Three Downs With Jonathan Hamelin

An interesting slightly humorous look at the Canadian Football League

Week three of the CFL season is in the books, though I think someone needs to wake up the Toronto Argonauts, Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos as none of these teams appeared to be awake as they were blown out this week.

When it came to my picks this week, I was only 1-3. Naturally I was pretty peeved off. The Stampeders decided to wake up and play good the first time I pick them to lose all season. And just when it looked like Winnipeg might have a chance to win against the Hamilton, Kevin “not good enough to start in Winnipeg” Glenn comes in and steals the show!

Anyway, after taking some deep breaths I have decided to shake it off and focus on next week. For some more thoughts on week three, let’s go to three downs

First Down: Some Tasty Quarterback Controversies Brewing

You know, the last thing a team needs during the season is a quarterback controversy. It is something that is definitely not encouraged. But here on “Three Downs” we encourage it. Quarterback controversies are a great form of entertainment.

The first obvious situation is in BC, where Jarious “Air” Jackson came in for the injured Buck Pierce and threw for four touchdown passes. That’s more productive than Pierce has been all year. The slight on Jackson has been that he isn’t accurate enough. He sure looked accurate to me.

Another situation would be in Hamilton. Quinton Porter was pulled after only the first half of play in the Tiger Cats game against Winnipeg. Kevin Glenn came in and basically won the game for Hamilton. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

A couple of smaller quarterback controversies would be the ones brewing in Edmonton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. Some fans have been calling for Ricky Ray’s head after the latest debacle. Winnipeg in Saskatchewan also experienced some questionable play from their quarterbacks, but both don’t really have any suitable back-ups. Plan B might not be better than Plan A for these prairie dwellers.

Second Down: Lousy Reffing Strikes Again

I was at the Rider-Alouette game, and have to say I wasn’t impressed with the reffing. Well… less impressed than usual. Now being a Rider fan, I was obviously disappointed when the majority of the calls went against the Green and White.

I know what you’re thinking, a Rider fan complaining that the calls made against his team were unfair. That’s got to be a fair claim!

But it’s true. Now I’m not saying that every single call was fictional, but the Riders were penalized over and over again. Most of these calls were holding ones. Holding is such an abstract penalty that refs could really call it on every play. It was especially ridiculous that

Saskatchewan’s defensive lineman would be tackled to the ground on some plays and no holding was called.

Things got so out of hand, that after a flag was thrown on a Saskatchewan kick-off, I swore it was going to be holding!

Third Down: Ranking the Retro’s

This week in the CFL was Retro Week: A celebration of the sixties. I got to say, I was fairly disappointed in some regards. It could have been Dave Randorf’s ridiculous outfit, or the team jersey’s, but it thought more could have been done to make the week special. Maybe broadcast some old games for example.

Speaking of the jersey’s however, I thought it would be fitting to rank each teams retro jerseys. Some jersey’s left a good impression, and others left us scratching our heads.

BC Lions: 6/10

The Lions jersey’s were white with orange on the arms. They also featured a claw print on the helmet. The jersey’s were nice enough, but pretty plain.

Calgary Stampeders: 3/10

The Stamps red jersey’s were nice enough, but the yellowish pants killed the ensemble. It looked they were going for a 49er look but came up short.

Edmonton Eskimos: 5/10

The Eskimos jerseys were dark green with gold lettering and arms. They kind of looked like the Regina Rams jerseys. Still, nothing that impressive.

Hamilton Tiger Cats: 7/10

Was it just me, or did it look like Hamilton was wearing the Steelers home jerseys, and Winnipeg was wearing the Steelers away jerseys. Either way, Hamilton’s jerseys looked good.

Montreal Alouettes: 9/10

Very impressive jerseys from Montreal. The Alouettes looked like the Arizona Cardinals with the pure red tops and the white pants.

Saskatchewan Roughriders: 8/10

The Riders jersey’s were fairly simple, with the white and green combination, but the colours were sharp and turned out nicely.

Toronto Argonauts: 10/10

The best jersey’s of the week definitely belonged to the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos did lose their game, but at least they did it in style. The Argos sharp blue and white jersey’s, combined with the white helmets with the black A on them looked very nice.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers: 6/10

As mentioned, Winnipeg’s jersey’s looked like the Steelers alternates. The white jerseys with black and yellow mixed in were decent.