Around the CFL – Week 7 Preview

Around the CFL – Week 7 Preview

Published: Thursday, Jul 25th 2019, 9:07pm

By: Shedon Jones (@SheldonJones83)

The CFL’s week 3 kicks off on Thursday with a rare weeknight double header. In the early game Calgary travels to Ottawa to face the REDBLACKS in a rematch of the shocking week one Ottawa win in Calgary. These teams are trending in opposite directions, as after starting out 2-0 the REDBLACKS have lost the last 3 games, most recently getting thumped by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 31 – 1. The Stamps on the other hand started out almost going 0 – 2 (a miraculous come from behind victory vs BC, lead by back up Nick Arbuckle saved them from dropping the second game) but have seen solid play from its defence and QB and currently sit in 2nd place in the West. Ottawa will start QB Jonathon Jennings for the second consecutive game, as starter Dom Davis has not yet recovered from his unspecified injury. Jennings will need to have a better game as he was only able to complete 6 passes against the Bombers last week for 45 yards. If the Calgary front 4 can get in his face, it will be a long (or short) day for Jonathon. Arbuckle is coming off a decent performance against the Toronto Argonauts but he did only throw for 191 yards and had 2 INT to go with his 2 TD. The Stampeders squeaked out a win against the only winless team in the league despite forcing 7 turnovers on defence. Calgary will not be facing much more of a test against the REDBLACKS as they did the Argos, but they will need to play better to secure the win. The Stamps will continue to try to stretch the field with their big play receivers Eric Rogers, Reggie Begleton and Juwan Brescacin but newcomer Ka’Deem carey has been carrying the football quite nicely as well. On the Ottawa side of the ball receivers Brad Sinopoli and Caleb Holley will look to get open to get some positive YAC and hopefully score some TD’s. Speaking of YAC REDBLACKS RB John Crockett will look to keep his lunch down this week as Ottawa will need to use him a lot to try to establish the run so that Jennings can look to use play action and move the pocket. With Calgary continuing to show us that they are a good football club and with Ottawa moving closer to how we all thought they would look at the beginning of the season look for Calgary to win this one on the road. Calgary 34 – Ottawa 10. 

 

The second game of the double header has Toronto visiting Edmonton. The Eskimos are coming off a big road loss as they were upset in Montreal 20 – 10. The Eskimos could not get anything going offensively and QB Trevor Harris saw his streak without throwing an interception end when he threw 2 INT and failed to score any TDs. Toronto, while 0-5 did show some improvement defensively last week against the Stampeders. They lost by 10 but that in itself is surprising considering that they turned the ball over 7 times on offence.  The Argos have stayed out west for 3 weeks after away games in Winnipeg and Calgary. Edmonton’s last two games were in BC, then they came home and traveled to Montreal. Toronto will be more rested and frankly should be motivated and pissed off about being 0-5. Add the fact that Eskimos starting RB CJ Gable will miss this game, we will very possibly have ourselves an upset special. Toronto 24 – Edmonton 21.

 

Friday night has the top two teams in the league facing off as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head to Hamilton to play the Tiger-Cats. Hamilton is relatively injury free and will be well rested coming off the bye week. Their only change to the roster looks like it will be Nick Shorthill slotting in to cover for LB Simoni Lawrence as he (Finally) begins his 2-game suspension. The Bombers continue to be the cream of the crop and are putting their CFL best 5-0 record on the line. QB Matt Nichols has to be the early choice for MOP as he looks to continue to distribute the ball around to his playmakers. Darvin Adams and Lucky Whitehead are threats to score from anywhere on the field and Andrew Harris and Nic Dempski can ram the ball down the throats of their opponents, seemingly at will. This has the potential to be the game of the week as two high powered offences will look to one up each other all night long. I think Winnipeg is still too strong and are not quite ready for their eventual fall from grace and they will grind this game out on the road. Winnipeg 33 Hamilton 24.