SCRUFFY’S THIS ‘N THAT

1 – BANJO BOWL BEATDOWN:  At least last year, you could blame the performance of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Banjo Bowl on the flu bug that went through the team after they arrived in Winnipeg. Not so much this year.  For the 3^rd year in a row, the Riders made their fanbase sick with their effort at Investors Group Field as they dropped a 51-6 decision to the Bombers. I had a bad thought another bad effort was coming and I texted a couple of people before kickoff saying “TSN might be broadcasting a murder this afternoon”. Looks like I was right.

Would it have been different had Jake Dolegala hit a wide-open Kian Schaeffer-Baker in the endzone on the Riders first drive? I doubt it.  The Bombers more than avenged their “first Sunday in September game” loss in Regina with a 45-point win. 

In the last three years, the Riders have now been beaten by a combined 138-35. That’s not good.

There was nothing good about the effort from the green-and-white. They were beaten from pillar to post and now it is a short week as they have a short week of preparation before going up against an Edmonton team that is better than the first two times the two teams have met.  In those two games, you could arguably say the Elks should have gotten the “W” and Tre Ford wasn’t playing quarterback. When you get your ass handed to you, how you respond the next week is important so let’s see what type of messaging comes this week and let’s see what type of effort comes tonight.  The Riders are favoured and I like them to cover the three point spread, but if Edmonton were seven point underdogs I would likely be taking them to cover.

2 – NEG LIST GLIMPSE:  As they have for the past few seasons, the CFL is giving us a taste of who is on the neg lists of the respective teams. It’s a nice list to look at and see if there is anyone of substance on there.  Some Rider fans were intrigued at the fact Jordan Ta’amu is their property if he decides to come north. Ta’amu was the MVP of the XFL.  I like the fact that we get to see 10 of 45 players on each team’s list, but I would like to see all 45.  I will never understand why the league has to keep that such a secret.  The list changes from week-to-week and years ago, I had someone from a CFL team mail me a list before the US college football bowl season started so I could keep an eye on some players.  The only caveat was that I couldn’t bring up any names while on Cage or on my blog unless I had his permission.  It was great info to have, but again why must the league be so secretive on something that would peak the interest of fans?

3 – SUNDAY, SUNDAY:  With the NFL season starting last weekend, the CFL abandoned its Sunday games and with good reason.  The CFL is smart enough to know you can’t compete with the four-down game on Sunday.  What the CFL was also smart enough to do was schedule Sunday night games from the start of the season until Labour Day. Numbers show over 500,000 people were watching the Sunday night game on TSN and while some bemoaned about it here for a variety of reasons, the league should be credited for giving this a try.  Those numbers were also the best for the week when you average things out.

While having Sunday night games was smart, having a Saturday tripleheader does not.  Did anyone watch the Argos-Alouettes game? The most eyes were on the Banjo Bowl but that is to be expected since the Riders were involved, but the desire to watch nine hours of CFL football doesn’t seem to be there.  I think the league will have to have a couple of these, but the two Friday, two Saturday model after Labour Day is the best way to go.

4 – A-AROD IS A-ADONE!  What was your favourite play of the four plays Aaron Rodgers had as New York Jets quarterback?  The biggest move of the off-season in the NFL went up in smoke Monday night as Aaron Rodgers suffered a torn achilles.  What a disaster for the Jets and in a way, what a disaster for the NFL as one of the league’s marquee players and quarterbacks goes down.  The Jets came back to win, but wins might be few and far between with Zach Wilson being thrust back into the starters spot.  How far can that defence take them? We will find out Sunday in Dallas. Meanwhile, AFC favourites Kansas City, Cincinnati, Buffalo and the LA Chargers all lose in Week 1 meaning an early advantage goes to Baltimore and Miami in what should be a very competitive conference unlike the NFC.

Back to the QB position. The Jets have said Wilson is their man and while I doubt Robert Saleh said that with absolute confidence, I wonder what the plan is. New York probably needs to find a veteran and Carson Wentz’ name has been mentioned, but I wonder if the Jets will look at plucking Nathan Rourke off the Jags practice roster. Rourke wouldn’t be elevated into the number one spot, but he could compete for it and be ready after a couple of weeks to maybe challenge for it.  The name Colin Kaepernick came up again and the chances of that happening are the same as they are for Tom Brady. Say what you will about Kaepernick, but he hasn’t taken an NFL snap in seven years.  Sorry Colin, your best before due date has long passed.

5 – NFL WEEK 2:  Just a couple of notes for Week 2 of the NFL season:

·         Seattle and Detroit like to put up points against one another, Last year, the teams combined for over 1000 yards in offence in a 48-45 Seattle win.  The 93 points was the most in a game last year.  In Week 17 of the 2021 season, the Seahawks beat the Lions 51-29.  The over/under is 46.5 points.  Guess what way I’m leaning.

·         49ers QB Brock Purdy looks to throw at least 2 TD’s in his 7^th career start as San Fran takes on the Rams.  Who is the only other quarterback to do that in the Super Bowl era? I could not give the answer and make you search, but that search would last a while. The answer is Billy Volek. Who? For those that don’t know, Volek had an 11 year career with the Titans and Chargers. Another nugget of info on him is that in 2004 he became the 4^th quarterback in NFL history to throw for 400 plus yards in consecutive games joining Dan Marino, Dan Fouts and Phil Simms

6 – BIZ AND BABS:  The puck hasn’t dropped on the NHL season and the battle is on when it comes to Paul Bissonette and Mike Babcock. The outspoken TNT analyst/host of the Spittin Chiclets podcast has the controversial head coach in his crosshairs with his allegation of Babs asking to see what photos players have on their phone. The Blue Jackets quickly came out and defended Babcock with Boone Jenner and Johnny Gaudreau saying it was a great way to get to know one another and that they had no problems with it. Bissonette is doubling down and saying he has texts from angry players about what has been asked. It has gotten to the point that the players association has sent reps to Columbus to talk to as many people as they can in person.

First off, no one asks me to show them what photos or what I have on my phone. If you did, you would probably get a lot of pictures of my cats and a great big F-U. If I willingly want to share a photo with you, I will but the only person who gets to see what is on my phone and what I share with who is me and I think a lot of you would share that stance.

That being said, it is obvious Bissonette has an axe to grind with Babcock and there is no denying Babcock has not been perfect with what he has done and that every move he makes will be put under the microscope because of his history. The same can be said with Bill Peters in Lethbridge.

It doesn’t matter if Babcock is in a high-profile market or not. His actions will be carefully watched and it is up to the organization and Babcock himself to make sure everything he does is on the up and up. You know Biz will be watching. It is interesting to note the Blue Jackets aren’t on TNT this year so there won’t be any awkwardness on air, but you can bet Biz will take a shot or two at Babcock whenever he gets a chance.

I don’t know where this story goes, but there seems to be a lot of ammunition on both sides which tells me Babcock has one strike against him already and the puck hasn’t dropped. Could Columbus need another head coach before the puck drops and if they don’t, one has to think the player-coach relationship has been damaged big-time. Yeesh!

7 – PAT CHAT:  No Paddock, no Bedard, no Svozil and no Suzdalev—at least not yet. Many people think it will be tough for the Regina Pats to be a playoff team in the first year of the post-Bedard era and they could be right.  After Tanner Howe, there isn’t a lot to be excited about at this time. Guys like Sam Oremba, Borya Valis, Matteo Michels are going to have to step it up now that they have a bigger role and it is time for Zach Stringer to start making the impact the club wanted him to when he was acquired from Lethbridge. Goalie Ewan Huet from Switzerland should make that position better, but he might be in for some long nights with a no-name defence in front of him. While I don’t know if the Pats are a playoff team, I do know the team is in good hands with Brad Herauf and Alan Millar. The decision not to trade Connor Bedard so you get some great crowds and one playoff round will now start to haunt this team. They could have been better had number 98 been dealt, but he told John Paddock to kindly not do that and Paddock was true to his word. We move on!

8 – GENIE KNOWS:  I told you a couple of weeks ago that the sport of pickleball was one that was growing and was not one for the older demographic. While some laugh at the sport, it gained a little bit of credibility and a lot of eyes as Genie Bouchard has signed on to play the sport on a pro tour. What she will bring to the sport is not known, but the tennis player/swimsuit model will certainly have some people who wouldn’t be watching starting to as she trades in her tennis racquet for a pickleball paddle. Tell me how people wouldn’t have turned up at the International Trade Centre in droves had they known Bouchard was going to make an appearance at the Canadian championships a few weeks ago.

9 – MANOAHVER!:  Whether or not the Toronto Blue Jays make the playoffs will be determined in a couple of weeks.  If they do make it, one guy who won’t be on the playoff roster is Alex Manoah.  Rumours of him telling the team to GFY when they optioned him to Triple A have surfaced with the word being he hasn’t thrown a pitch since his last game in a Jays uniform. If Manoah has taken his ball and gone home, Toronto would be best to sell this guy on the cheap in the off-season. Who’s kidding who, he might just end up in Japan because for a guy that isn’t well-liked before this certainly won’t score any points with this behaviour. The guy has had 27 starts in MLB and he shows this entitlement?  See ya! What’s even more baffling is that at the time of writing this there has been no word from the Manoah camp on what their side of the story is. Not saying anything says a lot.

With Manoah not coming back, can someone at Sportsnet or Mary Brown’s please pull those god-awful chicken ads that he does with George Springer. Those are extremely bad! They are worse than the Smuckers ads with Springer and Vladdy and that’s saying a lot.

10 – EWWWWW!!: I read a story this week about a poll asking about sleeping habits. One of the questions that was asked was about whether or not you wear socks to bed.  Of the just over 1,000 people asked, 18 percent said yes! 18 percent??!! To me, that is gross and that is wrong. So so wrong!

That’s all I got.  Have a great weekend!