Welcome to the latest edition of Three Downs, the Last Word on Sports roundup of what’s to come in CFL Week 9. This week, we’ll look at the Game of the Week, the Player to Watch, and as the Countdown to Kickoff topic: the Montreal Alouettes’ weekly headgear fashion show.
Contributions from Casey Dulson, Cole Shelton, and Kelly Bale.
Three Downs: CFL Week 9
Game to Watch: Calgary Stampeders at B.C. Lions
The B.C. Lions host the Calgary Stampeders this week, and it’s guaranteed to be a good one as the Stamps are first in the West and the Lions are second. Both teams are coming off huge wins last week.
The Lions are CFL scoring with 226 total points scored. A big reason for their success this season has been theone-two punch of a running game from Jeremiah Johnson and Anthony Allen. The Lions lead the CFL in most rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. They have 673 rushing yards and nine touchdowns this season. The Stamps will counter with their Canadian running back, Jerome Messam. Messam is second in the CFL rushing with 431 yards and three touchdowns.
The Lions have one of the best receivers in the CFL with Emmanuel Arceneaux, who was the star in last week’s win over the Ticats. He has 540 receiving yards and four touchdowns this season. And the Stamps have a great receiver of their own in Marquay McDaniel. McDaniel, like Arceneaux, has been a beast this year, with 526 receiving yards to go with four touchdowns.
On defence, the Lions are led by last season’s defensive player of the year, Adam Bighill. Bighill is having another solid season in 2016 with 48 tackles already. The Stamps on defence are led by defense lineman Charleston Hughes who leads the CFL in sacks with six.
The winner of this game will have to get a strong performance from their quarterback. Both quarterbacks are having MVP- caliber years. Lions quarterback, Jonathon Jennings is third in the CFL passing with 2,048 passing yards and 11 touchdowns while the Stamps’ Bo-Levi Mitchell is second in passing yards with 2,194 yards, and first in touchdown passes with 12 touchdowns. Expect this game to be a good old-fashioned duel. The Stamps won the first battle, 20-18 in Week one.
– Casey Dulson
Player to Watch:
This is an easy choice: Duron Carter. Carter and the Montreal Alouettes head to the nation’s capital to face the Ottawa Redblacks. Carter is a huge threat on offence and arguably a top three receiver in this league wether you like him or not.
The last time Montreal faced Ottawa, Carter got ejected from the game for bumping into Redblacks Head Coach Rick Campbell and knocking him over, so there is no love lost in this contest. But Ottawa will have their hands full with Carter and Ottawa’s secondary has taken a few hits with the injury bug. Still, they’re getting Abdul Kanneh back this week, which will help Ottawa in stopping Carter. Will it have any effect?
– Cole Shelton
Countdown to Kickoff: Online CFL Fans
There are two kinds of CFL fans online: the kind who want to interact with others to further their fandom and learn about the past, present, and future of Canadian football — and the kind who have no desire to do any of that. The majority are still the former, but the latter is ever-growing and has become an extremely vocal minority.
It used to be hard to spot if you were new to a CFL related fan forum, Facebook group, or Twitter conversation. Now if someone isn’t fighting within a minute about referees, cheating, dollar figures, stats, or even more silly things it’s a miracle.
This doesn’t include a debate about a CFL topic between people who respect one another. It’s the people who are there essentially to troll. Don’t be a CFL troll online.
What kind of CFL fan are you online? Let us know in the comments!
– Kelly Bale
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