The Calgary Stampeders are turning to a former Edmonton Eskimo to improve their defense.
This week they signed import linebacker Rod Davis from the Montreal Alouettes.
Davis has four years of Canadian Football League experience, three with the Edmonton Eskimos and one with the Alouettes.
During his career he has an impressive 184 tackles, 10 sacks, four forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and eight interceptions.
The Toronto Argonauts have signed Romby Bryant from the Calgary Stampeders on Tuesday.
Bryant, who was released by the Stampeders last week, has signed a two year contract with the Argonauts.
Bryant has 295 catches for 4428 yards and 31 touchdowns in his CFL career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Calgary Stampeders.
Last season Bryant caught 55 passes for 678 yards and two touchdowns.
Bryant has been brought in by the Argonauts to compliment Chad Owens, who had a breakout season in 2012 where he was named the Canadian Football League’s Most Outstanding Player and set a CFL record for the most all-purpose yards in a single season with 3,863.
For the second year in a row and for only the third time since 1978, has the home team won the Grey Cup.
On Sunday, Chad Kackert ran for 133 yards and had 195 total yards as the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders 35-22.
Kackert was clearly the difference maker on Sunday as he had a career game, literally running by the Stampeders’ defense with ease.
It is interesting that the Vanier Cup and Grey Cup was a weekend of running backs as Kackert was joined by Maxime Boutin of Laval as most outstanding players this weekend.
Defensive end Ricky Foley of Courtice, Ontario was named the top Canadian after forcing a key Jon Cornish fumble in the first half.
Grey Cup (Roland Tanglao, Wikimedia Commons)
In one of the biggest sporting events of the year, the 100th Grey Cup takes place Sunday in Toronto. The 12-6 Calgary Stampeders face the 9-9 Toronto Argonauts.
The game will have the two finalists for the 2012 Canadian Football League’s most outstanding player award. On Thursday we learned that Argonauts’ wide receiver Chad Owens, who set a CFL record for most all-purpose yards in one season, had more votes than Calgary Stampeder running back Jon Cornish.
This is the third time the Stampeders are facing the Argonauts for the Grey Cup, and 2012 is drastically different compared to 1971 and 1991 when the Argonauts entered the game as the heavy favourite and entered the game as a team the rest of the Canadian Football League were adamantly not pulling for. That tendency isn’t here this time around, and if you go by one Calgary player’s undisciplined actions prior to the Western Final, many football fans nationwide are tempted to cheer for Ricky Ray, Jim Barker and the Argonauts.
The Grey Cup will take place Sunday at 4pm on TSN.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Jon Cornish (Wikimedia Commons)
The CFL handed out its player awards on Thursday night and Chad Owens, wide receiver of the Toronto Argonauts was named the most outstanding player for 2012. Owens beat out Jon Cornish, the running back of the Calgary Stampeders, who ended up winning the CFL Most Outstanding Canadian award.
Cornish was trying to become the first Canadian to win the most outstanding player award since Tony Gabriel won the award with the Hamilton Tiger Cats in 1978.
So why did the panel go with a wide receiver over a running back? Well, it’s quite possible it stems from a mooning incident Cornish had with the Saskatchewan Roughrider crowd earlier this year. The CFL was simply not comfortable handing out an award to an athlete who lacked complete judgment in a particular situation.
In other awards, linebacker J.C. Sherritt of the Edmonton Eskimos was the top defensive player, Jovan Olafioye of the British Columbia Lions was the top lineman and wide receiver Chris Matthews of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was the top rookie.
Krista Ford (Patrick Seitz, Wikimedia Commons)
According to the Canadian Press, the mayor of Calgary will a have a friendly bet with the mayor of Toronto when the Calgary Stampeders meet the Toronto Argonauts for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto on Sunday.
On Monday, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi proposed a bet to Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Whoever loses the bet will need to donate his individual weight in food to the winning city’s food bank and the loser must also wear the winning Grey Cup team’s jersey in a city council meeting.
Nenshi proposed the bet on Twitter, and Ford accepted.
Ford played high school football at Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy in Toronto and has coached the Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School since 2001. Ford’s niece Krista was a former captain of the Toronto Triumph of the Lingerie Football League and the club’s marketing manager.
Grey Cup (Roland Tanglao, Wikimedia Commons)
The Toronto Argonauts and the Calgary Stampeders will meet in the 100th Grey Cup a week from today at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
On Sunday, three Toronto Argonauts had outstanding offensive performances in a 27-20 win over the Montreal Alouettes. Ricky Ray passed for 399 yards, Chad Kackert had 139 rushing yards and wide receiver Chad Owens had 207 receiving yards.
Toronto bounced back after a 17-10 halftime deficit and an inability to score any points on a second quarter drive where they were first and goal at Montreal’s one yard line.
The Stampeders meanwhile beat the B.C. Lions 34-29 in equally an impressive offensve performance. Quarterback Kevin Glenn, who will be starting in his first career Grey Cup game, threw for 303 yards. Running back Jon Cornish ran for 112 yards and wide receiver Maurice Price had 117 yards receiving.
A major reason for Calgary’s success was because Glenn was able to connect with Marquay McDaniel for a 68 yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and Romby Bryant for a 57 yard pass in the third quarter.
Once again this weekend I’ll be watching four kinds of football from both side of the border.
Th most interesting matchup will be the Western Final on Sunday afternoon between the Calgary Stampeders (12-6) and the British Columbia Lions (13-5) (2:30pm, TSN). This week there has been more drama in the Stampeders’ dressing room than an entire week of the Young and the Restless, and for that I give the Lions the advantage.
Travis Lulay is expected to be at the top of his game and the Lions are well rested. My only concern however is that it has been a while since they played a very meaningful game, so it will be interesting to see how they come out mentally.
The Edmonton Eskimos came into the Eastern semi-final game Sunday in Toronto immediately with lost confidence when it was determined that star linebacker J.C. Sherritt could not play due to an ankle injury.
Even though they got off to a fast start, (Eskimos got an early 7-0 lead thanks to a 46 yard run by Hugh Charles that set up a touchdown pass from Kerry Joseph to Cary Koch), the Eskimos quite possibly had their worst second quarter in franchise history.
The Argonauts scored 31 points, the most ever by one team in the second quarter in the history of the CFL playoffs. Ricky Ray orchestrated three Toronto touchdowns (two in the air to Chad Kackert and Maurice Mann and one rushing touchdown) and CFL Most Outstanding Player nominee Chad Owens had a punt return for a touchdown as Toronto defeated Edmonton 42-26.
I will be watching four kinds of football this weekend–the professional and collegiate variety from both sides of the border.
Obviously the biggest games are the Canadian Football League’s divisional semi-finals.
In the East, the Toronto Argonauts are hosting the Edmonton Eskimos (Sunday, 11am, TSN) in a game that is featuring former Eskimo Ricky Ray, now at quarterback for Toronto. The Eskimos finished the season at 7-11 and the Argonauts at 9-9. However Edmonton did beat Toronto in both meetings this year, 19-15 on June 30 and 26-17 on August 27.
It appears the Edmonton Eskimos are going with experience over youth Sunday for the Eastern Semi-Final against the Toronto Argonauts.
Today the team announced that Kerry Joseph, who has struggled mightily while playing on the road in recent weeks for the Eskimos will get the start over Matt Nichols.
Just how bad has Joseph been on the road? He has been 0-4 as the Eskimos starter since Labour Day away from Commonwealth Stadium, and has not shown any strong connection with any of his wide receivers.
Jon Cornish (Wikimedia Commons)
According to the Canadian Press, Calgary Stampeders’ running back Jon Cornish has been nominated for the Canadian Football League’s most outstanding player award.
Cornish, who will represent the Western Division, led the Canadian Football League this season with 1457 rushing yards and tied Kory Sheets of the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the CFL lead in rushing touchdowns with 11. Cornish also set a record for most rushing yards in a season by a Canadian and became the first Canadian to lead the CFL in rushing yards since Orville Lee of the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1988.
Cornish, a native of New Westminster, British Columbia, is up against Toronto Argonauts wide receiver Chad Owens, who set a CFL single season record for most all-purpose yards in 2012.
The last Calgary Stampeder to win the most outstanding player award was quarterback Henry Burris in 2010.
Cornish has also been nominated for top Canadian, where he is up against Montreal Alouette linebacker Shea Emery of Richmond, British Columbia.
Hugh Charles (Wikimedia Commons)
The Edmonton Eskimos backfield just got crowded again. On Tuesday the Eskimos announced that running back Hugh Charles was cleared to play in the Eastern Division semi-final game against the Toronto Argonauts at Rogers Centre Sunday.
Charles injured his knee in the Eskimos’ 39-19 loss to the British Columbia Lions on October 19.
Charles, who is in his second year in Edmonton after being traded from the Saskatchewan Roughriders last year, led the Eskimos with 887 yards rushing and six rushing touchdowns this season.
Now Eskimos head coach will have to decide between Charles, who is 100% according to the medical staff, Jerome Messam, who led the Eskimos in rushing last year and won the Most Outstanding Canadian award, and Cory Boyd, who had a solid game last week versus Calgary (66 yards rushing and a touchdown) and led the CFL in rushing yards when he was released by the Toronto Argonauts this past August.
Who would you start at running back if you were Kavis Reed? Let us know at www.anysportanytime.ca.
Eric Tillman is out as the General Manager of the Edmonton Eskimos.
Tillman was 7-11 this season and went 23-21 over two and a half seasons in charge of player personnel in the Alberta capital.
The timing of the move is strange as the Eskimos are headed to the playoffs after Toronto’s 43-40 win over Hamilton Thursday night. However, expectations were higher in Edmonton heading into the season because the football team finished second place in the Western Division in 2011, and fell two places in the Western Division standings.
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