Despite the rabid fanaticism behind Toronto sports fans trying to bring an NFL franchise to Toronto, I don't think it will ever happen. And that's a good thing, since we have an exciting game in our own Canadian Football League (CFL). For those detractors who say that they think the NFL is better, I am willing to bet that they have never seen an entire CFL season in its entirety, including the playoffs. Rather, they are stupidly following the American sports marketing machine, which preaches that sports quality is synonymous with the stars and stripes.
Oh, how far is it from the truth.
I've been following the CFL for years, and I believe in the last few years, they have been able to step up the games several notches - no, not make it look more American, but following storylines in and outside the game - it gives the teams a much more holistic perspective. Trades are followed with greater fervor in the media, and the fan base is up. Even on the sports radio shows like the one I heard on the way to work this moring, the focus was all CFL and the lines were flooded with calls about the semi-final games yesterday. Unfortunately, due to some prior commitments in the evening last night, I wasn't able to catch the Saskachewan / B.C. game in its entirety, but was able to watch more than half of it, before I had to attending an evening meeting at our church. What I saw was B.C. place packed with 55,000 screaming fans that, unfortunately for them, saw their team lose to a resurgent Saskatchewan Roughriders team, under the coaching of their former QB Kent Austin (whom many, including myself questioned his being selected as head coach, with so little coaching experience under his belt - boy, have we been proven wrong).
I don't want to really discuss the Grey Cup or the B.C./Saskatchewan game, as fun as it would be to dissect it. I want to give some thoughts on the Toronto Argonauts/Winnipeg Bluebombers game yesterday, which I did manage to catch in its entirety (all week, I was looking for tickets to the game for my son and I, though they were ridiculously expensive (and in retrospect, I suspect my son would have gotten ansy after about 20 minutes). The final score was 19-9 for the Bluebombers, but that didn't tell the whole story. The Argos, only a couple of months ago, were heading towards an abysmal season record, and were plagued on and off the field with quarterbacking controversies (see my other article on this). In the end, they rightfully decided to use Michael Bishop. But during their point in the season when they were in a valley, there were calls for long-time Argo, turned executive, now head coach Michael "Pinball" Clemons to resign or be fired. Of course, being such a good guy and an all career Argo, they would never fire him. But Pinball wasn't the problem this year and he wasn't the problem yesterday. Anyhow, the Argos managed to string together an extremely good record to end the season and win their division, ensuring a bye through the first round of the playoffs.
The Bluebombers, on the other hand, enjoyed a stellar season behind the arm and field-smarts of QB Kevin Glenn and the rushing of Charles Roberts. This guy passed his way to a number of records and personal bests. However, they barely got past the Montreal Alouettes (who had a losing record this season) in the East semi-final game. And based on the momentum for the Argos, coupled with the fact that the Argos did better than the Bluebombers this season (albeit by only a mere one win, though that didn't quite tell the story since the Bluebombers actually had a tie as part of their record of 10-7-1). So this all led to yesterday's game.
To be frank, I was expecting the Bombers to win, even though I was an Argos fan. The season record was not reflective of how well the Bombers did, and the Argos won some pretty close games. Plus, between Glenn and Bishop, I'd take Glenn any day of the week. He is simply a far better QB than Bishop - even look at their Collegiate records - Glenn at Illionis State set numerous records. Bishop did well, but was not a long-range prospect. Anyhow, I don't want to make it all about the quarterbacks, but in a sense, it is, since they are instrumental in calling the plays, etc., and are the first point of communication with the players.
Overall, it was a pretty good game, but there were several things which I think were key differences. One, was the fact that despite the fact that Bishop had a plethora of good receivers to throw to, he just did not get the job done. If I remember the score properly, I believe it was something like 12-1 for Winnipeg at halftime. That was pretty pathetic. In fact, I don't believe the Argos got their one and only touchdown until the fourth quarter. The Toronto defence did its job - they certainly forced Winnipeg to use the services of long-time kicker (and now braided long-hair fan) Troy Westwood. Unfortunately, they underestimated Westwood (which I suppose was understandable since he stunk all season) on several occasions and that burned their kick returners who had to double back several times. However, when the Argos did have the ball, they couldn't do anything with it. Which, from my vantage point, meant that Bishop, for whatever reason, chose to long bomb the ball at almost every opportunity. Throwing is fine, but at the very least, try a higher percentage pass! I think as a result of this, the Argos o-line became a bit flustered. This may have not been all bishop, since there are several instances where the Argos pass receivers were all clumped together - that to me seems to be a bad play call by the offensive co-ordinator on the sidelines. But in a sense, I would put it on Bishop, since he has a talented group of receivers that he could have utilized better. And of course, it didn't help that the Argos had one field goal by kicker Noel Prefontaine blocked, while another he simply missed.
The crowd at one point later in the game (I don't remember when exactly) started to boo Bishop, which I thought was pretty bad, considering it was a playoff game, and worse, started chanting the name of 44-year-old CFL Hall of Famer and backup Argos QB Damon Allen. Personally, if I was Pinball, I would have yanked Bishop at the half, and I remember telling my son that, before I sent him off to take a nap. Sure, Damon has not seen any play since the beginning of the season, but Damon is a proven playoff QB, and for a guy who has as long of a resume as him, I was shocked that they didn't insert him in there (I wouldn't have used backup QB Rocky Butler at all in such a pivotal game). At the very least, if Allen stunk, it was worth a try, since Bishop wasn't going anywhere. But I think if there could have been a knock against Pinball yesterday, it was that he didn't replace Bishop after three scoreless quarters, much less two scoreless quarters (and the touchback single point I don't consider an Argos score). I suspected that Damon would have done things differently, since he has the experience to see what was happening. I hope I see Damon playing at least one more year - hopefully for the Argos.
Now, contrast that with Kevin Glenn. The league's passing leader this year did a mixture of throw/pass and used his running backs very well. He played a smart game and knowing how tough the Argos defensive line would be, he simply ate at them slowly. Unfortunately for him (and his team), he broke his arm later in the game on a botched handoff, and no one would expect that he would have a season ending injury in this pivotal game. Obviously he won't be around for next week's Grey Cup, but instead, we will be seeing Ryan Dinwiddie, who has next to zero playing experience as a backup, though he did OK yesterday in the short time he filled in for Glenn (with the exception of that really bad handoff that led to a late turnover in the Argos red zone, though as usual, the Argos weren't able to do anything with it). I personally don't like the prospects of the Bluebombers next week playing the most pivotal game of the season with an unproven backup QB - especially going up against West Division MVP QB Kerry Joseph. I predict that the Roughriders will manhandle the Bluebombers and predict a score of 34-10 for Saskatchewan next week in the Grey Cup final.
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