Matt Cauz
CFL.ca
THOUGHTS FROM THE HAMILTON-MONTREAL GAME
(1) I’m not going to weigh in on whether or not Arland Bruce should have made his feelings about Kevin Glenn and Quinton Porter public, but I think we can all agree that Bruce was right. Kevin Glenn is a much better quarterback than Quinton Porter. (I promise that will be the most obvious sentence in this column.)
Porter had some nice moments early on, but his inability to produce touchdowns or stretch the field severely limited the Ticat attack. Arland looked even smarter thanks to TSN who showed his Porter vs. Glenn comments on the screen and then on the very next play Glenn hit Drisan James for 30 yards and followed that up with a perfectly thrown corner pass to “The Third” for a touchdown.
Glenn was fantastic, throwing for a mind boggling 506 yards and three scores against Montreal’s defense. I know right now there are a lot of disgruntled Hamilton fans wondering if their playoff chances would have been better if Glenn had played every snap in the previous four games.
(2) Though Duane Forde and Rod Black often lead the league in awkward silences I appreciate Forde for the fact that at least once a game he shows me something I never would have caught on my own. This time it was the zone blocking scheme by the Tiger-Cats offensive line. Glenn wasn’t sacked once in his 44 pass attempts, an impressive stat, especially against Montreal’s formidable pass rush. The line was constantly shifting to the left to deal with all the stunting from the Alouettes defensive line. Gold star for Mr. Forde.
(3) I understand that over the course of a game that there will be a wide variety of music played in the stadium, but could someone for the love of God tell me why ‘Footloose’ was being unleashed on that poor unsuspecting Montreal home crowd? Who does the market research for the Alouettes? I was waiting for a tribute to Twilight or for Hannah Montana to come blaring out of the PA system. This is football. That means trashy rock, tons of Def Leopard and other bands I would never listen to on my own. Please let me get on my soap box for a second and say that there is no room in my Canadian Football League for any music that Kevin Bacon may or may not be dancing to. Thank you.
(4) This may only make sense to me … but is Jamel Richardson the slowest big play receiver in the league? He had a ridiculous move to get open on his 63-yard catch and run in the first half but he still looked slow doing it. That said, he is the best wideout on the team. With his size Richardson is just a match-up nightmare.
(5) I’m so curious about the future of Adrian McPherson. He is starting to make the transformation from short yardage star to a potential starting quarterback. I may be getting ahead of myself, but I wonder: How long can Montreal keep him? He’s 26-years-old and I don’t think it would surprise anyone if a team like the Argonauts made a run at him. I loved the fact that even after Hamilton had closed the gap late in the game the Alouettes coaching staff kept McPherson on the field.
(6) Chip Cox was the best non-quarterback on the field. He had three huge plays in the red zone. The first being his strip of Marquay McDaniel at the four yard line that led to the Jerald Brown 93-yard return which led to the Avon Cobourne touchdown run giving Montreal a 21-15 lead. That was at least a 10 point swing. On two other occasions Cox’s blanket goal line coverage forced incompletions and more importantly forced Hamilton to kick field goals.
(7) I know it wasn’t as exciting as the Calgary-Saskatchewan 44-44 Saturday night thriller, but at least this game had a winner. A classic back and forth game between one team desperate to make the playoffs and one team trying to stay sharp for the down the stretch.
MY FAVOURITE AND LEAST FAVOURITE BOMBERS
Most Favourite: Jovon Johnson
I’m kicking myself for not following Johnson sooner. I wrote about his crazy missed field goal return for a touchdown a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t really dig deep enough into his numbers. He leads the Bombers in tackles, interceptions, punt return yards, kickoff return yards and finally missed field goal return yards. I’m betting he sells more game day programs than the rest of the concession staff combined. The guy is a walking big play machine. I was stunned that he leads the team in tackles. Rarely do the big play return guys ring up high tackle numbers.
Least Favourite: Michael Bishop
I almost feel bad for Bishop. It was like the announcers were trying to jinx him. Right after TSN was done showing a board that displayed just how good Bishop had been playing the past three weeks (284 YPG, 61.5%, 6 TD vs. 3 INT) what does Bishop do? Naturally he throws a real stinky pass that of course gets returned for a touchdown. His timing was impeccable.
After that it was game over for Bishop who ended up completing less than 50% of his passes and serving up two more picks to Barron Miles. The first interception a result of a brutal overthrow while the second one was so bad that I am assuming that Miles must have a contract bonus for interceptions and promised to give half of the money to Bishop. I hate being the broken record but Bishop will lull you in, he’ll make you feel comfortable and safe and then once you’re at your most vulnerable he will break your heart. Again you have been warned Winnipeg.
JUST WHEN IT COULDN’T GET WORSE FOR THE ARGONAUTS
Forget the losing record and a dearth of talented players. The biggest problem facing the Toronto Argonauts is the rumored exit of David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski. As bad as things are right now for the team, they’re nothing compared to the constant slings and arrows the Argos were dealing with back in 2003. Remember the team had been dumped by Sherwood Schwarz (for you younger fans out there Schwarz was like a younger version of Al Davis), fan attendance was hovering at around 15,000 and the team had been losing millions every year. But then Cynamon and Sokolowski bought the team, brought in Keith Pelley as President & CEO and soon after won the Grey Cup in 2004. Despite a bad product on the field this season and the country still dealing with a global recession the Argonauts are averaging just over 26,000 fans.
Now I can’t blame either man if they do indeed want to sell the team. Since Day 1 they’ve been blocked at every turn in their attempts to move to a smaller, more football friendly stadium. They understand you can’t make a profit operating out of the SkyDome (Again Rogers screwed with my cable forcing me to switch to Bell so I refuse to call it Rogers Centre). Cynamon and Sokolowski are both very smart businessmen; you can’t be as successful as they have been in their respective fields without being highly intelligent and having a unique ability to read market trends. The bottom line is … these guys know the bottom line, they know how to make a profit. If they can’t do it with the Argonauts than they should get out. That said, I hope they go against their better instincts and stick with Toronto. Both grew up loving the game and their passion for football could not be more apparent.
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