The Canadian Press
Time to hit the rewind button on another Labour Day weekend. This one saw an East division upset in Ottawa, a statement win for the Riders, a back and forth Alberta battle and a high scoring shootout between the Ticats and Argos.
Where to begin? How about the first throw of the weekend where Alouettes young standout quarterback Antonio Pipkin came ready to play from the very first snap. If only the Alouettes had Adarius Bowman with a bit more tread on the tires from five years ago this could have been a jaw-dropping kickoff to the weekend.
Pipkin didn’t shy away from taking shots over the top despite his early miss, later throwing an absolutely perfect ball to Ernest Jackson after looking off deep coverage as the Alouettes tried to seal the deal in Ottawa.
While Bowman and Jackson serve as the veteran leadership in Montreal’s receiving room B.J. Cunningham is their athletic future. I love his skill set and catch radius, especially when he makes plays like this.
That’s the kind of stuff that will make even your usually calm on the sideline Head Coach throw around a fist pump or two.
Once again this week Montreal used Pipkin’s legs to create variety in the offence with great success. There are two runs from Antonio that stood out to me. The first is a quarterback draw on 2nd & 7. This type of play call is always part of the ready list for CFL teams on 2nd & long but watching Pipkin’s patience and burst after finding daylight was unique. No many CFL quarterbacks would have been willing to wait this out, bounce it, or have the speed to pick up the yardage required before the defence rallies.
If that run shows the confidence Montreal has in Pipkin then the second standout run shows the confidence he has in himself. On 2nd & 6 from his own 7-yard line, Pipkin has a zone read play called. A lot of young quarterbacks at the pro level would ignore their job of reading the defensive end in order to play it safe and burn some clock with a simple handoff to the running back.
Pipkin stays with his read, sees the DB (#28 Tindal) chase the running back and pull the football. Thankfully for him Ottawa free safety Antoine Pruneau misread the play and Pipkin was off to the races getting a key first down and sliding inbounds to burn more clock. A heady play for a young quarterback in crunch time trying to preserve a win.
Ottawa did some really nice things during that weekend party starter as well. Chief among them was the pass rush of defensive end Johnathan Newsome sees a chip block coming from Alouettes running back Ryder Stone, waits out former Ticats left tackle Tony Washington and bursts out of a spin move. Great stuff.
Honourable mention for pass rush of the weekend goes to Eskimos defensive tackle Almondo Sewell for this little push-pull dandy.
Trevor Harris also somehow danced away from Henoc Muamba early in the second half in a way that I had to rewind three times to make sure my eyes were deceiving me.
Unfortunately for Redblacks fans no amount of morph suit voodoo could will Ottawa to a win
Wait, morph suits still exist?! Are they cheaper now on a 2012 discount rack? Shoutout to the green men in Vancouver for revolutionizing Canadian sports fandom by making it acceptable for anonymously colourful blobs to frequent big games and make us all wonder, “is that my dad?”
On Sunday the Riders and Bombers met in Regina for what looked and sounded like the loudest and craziest game of the year from a fan perspective. You know the sea of green comes to play on Labour Day weekend.
Former NFL standout Matt Elam started the all green celebration with an interception off Matt Nichols before showing off his return skills.
How much do you think Chris Jones loved that play? Probably as much as he loved this one. A fake smoke screen out wide to Shaq Evans which caught every Bombers eyes in the backfield before Marcus Thigpen went for a jog down main street for the score. Thigpen has to get more touches, only good things seem to happen when he touches the ball.
Same can be said for Kyran Moore on this smooth return which looks that much more impressive from the low angle TSN cameras.
When you score a punt return touchdown at home on Labour Day you can do any dance you want on national television.
While one Moore was returning kicks another was blowing up Bombers returners on special teams. Veteran fullback Spencer Moore makes another appearance on the Tale of the Tape for this clean but explosive hit.
Slow motion makes everything better, doesn’t it? Look how Moore realizes what he just did before he’s even off the ground. Too good.
Chris Streveler threw a touchdown pass for the second week in a row as Winnipeg continues to explore his upside. This one had Darvin Adams wondering “why put down just one foot when I can drag two?”
Outside of that there wasn’t much to celebrate this weekend for the Bombers but don’t tell offensive lineman Mathias Goosen that as he runs right into YOUR LIVING ROOM.. LOOK OUT!
This legitimately surprised me while watching the game Sunday. I thought I had 3D glasses on for a second.
The final big play came from DB Ed Gainey who went for a jog and ran right into an interception.
Nice hops, great hands, good finish. The type of quality play you’d like to see seal the Labour Day deal. I also love the fact that the Riders defence being unorganized let Gainey to the interception, like when the 2007 Patriots used to have every linebacker and defensive lineman wander around the line of scrimmage standing up creating great confusion.
On Labour Day Monday, the Eskimos and Stampeders took part in one of the most intense and hard-hitting games of the year.
But it was a non-contact injury that had my stomach churning.
With all respect to Nick Arbuckle, I don’t want to watch a Calgary Stampeders game in 2018 which features Bo Levi Mitchell on crutches. He’s too much fun for that.
Edmonton did everything they could to finally get a Labour Day win in Calgary including CJ Gable hurdling – remember what I said about the slow-motion stuff…
And Mike Reilly chucking bombs to Duke Williams.
My favourite part of this play isn’t the perfect throw or Duke Williams celebration. It’s Reilly taking the time on his way to the end zone to fix Calgary defensive lineman Derek Wiggan’s shoulder pads for him without being asked. Get that guy a Canadian citizenship and a value pack of tidbits NOW! He’s as kind and Canadian as any National in the league.
To wrap up the weekend Hamilton beat Toronto 42-28 and I’ll be honest with you, between working the game and postgame on radio and an early morning radio show there really wasn’t much chance to review the tape but there are two plays you and your friends need to see.
The first is Brandon Banks as a lead blocker. No explanation needed as to why this is amazing but check out my article on Banks as a blocker coming this week to CFL.ca.
The second play is a serious nominee for team celebration of the year.
An ode to all-time football movie hall of fame inductee ‘Remember The Titans’.
Everywhere we go (everywhere we go)
people wanna know (people wanna know)
who we are (who we are)
so we tell them (so we tell them)
WE ARE THE TICATS
Or something like that. Happy Labour Day rematch to you and yours!
