Its been a rough stretch of CFL football for the Toronto Argonauts, and they may have hit rock bottom on Friday night. The Argos entered the fourth quarter with a 25-14 lead but ended up on the wrong end of a 36-28 final score that ran their streak of futility at the Rogers Centre to nine games. It was also Toronto’s ninth consecutive loss to BC. BC improved to 3-4 with the victory, while Toronto’s record slipped to 2-5.

Lions head coach Wally Buono made no excuses for his teams bad first half followed by a solid second half:

“I’m not going to apologize for playing well in the second half. If we play any kind of football in the first half maybe we don’t have to do this. That’s football. Nobody asks you at the end of the day whether you stole a win, they ask you how many games did you win? The game is 60 minutes.”

Lions QB Jarious Jackson concurred:

“I don’t feel like we stole one at all. I feel like we went out and played like we should’ve played in the second half. Most of the first half we were trying to manage the game, trying to see what they were doing defensively. Offensively, you definitely want to manage the game until you know what the defence is going to call in some situations. It took us the first half but I think in the second half we kind of were able to predict what they were going to do and I think we did a good job of countering it.”

Despite the loss, Toronto was generally pleased with the play of their replacement starting QB Cody Pickett. Pickett was named the starter after a dismal performance by Kerry Joseph the previous week against Montreal. After the game, Pickett was less concerned about his performance than his teams struggles:

“It’s 20/20 that we needed to score another touchdown. Whatever we’re doing right now isn’t getting the job done.”

Argos head coach Bart Andrus praised Picketts play as he lamented the loss:

“That was an ideal performance. Cody threw it well, was accurate and didn’t turn it over. The bottom line is we didn’t finish that one. When we do get it right for 60 minutes, it’s going to be a great thing.”

BC will welcome the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to Vancouver next Friday night. Toronto has a bye week, with the Calgary Stampeders providing the opposition on August 28th.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance writer specializing in travel, poker and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, falconry and scuba diving. He lives in Southern Nevada with four dogs and a pet coyote.

The Montreal Alouettes demonstrated the form that has made them the CFLs top team in a Saturday visit to Winnipeg. Anthony Calvillo threw four touchdown passes as the Alouettes prevailed easily over the Blue Bombers by a 39-12 score.

CFL bettors who backed Montreal cashed their tickets as the Als easily covered as -8 road favorites. Montreal improved to 5-2 against the number while the Blue Bombers slipped to 4-3 against the spread. Interestingly, this was the first time all season that Winnipeg failed to cover as an underdog, having earned the money in four such roles this season before tonights setback.

Calvillo not only through four TD passes, he through three consecutive passes for touchdowns which is a feat that he cant recall accomplishing before:

“Somebody mentioned that to me out there. I didn’t realize that and they asked me if it’s ever been done or if I’d done it before and I can’t recall.”

Montreals defense held Winnipeg to four FGs and recovered four Blue Bomber turnovers that led to Alouette scores. After the game, Calvillo gave all of the credit for the victory to the defense:

“Our defence put us on the short field throughout the night and we capitalized on the turnovers. We have a lot of work to do. We had a few dropped passes, a few misreads by myself and two turnovers. We’re always looking to improve and we definitely have to improve on offence.”

Kerry Watkins caught one of Calvillos touchdowns and spoke of the effort and his pleasure in playing with the CFL legend in his postgame interview:

“It’s a great accomplishment, but something we don’t keep track of. It’s an honour. That’s a living legend. I’ve been so fortunate to play my whole (six-year) career with him.”

Bombers head coach Mike Kelly, who also serves as the teams offensive coordinator, chafed when asked if it was time to revamp the offense:

“There’s nothing wrong with this scheme. I’ve seen this scheme work 1,000 times .If you want to get right down to it, we have to block when we need to block and catch when we need to catch and throw to the right people. And right now we’re not doing those things so we’ll continue to look at it.”

Winnipeg defensive tackle Doug Brown concurred with his coachs assessment:

“Let’s put it this way, we were in a good enough dogfight without as many critical errors as we made ourselves. You play a team of this calibre, the last thing you need to do is dig yourself your own hole with penalties and turnovers and missed tackles and not executing our assignments and so on and so forth.”

Montreal will host Saskatchewan on Friday, while Winnipeg will head west for a game against British Columbia.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

The Montreal Alouettes withstood a tough challenge from the Saskatchewan Roughriders to win their 7th game of the season by a 34-25 margin. Montreal remained atop the CFL with a 7-1 record, while the Roughriders slipped to 4-4. Als rookie QB Chris Leak scored the winning points with a touchdown on the first play of his CFL career.

After the game, Leak focused on earning the trust of his teammates:

“It’s a about trust – that’s the number one thing. I’m just happy for the opportunity to earn the trust of the coaches and my teammates.”

Saskatchewan has only won twice in their past eleven trips to Montreal, and will have to wait until next season to try and gain a measure of redemption.

The Roughriders held the edge in most of the statistical categories, but were undone by turnovers and a failure to cash in on drives deep into Als territory. Riders coach Ken Miller said in his postgame comments that there was plenty of responsibility to go around:

“It’s a team game and the fault doesn’t lie with any individual. Darian played probably his best. He turned the ball over three times, but he made plays with his feet and was a leader for us. I’m really proud of the way the men battled, but our team still needs to be tuned up some.”

On the positive side, the Roughriders sacked Alouettes QB Anthony Calvillo four times and moved the ball well on offense. Durants favorite target on the day was Weston Dressler, who caught eight passes for 179 yards and after the game gave a glass half full assessment of his teams performance:

“We were in it until the end. I think we showed we can complete with the best team in the league and I think we just have to keep working at it. We’re really close to being a great football team.”

Both teams will enjoy a bye next weekend, with Montreal returning to action on Friday, September 4th as they travel to Vancouver to play the BC Lions. Saskatchewan will return to action on Sunday, September 6th as they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

The Edmonton Eskimos survived a wild back and forth CFL shootout against the Calgary Stampeders before prevailing 38-35 to take over sole possession of first place in the CFL West. Edmonton improved to 4-3 with the win, while Calgary dropped to 3-4.

After the game, winning QB Ricky Ray said that he enjoyed the wild contest:

“That was a ton of fun. In the CFL you get to play in a lot of games like this, especially against a guy like (Calgary quarterback Henry) Burris, who has done this to us. It’s great to come out on the winning end of a shoot-out like that. It’s a great uplift for the team. It’s a huge win for us.”

Eskimos head coach Richie Hall said that the outcome couldnt have been timed any better:

“Regardless of what happens, we are coming back in first place. Now we have one up on Calgary. It’s going to be a dogfight for all the teams in the West and any chance you get to win, especially a win like this, it’s a real bonus. It’s great for our confidence.”

Calgarys Burris remembered a very similar situation in a game last year where Edmonton won by the same margin on a last play touchdown:

“They got us last year in this situation and of course you didn’t think it was going to happen again or even could happen again. It felt so great to get that late touchdown and with 38 seconds on the clock nobody was even thinking about last year. We had to stop Jackson and we didn’t. And we had to stop Ray and we didn’t. Kudos to Edmonton.”

Both teams have a bye next week. Calgary returns to action on Aug. 28 in Toronto while the Eskimos will next play on Aug. 29 when they host Hamilton. The two CFL provincial rivals from Alberta will face each other twice more this season.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer who covers travel, poker and sports handicapping. He is a staff handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, falconry and scuba diving. He lives in Southern Nevada with four dogs and a pet coyote.

In the United States, summertime is when teams get prepared to play football. NFL teams start training camp, and college teams start practice. North of the border in Canada, however, summertime is when their professional football season begins in the form of the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Most Americans dont realize that the CFL has a lengthy and storied history. The league itself has been around since’30, and the Canadian Football championship–known as the Grey Cup–has been contended since’09. More recently, American fans are aware that a number of NFL stars got their start in the CFL including Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly, and Jeff Garcia.

The CFL is very high level professional football, but there are some significant differences between it and the NFL game:

The most obvious difference is the football itself–the CFL football is longer and fatter than the NFL ball. The CFL still has their goal posts on the goal line, which the NFL moved to the back of the end zone years ago. The field is 10 yards longer and 12 yards wider than the NFL field, and the CFL end zones are 20 yards deep instead of the NFL’s 10 yards.

CFL teams are allowed to have 12 players on the field at a time, one more than is standard in American football. The extra offensive player is a wide receiver, and on defense they’re allowed an extra defensive back. CFL teams allow a team only three downs to move ten yards as opposed to four in the US game–references to a team going “two and out” are common on CFL broadcasts.

There are also differences in the scoring of the game. The first time I saw a CFL score tied 1-1 at the end of the first quarter I thought I was hallucinating. A major rule difference between the CFL and NFL is the fact that teams can score a single point, which those clever Canadians call a single. Basically, a team is awarded a single point for a missed field goal or a punt that lands in the end zone.

The rule differences also extend into the front office, where teams are required to have a certain quota of their roster be Canadian born. In an effort to prevent the CFL from becoming an NFL farm system, and to protect the unique identity of Canadian football’ of the 40 players on the roster must be natives.

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding is that the average NFL fan looks at the rules of the Canadian game with more players, a wider field, and fewer downs and concludes that the game is a wide open shootout similar to Arena Football. Thats not really the case–you’ll see some offensive battles but most games end up with final score totals in the mid to high 40s. In Arena Football, youll frequently see teams with potent offenses enforcing their will over and over again against teams with porous defenses. You don’t see that too often in the CFL. The rules may be different, but as is the case in American pro football you need a solid rushing game and a stout defense to win games and championships.

Furthermore, the parity that you see in the NFL where on any given Sunday any team can beat any other team is magnified in the CFL. The primary reason is the rules mandating Canadian native players. I dont think itll offend any Canadians if I suggest that football is played at a higher level in American high schools and colleges. That means that at least 50% of each team is of essentially equal level of talents. Now that may be a bit of an oversimplification”certainly there are differing levels of talent among Canadian players”but the Canadian native rules do serve to further codify the inherent tendency toward parity that you see in most professional sports.

The CFL isn’t in a financial position to draw the top level US players away from the NFL or, in most cases, even a NFL practice or developmental squad. While some US players are uniquely suited to the CFL style of play, most of the US players that end up there are of a similar talent level as to that seen in Arena Football.

Despite some major differences, the NFL and CFL have more in common–they’re both high level, intensely competitive professional football leagues. Once you understand the rule differences and the unique and fascinating history of the CFL, it is a very enjoyable brand of professional football to watch.

In the pre-Internet era, it was often difficult for US fans to find information on the CFL. They don’t get coverage on ESPN, but they receive extensive attention in the Canadian press. Each CFL city has their own sports media, and the official CFL website also has many resources including previews and statistics.

Ross Everett is a freelance writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.