The return of the passing game and making the best use of some outstanding running backs is making for a pretty exciting start to the 2008 season so far in the CFL.
Interestingly enough both Stephen Brunt and David Naylor of the Globe and Mail saw the same thing while watching recent CFL contests, the return of ability of CFL teams to move the ball and put points on the board.
It's a trend that had gone missing for most of the last few years and a development that is welcome in a league that has never seemed stronger at the gate and on the tube, yet always seems on the brink of some kind of crisis or another.
This years dark cloud, the looming presence of the Buffalo Bills and the NFL, who have staked out a corner of the Rogers Centre for a beach head of sorts, with some toe dipping games both pre season and regular season set for Toronto over the next few years.
Brunt's column approached the debate over the NFL incursion with the observation that the best way to win over the fans is to showcase the CFL for what it has always been, a highly entertaining offensive display.
He's not off at all on that observation, when the CFL is functioning at its best, the pure action and speed of the Canadian game leaves it's NFL counterpart well down the field, the budgets may not be as large, nor the players. The payrolls are clearly not competitive and yet, on a game per game comparison, the CFL probably provides more excitement in its sixty minutes than the NFL could ever hope to accomplish on most of its Sundays in the fall.
It's that foundation which the league has built in the past and needs to continue today that in the end will prove to be the wall of defiance against the NFL.
The league has returned to some of the basic beliefs that Canadians always proclaim when describing their game, a positive move that continues to improve the calibre of play in the game.
It's the kind of standard of play that will reap rewards at the turnstiles, provide journalists and commentators with much material to work with and ensure that those televisions stay on until the final play of the final quarter.
While we celebrate the game as ours and play up the coast to coast celebration that the game thrives on, it doesn't hurt that the actual play on the field is matching up to the marketing slogans.
So far the signs are good that the entertainment is going to deliver with the concept that our game is different and up to the challenge of the larger presence on the border.
Stephen Brunt-- Globe and Mail-- CFL now offensive in the right way
David Naylor-- Globe and Mail-- Commitment to running sparks offensive burst
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