CFL Week 3 Recap: Welcome Home

There they are: all eight of the Montréal Alouettes' Grey Cup championship banners, with the eighth one being the one from last year. This year is the championship defense for the Als, and it started with two games on the road, which Montréal won. For Week 3, it's the long awaited home opener, and the team and their fans celebrated their first championship in 13 years. After the banner was unveiled, the Alouettes got right to work in this East Division battle against the Ottawa Redblacks.

Boy, did they!

17-1 after the first quarter, and 30-1 at halftime. I actually took down the game (which I watched on CFL+) before halftime. It was over then. Ottawa got some garbage time points to make final score...well...tolerable. 47-21 was the final score in Montréal's favor. The winning streak continues for the Alouettes.

Friday night gave us a Western battle between the BC Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Whoever thought that the Bombers would actually be in a must win situation in June? Such is life in the Canadian Football League, anything and everything can happen. The Bombers were at home, which is good for them, but they were up against a hungry Lions team. It was back and forth, as Western games usually are, but in the end, it was BC victorious, 26-24, dropping the Blue Bombers--who represented the West in the last four Grey Cup games--to 0-3. More on this later.

We were treated to a classic on Saturday, as the Edmonton Elks and the Toronto Argonauts, the two winningest teams in the CFL, faced off against each other in an epic battle. This was a battle of the touchdowns, and plus, the Elks had quite a few ex-Argos on the team: McLeod Bethel-Thompson, AJ Ouellette, and Kurleigh Gittens, Jr. They made their mark for sure, and it was a 36-36 tie as the game went down to the wire. The Argos' last possession crossed the Elks' 35, and that cinched it. In a game chock full of touchdowns, it was a field goal that would win it for the Argos and keep Toronto unbeaten.

Week 3 ended the same way that Week 2 ended: with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Saskatchewan Roughriders facing each other. This time, the game was in Regina--and not as close as the first meeting. The first meeting in Hamilton went down to the final seconds and needed a last second field goal. This meeting was over after the first quarter. Riders led 17-0 after that frame and it turned into a 36-20 win over Hamilton, another impressive outing for Saskatchewan.

Here's how things stand after three weeks:

You are not seeing things; the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are 0-3. Now, I know that in the NFL, 0-3 basically means that team is screwed. I don't know the ratio in the CFL, but it's a bad start to be in. The Blue Bombers, Elks, and Tiger-Cats all have that record, though one would think that 0-3 wouldn't be so damaging. After all, we saw the Calgary Stampeders reach the playoffs at 6-12, though that team started 1-2. The Tiger-Cats are on another slow start, but the Elks have promise, as all three of their losses were close. On the flipside, the Roughriders have been a surprise. In a West Division where the Lions and Bombers are supposed to be the top teams, the Riders have emerged as a surprising new favorite in the division, while the East has the Alouettes and Argonauts on top as expected.

Week 4 will kick off on Thursday, June 27 with the BC Lions hosting the Edmonton Elks, but on Friday, June 28, it's the long awaited battle between the Montréal Alouettes and the Toronto Argonauts. On Saturday, June 29, the Calgary Stampeders will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and the week of division battles concludes on Sunday, June 30 with the Ottawa Redblacks hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

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