Landry's 5 takeaways from Week 15

Hello, Amar Doman. Trailer Park Boys in the owner’s box, eh?

Personally, I think Shoresy and the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs deserve an invite. But those guys really know how to set the tone so don’t even try to keep up. Hundy P.

Here are the Week 15 takeaways.

IT’S CHISELED IN STONE. YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY WIN A GAME WHEN YOU TURN THE BALL OVER SIX TIMES**

** Offer not necessarily valid in Ontario.

It’s a wee bit mystifying when you consider that the Toronto Argonauts won a game where their quarterback threw four interceptions and the offence turned the ball over twice more on downs.

From one viewpoint, Toronto’s 31-30 victory over Edmonton was a game marked by perseverance, and that’s the Argo take on this. “We are resilient,” said head coach Ryan Dinwiddie afterward.

From another, it was a game of “what the hell just happened?” And that’s the Elk side of things.

“It’s just sickening” said Edmonton quarterback Cody Fajardo during his post-game media conference. “If you look at the analytics, there’s no way we should’ve lost that football game.”

Maybe that’s the takeaway, when all is said and done.

That there’s always a way. Even if it’s written in stone that there ain’t.

HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF? L-I-O-N-S

The BC Lions might well have shaken off their existential crisis in a dominant win over the Ottawa REDBLACKS.

We’ll know if that’s the case, more certainly, if they can stack additional victories on top of Friday night’s 38-27 decision at Save-on-Foods Field at BC Place.

But we’ve been here before, with these Lions, who’ve looked to be headed for happier hunting grounds on a number of occasions this season.

“I thought we were able to control our emotions a little bit better and have some emotional intelligence,” said head coach Buck Pierce when asked to compare the win with last week’s humbling, perplexing, come-from-ahead loss to the same REDBLACKS.

“When they made a play we were able to bounce back. And that’s important.”

“We’re dangerous,” said BC linebacker Micah Awe, earlier in the week. “We’ve just gotta learn how to be dangerous all the time.”

Well, here’s their chance. A Week 16 showdown with the Stampeders, right in Calgary.

THEY’RE BAAAAAAAACK

Trap game for Saskatchewan? Yeah, maybe, but I don’t think so. Not entirely, anyway.

The Montreal Alouettes ended the misery of a five-game losing streak (most certainly it would grow to six, many of us thought) by beating the top team in the CFL right in their own stadium.

If the Roughriders let their guard down a bit for this one, it only mattered so much because the Alouettes not only took advantage of that to start the game but then kept on keeping on long after the Riders had been awakened and knew they were in a real one.

A good defensive effort came alongside a sterling offensive one, with quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson having his best night of the season and receiver Tyson Philpot hitting the afterburner switch with a 238-yard, two-touchdown performance.

“Playing Alouettes football,” said Philpot after the game. “Finally.”

The Als are getting healthy again and on Saturday night, they looked a lot more like the team that started the season at 5-2 as opposed to the one that went splat for five straight.

A TIGER CAN WALK A TIGHTROPE

So, how are CFL defences feeling now that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have discovered balance?

Like, really discovered it.

In Hamilton’s Week 14 win over Montreal, their offence passed 28 times and rushed 28 times, actually gaining more yardage on the ground than through the air.

In Week 15 and a win against Winnipeg, the Ticats ran 28 passing plays and rushed 27 times. This time, the air yardage was superior to the ground yardage but over the course of those two games, Hamilton has rushed for 397 yards while passing for 421.

That’s just over 51 per cent passing, just under 49 per cent rushing.

Let’s see if we can’t get those numbers a little more equal in Week 16, shall we?

YOU CAN GO TO THE WELL TOO OFTEN

Argo receiver Jake Herslow might want to think about parking that signature move of his for a bit.

Check that. I mean his OTHER signature move because one of them seems to be scoring touchdowns.

The second-year Toronto receiver wowed everyone during a Week 10 game against Ottawa when he pulled off a leaping hurdle move deserving of some ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ sound effects action.

He’s tried it again in subsequent weeks, only with diminishing returns, culminating in his getting rocked by Edmonton defensive back Kordell Jackson on Saturday.

“Yeah,” said a laughing Herslow, “he told me at the end of the game, he said ‘I was ready for that.’ I jumped too early there.”

Will Herslow put away the hurdle move for a while? Or will he throw in a tendency-breaker; a fake hurdle with, say, a spin move or a somersault underneath the defender.

We eagerly await the evolution.

AND FINALLY: All of a sudden, Mathieu Betts is right where he was expected to be. At the top of the sacks list.

Landry’s 5 takeaways from Week 15

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