Major changes to the game! The CFL teased the announcement 24 hours in advance, allowing CFL traditionalists to lose their minds. There goes the Canadian game they said, NFL North from now on. Once we finally learned what was happening after a sleepless night, the fear and premature loathing was washed over with relief, for the most part. Even the staunchest defenders of the Canadian game should admit that having the goal posts as an obstacle to the endzone is silly. It always has been. Kudos to Commissioner Stewart Johnston not only for the changes that are overwhelmingly positive in my opinion, but for the way it was announced, which stirred excitement and debate, even south of the border. Now, if the Commish had one do-over, he would probably want to get the face of the league on the phone in advance. Or maybe not? The controversy that Nathan Rourke\u2019s reaction generated only fuels interest, which is what the CFL is ultimately trying to accomplish. Rourke walked back his comments somewhat, and it should be noted that what he says he loves about this game is still very much a part of it.<\/p>\n
The Maple Messiah is on fire! We shouldn\u2019t be surprised that his comments were a little heated. Rourke has gone from 19-1 to win MOP a couple of weeks ago, down to +115 at Fanduel. Only Bo Levi Mitchell has shorter odds but that could be short lived. It\u2019s an increasingly common refrain that is echoed without much of a retort: the Canadian QB is the best player in the league. <\/p>\n
Calgary Stampeders at Montreal Alouettes<\/p>\n
With all the afore-mentioned content this week, Davis Alexander\u2019s return to the Alouettes has flown under the radar. Speaking of MOP, Alexander was once a co-favourite way back at the start of the season. He\u2019s still never lost a start in his Canadian Football League career, going 8-0 since last season. Of course, the streak has been interrupted by injuries three times. He\u2019s missed the last nine weeks after re-injuring his hamstring on a game-winning touchdown run against the Argos on a muggy mid-July night in Montreal. His eventual return is why the Als are a top-three choice to win the Grey Cup. Four and a half points is a lot for a QB that hasn\u2019t been on the field, but it\u2019s not all on Alexander. The rest of this team is humming at the right time. They\u2019ve won back-to-back games with McLeod Bethel-Thompson under centre and the receivers, who\u2019ve been hampered by injuries, are all getting healthy. On defence, they allow the second fewest yards per game despite having to make up for an inefficient offence for much of the season. In other words, the birds are gaining altitude. Meanwhile, the Stamps are stuck in the mud. The defence hasn\u2019t looked the same since Flo Orimolade was lost for the season. Vernon Adams hasn\u2019t been able to finish either of the last two games and his back injury could be a limiting factor for him on Friday Night. As good as the Stamps have been, much to the surprise of many experts, they could be running out of steam. The Lions mauled them last week. The game was already out of hand when Adams went out in the 2nd quarter. Calgary\u2019s lost by double digits in back-to-back games, even with a bye week in between.<\/p>\n
THE PICK: ALOUETTES -4.5<\/p>\n
Toronto Argonauts at BC Lions <\/p>\n
For as much as I\u2019ve gushed about Nathan Rourke this week and all season, I\u2019ve gone back and forth on this pick. Like I wrote last week, the Argos are finding a way to win games with Nick Arbuckle under centre, going back to week 12 when they spanked the Lions in Toronto. Arbuckle had 443 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-34 win. 86 points was obviously over the total. The Lions\u2019 defence has been an issue all season, and even though Mathieu Betts has come to life with 6 sacks in his last two games, the Argos have enough weapons. With their playoff hopes in peril, Ryan Dinwiddie\u2019s offence will have to press the issue against a Lions team that leads the league in points and yards per game. Nathan Rourke and company have scored at least 33 points in seven straight games. There have been at least 65 total points in each of the Lions\u2019 last four games. I\u2019m looking forward to another high-scoring affair.<\/p>\n
THE PICK: OVER 57.5 TOTAL POINTS<\/p>\n
PLAYER PROP: JAKE HERSLOW OVER 63.5 RECEIVING YARDS<\/p>\n
For all the reasons outlined above, I locked in Makai Polk over 63.5 receiving yards last night. With Damonte Coxie out and Arbuckle back, that\u2019s a modest number for the Argos number one receiver. Obviously, some people agreed because his number has ballooned since I started writing. Insert Jake Herslow. The Argos\u2019 number two receiver has had at least 67 yards and TWO touchdowns in each of the Arbuckle\u2019s last three starts, starting with that win over the Lions in Toronto at the end of August. He\u2019s scored a touchdown in six straight games with nine total scores in that span and is +115 at Fanduel to find the endzone again tonight. <\/p>\n
Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/p>\n
Chris Streveler\u2019s stat line was one of the more comical things you\u2019ll see for a winning quarterback. He completed three passes. He threw it only eight times, and one of them was picked off. He still played every snap and won the game. Zach Collaros is back this week, and although some might wonder if he should be, the offence will undoubtedly benefit. That said, they\u2019re up against what I believe to be a better, healthier, more complete football team. Winnipeg is one of the toughest places to win on the road, but the Ti-Cats handled the Bombers by double-digits when these teams played just two weeks ago. <\/p>\n
THE PICK: TIGER-CATS +1.5<\/p>\n
RecordLast weekSeasonGame Picks2-129-20Player Props1-08-7Total3-137-27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major changes to the game! The CFL teased the announcement 24 hours in advance, allowing CFL traditionalists to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-171895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}