line and at least one of them went for a fairly good return.
• 13:43
  So I think we'll still see the coffin corner.
• 13:45
  But I know one change I would make if I'm coaching special teams out there right now, I'm telling the punter if you're kicking a coffin corner kick, as soon as it's gone, you get
• 13:55
  on your horse and get down there because while they're watching it roll around.
• 13:58
  If you dive on it, we got a touchdown.
• 14:01
  And I could I can see that strategy.
• 14:04
  by next year when you shrink the field and you've got the shorter end zones by five yards and no goalposts in the middle of the field but or in the middle of the at the front of
• 14:13
  the end zones, at the back of the end zones instead, people will just be kicking it through you don't have to worry about dropping it in.
• 14:19
  Right now you still kind of have to worry about that.
• 14:21
  But next year you just kick it in the air right through that short end zone and it'll be done.
• 14:25
  You don't even have to worry about a coffin corner anymore pinning people.
• 14:29
  And it there's no penalty for it.
• 14:30
  But then you're giving it to them on the 40, which is what you don't want to do.
• 14:34
  You know, you want to lock them down in there.
• 14:36
  So I don't think it'll change.
• 14:37
  I think they may change where they bring the ball out to next year.
• 14:40
  Maybe they move it back to the 35 or the 30 because of the shorter field.
• 14:44
  But overall, I don't know.
• 14:46
  And frankly, I don't even want to think about those rules for next year.
• 14:50
  This is our last season was somewhere close to the original CFL rules.
• 14:54
  We're we're here going to enjoy that.
• 14:57
  Next year's rules are a problem for next year's CFL outsiders.
• 15:00
  That's my take anyway.
• 15:02
  But yeah, I th I think we we're we're in general agreement that it's there's some goofiness to it that needs to be hammered out.
• 15:09
  It'll be interesting to see six games in when this when coaches get a chance to start seeing what's happening and how they strategize for that.
• 15:16
  maybe you tell your punter kick it to the coffin corner, but if you're short, you're short.
• 15:23
  If it goes other than the twenty and they get a ten yard penalty, they got the ball on the thirty instead of the forty, and that's better.
• 15:30
  Who knows?
• 15:32
  So
• 15:32
  or even if you or even if you decide to take a no yards penalty, rush down there and take a no yards on the five, you're could bring it then you take fifteen yards, you're only out
• 15:40
  to the twenty.
• 15:41
  'cause if you're running down there full speed, and looking like you're gonna hit somebody, they might decide not to take the knee or not to allow the time to for to run
• 15:49
  out.
• 15:50
  So yeah, who knows?
• 15:52
  There's strategies that
• 15:53
  will that will come into play for sure.
• 15:55
  we're too we're very early in this, so we'll see how it how it ends up.
• 15:59
  But yeah, I don't disagree.
• 16:00
  Initially it looks like they need to tweak something because it wasn't great, the look wise, purely aesthetic wise and entertainment value as as you said, MJ, for sure.
• 16:10
  Any last thoughts before we move on, MJ?
• 16:12
  Take that.
• 16:13
  Okay.
• 16:14
  Just just a reminder.
• 16:16
  We're an audio podcast for for a bunch of our fans.
• 16:19
  Shaking your hand doesn't help them.
• 16:24
  So MJ said no.
• 16:26
  are my f one of my favorite parts of the game, so it's just it's just sad to watch peats returners standing and watching balls roll around.
• 16:34
  It was very disheartening.
• 16:36
  I agree.
• 16:36
  I hate to see that come out of it.
• 16:38
  But we will move on to a another, well, not depressing but not exactly positive development of this week.
• 16:46
  There's been a lot of talk about the fact that the attendance wasn't great and it dropped from game to game.
• 16:52
  The Montreal at Hamilton got eighteen thousand five hundred and seventy seven, which is okay, but you'd like to see at least five thousand more than that.
• 17:00
  Then Winnipeg at Calgary it was only seventeen.
• 17:03
  thousand seven hundred and forty three and Ottawa was fifteen thousand and thirty eight in a monsoon.
• 17:10
  So but should we be worried about attendance?
• 17:14
  No.
• 17:16
  No, I think early season attendance has always been, a little less it it doesn't start, pick up until later in the year.
• 17:23
  So I don't think again it's time you can judge off the first week.
• 17:27
  We have to give it time to gain some momentum.
• 17:29
  Will next year's be early attendance?
• 17:32
  Yeah, I think next year's is gonna be impacted and when they move the season forward another week and it's gonna mean that you're not gonna have as many games in the summer
• 17:41
  fall period where traditionally the attendance does pick up.
• 17:44
  So your average attendance over the course of the year is where I think what matters and it's
• 17:50
  It may be that'll be impacted by next year's movement again.
• 17:54
  A lot of things talking already about next year, but it just is I think next year's uh schedule will be more difficult than this year's and we have to worry about it in the long
• 18:02
  term of next year's thought rather than worry about the first week this year.
• 18:06
  Um, so a few things.
• 18:08
  It's how do I want to say this because I don't want to sound like this, but as a prairie person, I am much more amiable to sitting outside with a light snow in October than I am
• 18:19
  to sitting in a really cold, windy, rainy stadium in May or June.
• 18:24
  By May or June I've had it.
• 18:26
  I have
• 18:27
  it with winter and I am not interested in sitting outside in the rain and cold.
• 18:32
  I will do it for my kids flag football.
• 18:33
  I have to be there.
• 18:34
  I'll do it for any of his outdoor sports because I am a parent.
• 18:36
  I need to be there.
• 18:37
  I don't need to be at these games.
• 18:39
  I don't want to sit in that.
• 18:41
  Calgary is interesting.
• 18:43
  They finally have some summer competition because they have the wild and the surge there now.
• 18:48
  And I don't think the Stampeders have had summer competition in a long time.
• 18:52
  their tickets are also very expensive.
• 18:54
  I know the Elks just announced they have a two for forty at the co op gas stations, which is a good deal because ticket prices are
• 19:03
  expensive and I think that might be some of Hamilton's issue.
• 19:07
  I don't think that's uh anything to do with the team, although as a Ticats fan I tell you we are weary but we are supportive.
• 19:13
  But if you are choosing between like paying for gas and groceries are going to sit in seats where the Ticats have built a big hanger thing that cuts off part of your scoreboard
• 19:25
  Maybe not.
• 19:25
  But I also think that the way the CFL is going, they do not care about your in-game attendance, and that's gonna be up to each team to figure that out for themselves.
• 19:34
  The CFL's not gonna help them.
• 19:35
  They don't even help them right now with the schedule.
• 19:37
  I will tell you an old Trafford story.
• 19:39
  I was at Manchester United and we were asking them how they did during COVID.
• 19:44
  I well, first of all, I was like looking for the scoreboard.
• 19:46
  I'm like, where's your scoreboard?
• 19:47
  And they're like, if you want a scoreboard, you need to go to Manchester City.
• 19:51
  We don't need a scoreboard.
• 19:52
  We would have to take out 3,000 seats for that.
• 19:54
  And my dad's like, oh, so you rely on a lot of like game day sales.
• 19:59
  And the guy's like, no.
• 20:01
  We made money during COVID with no fans because all of our money comes from sponsorships and TV revenue.
• 20:06
  We don't need anyone in here to make money.
• 20:10
  And I'm more like, right.
• 20:15
  That's just icing on the cake.
• 20:16
  this is where the I think the CFL thinks they wanna go, where they're at the point where they don't need people in the stands to make money and everyone's gonna be profiting off
• 20:24
  TV revenue.
• 20:25
  But it does look bad when there's a bunch of empty stands.
• 20:32
  And Red Blacks, I feel bad for them.
• 20:34
  That was who's sitting out there that g you know what?
• 20:36
  If you were at that Red Blacks game, you are a hero.
• 20:39
  Because
• 20:40
  Yes.
• 20:41
  That was disgusting.
• 20:42
  So good on you.
• 20:44
  But I mean it the optics look bad, but they don't necessarily need them.
• 20:48
  They don't need you there necessarily to make money at some point.
• 20:52
  yeah, they do.
• 20:53
  There's no way with this league's ever gonna get to not needing fans.
• 20:56
  I mean the NFL did that during COVID too.
• 20:58
  they proved that they could p be profitable, entirely profitable, and they didn't care about having a single person in the seats.
• 21:04
  They it was about their television revenue and stuff.
• 21:07
  But that's a whole different ball of wax and that's a whole different level.
• 21:11
  Same with that Soccer in England.
• 21:12
  It's a whole different level.
• 21:14
  But
• 21:14
  the the CFL they will never get to the point where they don't need fans.
• 21:18
  That we're always going to need fans.
• 21:20
  And it will look bad like it did the other night uh in all three games.
• 21:24
  I thought the same thing that I was surprised in the Hamilton game that it was as sparsely attended as it was is in Hamilton with a the promise of so many things going right for
• 21:33
  them this year.
• 21:34
  I don't know what the weather was like.
• 21:35
  I don't know, you know, it wasn't that it was on Thursday night, but that's not that big a deal.
• 21:40
  it wasn't like it was a 10 o'clock at night start, it was a seven o'clock start.
• 21:44
  And so anyways, I I didn't think the attendance was terrific, but I don't think it's enough to to sweat about just yet, as I said.
• 21:52
  It'll be more about overall.
• 21:53
  we're never gonna get to the point where it's you know and I and I don't believe the CFL believes that either, even though that's they're obviously gonna make more money now with
• 22:02
  the new TV contract.
• 22:04
  It's not even close.
• 22:05
  I mean half of the big news about, what is it, five hundred million over six years.
• 22:09
  I mean, when you're getting into the soccer money and the and the NFL and major league baseball and NBA style money
• 22:18
  That's that's like a that's a week's worth of money that they make.
• 22:21
  So it's like, yeah, they don't care about it.
• 22:23
  They they need they need fans.
• 22:25
  They need fans in the stands.
• 22:26
  They're gonna need for a long time.
• 22:28
  s the CFL's in this weird middle.
• 22:31
  They are not on the level of like MLB and NBA.
• 22:35
  But they're not like PWHL level either.
• 22:41
  Right?
• 22:41
  They're in some weird middle that I can't I was looking today at the leagues and I couldn't quite figure out another league that would be comparable right now.
• 22:49
  most are like on the other ends of the spectrum and they're kinda just in the middle.
• 22:53
  I feel like they're kinda trying to do this big thing and they're kinda forgetting some small things.
• 22:58
  And there's gotta be a way for both of them to work out together like if they're gonna succeed.
• 23:05
  I agree.
• 23:05
  I from what I remember the the money reported would work out on the broadcast deal would work out to about a million more a year per team.
• 23:12
  And a million dollars is not going to replace your gate revenues.
• 23:16
  Not even even close with it.
• 23:18
  I will say though, and even if they're going that way, as you started out, MJ, with your story, they don't need the fans, but they're not gonna take out a scoreboard and lose
• 23:27
  three thousand fans.
• 23:28
  They still want them there.
• 23:30
  And frankly, in my mind, if you are a team that doesn't sell so well, take some of your lesser seats and do what the Elk have done for the last couple of years, sell them off a
• 23:42
  lot cheaper to bring people in.
• 23:43
  You you might as well have someone in that seat.
• 23:46
  and it's smart marketing.
• 23:47
  I a story here, I don't have this completely correct because frankly it wasn't me that did it.
• 23:53
  It was the goddess.
• 23:54
  She's brilliant at all this stuff.
• 23:56
  We started looking at the BC Lions games in the Apple Bowl out here.
• 24:00
  And they were a little bit pricey, but that's okay.
• 24:05
  But also, season ticket holders got first dibs by I think a week or two, and they got a discount on it.
• 24:12
  So she looked into it and found out she could buy a season ticket in the BC end zone for somewhere around 300 bucks for the year, which gave us the early
• 24:24
  tickets for the the Apple Bowl games and with the discount we didn't end up I think it cost us like maybe fifty bucks more than it would have just to buy the tickets.
• 24:34
  But we've got it.
• 24:35
  We got the tickets great and we're gonna take the seven games that we don't go to down there and donate them back to the Lions and say here, give this to you know when you're
• 24:44
  promo whatever promotions you have, here's a sold ticket to someone who needs it.
• 24:48
  So that's a win win and it makes sense why
• 24:51
  Amart Ollman was coming out this week saying we're on our way to profitability.
• 24:55
  They're doing smart stuff.
• 24:57
  Someone needs to do a study of what the bombers are doing.
• 24:59
  Like what are they doing that no one else is doing?
• 25:03
  fans and just drag them in.
• 25:05
  'Cause they're they're always full.
• 25:07
  No, full credit to their pants.
• 25:10
  Yeah.
• 25:11
  they're doing is winning.
• 25:12
  Uh not not consistently.
• 25:16
  They the the the the Argos won consistently that one year they were sixteen and two.
• 25:20
  They haven't won they don't win consistently otherwise.
• 25:23
  and they also winning in a city with very little, as you said, summer competition.
• 25:28
  I mean what do they got?
• 25:29
  They got the golden eyes or gold eyes, the baseball team, and that's about it in the summer.
• 25:34
  Um and you and sea bears, which is a whole different ball of wax.
• 25:38
  But it's but they but they don't have competition in the summer, so that makes a big difference too.
• 25:43
  and in the three major cities, Montreal doesn't have a lot in the summer.
• 25:47
  They have events, their event
• 25:49
  Crazy, but they don't have sports competition in Montreal in the summer.
• 25:52
  But they have like nonstop events.
• 25:55
  They have between the F1, then they have the Jazz Festival, then they have the Just For Last Festival, then they have another they have a festival every single weekend going on
• 26:04
  in Montreal for from May through to October.
• 26:08
  So there's always competition in the city of Montreal.
• 26:10
  Don't forget it's not just sports that are your competition.
• 26:13
  And Toronto is just, again, it has
• 26:16
  Competition with three other teams in the summer as well.
• 26:19
  and there is a Montreal soccer team too, although no one seems to care about it, apparently.
• 26:23
  and then there's then there's, you know, and and in Vancouver it's the same thing.
• 26:26
  It's just the size of the city with so much going on that that's competition unto itself.
• 26:31
  Whereas no disrespect to the smaller centers, but they just don't have the competition in the summer.
• 26:37
  And somehow those people that bitch and moan about the three big centers not attending don't seem to understand.
• 26:43
  till you've been to the bigger centers, the difference in what is competition.
• 26:48
  It's j not just the sports competition.
• 26:51
  It's the concerts, it's the restaurants, it's the everything else that's going on in the city every single day throughout the year that is competition.
• 27:01
  Not just, there's no other sports team.
• 27:03
  You can't you can't use that.
• 27:05
  You know who the Stampeders are competing with?
• 27:07
  The Rocky Mountains.
• 27:09
  Yeah.
• 27:10
  And the and Banff and just getting out of town and all that stuff.
• 27:14
  So yeah.
• 27:14
  And Edmonton has a million festivals every summer.
• 27:19
  Like there is i Emonton like a FOMO place.
• 27:22
  Like if you didn't go to ten events you've missed out.
• 27:25
  So yeah.
• 27:27
  I didn't think about that.
• 27:28
  You're right.
• 27:28
  'Cause you know what?
• 27:29
  We were sitting and trying to schedule out when we were gonna go to football and when we were going to go see the Riverhawks team and when we were going to basketball and then
• 27:36
  when we were going to Carry West, when we were going to folk like music, the you right, we sat down with a calendar this week and had to like juggle what we were gonna do.
• 27:44
  Yeah.
• 27:45
  Yeah.
• 27:47
  I'm like you, MJ, I would rather be there in the fall.
• 27:50
  I've never had a problem with cold weather games.
• 27:53
  I think there are, you know, people that won't that complain about the cold are whiners, but that's me.
• 27:57
  And you bundle up for it and you smuggling you're you know, you're illegal alcohol and you're fine.
• 28:02
  And it's it football is is supposed to be fall, so I'm more worried about that and the move of the calendar than I am about this one week.
• 28:10
  So
• 28:10
  makes sense to me I don't know if they're doing it but if you've got teams like you were saying with Montreal and Edmonton I don't there probably are others where they're
• 28:18
  competing with a lot of summer festivals and whatnot.
• 28:21
  If you've got a game that falls sort of within that festival or on the fringes of it, I'd be reaching out to them and say, look, we don't want any money for from you.
• 28:29
  You sell the tickets that you what the way you want.
• 28:32
  And we'll give you this where you can give a voucher for a discount ticket to our game if people want to come and try us out while we're in town.
• 28:38
  Might bring in a few more fans and maybe people that haven't watched a lot of football might convert a few people.
• 28:45
  My thought.
• 28:46
  Moving on.
• 28:47
  Last of the the rule change well, not the last.
• 28:49
  We didn't talk about the benches.
• 28:50
  I think everybody agrees benches on the each side is a a better idea.
• 28:54
  But the other rule change that came into effect this year was the 35 second clock.
• 28:58
  I will tell you why it's not.
• 29:01
  How many objectionable conduct penalties were there this weekend?
• 29:06
  There were a few.
• 29:08
  You know why?
• 29:10
  Because people were impeding the ref.
• 29:13
  Because there's no room.
• 29:14
  So all year long you're gonna have this in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, and I think is it BC?
• 29:21
  there's not a lot of room on those sidelines.
• 29:24
  There's like no room.
• 29:25
  And so there was people getting bench penalties.
• 29:28
  Every the all those games had bench penalties because people were just like impeding the ref, like but there's nowhere else to go.
• 29:35
  I did not see the replays of a of any of those penalties because I don't think TSN was focusing on it at all And maybe they will now.
• 29:42
  But so I don't know whether it was just coaches forgetting, coaches not realizing that they were impeding and just doing what they normally do.
• 29:50
  they're always a bit on the field.
• 29:52
  So maybe that's what it was and
• 29:54
  There's as you say, MJ, there's not as much room there.
• 29:56
  So they will have to learn to draw back or whether it really will impact the the way coaches want to coach.
• 30:02
  it might take a game or two and those should go away, you would think.
• 30:05
  But but it definitely did impact this week.
• 30:08
  Yeah.
• 30:08
  Noel Thorpe what got the one and actually they did TSN did the cause they couldn't figure it was the first time that it got called.
• 30:13
  They were like, What?
• 30:14
  A bench penalty?
• 30:16
  And then they found it like, Oh, Noel Thorpe's standing in the way of the ref I'm like, oh.
• 30:22
  and stood directly in front of him.
• 30:24
  And they also said this has been a continuing problem and they haven't been enforcing it.
• 30:29
  And they've told the teams this year, we're going to enforce this.
• 30:33
  I think it's just the coaches being in right in the game and not thinking of what they're doing.
• 30:38
  they'll have to learn.
• 30:38
  It's one more thing.
• 30:39
  But I didn't expect a debate over that.
• 30:42
  I
• 30:42
  both penalties did seem to come at inopportune times for the teams that got penalized.
• 30:47
  I did notice that.
• 30:48
  It was like it wasn't like oh, you know, all of a sudden it was oh, that's a penalty and that I w wasn't a good time to take a penalty,
• 30:57
  Yeah.
• 30:58
  Yes.
• 30:59
  But I was trying to lead into into the thirty five second clock rule.
• 31:04
  And the one thing with the benches on either sides of the field, but more in the middle, it did seem like to me like the player changes between downs was going quicker.
• 31:13
  What did you think?
• 31:14
  Did you notice the thirty five second rule?
• 31:16
  Did you like it?
• 31:17
  Did you not like it?
• 31:18
  like in the preseason, um, I didn't think it was I didn't think there was enough exposure to the clock itself so that you knew it was clicking down.
• 31:28
  it needs to almost be a bug up in the corner of the top right corner of the television screen.
• 31:33
  As soon as it kicks in on your screen, you can see it counting down and you know that they gotta hustle and get it in.
• 31:40
  if they're making such a big deal of this, make it readily apparent to us that this is impacting us.
• 31:46
  otherwise it's like did it matter?
• 31:49
  I don't know.
• 31:50
  It's just I didn't see it.
• 31:51
  But again, I said by the time the mid season comes around, like the hash marks, you won't even know that they changed it.
• 31:58
  halfway through the year, you'll have already adjusted to it, you won't even recognize it.
• 32:02
  But I do think that that T SN as a broadcaster, not the league, but as the broadcaster, could do a better job of highlighting the actual time because it didn't seem to be readily
• 32:12
  available to look at anywhere on the screen as far as I could tell.
• 32:22
  can I agree with that point about the widget.
• 32:20
  Something nice in there.
• 32:21
  I wouldn't I'm not holding out a lot of hope 'cause T S N still doesn't have competition this year.
• 32:26
  And if you wanna know how quickly they react to stuff, you can take a look at the fact that when you record the pre game show, their little face card, their flashcard has Rod
• 32:36
  Smith as the host.
• 32:37
  So
• 32:39
  they don't keep up with their changes much.
• 32:41
  I got some texts from family asking me where the thirty-five second clock was.
• 32:46
  So I like I think that it would be helpful
• 32:50
  If we had the thirty five second clock up, but I know what baseball doesn't show the eight second clock for bad batters on pitchers either.
• 32:58
  So maybe and honestly I didn't even notice.
• 33:00
  I didn't even notice.
• 33:01
  th but when I watched the odd, I don't know, minute and a half or three minutes or maybe I actually watched one of those last Blue Jays games when they were were, you know, in the
• 33:11
  World Series there.
• 33:12
  And the I did see on the regular broadcast in the scoreboard across it, the countdown of the sec of the eight second pitch clock.
• 33:21
  So it was there that you could watch it count down.
• 33:24
  You can certainly watch it in NBA.
• 33:26
  It counts down in front of you the twenty-four second clock every single time.
• 33:30
  It's just there as part of the bug or whatever they call it across the bottom.
• 33:34
  And that's where it should be.
• 33:36
  And it used to be there for the twenty second clock in the CFL.
• 33:39
  So so
• 33:40
  sure that the 20-second clock was there.
• 33:43
  So then I was like, why is the 35-second clock not there?
• 33:47
  Yeah.
• 33:48
  it
• 33:48
  hundred years, why all of a sudden can't they show the thirty five is part of their bug?
• 33:52
  Did they just it did their technology not keep up and they simply aren't it you know, don't have the ability to show it or what?
• 34:02
  Yeah.
• 34:02
  so they just decided to show the 20.
• 34:06
  Maybe.
• 34:07
  yeah, anyways, it yes, I I I agree.
• 34:09
  It's like if this is something that's supposed to again, it's not so much about the game as much as the entertain entertainment value of the game.
• 34:18
  And if this is supposed to improve the entertainment value of the game by making it faster and speeding it up and giving us more plays and more excitement, then show it to us so we
• 34:28
  know that what it's doing and how it's working.
• 34:31
  Otherwise it's it's like what was the point?
• 34:34
  You know?
• 34:34
  I wanna know how many seconds Willie Jefferson has to make his guitar, air guitar, before he has to set for his next play.
• 34:42
  I wanna count that down.
• 34:44
  I want to know whether I well, I want to know whether they're actually do counting it down or not.
• 34:50
  More than anything.
• 34:51
  Like, are they actually counting it down?
• 34:53
  Is it actually going from that time that that last play?
• 34:56
  I want to see a split screen from there's the ball going down and there's the clock starting to count down.
• 35:03
  I until then, you know, I'm gonna be doubting Thomas, I'm sorry, I don't believe you that anything's changed.
• 35:09
  Show me.
• 35:09
  That's what they should be doing.
• 35:11
  Show me
• 35:11
  Yeah, I agree completely.
• 35:14
  Yeah, and it's not a technology issue.
• 35:17
  Because they did show the thirty-five second clock occasionally.
• 35:21
  There were at least a half a dozen times across the three games that I saw them pop it up there, but it's not consistent.
• 35:27
  And I agree that that would help a lot just to keep me at where they're at and how each of the teams are at and how well they're adapting to it.
• 35:35
  But I will say overall, I only really noticed it when the announcers were talking about it.
• 35:40
  Otherwise
• 35:41
  I if you asked me I would have just said, Well, the game flow does seem a bit better.
• 35:45
  It seems like there's less stoppages and a lot less of the officials conferences that go on for five minutes over is it an off side or a illegal conduct, you know, and
• 35:56
  Anyway, that's so I think in general we're like the consensus is the rule might not be that bad, but we'd sure like to see better how it's being implemented and a little more
• 36:07
  transparency.
• 36:08
  Right?
• 36:09
  you you'd think the league would want us to see it as an improvement so that they can sell it to us and say, Look, it worked.
• 36:16
  one step forward, two steps back, as always.
• 36:19
  Yeah.
• 36:20
  And I don't know we can blame the league for that.
• 36:21
  I can see them asking TSN, but I think it's more the TSN complacency now, especially now that they know that they what they've got till next year and they'll have to work hard
• 36:30
  next year.
• 36:32
  But that's that.
• 36:34
  We're going to move on to something that's a surprise for myself and MJ because GT just dropped us a note saying he has a new mystery segment that did you say we might want to do
• 36:45
  this weekly?
• 36:47
  Absolutely.
• 36:49
  So so well, we'll I don't know if it's absolutely, but I think it might be fun to be able to see if we can manage to do this weekly.
• 36:56
  and this is this came about because it's four o'clock in the morning when I'm doing these in the last few weeks and it was last weekend.
• 37:03
  And I'm gonna blame you, old man, because you did the first one.
• 37:07
  Um
• 37:07
  Once I explain what it is, I want you to go back and search and see if you can come up with where last week's first game of the year this actually played out.
• 37:17
  you did this last week and I immediately went, that's a segment we could use in every week.
• 37:21
  right now I'm calling it the rock reference, or the other thing we could call it is lyrical eloquence, I thought was the other one that we could the other turn we could call
• 37:29
  it.
• 37:29
  So this is where somewhere throughout the show there will be a lyric quoted from a song.
• 37:36
  Uh and each of us are charged with cup putting dropping in at least one lyric it from a song throughout the show.
• 37:45
  And then I want our listeners and viewers to be able to tell us after they've watched or listened to the show where it was.
• 37:53
  Okay, so the lyric itself, which we used, the band that it came from, the album that the band had, and the title of the song.
• 38:02
  So it's not just, that's the thing that you said.
• 38:05
  It is lyric, band, song, album that it all came from.
• 38:14
  Um, it may be different for us too.
• 38:16
  I think it might be interesting because I have a feeling that old man and I will be stuck somewhere twenty-five years earlier than MJ.
• 38:23
  And MJ's gonna go, Yeah, I don't know any of those songs.
• 38:26
  And we're gonna and MJ's gonna quote all these things from the two thousand and teens and we're gonna go, Yeah, we don't know any of those songs.
• 38:32
  So ha ha ha.
• 38:34
  so what anyway, so that's what it is.
• 38:35
  I have one ready to go to drop into this week's show to see if anybody can get it.
• 38:40
  I've already figured out where I'm gonna run it, where I'm gonna say it, but uh, but I wanna know if either of you remembers last week's reference point that would have started
• 38:50
  these shenanigans going forward.
• 38:52
  what song did old man drop into drop into the show last week?
• 38:57
  You two were talking about a song I had never heard.
• 39:00
  Yes.
• 39:01
  Yes.
• 39:02
  We f we we that quote or or that opening little sort of little joke getting people to subscribe to was was a a rip off from Arlo Guthrie from Alice's Restaurant, which is a
• 39:14
  about a twenty five, thirty minute song from the early seventies about the draft and avoiding it and all whatnot.
• 39:21
  And if you if you have never heard it
• 39:23
  You sh you should get it.
• 39:25
  Back when they used to have LPs, it was one side of the L P.
• 39:28
  And then there the other side had about six songs on it.
• 39:32
  Yeah, but that's but that was sort of a take on the song.
• 39:36
  I'm talking about the point where you actually quoted the quoted lyrics from a song.
• 39:41
  Oh now see this how bad my memory is.
• 39:44
  I don't even remember that.
• 39:45
  What who did I quote?
• 39:47
  Okay, so here's so at one point in time when we were speaking over each other and you went to as we never do on this podcast, the uh you corrected me and then you ex excused me with
• 40:00
  the line, carry on, wayward son.
• 40:04
  And that's what and I and I immediately went, right, okay, so
• 40:10
  I know that song.
• 40:11
  yeah.
• 40:11
  So you even MJ got this one.
• 40:13
  That's how ubiquitous that song is.
• 40:15
  It's been used in so many ways.
• 40:16
  So of course now.
• 40:17
  So the trick is here is just for fun, but we're continuing this along.
• 40:21
  Let's go through the four stages.
• 40:23
  Let's name the song.
• 40:24
  There's the lyric.
• 40:24
  Now name the song, the band, and the album th that that came that that song came from.
• 40:32
  Anyone?
• 40:33
  I'm not even anywhere near that good.
• 40:36
  I I know it all from supernatural.
• 40:38
  It was almost their theme song.
• 40:41
  Yeah.
• 40:42
  Yes.
• 40:43
  Yeah.
• 40:44
  Wasn't it Kansas?
• 40:45
  I'm thinking Kansas if I remember right, but Yeah, that but albums and
• 40:53
  This is from the seventy can we just have them a decade?
• 40:56
  So that's actually from that's actually from Left Overture, the album Left Overture.
• 41:01
  that was the biggest album they had, you know.
• 41:03
  I well, maybe not.
• 41:03
  Maybe the next one was bigger, with Dust in the Wind on it.
• 41:06
  But yes, that was the track.
• 41:08
  so anyways, that's what I figured we would do for from every week going forward
• 41:13
  So somewhere throughout this week's conversation, there will be a lyric if anybody uh can come back to us with with where it is.
• 41:22
  And you know what?
• 41:22
  If you simply get the song, you'll be we will be impressed.
• 41:27
  So Let's just leave it at.
• 41:28
  Okay.
• 41:29
  with the the band and the song.
• 41:30
  So
• 41:31
  so just out of curiosity, what was the name of the song?
• 41:34
  to see if we can continue.
• 41:35
  Sorry, I kinda talked over you there again there.
• 41:38
  Yeah.
• 41:39
  i'll be a lot of of the pure old country.
• 41:41
  So people this will challenge people.
• 41:43
  But but GT, so what was the name of s I always thought th the song was Carry On My Wayward Sun, but is there a different name or
• 41:51
  No, it's there it's just carry on wayward son.
• 41:54
  In the in the song title, there is no my wayward son.
• 41:57
  It's just wayward sun.
• 41:59
  Okay.
• 42:00
  All right.
• 42:01
  Well that sounds good.
• 42:02
  It also means that when I drop a lyric, I'm now gonna have to go back and do some research about about when it came out and I mean I know the artist generally and the line, but the
• 42:12
  rest I'll have to figure out.
• 42:13
  I like that.
• 42:14
  That sounds like fun.
• 42:15
  Let us know in the comments, folks, what do you think?
• 42:17
  And I don't know.
• 42:19
  We don't do merch, but we'll figure out some way
• 42:22
  to reward whoever gets the the the most right if you wanna drop comments in and let us know.
• 42:29
  Golf claps all the way around for the most right.
• 42:31
  yeah.
• 42:32
  I sing lyrics to my kid all the time, so I can't wait.
• 42:35
  Ha ha.
• 42:39
  Yeah.
• 42:41
  Yeah.
• 42:43
  Now a lot will just come out spontaneously.
• 42:45
  But we'll also have to make sure that we've got one in the background we can shoehorn in at some point.
• 42:50
  I like it.
• 42:52
  we'll figure out how it's gonna work.
• 42:54
  But uh for anyone that's listening you're now have to listen to the rest of the podcast, waiting to see where where we're gonna drop this line that I have already built into
• 43:04
  somewhere.
• 43:04
  Okay, I like it.
• 43:06
  it's not actually a new segment, it's a new challenge for our for our listeners and viewers to uh to see if you can even pick them out.
• 43:15
  All we're gonna get to recapping the games, but first we need to recap, unfortunately, fantasy this week.
• 43:22
  Because MJ and I are both in the CFL Podcast Fantasy League now.
• 43:29
  Now the good news is we don't know if we won or lost because they haven't put the schedule out yet.
• 43:34
  So I don't know if Adam's going to include these first games in the schedule or if they'll start with next week.
• 43:40
  But I can tell you, I
• 43:43
  I did not do well.
• 43:44
  I
• 43:44
  Just my mind wasn't there going back into a brand new season, and I really just kind of went with what my gut said, and that's stupid.
• 43:52
  Check into old man plays CFL fantasy on Thursday afternoon, and I'll tell you about how I'm gonna be a little more methodical and analytical about it this week.
• 44:00
  But I ended up out of a 16-team league.
• 44:04
  I ended up as 13th with 71.3 points and
• 44:11
  I really only lost one player to injury Thies for Montreal, but just everybody else I had.
• 44:18
  I had Bo and Kenny Lawler and I thought I took Tim White because, you know, they're building their offense around him.
• 44:25
  And I took cheap running backs and I took the Edmondon defense and the defense probably scored almost as much as anybody else.
• 44:31
  So better luck for me next week.
• 44:33
  How about you, MJ?
• 44:34
  What did you check out your point total?
• 44:37
  Yes, I have a statement I would like to read.
• 44:42
  To my child, I am sorry that when you asked me to pick Alexander as my quarterback, I told you I needed proof of life, quote unquote.
• 44:53
  And when you next suggested VA, I shot that idea down and vetoed you to pick Bo Levi Mitchell.
• 45:01
  It will not happen again.
• 45:02
  Love mom.
• 45:04
  Good for you.
• 45:05
  Well y you didn't have some good luck.
• 45:08
  Yes.
• 45:09
  out of 16th.
• 45:10
  Um, Travis and Sheldon did worse than us.
• 45:12
  Yes, that's the only only bright light.
• 45:14
  the two and out boys were fifteen and sixteen.
• 45:17
  I ended up with 70 points.
• 45:19
  So here's what happened.
• 45:20
  I picked Bo, as you heard.
• 45:23
  I will not do that again.
• 45:25
  That was my bad.
• 45:26
  I picked the Calgary defense because I had zero faith in Tommy Condell, and I thought they were gonna ruckshot over them, and that did not happen, so that's on me.
• 45:38
  Two things that were not on me, Theis got injured in the first quarter.
• 45:44
  Cole Speiker got injured in the first quarter.
• 45:47
  Cole Spieker got 3.2 points, Thiece 0.8 points.
• 45:52
  And then I had Mills as my other running back and that did well.
• 45:55
  I had Keandre Smith, that did well, and my flex was Gittens Jr.
• 45:58
  which he did well.
• 45:59
  So if I had not had two injuries and I had not had Bo or Calgary if I had half of it did well, half of it tanked.
• 46:07
  So hopefully next week's better.
• 46:10
  Yes.
• 46:10
  When I looked at it I was more impressed with your pics than mine.
• 46:13
  Just bad luck hurt you, that's all.
• 46:15
  I wish I would have picked Tyler Sneed.
• 46:18
  Yes, well it's it's always so much easier when the games are over.
• 46:24
  But what's the old rule?
• 46:26
  one day to to celebrate or moan about it and then flush it 'cause we're on to next week.
• 46:32
  So we'll see how we do.
• 46:33
  We'll see if this cost us anything, if we actually had opponents.
• 46:37
  If we do have if we did have opponents, let's hope they were Travis and Sheldon.
• 46:41
  And
• 46:42
  Yes.
• 46:42
  CFL Outsiders did better than the two and out guys, that's what I know.
• 46:46
  well, you know I I almost wondered if they just auto selected or if something went wrong there, 'cause they're usually pretty good.
• 46:52
  at least we weren't at the bottom.
• 46:54
  Only we're moving up.
• 46:56
  Next week's different.
• 46:59
  Okay.
• 47:00
  So now we should talk about the games a bit.
• 47:02
  what once I get back to North America and into a regular mode where I can follow and make some timely decisions on a regular timeline, I will probably start playing again.
• 47:11
  Not within the league itself, but at least weekly.
• 47:14
  at this point in time I it's too much work.
• 47:16
  It's just too much work from over here.
• 47:18
  So we'll now move on to the games.
• 47:20
  the opening game.
• 47:22
  Montreal 30, Hamilton 27.
• 47:25
  This game was never in doubt, I gotta say.
• 47:27
  It was obvious Montreal was going to win.
• 47:30
  They held the lead for I'm not exactly certain, but I think it was about a half a second.
• 47:38
  Whatever it was, it was the time from when the kick went through the goalpost.
• 47:42
  Till it touched on on the ground and the game was officially over.
• 47:44
  So yeah, they just Hamilton did a lot of things right, but made some mistakes as well And Montreal Montreal was shooting themselves in the foot with penalties all over the place.
• 47:57
  And frankly, it was probably, I would say probably two or three really nice passes by Alexander that made the difference in the game.
• 48:06
  I got a bunch more we can talk about, but
• 48:08
  I'm more interested in your opinions there.
• 48:12
  MJ, you you're the Hamiltonian fan with the Montreal cap.
• 48:16
  Why don't you go first?
• 48:17
  Oh yeah, things were looking so great, weren't they?
• 48:20
  Take that kid.
• 48:21
  It's gonna be amazing.
• 48:22
  Sucks to suck.
• 48:23
  And then Bo Levi threw that pass right into that receive defender's hand.
• 48:30
  Like right into like could not have thrown it b to him any better.
• 48:35
  And then that I feel like after that it just crumbled.
• 48:39
  And Montreal had a little life left in them and crawled back, and they are Lucky Maltos Diaz kick off, like walk off field goal to tie it, and then field goal to win it.
• 48:49
  What a guy.
• 48:53
  I'm not gonna despair too much because yeah, in overtime.
• 48:57
  It went, you what, it went to overtime.
• 48:59
  It wasn't like they were fumbling around.
• 49:02
  It did go to the wire.
• 49:05
  They had Kenny covered really well.
• 49:07
  They really planned well for that.
• 49:09
  Noel Thorpe, yeah.
• 49:10
  Once they got going, because at first I was like, did like Montreal looks as bad as they did in preseason, ha ha ha.
• 49:16
  And then they kind of they I think Alexander Dave it's almost like he's was just like, Enough's enough, and now we're gonna be serious.
• 49:23
  And once he had decided enough was enough, then they started gunning and they they started putting some plays together.
• 49:29
  Um some things that I noticed.
• 49:32
  the Philpot Catch of the Year first game.
• 49:35
  Maybe.
• 49:37
  Maybe I couldn't even figure out how he caught it.
• 49:40
  It was like in behind he was behind a defender, he like reached around and grabbed it and pulled it.
• 49:46
  Wow.
• 49:47
  That was beautiful.
• 49:49
  Yeah, I didn't think I didn't think it you know, it was it was really I thought that was a really difficult thing for this for the for television, but I honestly didn't think they
• 49:59
  did enough like angles and stuff of replays of that that they could have done a better job.
• 50:05
  It was like the it was like the interception last year by in BC where they did go back and show it from multiple angles and and so on before you just realized how amazing it was.
• 50:15
  And if they had it showed it and slow and from the side and so on, again, that was uh that was incredible that he was able to to go in between the guy's arm and get it that ball and
• 50:26
  then keep it and everything else.
• 50:28
  So I thought TSN didn't do a great job of on that particular play of of giving us and maybe they just didn't have them, but it didn't look to me like they like they did as good
• 50:37
  a job as they did last year on that on the interception.
• 50:40
  They weren't ready for catch the year in the first game.
• 50:43
  what else?
• 50:44
  I mean, if I feel bad for the Aloettes, because Speaker, Theis and Justin Lawrence got injured in the first quarter.
• 50:50
  And those are three heavy hitters.
• 50:52
  So that's that's not great news for them.
• 50:55
  And now they said that Lawrence is on the sixth-game injured list, so that's bad news for the Aloettes.
• 51:00
  the Ticats guys.
• 51:03
  The Ticats used a quarterback for short yardage.
• 51:07
  They use Dolegala They can do it!
• 51:11
  So I was thought I was seeing things, but they did it, and it was very exciting.
• 51:14
  So that's gonna bode well because they like Litre is Litre, and he does a good job.
• 51:19
  But as we mentioned, there's no trick play if a fullback or running back is doing your running your short yardage.
• 51:26
  Yeah, we already talked about the objectional conduct stuff.
• 51:29
  Did you see Tyler Sneed l um layout Jamal Peters?
• 51:34
  Yes.
• 51:34
  missed that part.
• 51:35
  Nice block from him.
• 51:37
  Yeah.
• 51:40
  my god!
• 51:41
  I was like we're gonna have the hit of the year and the catch of the year in one game.
• 51:45
  That was vicious.
• 51:47
  Like beautifully vicious because I if if you don't know fans, Jamal Peters is quite a bit taller than Tyler Sneed and Tyler Sneed just came in there with the ball and just weighed
• 51:58
  him out flat.
• 52:00
  I don't expect this level of football in week one to be quite honest.
• 52:03
  I don't expect catches like this, I don't expect hits like this, I expect a little continuation of preseason, so I was very pleasantly surprised that this was the quality of
• 52:11
  football for week one.
• 52:12
  we talked about Bo's terrible inception, we don't need to talk about that.
• 52:16
  did you watch the Speedy Bee tribute?
• 52:18
  Sorry, the which
• 52:20
  C D B tribute?
• 52:21
  Or did you fast forward through it?
• 52:22
  'Cause it was during a quarter.
• 52:24
  fast forward through that.
• 52:25
  that's me.
• 52:27
  Less about the vibes, more about on with the game.
• 52:29
  So they TI Cats were honoring Speedy B, put it like for, you know, on their wall of fame, like on the wall because of his contributions to the Ty Cats.
• 52:38
  He is beloved in Hamilton.
• 52:40
  Like, absolutely beloved.
• 52:42
  Then
• 52:43
  So Kate and Milt are presenting this and she's like, There's only thing better than one standing beside one Hall of Famer is two Hall of Famers and they're like, Congratulations,
• 52:52
  Speedy B, you've been in you're getting inducted in the CFL Hall of Fame, and he didn't know, so he was just like So they everyone got to see his live reaction to that, and that
• 53:00
  was really nice.
• 53:01
  So good job.
• 53:03
  did they show him on crying on the sidelines?
• 53:06
  Did they show him throwing his helmet and leaving the field when he's in the middle of a game?
• 53:10
  Did they show all those temper tantrums that he had?
• 53:13
  Did they show any of those things that did they show him losing the game because of a legitimate penalty and the gray cup?
• 53:21
  yeah, no.
• 53:22
  You know, I wasn't watching that.
• 53:24
  we don't remember things like that.
• 53:26
  We remember how fun and kind he is and how fast he was.
• 53:31
  That's what we remember in Hamilton.
• 53:34
  But
• 53:35
  player.
• 53:35
  He was a he was outstanding.
• 53:37
  I mean, yeah, no.
• 53:37
  Full credit to him.
• 53:38
  I'm just giving Ticat fans a hard time.
• 53:40
  No.
• 53:41
  No, he lives in Grimsby and I think he's around the organization a lot and he's like in the area and stuckin' around, so I think it it's just like it means a lot to Ticat
• 53:50
  community.
• 53:51
  He's there, so that was really nice.
• 53:52
  Um
• 53:54
  Uh hold on again just one second.
• 53:56
  I'm just I'm gonna take this in because I don't know if you'll cover it, but just since you mentioned that part, I also wanted to congratulate TSN and Matthew Shinetti on their
• 54:07
  opening little I don't know what you call it, feature at the start of the pregame show called Confetti and Championships.
• 54:13
  And he did an excellent job of putting together a feature that by the time it was over I was ready for football and had some goosebumps.
• 54:22
  And then in the middle of it, their interview segment was with Kenny Lawler and I didn't know this at all.
• 54:27
  He's moved his family to Canada a few years back.
• 54:31
  him and his wife were both on there and his son, his son is autistic.
• 54:35
  And they said they specifically came up to Canada, wanted to be here because it was just so much of a better environment for his son.
• 54:42
  And didn't specifically talk about necessarily, you know, medical treatments or that, but he said just the general attitude.
• 54:48
  And his wife mentioned
• 54:50
  He struggled so much in school down in the States because he was belittled and ridiculed and that and she said, We just don't see any of that here.
• 54:57
  He's so much happier a child.
• 54:59
  So that was a good news story that I wanted to acknowledge and full credit to to Kenny and his wife, who they obviously have some challenging circumstances with the son, but they
• 55:09
  are so upbeat and it's there's obviously an awful lot of love in that family.
• 55:13
  Yeah, I thought that was I thought that was a very good piece.
• 55:16
  Uh and I thought they did a pretty good job the next night too with uh with Vernon on the interview there.
• 55:21
  Certainly not as as touching a story but I just thought they did a pretty good job on both of those pieces as such.
• 55:27
  I thought those were good way to start.
• 55:29
  I didn't know if they did I don't know if they did anything on the third night, because I wasn't paying that much attention.
• 55:34
  But I thought both of those pieces were very well done.
• 55:38
  Oh, so let's move it to wholesome to my last point of this game, which is like thank you TSN for the drone overhead shot of Alexander getting his pants ripped off in the pile.
• 55:50
  Really appreciated it.
• 55:51
  Looks like he's been going to the gym.
• 55:53
  certainly had the the angle on that one to get what was going on.
• 55:57
  I screenshotted it.
• 55:58
  Don't you worry, friends.
• 56:00
  Yes.
• 56:01
  Full moon season.
• 56:02
  this game had everything.
• 56:03
  This game had everything.
• 56:05
  A as a Stamp as a Stampeder fan, we were so used to John Cornish losing his pants that we don't even consider that anything out of the ordinary, so
• 56:14
  It's true.
• 56:14
  It's true.
• 56:15
  and then I my last I'll guess I have a one more final was that we did not predict any of our game announcers and color commentators correctly.
• 56:24
  I don't know what they were doing and I don't understand, but here we are.
• 56:29
  in our defense, they did announce Luke Wilson as the Friday night football analyst.
• 56:38
  And instead they had him on Thursday.
• 56:40
  So I'm assuming he's the Friday night Eastern Canada football analyst.
• 56:46
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 56:46
  But it was him, Dwayne and Rod in the booth and I cannot think of a worse three headed monster for me personally.
• 56:53
  But I persevered and I watched this game and I enjoyed it till the end.
• 56:59
  Hey.
• 57:00
  A any any quick thoughts or or longer thoughts from you, GT?
• 57:06
  No, that was basically it.
• 57:08
  I agree with MJ entirely that uh the quality of football on both sides, for the first game of the season was good.
• 57:14
  I thought the quality in the second game again was pretty good too.
• 57:17
  Offenses generally take a little bit more time, but they were all four offenses in those first two games were were running pretty fast and pretty sharp and we got two great f
• 57:26
  early season games that we don't necessarily
• 57:29
  Gat.
• 57:29
  So I was yeah, I was pretty happy with that.
• 57:32
  And I like the outcomes, you know, I thought the outcomes were were were were good.
• 57:36
  Yeah, in the way of the scores and the way that it came down to final second plays and both games and overtime and stuff.
• 57:43
  that's that's a tremendous way to start the season.
• 57:45
  So yeah, good.
• 57:47
  I thought it was incredibly entertaining.
• 57:48
  I did mention earlier that I thought the difference really came down to a few passes that Alexander made.
• 57:56
  There was the I think it was the first touchdown, he hit Sneed deep over the middle.
• 58:01
  And there were four D Bs around him and if you if once they showed the correct angle on it, you could see the window he put the ball through was roughly
• 58:11
  an inch or two bigger than a football.
• 58:14
  It was just for a pass several yards downfield, probably thirty yards downfield, that was as as good as you could go.
• 58:21
  And then again, just before the three minute half were or three minute mark in the first half, they had a bad sequence where they gave up a penalty on when they were returning a
• 58:31
  punt and then took an unnecessary roughness and they ended up second and ten.
• 58:35
  No, sorry, second and twenty five on their own fifteen yard line.
• 58:40
  And he pops another 70-yard pass to Sneed that sets up a field goal.
• 58:44
  So those things made a difference.
• 58:46
  And then the turnovers made a big difference.
• 58:47
  There were, I believe there were only two, but they were huge.
• 58:51
  As as you mentioned, MJ, there was a pick six that Montreal picked off a Bo and took it in.
• 58:57
  And then when we went into overtime, Hamilton made a couple of reasonably good runs.
• 59:02
  Then try to short pass to Wheatfall over the middle and he caught it and then dropped it.
• 59:08
  So they got no points.
• 59:09
  All Montreal had to do was run the ball a few times to get as close as they could and then kick the winning field goal.
• 59:15
  So that if you're a Hamilton fan, that had to just crush you after the way they fought and scraped and clawed to to win that game.
• 59:22
  And like I said, they were up until then, Montreal never had the lead.
• 59:26
  It was tied for at points, but Hamilton had the lead for Yeah.
• 59:31
  So
• 59:33
  That was that that was hard to take.
• 59:37
  But like I said, Montreal also fifteen penalties for 118 yards and just stupid penalties.
• 59:43
  They kept shooting themselves in the foot.
• 59:45
  You know, Ticats fans are used to people taking penalties and having interceptions in game critical situations.
• 59:52
  We are starting to like have some thick skin about it.
• 59:56
  I can understand that.
• 59:57
  And I can also say here on a personal note, I could see already at this point in the game that my fantasy picks had not been great.
• 1:00:06
  So I'm looking for anything I can get.
• 1:00:08
  And one of the running backs I took because he was cheap and a starting running back was Roundtree the Third for Hamilton.
• 1:00:14
  And he got some points, but not much.
• 1:00:16
  But they get down to the one yard line.
• 1:00:19
  And instead of going for a quarterback sneak the way everybody does, they line up in shotgun.
• 1:00:25
  And I'm yes, round three touchdown.
• 1:00:27
  Go, go, go.
• 1:00:28
  And they pass the ball.
• 1:00:29
  And it's incomplete.
• 1:00:31
  So they line up again in shotgun.
• 1:00:33
  And I'm, yeah, a reprieve, I'm back.
• 1:00:35
  And they run a friggin' fullback drive to Leitre, and he gets the touchdown on the on this fullback dive at the I could not buy a break this week.
• 1:00:46
  Okay.
• 1:00:48
  Yes.
• 1:00:49
  I
• 1:00:51
  What else did I have anything else down here?
• 1:00:54
  One of the Hamilton Tiger Cats touchdowns came on a backward pass to Wheatfall which was a weird wrinkle on sort of a jet sweep that was nice wrinkle and it it turned out well.
• 1:01:04
  And I was going to give Yeah.
• 1:01:08
  You know, give credit where it's due.
• 1:01:11
  Luke Wilson at least was on the ball enough to make the point at the end of the game that if this was last year's
• 1:01:17
  rules it wouldn't have gone into overtime.
• 1:01:20
  Because that one punt that dribbled out the sidelines would have been a point.
• 1:01:24
  And I think that was for Hamilton.
• 1:01:27
  And they would have won.
• 1:01:28
  And and in the second and in the second game, if it was last year's rules, we would have went into overtime.
• 1:01:34
  any other thoughts on that one or do I jump on to the next one?
• 1:01:37
  just that I listened to a three down nation podcast with Kenny Lawler and he talked about how he like talked a wheatfall all off season to try and get him there and then first game
• 1:01:47
  he fumbles in overtime.
• 1:01:48
  So I think why I think he'll be fine, but that just was like not a good way to introduce yourself to the fans.
• 1:01:58
  we'll go on from there to the next night where Winnipeg went into Calgary and pulled out a thirty twenty-eight win.
• 1:02:04
  So first game thirty twenty-seven, second game thirty twenty-eight.
• 1:02:07
  I was waiting for thirty twenty-nine in the Sunday or in the Saturday game, but it never happened.
• 1:02:12
  But anyway, this one, this was a nice back and forth game.
• 1:02:16
  You saw a lot of good running from both teams in the first half Condell, surprisingly enough, ran the ball more than I expected him to.
• 1:02:24
  And I will say that I did think that it was would have been a considerably different game if the Stamps had Hutchings and Flo in there.
• 1:02:36
  Because they were getting pretty good pressure on.
• 1:02:39
  Zach at times with just one defensive end with Hicks.
• 1:02:42
  If they had stuff like that from the other side, it may have changed things up.
• 1:02:46
  But I'll also say that it felt to me like Winnipeg came out with more pop in their step at the start.
• 1:02:54
  And it seemed to take Calgary longer to get their feet under them and gather themselves.
• 1:02:59
  Once they did, they performed quite well.
• 1:03:01
  And they weren't in a too big of a hole at that point.
• 1:03:03
  But that was my impression anyway.
• 1:03:05
  So
• 1:03:06
  I'd happy to hear what the two of you thought.
• 1:03:08
  Maybe this time we'll start with GT.
• 1:03:10
  Yeah, it was I mean I had predicted Calgary to win the game, but that was before I realized that, you know, both Flo and and Hutchings were not going to play, and that Clark
• 1:03:21
  Barnes was not going to play.
• 1:03:23
  And they made some other decisions that I was like surprised at.
• 1:03:26
  uh I'm not sure why they kept all those guys out when they were all healthy.
• 1:03:31
  um and ready to go apparently.
• 1:03:33
  I know that they are on the buy this week, so maybe it was yeah, let's just give an extra week and and and we're give 'em time to get a hundred percent or a hundred and ten percent
• 1:03:43
  as they like to say in sports, ready to go.
• 1:03:45
  But that I think did I agree with you, old man, that changed the the flow of the game, pardon the pun.
• 1:03:51
  And I certainly think that they you know that that would have made a difference.
• 1:03:55
  And and in the second half, as MJ always says, those darn Winnipeg you know, uh adjustments at halftime came into effect and they just adjusted at halftime uh and Calgary
• 1:04:05
  didn't seem to make the adjustments or wasn't able to keep up with with Winnipeg's adjustments and the third quarter particularly it showed Calgary's offense wasn't getting
• 1:04:13
  anything going that they had going in the first half.
• 1:04:16
  and so that that third quarter was all but basically Winnipeg's game.
• 1:04:20
  Then
• 1:04:21
  That drive late in the game was outstanding by uh from a from their own basically two yard line all the way into the end zone.
• 1:04:28
  That was sixteen plays or whatever it was.
• 1:04:31
  That was an amazing drive.
• 1:04:33
  I thought they did, you some things and and of course it's always nice when when we get a game at McMahon and McMahon Rabbit shows up and there's always that.
• 1:04:44
  And all I and all I could think of of course was run the rabbit run.
• 1:04:48
  uh it was fun that way.
• 1:04:49
  It had uh everything else going for it.
• 1:04:51
  The crowd could have been better, but it would didn't look that bad.
• 1:04:54
  And yeah, I thought it was an exciting game, much like the first game.
• 1:04:57
  entertainment value wise, it was good.
• 1:04:59
  Yeah.
• 1:05:00
  I would agree.
• 1:05:01
  It w it was certainly exciting with with it.
• 1:05:03
  And yeah, again, what I said about Alexander, t a couple of nice passes made the difference There were a couple of passes from VA that certainly kept uh them in the game.
• 1:05:12
  He hit Phil Pot on a fifty one yard pass early on in the second quarter and that set up a T D and then uh the thirty two yard pass to Brooks later in the game that set up the
• 1:05:22
  touchdown.
• 1:05:23
  So those were both very
• 1:05:25
  Basically things of beauty.
• 1:05:26
  looking at the looking at that lineup though, and looking at players that weren't playing, the one player that I am more concerned about, and we I didn't think I would be able to
• 1:05:35
  say this, but I am concerned about Reggie and where Reggie's gonna fit back in when he comes back into play.
• 1:05:42
  I think that, you know, they can they can move Barnes in and out between him and Brissett and Janus and stuff and still be able to have
• 1:05:50
  two or three, but I think Brooks is might may be taking Reggie's spot away.
• 1:05:54
  so I think Reggie'll get his opportunity to see to show that he's back or not.
• 1:06:00
  But even then I think they'll be I don't know that he's gonna be in on every single play throughout the year unless they make move things around and Tevin Jones doesn't again, I'm
• 1:06:10
  just not a hundred percent sold on that guy.
• 1:06:12
  But uh it's gonna be interesting to see what they what they do with receivers in w in the next couple of weeks.
• 1:06:18
  So
• 1:06:19
  Yep.
• 1:06:19
  Any thoughts, MJ?
• 1:06:21
  Yeah, I have let's um talk the bombers for a minute.
• 1:06:25
  when I look at depth charts and rosters, like you know how you see things but don't see things?
• 1:06:30
  So as I was picking the Calgary Defense of my fantasy, like and just like and I picked Calgary to win, I forgot that Vavil somehow in my mind I forgot that Vavil was back to
• 1:06:40
  return for them.
• 1:06:41
  I was like, oh crap.
• 1:06:43
  And then
• 1:06:45
  I think we have a huge problem with Cerezna and Willie on defense, friends.
• 1:06:52
  Because Serezna had three sacks.
• 1:06:55
  Willie, who you told us could not play anymore, had two knockdowns and a sack.
• 1:07:01
  And I think that the combo there is a massive problem for any other team this year going forward.
• 1:07:09
  Ugh.
• 1:07:10
  cuz cause I've got to defend myself here.
• 1:07:14
  I've had a good Christian raising and an eighth grade education.
• 1:07:18
  There ain't no need for you to go treating me that way.
• 1:07:21
  I did not say Willie couldn't play.
• 1:07:23
  I said he was not a premier defensive end anymore.
• 1:07:27
  And I still stand by it.
• 1:07:29
  no I would say the stat sheet says he is.
• 1:07:32
  I think that's they are a little wrecking crew, the two of them.
• 1:07:36
  Um what else I have?
• 1:07:38
  Brady is uh slapping his helmet first game, so other teams beware.
• 1:07:43
  He's in head slapping mode all I know as soon as I saw that I was like, it's lights out for Calgary.
• 1:07:48
  It's lights out.
• 1:07:49
  If he's slapping his helmet, you are done.
• 1:07:52
  And um they played a lot better than I expected them to.
• 1:07:56
  They looked I think they looked better than they did l end of last year.
• 1:08:00
  So good job s good job, Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
• 1:08:04
  two other little comments that are not really game related, but um Dusty made a little Alberta joke, which I really enjoyed.
• 1:08:11
  His first in Red Deer when it was first in twenty one.
• 1:08:14
  That was a that's a little QE two joke for you friends.
• 1:08:17
  That was
• 1:08:18
  Appreciated that.
• 1:08:19
  And I like I like the Stamps New Jerseys.
• 1:08:22
  I know they were quite controversial and there was lots of opinions, but I liked the color and I liked the white stripe on the pants and I thought they looked good.
• 1:08:30
  I don't know, some people were saying they didn't translate well to to store like for fans, but they looked good on the players.
• 1:08:38
  Yeah, I thought that well, the white stripe saves the uniform.
• 1:08:40
  Otherwise it would have been too much as we as I've said before.
• 1:08:43
  But the white stripe saves the uniform at that.
• 1:08:45
  I thought for whatever it's worth, I thought the difference in the game really came down to sort of what you were mentioning, GT, in that third quarter, especially towards the end
• 1:08:54
  of it.
• 1:08:55
  The first
• 1:08:57
  Ten minutes of the third quarter, both teams kind of went away from their running games or had no luck with them.
• 1:09:03
  And Winnipeg seemed to scare Calgary off with that and they stopped going to Mills at all rather than being able to adjust and get him some yardage.
• 1:09:11
  But on the other side, Winnipeg late in the third started running the ball.
• 1:09:16
  And whatever the differences were, Calgary just wasn't ready for that drive and it pretty much shredded them and gave Winnipeg the chance to to get.
• 1:09:24
  back in it
• 1:09:24
  Yeah, and then it came down and then it came down to a kick that sailed just a bit too far.
• 1:09:28
  if that kick at the end is five yards less than it was, Winnipeg gets the ball at the five yard line instead of the forty yard line and all and it's and and that's really what it
• 1:09:38
  comes down to, right?
• 1:09:39
  so for everything else that happened, it's really one play.
• 1:09:44
  And it and it really wasn't even that the ball sailed right into the end zone and and it was
• 1:09:50
  dropping down and then just kind of went into the end zone and then out the side.
• 1:09:55
  Otherwise, yeah, the ball's at the five or ten yard line or twenty even, um, if they if they get it that far out.
• 1:10:02
  And it's not nearly the same kind the the outcome of the game is probably Calgary wins by two.
• 1:10:07
  uh it's not like it's not like Calgary didn't play well enough to win the game for all of that.
• 1:10:13
  I don't think it's a I I don't think it's a true indication of one team versus the other team necessarily.
• 1:10:18
  I think Calgary without three four starters, if you take Paradays into that, and Rene doesn't have the leg to kick it that far, so would we wouldn't have had that situation so
• 1:10:29
  so you know there's that too.
• 1:10:30
  we're taking out four key guys and uh and we were there at the end.
• 1:10:35
  So I'm not that stressed about the loss, to be honest with you.
• 1:10:38
  I mean it doesn't look great when you when, the other two teams in your division won their opener and maybe their third team does this week.
• 1:10:44
  but I'm not that worried about it in the long run.
• 1:10:47
  We'll it'll be close enough that we'll manage it.
• 1:10:50
  That game could easily have gone either way based on a a few plays you take the scores where you can get you never turn down points, but frankly, Calgary probably scored a
• 1:11:02
  little too quick on that last drive of theirs.
• 1:11:04
  They left Winnipeg, what was it, a minute and two or four seconds left or whatever.
• 1:11:09
  If they if that last touchdown had come thirty seconds
• 1:11:12
  left in the game, it might have been a different outcome.
• 1:11:15
  And and Yeah.
• 1:11:15
  And again, for all for all of my conversations, however you want to take them about the the forty yard line and and all that stuff.
• 1:11:23
  But the reality is too, is your defense has to stop and your defense doesn't stop them and they you don't win.
• 1:11:29
  So they should have been able to stop Winnipeg from the forty and got the ball back and run that time out.
• 1:11:36
  But they weren't able to stop them.
• 1:11:38
  and Winnip Winnipeg was able to get close enough to to to kick the field goal.
• 1:11:42
  So full credit to Winnipeg for doing it and the Stampeders weren't able to d to you know, to make that adjustment or to have a defensive call that w went the right way.
• 1:11:51
  And maybe that's those two guys, as we talked about, not being there, but maybe it wasn't.
• 1:11:56
  May the same thing might have happened if all those players are there.
• 1:11:59
  Yeah, you know, if you know, candies were nuts or whatever the case may the saying is, right?
• 1:12:03
  So uh yeah.
• 1:12:05
  all have a very Merry Christmas.
• 1:12:07
  Yes.
• 1:12:08
  yeah, and and I say this a little tongue in cheek, but the idea of Winnipeg marching close enough to get the ball, I have a feeling that if they'd got that touchback with two
• 1:12:18
  seconds left in the clock and got the ball on the forty, they might have sent Castile out there anyway.
• 1:12:22
  'Cause he's hitting from well over half the field as it is.
• 1:12:28
  Nothing to lose.
• 1:12:31
  Yeah.
• 1:12:32
  But again, the it was it was sort of like the Winnipeg team of old, but not completely.
• 1:12:40
  you were mentioning, by the way, JT, you were mentioning that uh that you got to have a beer with Oz from the Rouge, White, and Blue.
• 1:12:47
  And I've that made me think of Joe Pridgard from then.
• 1:12:50
  he's a big Winnipeg fan, and he always says it's the Winnipeg formula we've seen for the last five years.
• 1:12:55
  You get a lead in the first half.
• 1:12:57
  You kinda back off in the third quarter and let the other team get close and then you run the ball and run out the game.
• 1:13:03
  And they did that a bit, but not as much.
• 1:13:06
  And frankly, they had to because I didn't think Zach looked that great.
• 1:13:10
  I I don't know.
• 1:13:12
  I should have checked what his final stats were.
• 1:13:15
  Here, I could maybe even do that quickly here if one of you wants to say something to cover for me.
• 1:13:20
  I have them.
• 1:13:21
  He went seventeen for twenty eight for two hundred and thirty three yards.
• 1:13:25
  okay, well then I don't even have to cover yeah, so n I mean it's not terrible, but that's hardly a world beating performance.
• 1:13:35
  I mean, VA was seventeen for twenty seven with two hundred and thirty nine yards.
• 1:13:39
  But he had six carries for forty eight.
• 1:13:41
  But I mean
• 1:13:42
  And and the and the and the thing is when I look at it, you know, he had probably eighty yards on the two passes to to Jailen Philpod and and Brooks.
• 1:13:53
  So I guess maybe yeah, I thought he did better than that.
• 1:13:58
  Maybe it's just all in my mind, but but mind you they also part of the reason they were both lower in the um pass attempts was that both teams were running the ball well in the
• 1:14:07
  first half.
• 1:14:08
  I mean it was really a
• 1:14:10
  running back showdown and it lived up to the hype that was there.
• 1:14:14
  I was also impressed there weren't a lot of penalties in this.
• 1:14:16
  do you have the stats ha no, sorry, MJ, you have the stats handy?
• 1:14:19
  Just i if you don't mind, just tell me okay, great.
• 1:14:22
  Can you tell me what both Brady and and Mills had as a stat line?
• 1:14:27
  Okay, so Mills had sixteen carries for a hundred and twelve yards.
• 1:14:32
  Brady had fifteen carries for a hundred and thirteen yards.
• 1:14:35
  Brady had three of four receiving for twenty four yards.
• 1:14:39
  And I think I didn't even write Mills' receiving down because I think he had one or something.
• 1:14:44
  Like just a second.
• 1:14:45
  they were both they were both over a hundred yards and they both had a touchdown, right?
• 1:14:49
  Okay, good.
• 1:14:50
  I just want I just wanna remember that when we talk about the next game.
• 1:14:53
  Sure.
• 1:14:54
  Well, why don't we jump onto that now then?
• 1:14:57
  'Cause this was the last game of the weekend.
• 1:15:00
  Edmonton went into Borneo.
• 1:15:02
  Oh no, it was Ottawa.
• 1:15:04
  The monsoon it confused me there.
• 1:15:07
  Edmonton twenty nine, Ottawa twenty one in a terrible weather game.
• 1:15:11
  Wind and rain and just perfect conditions for a running game.
• 1:15:16
  And in the end that was the difference that
• 1:15:20
  Edmonton got some good stuff from the running game and Ottawa not so much.
• 1:15:25
  And in fact, really, to me, it looked like Ottawa looked very good in the three minutes of the end of the half and the three minutes at the end of the game.
• 1:15:34
  And other than that, it wasn't terribly impressive for Mr.
• 1:15:40
  Dinwiddie's debut.
• 1:15:41
  They had, I think, three turnovers at bad times, just silly sort of mistakes that are there.
• 1:15:48
  Um like they had dug in in a short yardage after a real nice drive where they were in scoring position, just had to pick up the first down and never even touched the snap.
• 1:15:56
  It just squirted out and Edmonton recovered it.
• 1:15:59
  So this was an ugly game.
• 1:16:01
  It wa you gotta say that.
• 1:16:02
  And you can see both teams do have a ways to go.
• 1:16:05
  It'll be interesting to see how they perform when they're playing teams in the next tier up or
• 1:16:11
  at the top of the league.
• 1:16:12
  let's get what you guys think.
• 1:16:14
  Whoever, bare knuckle, whoever jumps in first.
• 1:16:17
  Well, this game took forever because there was a flag on every play.
• 1:16:22
  Yes.
• 1:16:23
  Yeah.
• 1:16:24
  play had a flag and it was very embarrassing for both teams.
• 1:16:30
  There was the Red Blacks had seventy yards of penalties on one drive.
• 1:16:36
  They just marched the Elks right down to the end like
• 1:16:40
  Infuri I hate nothing just grinds my gears, like just giving up yards for no reason and not even for like pass interference I'll allow, but like nonsense like face masking and
• 1:16:52
  like I mean Revous had a bad hit on on Cody and I felt bad for him because he was coming in as Cody was s slid late and he would have hit him in the shoulders and he hit him in
• 1:17:05
  the helmet, but it was a nasty hit.
• 1:17:08
  And he was pleading his case to the ref, but I mean helmets are helmet hits are helmet hits.
• 1:17:12
  So that got called.
• 1:17:13
  It was unfortunate, but the right call.
• 1:17:15
  but yeah, it was just it was sloppy.
• 1:17:16
  I just my note says no one wanted to win.
• 1:17:19
  Yeah, they they they did make mistakes.
• 1:17:22
  There were twenty four penalties in all.
• 1:17:24
  So Edmonton Yeah, uh I know it was just every play over and over.
• 1:17:30
  Edmonton was fourteen for a hundred and forty two and Calgary was ten for a hundred and ten.
• 1:17:35
  It was yeah, they both gave up well, Calgary gave up this year's field length and
• 1:17:42
  I mean I we're getting to the point where we had obscure penalties like pyramiding.
• 1:17:46
  Like the Red Blocks got called for pyramiding.
• 1:17:49
  And in fact, on Blue Sky that jam guy tweeted my post about it and then the Siccos committee found it and tweeted and posted about it.
• 1:17:56
  So that was my little Blue Sky claim to fame.
• 1:17:59
  Thank you, Red Blacks.
• 1:18:00
  Like pyramiding.
• 1:18:01
  Um the the
• 1:18:03
  been there for a while and uh I'm No well, 'cause it doesn't happen that often.
• 1:18:10
  And that just shows this was the first game of the season game, right?
• 1:18:14
  It was like where all the penalties happened.
• 1:18:17
  The weather didn't help, I'm sure, but it just looked like and as I said to you early on, I was trying to find how
• 1:18:24
  with the skip button on on CFL plus and every time I did it was like, oh, you know, I missed the Ottawa thing.
• 1:18:30
  That was because it was a two and out.
• 1:18:31
  They just kept going and and then it would be the same thing.
• 1:18:34
  It was like, did Edmonton not have an offensive uh play?
• 1:18:37
  yeah, I guess they went two and out.
• 1:18:38
  It just didn't seem like there was any flow to that game at all.
• 1:18:52
  Lather got the kick.
• 1:18:43
  He got it and went through and they got called for pyramiding and
• 1:18:47
  And so that took the so that took points off the board, right?
• 1:18:51
  Oh and then they got a field goal anyways two plays later or something.
• 1:18:54
  Was that what happened if I remember correctly?
• 1:18:57
  So it was redundant anyways.
• 1:18:58
  But yeah, i it was just seemed yeah, it it seemed like it was the game of the week that was n the first game of the season.
• 1:19:06
  Lawther got a field goal and then he got a time count violation and that's the one that they got pushed back.
• 1:19:13
  Yeah, sorry, that was that one because I was He was like, What?
• 1:19:18
  What I got it?
• 1:19:19
  uh out of they had to punt and that was a a big mistake, yeah.
• 1:19:24
  I'll give you that.
• 1:19:25
  also the red blacks were in shotgun formation when they had like a yard to go all the time.
• 1:19:30
  And then there was one that did you see this they like fumbled the the handoff like the from the shotgun and it fumbled and like it was just it was so messy.
• 1:19:41
  Yeah.
• 1:19:42
  Well yeah, I
• 1:19:43
  and and and the the question that I have that I don't know if there's this what the story is yet or whether we'll we will know at some point in time.
• 1:19:51
  But why wasn't Greg Bell in the game?
• 1:19:55
  Like you paid how much money for this guy?
• 1:19:57
  Is like a in no, he wasn't injured, was he?
• 1:20:01
  They wasn't he was Okay, 'cause I didn't even think he was on I didn't think he was on the injury report
• 1:20:07
  like
• 1:20:07
  let me look it up.
• 1:20:08
  made like the d night before the game or something.
• 1:20:11
  It was like it was just like Dinwiddie just decided again that, no, I'm not playing ya.
• 1:20:16
  You know, one of those things like power tripping Dinwoody or something.
• 1:20:20
  I wasn't sure.
• 1:20:21
  Like and the whole quarterback thing between that and and then when the bell I was like, Wow, they're making some odd decisions.
• 1:20:27
  yeah, we don't know that it was decided that sorry, go go ahead and
• 1:20:32
  existing neck injury that became inflamed on Thursday night, rendering him unable to go.
• 1:20:38
  okay.
• 1:20:38
  okay.
• 1:20:38
  Well we'll we'll have to accept that then.
• 1:20:41
  He was he wasn't on the injury list at all and it seemed like it was a he was listed as a healthy scratch, one of the two that you're allowed but again, that decision, it could
• 1:20:51
  have been made earlier in the week too.
• 1:20:52
  We don't know.
• 1:20:53
  we only found out when the depth charts came out a day before the game.
• 1:20:57
  And who knows?
• 1:20:58
  I agree with you, GT, some strange
• 1:21:00
  choices there.
• 1:21:01
  I think they were in the shotgun on third and one as much as they were because Duggan fumbled that first third and one under center and Dinwiddie just didn't trust him.
• 1:21:10
  that was it, can you imagine being Eugene Lewis and Justin Hardy and like Mayor's the guy that they're getting to throw balls to you because Hardy's not even on the stats sheet and
• 1:21:20
  Lewis went three for nine.
• 1:21:22
  Well, I mean, not even I I wrote down people who had significant yardage.
• 1:21:27
  Like yeah.
• 1:21:28
  But
• 1:21:29
  I mean, it was it it was bad.
• 1:21:33
  It was bad.
• 1:21:34
  And if I was an Ottawa Red Black fan, I'd be furious.
• 1:21:37
  But then I was thinking to myself, there's no other quarterbacks available.
• 1:21:42
  This is it.
• 1:21:44
  Really?
• 1:21:44
  Well, Brown, but I mean you have the the you have the last two.
• 1:21:50
  Who who else is available?
• 1:21:52
  Nobody.
• 1:21:53
  I mean McLeod Bethel Thompson, maybe Ryan's on the phone with him.
• 1:21:56
  I don't know.
• 1:21:57
  no.
• 1:21:57
  I no
• 1:21:58
  so the Elks looked good in comparison, but I wouldn't say that they looked great.
• 1:22:03
  And they relied on Rankin a lot.
• 1:22:06
  But this happened last year, and as soon as other defenses scheme for him, they like there's games as you all remember, there's games where Cody outrushed Rankin.
• 1:22:15
  And so if if Rankin's going, they're gonna live or die by him, and so he played well and they got him going, but don't expect that from other teams, I would say.
• 1:22:25
  Um also you guys remember last year when Tyrell Ford when I said he got that amazing reception and you're like, ha ha, he just had that land in his hands, in his arms, he
• 1:22:33
  couldn't even So this week he couldn't even he couldn't even handle a ball that hit him in the numbers.
• 1:22:42
  He is bad at football
• 1:22:44
  No he's not.
• 1:22:45
  But it's all again, old coach in me, get your hands out there and catch the thing.
• 1:22:49
  He tried to cup it into his body and that's bad.
• 1:22:54
  Yep.
• 1:22:54
  I know.
• 1:22:55
  More than once.
• 1:22:56
  It was he is looks off and you what?
• 1:23:00
  He was covering Lewis, and so why they did not attack him more is beyond me.
• 1:23:07
  Yes.
• 1:23:08
  Well he wasn't even looking.
• 1:23:10
  I don't know if you saw this, GT, but he wasn't even looking.
• 1:23:12
  He like shoved Lewis in the end zone, wasn't even looking at the ball.
• 1:23:16
  Like the ball was behind him, he just shoving it and then he was all upset and
• 1:23:21
  Yeah.
• 1:23:22
  He no, he did not have a good game.
• 1:23:24
  He looked he he got showed out looking terrible.
• 1:23:28
  So I don't know what's gonna happen over there, but he was their worst player by far.
• 1:23:33
  But to to to what you were saying about Rankin though, he said he wants to go a thousand, a thousand this year, a thousand rushing, a thousand receiving.
• 1:23:42
  Pardon me.
• 1:23:43
  Yeah.
• 1:23:44
  don't have anyone else to do it.
• 1:23:45
  so can I ask you can I ask you uh can you give me I'm sure you have it there, MJ, can you give me rank and stats for the game?
• 1:23:53
  Well let let me do this, because I I took it a step further.
• 1:23:56
  Hold on, because I saw this and I thought, because it's a thousand and a thousand, right?
• 1:24:00
  Now of course he's not going to do this every game this season, but he was a hundred and two yards rushing and ninety-four yards receiving.
• 1:24:08
  And if you extrapolate that out, he does that every game for eighteen games.
• 1:24:11
  That's eight hundred and thirty-six yards of rushing and sixteen and a ninety sixteen sixteen hundred and ninety-two yards of passing.
• 1:24:19
  No problem.
• 1:24:19
  He's got it.
• 1:24:21
  If only they played the Red Blocks every week.
• 1:24:23
  get two thousand total if he was two thousand total yards, if that's what he's saying, yeah, no, that's easy for him.
• 1:24:29
  if you break it down and it's a thousand each, that's much more difficult.
• 1:24:33
  Okay, so he got more yard he got more receiving yardage than I was aware of.
• 1:24:37
  'Cause any good because I saw all I saw afterwards
• 1:24:41
  like all I or not all, but I saw several things afterwards that to seemed to talk about how amazing his game was and how it was a standout running back game of the week and I was
• 1:24:53
  like, did they not watch the other two?
• 1:24:56
  Like I thought the statistics for both uh for both of the other for both Brady and Mills were better than him and from the little bit that I saw.
• 1:25:04
  So I was like
• 1:25:06
  Where's the where is this coming from?
• 1:25:08
  So if it the receptions were there, that's that's a pretty good game.
• 1:25:11
  That's almost two hundred yards.
• 1:25:13
  That's a pretty darn good game.
• 1:25:14
  Total yardage.
• 1:25:15
  if that's your only offensive player that's not you can't keep doing that.
• 1:25:21
  Yeah.
• 1:25:22
  So
• 1:25:23
  need to find something, you know.
• 1:25:26
  Yeah.
• 1:25:27
  But they
• 1:25:27
  went were a hundred percent this week for th those two, like Blanchard and Lother.
• 1:25:31
  Lother can kick field goals again, you guys.
• 1:25:33
  Just needed to change a scene.
• 1:25:35
  It's
• 1:25:36
  I've I've actually always ha had faith in him.
• 1:25:38
  I think he'll do do fine.
• 1:25:40
  But but I'll say this about Rankin.
• 1:25:42
  He is a hell of a weapon and he's got a lot going for him.
• 1:25:46
  He is has acceleration and top end speed.
• 1:25:49
  When he gets an opening, he's through it in a moment and he's gone.
• 1:25:53
  And he's somewhat elusive, if you get him in the open field, the his ninety-four yards of
• 1:25:58
  receiving half of that I think came on a screen pass he got open.
• 1:26:02
  But to me he's got one flaw and it ends up with being boom or bust.
• 1:26:06
  He's either getting somewhere between fifteen and thirty or more yards or he's being stopped at the line over and over.
• 1:26:14
  I would love to see what kind of a running back he would be if he could get coached by Andrew Harris for a season.
• 1:26:21
  Cause the mistake he's making that I see out there, he's pressing the line too much.
• 1:26:26
  He takes the handoff
• 1:26:27
  And he gets right on top of the offensive lineman and doesn't leave himself any room to cut.
• 1:26:33
  And if you look at what Harris did and what he taught AJ in Saskatchewan to do last year, it's almost right.
• 1:26:38
  But they press up not quite there.
• 1:26:40
  They're maybe a half foot further back.
• 1:26:43
  And it gives them a chance to read and go through the openings.
• 1:26:46
  And I think if if he could learn that patience to to play that way,
• 1:26:52
  He would be a premier running back in any sense of the word.
• 1:26:55
  But I also know from a coaching point of view, it's hard to to break a player of a habit that they've had for as long as he's probably had it.
• 1:27:04
  Yeah.
• 1:27:04
  No, I think he is a premier running back.
• 1:27:06
  I think he's, right up there.
• 1:27:08
  I think he's if not the most dynamic player in the league, very close to that too.
• 1:27:14
  and I take nothing away from him.
• 1:27:15
  the presentation of his statistics and his play versus the other two running backs this particular week.
• 1:27:22
  I thought was a little bit off.
• 1:27:24
  That's all I'm saying there.
• 1:27:25
  That's the reason I wanted to know the actual stats of the three, to see how much how dramatically different they were I think he's a tremendous player.
• 1:27:32
  I really do.
• 1:27:33
  uh playing Edmonton
• 1:27:35
  Previously you always had to have a spy when Trey Ford was at quarterback.
• 1:27:39
  You had have a linebacker that was spying him every single play and that's all you did with one linebacker.
• 1:27:45
  His job was to do nothing but spy Trey Ford.
• 1:27:48
  Well, you don't have to worry about that so much with Cody, but I would have a guy that does nothing but spy
• 1:27:54
  ranking and that's how you stop him is like you it's just you can't allow him to get loose and you can't allow him to have that opportunity to catch a screen pass in the flat and
• 1:28:05
  get forty or fifty yards.
• 1:28:07
  You've got to have a guy whose job is nothing but spying him every single play.
• 1:28:13
  I don't want anyone to think I'm disrespecting Rankin.
• 1:28:15
  I'm not.
• 1:28:16
  I'm very impressed with a lot of the stuff he's doing.
• 1:28:18
  What I'm saying is that if he learned that l how to do that press and patience a little bit better, the number of carries he gets that goes for zero or minus one or two yards
• 1:28:30
  would turn into carries that were four to eight yards.
• 1:28:34
  And if he could get that consistency in the game, it'd be a lot better.
• 1:28:39
  Now, I mean I admittedly at the end of the game, Ottawa knew they were running and stacked the defense against it, but in their last three possessions, in under three minutes, they
• 1:28:50
  gave the ball to him four times for minus six yards.
• 1:28:54
  And they didn't even vary what they were trying to do with him.
• 1:28:57
  They just basically an A or B gap run.
• 1:29:02
  And it just didn't work.
• 1:29:03
  So at that point, all the patience in the world isn't going to help you.
• 1:29:08
  But in a regular game action it would certainly make him more of a danger that you're not counting on him getting fifteen yards.
• 1:29:16
  You know, it's he's at least giving you the the second and short, which doesn't happen very much.
• 1:29:21
  Sorry, am I too too aggressive?
• 1:29:23
  Am I sh have I scared everybody off?
• 1:29:25
  no.
• 1:29:25
  I I just f you know, in and it's a rare occasion I had no rebuttal, that's all.
• 1:29:31
  Okay.
• 1:29:33
  Well, other little bits.
• 1:29:33
  I thought that Luther for Calgary put on a reasonably good f showing as a new receiver.
• 1:29:39
  I'd have to pull up his stats, but he caught a few passes out there and didn't look out of place.
• 1:29:44
  Bennett Williams for the Ottawa defense had a hell of a game.
• 1:29:48
  And probably even if you weren't watching close you knew that 'cause T S N was mentioning him in
• 1:29:53
  Several times on the game that he had.
• 1:29:55
  Anything else that you guys have, what do do I have here?
• 1:29:59
  yeah, again, that I like I said, the last three minutes of the game, Ottawa goes forty yard pass to Lewis that sets up a a a touchdown to Hardy and then a a two point convert.
• 1:30:10
  Looked fantastic at the end of the first half.
• 1:30:12
  I think they got a a touchdown there too, but everything else sort of in between.
• 1:30:17
  And it was you mentioned the the field goal that they at the the first drive of the second half, they marched it down to the edge of field goal range and then took a time count that
• 1:30:26
  hurt them.
• 1:30:27
  No.
• 1:30:27
  Just not a pretty game.
• 1:30:30
  Yes.
• 1:30:30
  And you can tell Ryan's
• 1:30:31
  for Red Blacks fans.
• 1:30:33
  'Cause you ca you can tell Ryan was part of the Calgary coaching tree 'cause he threw the desperation challenge flag with a few minutes left anyway, you know.
• 1:30:41
  So
• 1:30:43
  It's just like if there like some sort of hex on this team because they changed like their entire coaching staff and like a lot of their players and it's the same exact result.
• 1:30:55
  Well, it was a it was a wet game, so you gotta take that into account, but still there was just stuff like that fumble on short yardage.
• 1:31:02
  There's no excuse for that.
• 1:31:03
  Another fumble, they they did a toss to Collins and he didn't get it stripped.
• 1:31:08
  Basically just the the defender's hand brushed the ball as he was going by and out it came.
• 1:31:14
  So they they didn't have the ball security, they didn't seem cohesive, they didn't seem to have their heads
• 1:31:20
  in the game as much as I'd I would have liked.
• 1:31:23
  They're lucky Ford cannot catch balls.
• 1:31:26
  we all kinda thought Ottawa would have some trouble like Edmonton did last year, just with the amount of changes, including the amount of coaching staff changes, it's gonna take
• 1:31:35
  some time.
• 1:31:35
  So I'm not that surprised.
• 1:31:37
  I'm a little surprised that Edmonton didn't win by more.
• 1:31:40
  even the way I watched the game, I thought the game was over and I was surprised at
• 1:31:44
  Um what the final score was because it seemed like both teams scored a bunch of points after I turned the game off.
• 1:31:50
  But 'cause I think it was twenty to ten or something when I turned it off and I was like, Yeah, it's done.
• 1:31:54
  I don't know.
• 1:31:55
  I just thought Edmonton should have won by more points than that given that Ottawa was the way that they they were going into the game.
• 1:32:02
  so I'm like you, MJ, I'm not sure that Edmonton is going to is we'll wait and see, with give them a couple of weeks to see whether
• 1:32:09
  they've they are going to be good enough yet.
• 1:32:12
  Anyways I'm not s I'm not surprised Ottawa lost.
• 1:32:14
  I'm not surprised that they're still making mistakes.
• 1:32:16
  I'm not surprised that that they're they're going to go through these growing pains.
• 1:32:20
  It's going to be maybe even as, you know, eight to ten games in before like Edmonton was last year, before all of a sudden you'll see a semi gel if at all.
• 1:32:29
  And yeah, I'm not impressed with their quarterbacking, but I've never been impressed with with Jake Mayer.
• 1:32:34
  So that's
• 1:32:34
  another issue with the entirely.
• 1:32:37
  So
• 1:32:38
  Yes.
• 1:32:38
  Well they I thought Edmonton's problem was lack of finish.
• 1:32:41
  Too many field goals.
• 1:32:42
  I mean I don't have my do you have the count there of field goals versus touch tips?
• 1:32:47
  Yeah.
• 1:32:48
  Yeah.
• 1:32:48
  this on weather though.
• 1:32:50
  This was I when it's pouring rain, I expect it to be a run game and field goals.
• 1:32:56
  but they you know, they moved the ball fairly well up to field goal range.
• 1:33:01
  They just and they weren't getting down to the ten or the fifteen where your suddenly your area of play is all bunched up.
• 1:33:10
  They were getting stopped if from what I'm remembering, in around the twenty five or thirty where you still got lots of room to operate, but they just couldn't seem to to put
• 1:33:19
  to put them away.
• 1:33:21
  Still didn't seem to have the killer instinct in there.
• 1:33:24
  It's nice though that they finally have a kicker that they can rely on.
• 1:33:28
  Because if this was a couple years ago
• 1:33:30
  This wouldn't they would not have won this game 'cause the none of their kickers would have kicked five for five.
• 1:33:36
  Yes.
• 1:33:37
  Yeah, that's true.
• 1:33:38
  they have found something, finally.
• 1:33:42
  Yeah.
• 1:33:42
  Took Blanchard a couple years.
• 1:33:43
  Like it was his second or third year in, so he's finally settled down.
• 1:33:47
  it is you know my memory how bad it is, but I think it's his second full year on the roster and he was on the practice squad and maybe got into a couple of games two years
• 1:33:56
  ago.
• 1:33:58
  Late in the season I think he might have come in some.
• 1:34:00
  But I don't quote me on that.
• 1:34:02
  That's that could be just pure fantasy coming out of my brain anyway.
• 1:34:06
  So
• 1:34:07
  I saw that Dean Faithful is playing in Paris now.
• 1:34:11
  my.
• 1:34:12
  Well hey.
• 1:34:17
  Makes sense.
• 1:34:18
  There's been a few few articles about U sports people that have gone over there to play.
• 1:34:22
  It's it's becoming somewhat bigger.
• 1:34:25
  It's still not fantastic, but it's getting some more attention.
• 1:34:28
  Hey man, if I got like lived was living in Europe and getting paid to kick balls, like great.
• 1:34:33
  Sign me up.
• 1:34:35
  Okay.
• 1:34:36
  Well we're at we're pushing two hours here.
• 1:34:39
  I'm uh I'm uh getting to be a tired old man.
• 1:34:42
  So let's let's maybe call that on our recaps and move on to do you have some power rankings for us this week, GT?
• 1:34:51
  I'm gonna write them down because we're gonna post them.
• 1:34:53
  Oh okay, no problem.
• 1:34:54
  yeah, I've got them I I I thought about it for about a thirty seconds or so and figured it out and and so so here's what I've got.
• 1:35:02
  Saskatchewan at one because as we said they they're still the champs and until they lose you gotta give the opportunity to be one and they haven't lost yet, so they're there.
• 1:35:10
  Montreal because they won, uh, so they give their two.
• 1:35:15
  B C because they haven't lost yet, and there's I think they're still
• 1:35:20
  The the opportunity is there for them to be good enough.
• 1:35:22
  Then I have Winnipeg at four because they won.
• 1:35:25
  Edmonton at five because they won.
• 1:35:28
  Calgary and Hamilton I have tied at six and seven, so flip around, do whatever you want with and I'm not gonna argue with ya.
• 1:35:35
  They'cause they both lost in tight games.
• 1:35:38
  So how where wha what difference does it make?
• 1:35:41
  and then Ottawa and uh because they lost in Toronto because uh they haven't played yet and we're not sure how they're gonna be.
• 1:35:48
  So until until next week when things change, that's how I've got them.
• 1:35:52
  Sounds good.
• 1:35:53
  Let us know what you think.
• 1:35:54
  And remember, specify GT if they're nasty comments.
• 1:36:00
  Otherwise, we'll the whole show will take credit for them.
• 1:36:02
  And I gotta say, GT, in some ways you're mirroring the uh the other ones that have been out there longer term, both the three down ones and the AMSOL ones on CFL.ca were very
• 1:36:16
  close to you.
• 1:36:17
  They both had the top three teams as Saskatchewan, BC, and Montreal, and you flip Montreal and BC there.
• 1:36:23
  And they both had the Ottawa and then Toronto as the bottom teams.
• 1:36:28
  But they were all over the place with those middle teams.
• 1:36:31
  for those middle four had Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and then Hamilton in seventh.
• 1:36:36
  And Amsol had Hamilton, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and then Calgary in seventh.
• 1:36:42
  It's pretty obvious that we're all still just trying to figure out what we can at the start of a season here.
• 1:36:47
  But thank you for that.
• 1:36:49
  Uh what else did I have here?
• 1:36:51
  Oh, because we're getting on to the predictions of the games next week, and if you are worried about fantasy or anything, I'm gonna try and do this each week.
• 1:36:59
  Just quickly run down notable names that are on the injury report.
• 1:37:02
  None of them are officially ruled out yet, so take that with a grain of salt, but
• 1:37:07
  Just for where we are, Hamilton McManus was did not participate again all week at linebacker.
• 1:37:13
  The only one.
• 1:37:14
  saw h I thought I saw him officially ruled out.
• 1:37:18
  He has ruled out.
• 1:37:19
  been.
• 1:37:19
  On the injury reports, they didn't I don't think they had that.
• 1:37:22
  I maybe I was wrong, but he was did not participate all week.
• 1:37:25
  Winnipeg had Major Williams, who's their new one of their new corners, and Dembski both as questionable, which knowing Winnipeg means they're in great health and they'll have
• 1:37:35
  fantastic games.
• 1:37:36
  Toronto, the only one was Hurslow, who was limited, so he'll probably be in playing.
• 1:37:42
  Montreal, uh as MJ mentioned.
• 1:37:44
  Lawrence is on the sixth game list.
• 1:37:46
  They still have Scott the third and speaker, as well as Najee Murray, Josh Archibald, and uh Tyrese Beverett all on the did not participate at this point.
• 1:37:58
  So if those don't make it to the game, that could Well, I don't think they play this week though, do they?
• 1:38:04
  No, they don't.
• 1:38:05
  Do they?
• 1:38:06
  yeah, they play Toronto.
• 1:38:07
  My bad, yep.
• 1:38:09
  Otherwise they wouldn't be on the injury report.
• 1:38:11
  Stupid old man.
• 1:38:11
  Um Sutton was limited.
• 1:38:15
  In BC, a couple of O linemen, Cage and Pearson, were both on the Did Not Participate, along with their De Montague.
• 1:38:23
  Is that how you pronounce their new rookie?
• 1:38:25
  he was on Did Not Participate.
• 1:38:27
  oh, also, Tebau Dubai, Gary Peters, and Dante Williams were on the limited.
• 1:38:31
  list there.
• 1:38:32
  And the notable ones in Saskatchewan, I didn't think there were really a lot.
• 1:38:37
  Kote Moore and Marion both on the defensive line.
• 1:38:40
  And then Darius Bell, but he's the rookie and I don't think he would have been in the lineup anyway.
• 1:38:45
  And Daniel Johnson, who's another lineman who looked good when he's not injured, and he's limited.
• 1:38:51
  So it'll be interesting to see the depth charts.
• 1:38:53
  But that's what the teams are dealing with.
• 1:38:57
  So now we have to decide
• 1:38:59
  Who's gonna win?
• 1:39:01
  So we'll start with Hamilton at Winnipeg.
• 1:39:05
  Who's gonna win and any thoughts you might have on why?
• 1:39:08
  We'll start with MJ, because it's Hamilton.
• 1:39:11
  Yeah, I despaired about this a lot today and I went back and forth on it.
• 1:39:18
  Cerezna and Willie Jefferson really worry me.
• 1:39:21
  But I think Hamilton did play well against Montreal for most of that game and I think that they will clean it up a bit.
• 1:39:31
  So I will take Hamilton.
• 1:39:34
  Okay.
• 1:39:34
  GT?
• 1:39:35
  Um
• 1:39:35
  My inclination is to go Hamilton, but it's at home, it's in Winnipeg.
• 1:39:43
  yeah, I gonna I'm gonna go with the bombers.
• 1:39:47
  Yeah, that's that's sound.
• 1:39:49
  That's sound.
• 1:39:51
  the same.
• 1:39:51
  The bombers looked good enough to make me think that at home they might be able to take out Hamilton.
• 1:39:59
  if it's not a close game, if it's a a wide margin for either team, it'll make it much harder to sort of figure out what's going on.
• 1:40:06
  But I'm gonna go with Winnipeg in the end.
• 1:40:08
  This is gonna be a yeah.
• 1:40:11
  I don't know.
• 1:40:11
  I'm very wary of my pick.
• 1:40:14
  Well well maybe I should have said actually I should have said this at the start.
• 1:40:18
  Take our picks with a grain of of salt here because the show went one and two in the in our picks last week.
• 1:40:26
  Yeah.
• 1:40:27
  and as as we as we talked about earlier in the in the off season, this this year is gonna be so close and I think a lot of people feel the same way.
• 1:40:35
  It's gonna be so much pairity and it's gonna be so close.
• 1:40:38
  Like stuff that you thought was gonna happen, like Winnipeg not being up to snuff, is maybe not as as as obvious as it was, and all of a sudden you're like, Okay, now that
• 1:40:47
  you've seen them play, now you get a different idea.
• 1:40:51
  So yeah, I I just uh Edmonton being really good and maybe they're not quite as good as we thought they were gonna be to start the season now that we've seen them play.
• 1:41:00
  every week we won't know until what's good next week is gonna be like until we see this week.
• 1:41:05
  even Saskatchewan at this point in time, we don't know how they're gonna turn out until we see them play.
• 1:41:10
  Right.
• 1:41:11
  So I think that's you know, that's why I'm leaning towards Winnipeg because
• 1:41:15
  I honestly wouldn't I wouldn't have said at Winnipeg two weeks ago.
• 1:41:19
  I wouldn't have picked this out on you know on my prediction this week.
• 1:41:22
  I would have taken Hamilton for sure.
• 1:41:24
  But now I'm not so sure.
• 1:41:26
  And home field advantage means something in Winnipeg.
• 1:41:30
  So that's the reason I'm giving it to the bombers.
• 1:41:32
  Not that I don't think it it could be another overtime, it could be another uh you know, field goal kind of game that close.
• 1:41:38
  But I just think, I'm now taking the bombers when two weeks ago I wouldn't have taken the bombers.
• 1:41:42
  Ditto.
• 1:41:43
  I agree.
• 1:41:44
  And also not for nothing, but just to point out that that was how the show did with our one and two.
• 1:41:50
  Your host and panelists here.
• 1:41:53
  Two people went one and two and one went two and one.
• 1:41:55
  I won't bother mentioning who might have been the two and one, because that would just be snide.
• 1:42:02
  I knew Montreal was gonna win.
• 1:42:04
  That's why I said at the start of that game, never in doubt.
• 1:42:06
  All right.
• 1:42:07
  So moving on.
• 1:42:08
  GT, you get to go first on Toronto at Montreal.
• 1:42:11
  Um
• 1:42:11
  You know, that's a lot of people on the on that list that you just ran off.
• 1:42:15
  The longest was the all the lists that you just rambled off on injury lists was Montreal's.
• 1:42:19
  You know, I I don't know.
• 1:42:21
  I I'm still gonna I'm gonna take Montreal.
• 1:42:23
  I am gonna take Montreal.
• 1:42:24
  It's at home.
• 1:42:25
  They've won.
• 1:42:26
  Uh Davis likes to play in to the crowd.
• 1:42:30
  yeah, I'll take Montreal.
• 1:42:31
  I will take Montreal.
• 1:42:32
  And I'll jump I'll jump in second here just so we keep kind of a fair rotation.
• 1:42:37
  And I'm kinda like you.
• 1:42:38
  I would not these are the games I would honestly not be surprised to see Toronto come in and win by like fifteen points.
• 1:42:44
  But I'm gonna go with the fact that a bunch of those guys that are did not participate, it's still only Tuesday.
• 1:42:51
  They don't play till Friday.
• 1:42:53
  So they they may be back.
• 1:42:55
  And I think the safe pick is Montreal.
• 1:42:57
  So I'm gonna do that.
• 1:42:58
  MJ?
• 1:43:00
  Alright, two things.
• 1:43:01
  They are honoring Dequa before the game.
• 1:43:04
  And that I think puts a lot of it's an intangible and well I guess I have three reasons.
• 1:43:11
  Two
• 1:43:12
  I am not betting against Davis Alexander till he loses.
• 1:43:15
  He is undefeated regular season, although he doesn't want to talk about that.
• 1:43:19
  And three, I am picking Montreal because I do not want to wear this hat again next week.
• 1:43:25
  There we go.
• 1:43:26
  All right.
• 1:43:27
  Yes.
• 1:43:28
  Yes.
• 1:43:28
  He said specifically he doesn't want to talk talk about it because it doesn't count.
• 1:43:32
  he's very, very candid about the fact.
• 1:43:34
  He considers the fact he lost the Grey Cup counting and he's no longer an undefeated quarterback.
• 1:43:38
  So who cares?
• 1:43:40
  You know, it's I I like the attitude.
• 1:43:42
  Alrighty.
• 1:43:43
  Last one, and I'll jump into this one because it is BC at Saskatchewan.
• 1:43:48
  I could
• 1:43:48
  try to pontificate a bunch a bunch of stuff about the home team and all that, but frankly at this point I have no idea.
• 1:43:54
  So I will default to where I always do with no idea and take Saskatchewan.
• 1:43:59
  MJ.
• 1:44:00
  Your turn to go second.
• 1:44:01
  So this is another prairie home game.
• 1:44:03
  I'm very upset about my first choice.
• 1:44:07
  But Nathan Rourke is the wild card.
• 1:44:10
  I'm gonna go B C
• 1:44:12
  yeah, this is a tough one.
• 1:44:13
  I'm not sure th are they doing ring presentations and all that nonsense this game for the for the and unfurling the banner and all that good stuff?
• 1:44:21
  Or is that already done and dusted and they're not worried about it?
• 1:44:25
  I would think they that's this is the week they do all that, right?
• 1:44:29
  So it's gonna be a raucous crowd.
• 1:44:31
  They're all gonna still be celebrating from last November.
• 1:44:34
  I'm not sure if that adds
• 1:44:36
  more or less pressure on either team on the field one until at least the game gets started and then, you know, so if somebody gets an early lead one way or the other, that might
• 1:44:46
  impact it.
• 1:44:47
  as I said in the power rankings, Saskatchewan hasn't lost yet.
• 1:44:50
  They're still the defending champions and until they until somebody beats them, they are.
• 1:44:53
  So I'm gonna go with Saskatchewan, even though I feel like BC could win again.
• 1:44:58
  Uh I'm gonna go with Saskatchewan just because of it the the emotion of that all those other things.
• 1:45:03
  I think I they can carry it through.
• 1:45:06
  Yeah.
• 1:45:07
  And yeah, and I and I will add the my opinion on this and it's nothing more than the opinion, but I think the cutoff point is probably a winning score of about twenty five
• 1:45:16
  points.
• 1:45:16
  If the winner has less than twenty-five points, Saskatchewan takes the game.
• 1:45:20
  If they have more than it, BC takes it.
• 1:45:22
  Because the Saskatchewan defense, we don't know what their rush is gonna look like now And if they can't hold Nathan down to a reasonable amount, I
• 1:45:31
  as good as they are, I don't think that they can come out and get into a a a firefight, get into a gunfight with Nathan.
• 1:45:38
  These are extremely stressful.
• 1:45:41
  I don't think I was this stress-picking last year.
• 1:45:43
  These seem like this is.
• 1:45:46
  That's because you're thinking about it.
• 1:45:49
  I guess I s I am not at all confident, but I know what?
• 1:45:55
  I was pretty confident last week and that turned out terrible, so maybe it'll turn.
• 1:46:00
  Yeah.
• 1:46:01
  Well, I I th I think as GT said, this is how the season's gonna go.
• 1:46:06
  Nobody's gonna be terribly confident yeah, maybe it'll should show up.
• 1:46:09
  scenario.
• 1:46:10
  I hope that I am very unconfident in my picks because everyone is playing so well.
• 1:46:15
  Yes.
• 1:46:16
  Well, I think that's about it.
• 1:46:18
  look at this.
• 1:46:19
  We'll see what I edit it down to, but we're gonna be around two hours, so too late to tell all the this viewers and listeners, but strap in.
• 1:46:25
  It's a bit of a a long one.
• 1:46:29
  Let's uh any closing comments and your social media, please.
• 1:46:34
  We'll start with GT.
• 1:46:35
  Uh at GT Barnum on Blue Sky.
• 1:46:38
  Uh and that's about it.
• 1:46:40
  It's now six o'clock in the morning and I have to be up in two hours, so I'm going back to bed.
• 1:46:44
  Okay, we'll get through this in a hurry here then.
• 1:46:48
  MJ.
• 1:46:48
  MJ.
• 1:46:50
  yes, I dunno.
• 1:46:51
  You can find me second guessing everything about what I think about football over on Blue Sky at Sports and Plants.
• 1:46:59
  You can find much more cohesive thoughts on our Instagram account.
• 1:47:05
  All right.
• 1:47:06
  Well, I I won't promise that post cohesive thoughts on any of our accounts, but you can find me as oldman dash sac at blue sky dot social on blue sky.
• 1:47:18
  It's about the only place you'll find me directly, but feel free, I'm also running all most of the other accounts.
• 1:47:24
  MJ does threads in Instagram, but everything else I'm kind of doing, so you can look for us at the CFL outsiders and
• 1:47:31
  Blue Sky and Gander and Eh!
• 1:47:34
  so you know, two Canadian ones and a a growing bigger one.
• 1:47:37
  We don't do Facebook, but other than that, we are on X and Instagram and and threads, I think it's that same handle for all of us.
• 1:47:45
  But that's about it.
• 1:47:46
  Hopefully we haven't uh lulled you off to sleep, or maybe, maybe if you have some trouble sleeping and and we're the uh what helps put you to sleep.
• 1:47:55
  Gives you another reason to listen.
• 1:47:56
  So, you know, subscribe and do not miss us.
• 1:47:59
  Toss a like our way when when you're feeling in a great mood.
• 1:48:03
  Like doesn't necessarily mean you liked it.
• 1:48:04
  It just means, hey, I'll help.
• 1:48:06
  Anyway, I think that's about it.
• 1:48:09
  So I'm going to say goodnight, GT.
• 1:48:11
  And for GT and MJ, this is old man saying, until next week, get the hell off my lawn.