Steinberg’s MMQB: An opening week to remember

It sure does feel nice to have one week of regular season CFL action in the books.  We had a great start to the 2013 regular season, and what better way to present the first regular season MMQB of 2013 than on our Nation’s birthday?

Uh oh…these guys look good

So I know many deemed the Toronto Argonauts winning the 100th Grey Cup last season a surprise.  In a lot of ways, they were a surprising winner, as the Argos were just average for a good chunk of the regular season. 

That run of the mill team we saw for much of 2012 started to become closer to the sum of their parts as the season went along and culminated in a pretty complete victory over the Calgary Stampeders in November.  

After watching them take out Hamilton 39-34 on Friday night, there’s no way you can call them a surprise this year.
    
The scary part of Toronto’s victory over the Tiger-Cats was how much they looked like the team that went on a Grey Cup winning run.  Ricky Ray was his usual accurate, cerebral self, going 24-for-34 for 368 yards and four touchdowns.  

It sometimes feels like Ray watches game in slow motion, because it all seems so effortless.  Anyone who read this column last season will know how much I appreciate this particular player, so I’ll stop gushing.
    
The reigning Most Outstanding Player did just fine too, despite being rocked early on in the game.  I know I was holding my breath when I saw that collision, but we’re talking about Chad Owens here, after all.  

One of the sport’s most physically in tune athletes isn’t going to be knocked out of a game that easy, and he was Ray’s most frequent target, catching nine balls for 95 yards.  Even north of 30 years old, Owens still possesses that crazy human version of nitrous oxide.  

Just like Vin Diesel in any number of Fast and Furious movies, Owens showed on a few occasions against the Tiger-Cats his breakaway ability when it seems like contact is going to be made.
    
And then there was Chad Kackert, who was one of the MMQB darlings of last season.  When Cory Boyd got released by the Argos early last year, we weren’t overly worried about the offensive drop off in Toronto mainly because of this guy.  Kackert looked great, averaging more than 11 yards per carry against the Tiger-Cats, and his vision continues to stand out to me.  

As strong and shifty as he is, I was really struck by Kackert’s patience when going full speed at the line of scrimmage.  He’d still probably be successful just putting his head down and running, but instead he lets things develop in front of him, which saw him start off 2013 with a bang.
    
This team is as complete as they come when playing with the football, and despite allowing 34 points, they are just fine defensively too.  Let’s not forget Henry Burris and the Ticats can move the ball pretty darn well.  If week one was any indication, the saying “to be the man, you have to beat the man” is going to be pretty apt in 2013.

The new core

Calgary fans were breathing a sigh of relief after the Stampeders were able to escape McMahon Stadium with a Friday night win over the BC Lions; even though they almost let their opponents erase a 25 point halftime deficit. 

While the second half could still be looked at with frustration from a Calgary perspective, I think the most important thing is what you saw offensively from the Red and White.  Even more crucial was who was getting the job done.
    
The torch has very clearly been passed in a number of different ways throughout 2012 for the Stamps, and that handover continued in week one of 2013.  

In Calgary’s 44-32 win over the Lions, it was the new group of playmakers proving to be the most important, starting with a guy that we don’t need to talk much about.
    
We wrote enough about Jon Cornish last year to last a lifetime, so we don’t need to spend too much time on his performance.  The reason for that is simple: he looked like the same guy he was last year.  

Enough said, right?

We should probably point out that the reigning West Division MOP donated more than $1,700 to Calgary flood relief with his rushing performance against the Lions, though.
    
Stamps fans are eagerly awaiting an answer as to what Drew Tate is, and they got some encouraging results Friday.  Throwing for three touchdowns and 237 yards, Tate looked confident and composed throughout and never once got rattled.  

For the most part, Tate’s game was pretty by the numbers, in that he didn’t have to do anything spectacular.  Why is that good? Because it shows you that he can comfortably move part of the offence, instead feeling the need to be the focal point.  Tate managed the game properly, made mostly good decisions, and was still able to show some of the explosiveness that has lead Head Coach John Hufnagel to name him starter over Kevin Glenn.
    
Finally, seeing Mo Price and Joe West lead the way at receiver had to be the most encouraging.  This is the position that has seen the most changeover the last number of years, with Nik Lewis being the mainstay.  

Without Johnny Forzani due to injury, and no longer boasting the “big names” of Copeland, Rambo, et al the Stamps got three majors combined from Price and West against BC.  

These two are explosive players, and it’s Price’s route running that really stood out Friday.  Not to say it wasn’t good last year, but he looked much more crisp with his footwork which added some more reliability to his already explosive nature.

Making it easy

Darian Durant was very effective, Kory Sheets tore things up as per usual, and the Riders opened 2013 with a victory over the Edmonton Eskimos.  

Offensively, though, it was just too easy for Saskatchewan on Saturday, and all the credit has to go to their cohorts on the other side of the football.

I’m not trying to take anything away from the Riders attack, because it got the job done and then some.  The crazy field position they continued to get, though, comes from the all round solid effort put forth by the Saskatchewan defence.  

Not only did they force numerous turnovers, but they also were as stingy and sneaky as they were at their best last season.
    
First off, Mike Reilly had next to no time in the pocket for much of the contest.  Making his first regular season start as an Eskimo, the Riders had him on the run all night and were forcing bad throws from almost the very start.  There were a few things at work, at least from what I saw from afar.
    
First off, and most obvious, Saskatchewan rattled their opposing starter.  Yeah, they took an early roughing the passer penalty, but they were aggressive on Reilly all game and had him forcing throws even when the pressure wasn’t at its highest.  

It was the perfect game plan, because showing that type of aggression early on did exactly what it was supposed to: get into the head of a guy making his first start as a number one.  At least two, if not all three, of his interceptions can be attributed to this.
    
Second, I really liked the way the Riders were messing around with their looks defensively.  Look who made their three interceptions.  All three picks were made from the middle of the defence, coming from linebackers only.  Saskatchewan did a very nice job last year using their very mobile group of backers to disguise coverage looks with blitzes and
vice versa.  

With Brown, Williams, Ferri, and Butler all able to drop into coverage it makes things so difficult on an opposing quarterback, especially one playing nervous to begin with.  The Riders looked just fine with the football, but no team in week one looked scarier without it.