David Chidley/CFL.ca
Three teams this week in the CFL know by Monday they’ll be cleaning out their lockers and hoping for a return ticket next year.
For Hamilton, Montreal and BC, it’s their final opportunity to put good play on film and that isn’t meaningless for the players possibly getting their only chance to show what they’re able to do.
The quarterbacks will especially be under the microscope.
I go back to last season when the Roughriders were finished and they had a final game in BC. In the fourth quarter, Brandon Bridge came into the game and was 10-of-11, adding nearly 100 yards and one rushing touchdown to show for a quarter of work.
Over the off-season, Bridge was the lone quarterback to stay among the three that dressed on that day and while it wasn’t all the final game of the season that got him a job this season, it didn’t hurt.
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Matt Shiltz will make his first career CFL start Friday night with the Als (The Canadian Press)
So who will it be this year that impresses and leaves a good final impression going into the off-season?
On Friday night, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats take on the Montreal Alouettes. Both teams are out of the playoffs so the wins and losses don’t matter but for Matthew Shiltz and Antonio Pipkin, they are in a similar position to Bridge last year. There is opportunity to shine and give Kavis Reed no reason to move on to the next quarterback on the negotiation list.
Shiltz has had some time but for Pipkin, this will be his first chance to play.
While there is no expectation for any of the quarterbacks to set the world on fire, they do need to have poise and a presence. To show that the moment and the game isn’t too far over their head.
Also last year, the Edmonton Eskimos decided to rest Mike Reilly in the final game of the season.
James Franklin had thrown just one pass previous to Week 20. He threw four touchdowns that day and is now considered the next one. Of course, Franklin got a much longer look in 2015 but there has already been that poise and presence and command of an offence that all coaches are looking for.
The Tiger-Cats are going to continue with Jeremiah Masoli as the starter with a very similar lineup to last week.
Masoli is starting to show that his time as a backup has been wasted and wants to continue that trend into the off-season. In nine starts he’s thrown for 14 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
His mistake-free play will be top-of-mind for the Tiger-Cats this off-season.
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Also, could we see a bigger chunk of time from Everett Golson? The Notre Dame quarterback has just one pass attempt so far in his young career and has had a lot of people curious to see what he could do with his athleticism in the Canadian Football League.
If Zach Collaros gets any action, he could also do himself some favours to shake off a terrible start to 2017 and leave a much better feeling when many people believe he’ll be looking to land somewhere else in 2018.
Finally, we head to the BC Lions.
Last week, Jonathon Jennings made a statement that there shouldn’t be much doubt that he should be the number one quarterback heading into BC Lions training camp next season.
It was Jennings’ first 400-yard game of the season and he also added four touchdowns. Jennings would love to finish even stronger, although Alex Ross and Mitchell Gale could be looking at getting some reps as well.
Which brings us back to Week 20 of last season when Brandon Bridge engineered two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. In that same game, Gale started for the Riders and was an unimpressive 6-for 12 for 56 yards.
Meaningless is an unfair description for the three teams who don’t have playoffs to look forward to. This may be their last chance to become a part of the solution for these teams to get to the playoffs next year, rather than deemed part of the problem and shown the door.
The lights will be on and so to will the cameras. And the film doesn’t lie.
