GAME DAY IN MONTREAL!
WEEK 1 NOTES
1 – Thursday’s 2017 CFL season-opener between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes is hotly-anticipated for a ton of reasons (5:30 pm Sask Time, TSN, 620 CKRM Rider Radio Network). For one, it’s always exciting to be the first game on the CFL schedule and the Riders and Als haven’t hooked up in a CFL season-opener since the famed Canada Day Comeback in 2010 (a 54-51 overtime victory for Saskatchewan).
2 – For two, you could call this game the Bad Blood Bowl, that wasn’t. Starting quarterbacks Darian Durant and Kevin Glenn have swapped teams, and it’s generally agreed upon that neither was wanted by their old clubs. For his part, Glenn spent a good deal of time on Wednesday explaining to reporters that he harbours no illwill against his former clubs, particularly since he’s been property of eight CFL teams over his 17-year career. If he held hard feelings, he wouldn’t have many friends left in this league!
Durant certainly said all the right things to reporters this week but you know there’s a fire simmering deep in his belly with regards to all the things that went down leading up to his trade to Montreal on January 13.
It’s doubtful that he’ll play angry – or with a huge chip on his shoulder – but we all know Darian enough that he’ll be significantly motivated for this contest and want to prove Chris Jones wrong for showing him the door.
Even still, his desire to prove Jones wrong makes this match-up salacious.
3 – There are other players who’ve swapped Montreal jerseys for green Saskatchewan uniforms, and vice versa. Roughrider receiver Duron Carter was kicked off the Alouettes late last season and reporters tried their darnedest to pry some venom out of him at Wednesday’s media session but he wouldn’t bite.
Nor would new Saskatchewan cornerback Jovon Johnson, who was released by Montreal on the weekend. He feels he got caught up in the numbers game with the Alouettes, but landed on his feet as the starting field corner for the Roughriders this week.
And offensive lineman Matt Vonk was shipped to Montreal in the Radford deal, but he was all smiles on Wednesday as we shared a few minutes. He’s just happy to be anywhere!
4 – As far as Kevin Glenn goes, even the Alouettes players said on Wednesday they feel they’ve upgraded at quarterback with the addition of Darian Durant. It couldn’t have been intended as a slight at Kevin but professionally, it was. But the fact is Kevin Glenn has had a magnficent pro career and is in the Top 10 all-time passers. All that he’s missing is a Grey Cup ring, and then he’ll be considered an all-time great. Until then he’s the CFL’s Dan Marino, which really isn’t too shabby when you think about it.
5 – Roster Stuff. The Riders unveiled their roster for Week 1 on Wednesday and while there weren’t many surprises, there certainly were some interesting tidbits. Saskatchewan has dressed seven offensive linemen, with Dariusz Bladek and Josiah St. John listed as the two back-ups. Clearly it was too close to call as to who’s ahead of whom, so the team brought both.
And with WR Rob Bagg sent to the 1-game Injured List, veteran Nic Demski will start in his spot with Desmond Radford as the back-up. Radford was acquired from Montreal in a trade early in training camp, but it was with the understanding he’d be a defensive back and/or returner. Now he’s been moved to the offensive side of the ball.
6 – Included on the Riders’ depth chart this week was their Injured List and it’s already long. On the 1-game Injured List are: WR Rob Bagg, LB Sam Eguavoen, OL Dillon Guy, RB Kienan LaFrance, DB Derrick Moncreif, DE Jonathan Newsome and K Quinn Van Gylswyk. On the 6-game Injured List are KR Chad Owens and DB Tevaughn Campbell.
7 – CFL Game Notes Tidbits: The Roughriders are the CFL’s youngest team at 26.9 years average while the Alouettes are the oldest at 28.4 … Saskatchewan had the largest roster turnover from last year with just 29 returning players … 7 of the 9 first round picks in this year’s CFL Draft made opening week rosters while 14 of the 18 players selected in the first two rounds made their clubs … For just the second time in CFL history, the season begins with the past seven Grey Cup winners being seven different teams. The topic of “CFL parity” came up over lunch with CFL agent Tim Fleiszer on Wednesday, but it appears it’s at an all-time high. The intention for the salary cap was to even the playing field, and it has … Only four CFL teams are starting the same quarterback as they did in Week 1 last year. They are B.C. (Johnathan Jennings), Calgary (Bo-Levi Mitchell), Edmonton (Mike Reilly) and Toronto (Ricky Ray). The changes are Hamilton (Zach Collaros), Ottawa (Trevor Harris), Montreal (Darian Durant), Saskatchewan (Kevin Glenn) and Winnipeg (Matt Nichols).
8 – More Notes: Visiting teams are 32-26 all-time in season-opening games dating back to the origin of the Canadian Football League in the 1950s … The CFL Statistics Department is adding a handful of new categories this season including Drops and Quarterback Pressures. It’ll be interesting to see which receiver leads the CFL in drops this year! He likely won’t be around for long.
9 – Thursday’s game is not soldout, which should be a concern. And, I’m told, the Alouettes season ticket base is the lowest it’s been since the team relocated from Baltimore in 1996.
10 – The forecast calls for 24 degrees Celsius and sunny. The Alouettes are favoured by 6.5-points.
RP
@rodpedersen
