The Thanksgiving Day weekend provided for three surprises of the four games to bookend your Turkey Dinner, two of those, no doubt considered turkeys themselves by the home fans as the battle for first in the East was a case mainly of missed opportunity.
The First of the weekend games came out of Edmonton, where the Eskimos rebounded from their horrible September to handily defeat the Hamilton Tiger Cats in the Friday Night Football Festival.
Saturday gave us the much anticipated showdown of one and two in the West as the Stampeders travelled to British Columbia, coming up on the short end of the scoreboard, surrendering for now the quest for first with few weeks remaining to make up the ground.
Sunday was a day of rest and no doubt a lot of turkey for some, setting the stage for the Thanksgiving Monday surprise, one that perhaps could count as the upset of the season thus far as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with back up QB Joey Elliot at the helm, took down the Alouettes at home in Montreal.
A result that seemingly had no effect on the Toronto Argonauts, who when provided with the opportunity to grab a key victory in front of the Rogers Centre crowd instead watched, and watched may be the operative word, as the Saskatchewan Roughriders came into town and took charge of the game and the two points.
The review of the weekend work is as follows
Hamilton at Edmonton
With the Tiger Cats appearing to have once again solved their inconsistent ways and the Eskimos suffering from the worst losing streak in recent Eskimo history, one might think that the Friday night opener to the Thanksgiving Day weekend would be a long night for the Eskimos and their fans.
However, as is the case with the TiCats this year, you just never know which team is going to pull on a uniform from week to week, team barnstormer, where points are aplenty and the offence astounding or Team Inconsistent, where you begin to wonder if they've paid attention at all from the start of training camp.
The latter was in attendance in Edmonton on Friday, the Cats never got their game on, surrendering yardage and points to the Eskimos at an alarming rate through the night.
The Eskimos, managing to put behind them the horrors of September had their most complete game since they were talk of the league at the start of the season and while we imagine all is not forgiven or forgotten from the last five weeks, the Eskimos gave notice that reports of their demise may have been a tad premature.
The TiCats may very well rue their lack of offence of Friday, which combined with a number of defensive lapses gave the Eskimos the 35 to 20 victory, two points which may provide the Eskimos with a ticket to a cross over game in the East if they can't run down the Roughriders before Octobers end.
Hamilton has been a very hot and cold team for most of the year, mostly on the chilly side, a place they may remain if they can't find some answers to their troubles over the next three weeks.
The previews and reviews of Hamilton at Edmonton can be found here.
Calgary at British Columbia
It was highlighted as the key game to week fifteen, a battle between the two teams of the West who have been trading punches for most of the season, Calgary getting close to British Columbia's hold on first, but never quite grabbing it as their own.
After Saturday night, Calgary might be readjusting their focus a bit, seeking to secure their hold on second as the Riders start to edge closer, that after the Lions celebrated another home field win, a 27 to 22 victory over the Stamps.
For the majority of the game the Lions took control, Travis Lulay resuming his domination over opposing defensive units, throwing for 268 yards and two touchdowns to pace the Lions to their victory.
Hobbled by injuries to their key receivers, the Lions subs hardly missed a beat, as Nick Moore and Shawn Gore did more than just fill in names on the starting lineups, providing key and timely receptions to keep drives alive, score points and gobble up valuable yardage and time.
The Stamps thought perhaps that Saturday would be their night, getting off to a quick start, but once the Lions knuckled down to the job at hand, a lot of that forward momentum came to a standstill.
The Lions held the lead into the final moments of the fourth quarter, a period of time that saw the Stamps launch a late game comeback that showed promise, only to have their hopes dashed by a Ryan Phillips interception to shut down the drive and send the Lions on to victory.
As they head to week sixteen the Lions have a four point lead over the Calgarians, while the Stamps flatland rivals from Saskatchewan are starting to set their sights on securing second place as their own. Heading into the weekend, the Stamps and Riders are tied for second at 16 points each,
Leaving the Stamps to worry less now about catching the Lions and more towards holding off the Riders march up the standings.
The previews and reviews of the Stamps and Lions can be found here.
Winnipeg at Montreal
It's the upset of the season thus far, the much maligned, stumbling Blue Bombers taking down the first place Montreal Alouettes, a Bomber victory that no doubt provided for some comfort in River City after what can only be described as a horrible year.
The win probably won't move the Bombers into the playoff race, there are precious few weeks left in the season to mount such a fanciful comeback, but the victory has helped to reduce some of the stress of playing on a team that finds ways to lose week after week, some of them not particularly pretty to watch.
Led by back up Joey Elliot, the Bombers QB found the range on three TD passes leading the Bombers to their 27-22 victory. Elliot took advantage of poor pass coverage and the Alouettes inability to keep drives alive, surrendering the ball to the Bombers a bit too frequently for their own good.
The Bombers did not find the Als all that intimidating on Sunday, instead they answered the Als almost point for point through the final stages of the game, Montreal would get close, sometimes to within one point, but on the next possession the Bombers would take the ball down the field for their own score.
A trait that hasn't been very plentiful this season, but was in full throttle on Sunday.
For the Bombers the game helped to salvage some of the season of woe, offering up a showing to the fans back in Winnipeg, that the old never give up mentality of past Bomber squads may yet find some life in Manitoba.
As for the Als, the loss to the Bombers once again highlighted the biggest obstacle to a Grey Cup berth that Montreal has, a defensive unit that can't find ways to shut down opposing offences. Considering the fact that the Bombers have had the least productive offence in the league this year, the Als defensive unit, the third worst in the league thus far, clearly needs to get its act together before November rolls around.
The previews and reviews of the Bombers and Als can be found here.
Saskatchewan at Toronto
With a window for movement upwards opened up at the Rogers Centre on Monday afternoon, it was the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders which took advantage and put themselves in place for another notch up in the pecking order.
The Argos, in the midst of a battle for first in the East let opportunity slip away, unable to capitalize on the Alouettes shocker loss to the Bombers, instead, the Double Blue provided the launch pad for the Riders to stake a claim to their own share of second in the West.
The Riders success on the day came off the feet of Cory Sheets, who rushed for 106 yards on 17 carries including a 48 yard ramble for a touchdown, all of which helped to mix up the Rider offensive display on the day. One which saw Darian Durant connect on 21 of 29 passes for 276 yards, part of a complete Rider attack that left the Argos scrambling for answers for much of the game.
Toronto came into the Thanksgiving Day match up with high hopes, coming off of an impressive performance by Jarious Jackson last week, his handling of the Argo offence helping deflect some of the disappointment of the loss of Ricky Ray.
However, in week two of the Jarious Jackson starting rotation, the Riders found the key to shutting down his offensive approach, rushing him far too often, disrupting his pass patterns and stuffing the holes limiting the Argo running game.
The loss left the Argos in a holding pattern in their quest for a first place finish, no progress made, but thanks to the Bombers success no ground lost either. Still, in a season winding down to the final few weeks, it was a lost opportunity that may come back to haunt the Double Blue's ambitions for a home town Grey Cup berth.
The previews and reviews of the Riders and Argos can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment