Lefko on CFL: Kicking off the 2nd half

If it’s true that Labour Day begins the second – and most important – part of the Canadian Football League season, then let’s consider what happened on Monday.

The Edmonton Eskimos went into Calgary and royally humbled the heavily-favoured Calgary Stampeders 35-7.

That was preceded by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats scoring a slightly-less shocking upset, 44-21, over the Montreal Alouettes, who were favoured by a field goal, at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

You could pick which game was more shocking, because no matter how you analyzed both neither were expected to be so one-sided.

Okay, you could say the Stamps were expected to roll over the Eskimos, who had lost their last three, scored only five points collectively in their last two, and were still without some of their best players, notably injured receiver Fred Stamps.

But as they say, that’s why they play the games.

The Eskimos were so dominant they used three quarterbacks, giving third-stringer Eric Ward, a rookie, some playing time.

The Stamps gave their backup, Drew Tate, some garbage time because Henry Burris, the hottest quarterback in the CFL going into the game, had one of those outings that people refer to as a Bad Hank day.

The backups also took to the field in the Hamilton-Montreal game. Ticats starter Kevin Glenn, who suffered a minor hand injury at one point and may have had his bell rung on another, gave way to backup Quinton Porter early in the third, leading 27-13. Porter usually comes in for short-yardage situations, but he had two touchdowns on seven carries, including a 20-yard dash up the middle shortly after taking over from Glenn. He concluded the run with a little bit of styling and profiling that would have made wrestler Ric Flair proud. Hey, Porter has gone through some tough times in Steeltown, rushed into being a starter in his sophomore season and then subordinated to a backup because he wasn’t ready for prime time, so we’ll excuse the hotdogging.

But what must be understood in all of this is a negative that turned into a positive in one of those “only in the CFL” moments. The Argos annually play in Hamilton on Labour Day, but the tradition changed because Toronto didn’t want to play another game on the road. They opened with three road games and simply wanted to play at home. So they began the Labour Day weekend on Friday playing against B.C. in the latest version of the Braley Bowl, named as such because both teams are owned by David Braley.

Both teams came into the contest with 2-6 records, but the Lions emerged victorious, 29-16. They play against one another this Saturday in B.C.

And that’s why the break in tradition may actually be better in the long run.

The Ticats and the Als play one another again this Sunday in Montreal. Both teams are tied for second in the East with 5-4 records. The Ticats have beaten the Als twice this season, both times in Hamilton. The game on Sunday has all kinds of ramifications, more so for the Als. If they lose, they fall to third and Hamilton automatically wins the season series, even with one more game to go.

The Als are winners of the last two Grey Cups, but don’t look anything like a team headed for three in a row. Quarterback Anthony Calvillo is in a slump. This was supposed to be his season, chasing Damon Allen’s professional record of 72,381 career passing yards. He may very well do that because he now has 70,625, and with nine games to go he is only 1,756 yards in arrears. That means he only has to average about 200 yards per game. In his first nine games, he has totaled 2,464. That’s not bad, but his numbers have been slipping in the last three games. He had only 216 yards, albeit not playing the full game, against Hamilton, completing 17 of 30 throws. He was clearly frustrated – and it’s happened a few times this season, notably against the Ticats.

Meanwhile, Burris is only two yards back of Calvillo for the league lead in passing yards. He had been playing exceptionally in recent outings, averaging 350 yards in his last three games. He had only 132 yards on 13 of 23 completions against the Eskimos, and tossed two interceptions. In his last three games, he had seven touchdowns and no interceptions.

But he has a chance for redemption this Friday in Edmonton. For whatever reason, the Stamps have slumped at home this year.

The rematch should be exciting. The Eskimos showed heart in erasing their recent three-game freefall after opening with five wins. Nobody struggled more than quarterback Ricky Ray, who had only 81 passing yards in his last game and a QB rating of 2.3 percent — consider 100 is generally thought to be good, so you get the idea. He completed 67 percent of his passes against Calgary, and while he only had 131 yards, he was removed from the game with it well in favour of the Eskimos and to keep him fresh for Friday.

The Esks and Stamps are now tied for first in the West at 6-3.

And let’s not forget the league-leading Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with a record of 7-2. They lost 27-7 on Sunday in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who came into the game with a league-worst record of 1-7. The Bombers had their swagger pinpricked, but they get to face the Riders on Sunday in the annual Banjo Bowl in Winnipeg. You know Blue Bombers fans will be fired up at home, doing everything they can to frustrate the Riders.

As for the Lions and Argos game, well, at least there will be an element of intrigue if, as expected, Steven Jyles replaces Cleo Lemon as Toronto’s starter. Hey, this game is not quite as interesting as the other three, but the storyline going into it will be about the quarterback controversy.

So maybe this whole Labour Day thing wasn’t so bad after all. We’re quite sure the Argos and Ticats will renew their Labour Day rivalry next year after a one-year hiatus because it’s tradition, just like Edmonton and Calgary, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, and B.C. and Montreal, which never really took traction anyway.