Alex’s CFL Tuesday Takes

Alex’s CFL Tuesday Takes

Published: Tuesday, Aug 1st 2023, 12:08pm

By Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)

 

FINE-ally Mason looks good – Okay, so maybe the Riders lost and didn’t get a TD until garbage time, but Mason Fine showed some growth in the TD Atlantic loss to the Argos. I’m still not completely sold on him, but he made some really good throws while under a ton of pressure. Unpopular opinion, but I agree with Craig Dickenson saying that Fine did enough to earn another start. But ultimately, you need touchdowns in this league to win and Fine isn’t doing it. Jake Dolegala did and that will get Fine’s leash cut a little bit shorter against Ottawa this upcoming Sunday. But I liked what I saw and I hope that Fine can continue to grow as a QB against another pretty good defense in Ottawa. For his own sake, he has no choice.

 

Orlond-NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING(?!) Steinauer puts Ticats in trouble again – In a game where Bo Levi Mitchell threw 5 interceptions, the Ticats still managed a win… but lost at the end when Coach Orlondo Steinauer had his franchise QB run a QB sneak and subsequently, get a broken bone in his leg. As bad as Bo was, he’s still their best chance at winning and Coach O ruined that. At least they play in the East division where outside of the Argos, it’s a complete toss up and they’ll never be out of reach for a playoff spot, even with Taylor Powell as QB.

 

Tiers causing tears – TSN’s Farhan Lalji tweeted out his 3 tiers in the CFL on Sunday night. Obviously, Toronto, BC and Winnipeg in the top (elite) tier, then it had Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary in the middle tier and finally Saskatchewan, Hamilton and Edmonton in the bad tier. Look, I have no issue putting the Riders in the bad tier, but if you do, you HAVE to put Calgary in there too. It’s comical to put Calgary in the middle tier. Both teams are pretty similar right now, so to put the team who is out of the playoff picture (if it started today) in the middle and the team IN the playoff picture in the bad is just silly.