Pat Steinberg
CFL.ca
I’m very excited to be lending a voice on CFL.ca this year, because Canadian football is one of my favorite things on the planet
As easy as it is to get down on pre-season football sometimes, you’re not going to read any of that here. In fact, this is one of the most fun times of year for us dorks who enjoy tracking position battles on teams thousands of kilometers away. It may not have been high quality all round in week one of the pre-season, but I found it very easy to enjoy our first football action in a long time.
Take these pre-season observations for what they are; we all know some of these performances were not facing off against the top end opposition on the other side of the ball, but no matter, some performances still stuck out.
FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD
Three quarterbacks made nice impressions down the depth chart over the weekend, starting with BC’s Travis Lulay who looked nice and comfortably at McMahon Stadium against the Stampeders.
After really arriving in that double overtime thriller against the Riders in last year’s West Semi, Lulay looked right at home in his pre-season debut. He’ll be the night one starter for the Lions, we know that, but many wonder how he’ll adjust to being the unquestioned starter right off the hop.
I talked to Head Coach and GM Wally Buono prior to training camp, and he raved about Lulay’s poise in the pocket and his much improved decision making. He also liked his quarterback’s commitment to his craft; Lulay moved to Vancouver this offseason to train full time.
It’s just one pre-season game and he did throw a pick, but Lulay looks he’ll be BC’s best pivot to start a season in quite some time.
We didn’t see Anthony Calvillo in Montreal’s 27-15 walk over Winnipeg and we didn’t really have to. We know who’s starting Week #1. But AC’s backup continued to solidify his job security behind him, as Adrian McPherson put together a solid outing for the Als, completing 6-of-10 passes and throwing for a touchdown.
What I liked best from McPherson on Thursday was his commitment to staying in the pocket and actually working through his progressions. We all know the guy has crazy athletic ability, but he relied far less on that, likely by design, en route to a nice outing.
Not much was impressive about Calgary’s pre-season debut, especially offensively, and the Stampeders will be the first to tell you exactly the same. One bright spot came from Brad Sinopoli, the fourth round pick at the 2011 CFL Canadian Draft.
While Sinopoli’s passing line doesn’t look great from afar (5-for-11 for 33 yards), the former Ottawa Gee-Gee showed a lot of confidence, staying in the pocket much longer than you’d expect from a rookie in his first CFL game. You’re also struck by Sinopoli’s size: 6’4 and 210 pounds sounds big on paper, but when you see him behind centre, it really sinks in.
He’s got a long way to go. He had very little touch on short, easy passes for example, but he also looked good for his very first CFL outing. Henry Burris and Drew Tate are a ways ahead of him on the depth chart, but Sinopoli is an intriguing project for John Hufnagel and Dave Dickenson.
GOOD CANADIAN BOYS
The Riders opted for an all Canadian offensive line for some of their 23-22 win over Edmonton on Friday night and there’s nothing wrong with that for ratio reasons. Wes Cates had an all right game running the ball, but I liked a couple guys in pass pro especially. Alexandre Gauthier had some really strong moments at left tackle while Chris Best and Dan Clark seemed to plug things up nicely at guard.
Calvin McCarty showed some really nice flashes in that game as well. How Head Coach Kavis Reed deploys his running backs this season will be very interesting, but McCarty’s cutbacks were most impressive. One lead to a touchdown and a couple others did an effective job of making that first defender miss.
The Stampeders saw their secondary torn apart during the spring. Brandon Browner headed south and both Dwight Anderson and Wes Lysack departed to the east. After an impressive rookie season seeing spot duty at safety, Eric Fraser is going to have to take a much larger role in his second season. He covered a lot of ground in Wednesday’s loss and was one of the more impressive guys in red and white in the defensive backfield.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s tough to read too, too much into the first pre-season game, but it does seem as if a few off-season thoughts are well on their way.
I liked what BC did during the spring as Buono upgraded his offensive line and is changing things schematically to help a front seven defensively that struggled to get any pressure on opposing quarterbacks last season.
The Riders look like they’ll be just fine, while Stamps fans are certainly hoping for a much less disjointed effort this week in Edmonton.
As for the Esks, it will be fun to see how their new look offence goes with Ricky Ray calling the shots for the first time this season.
Out east, we didn’t see a ton of the big guns, but the expectation of another strong Alouettes season certainly didn’t take a hit with their performance against Winnipeg on Thursday.
The Bombers are feeling good about their season ticket status, but what will their team look like? I sure did like how Cory Watson looked, but it was tough to get a true read on the Bombers with a number of starters rested.
The same was true in Toronto’s win over Hamilton, although I am enjoying the continued evolution of Cleo Lemon as a CFL quarterback.
