From the 55
By Jack B. Bedell  

HOME COOKING  

It took one furious comeback and three serious blowouts to pull it off, but all four home teams came away with victories in week 4.  A month into the season already, that’s the first home sweep, and it was impressive across the board.   

The home wins couldn’t have come at better times for Calgary and Winnipeg, with both teams needing wins to keep pace in their divisional races.  For the Argos and Alouettes, it was simply a matter of keeping their rolls on.  

BLOWOUTS ‘R’ US  
For a league that prides itself on excitement and 60 minutes of possibility in every game, the CFL took a walk on “B” Street in week 4. That’s “B” as in blowout.  

Three out of the four tilts featured 20+ point victories last week. For fans of landslides like myself, it was bliss. For teams and fans on the business ends of those shellackings, week 4 had to raise a few questions.   Tale of the Tape Coming off an impressive home win over the Blue Bombers in week 3, the Hamilton Ticats headed into Montreal Thursday night for something the national media christened a “measuring stick” game against the Alouettes. By the end of the night, it looked like they had been on the wrong end of an “ugly stick” game.  On the back of an impressive four sack, three tackle, two forced fumble night for rush end John Bowman, the Als road their defence for three quarters before their offence finally woke up on the way to a 37-14 beat down of the Ticats.  

Montreal managed to cool off Kevin Glenn with fierce pressure off the edge and sticky coverage on the back end of their secondary. The Als also kept DeAndra Cobb from kick-starting his season, holding him to 25 yards on eight carries.  

For his part, Anthony Calvillo put up another 300+ yard performance against his old squad and breaking the Als’ offensive dry spell with two TDs in the final frame. Damon Duval was also lights out, going 7 of 8 on his placements and righting his season average in one night.  

Bombed into Submission If the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were hoping to get off to a fast start to give back-up pivot Steven Jyles some cover in his second CFL start, it’s pretty safe to say Saturday’s home demolishing of Edmonton was fait accompli.   Thanks to some swarming pressure from their front seven, excellent special teams play, and Jyles’ own athleticism, Big Blue jumped all over the Esks building a 23-0 second-quarter lead before Ricky Ray could get Edmonton any where near the scoreboard.  

Winnipeg’s defence was just plain scary. Odell Willis, Philip Hunt, and Joe Lobendahn absolutely lived in the Esks’ backfield. And newcomer Moton looked like a blur harassing Ray, even scoring his first CFL TD off a pick six.  

On offence, Jyles’ numbers were respectable, but they don’t do justice to the poise, pocket awareness and play-making he displayed going 14 of 22 for 267 and a TD. He distributed the ball well and ran effectively enough to prove to anyone watching that he’s more than capable of leading the team if Buck Pierce has to sit for an extended period of time.  

Stamped Out
The Roughriders went into Calgary Saturday on top of the league with a 3-0 record and all the momentum you could ask for. Like the Ticats in Montreal, though, they left town with more questions than answers after being stampeded 40-20 by the home team, giving up 33 points in the second half alone.   On offence, Calgary caught fire after a sluggish start.  Burris passed for 279 yards and four majors, Romby Bryant caught two of those TDs and racked 116 yards off seven receptions, and Joffrey Reynolds was a hair away from the century mark himself. And once the score turned ugly, Hamilton had no answer.  

Defensive Coordinator Chris Jones’ unit deserves a little praise, too, though.  The Stamps’ D put great pressure on Darian Durant all afternoon from a variety of angles, piling up four turnovers and a couple of sacks, and generally making it impossible for the Riders to find any offensive rhythm until it was too late.   As TSN analyst Matt Dunigan has said often, Burris needs to start to “stacking” quality performances, and the Stamps need to keep feeding Joffrey Reynolds so they can be a dangerously balanced team.  In the ultra-competitive West, they’ll need to be to get where they want to go.  

UP IN SMOKE  
The lone nail-biter from week 4 sure didn’t like it was going to be for most of the night.   For the better part of three quarters, back-up pivot Travis Lulay looked like he was on the Steven Jyles track to engineering his first win in the league. He was efficient and decisive moving the Lions up and down the field throwing for 330 yards.  

Unfortunately, Lulay’s effectiveness didn’t make his way onto the scoreboard as often as it should have with Emanuel Arceneaux dropping a sure TD on a beautifully-thrown bomb that went straight through the receiver’s hands and Jamal Robertson coughing up the ball inside the Argos’ five yard line.  

Those missed opportunities by B.C. were just enough to keep the Argos in the game. And with Cory Boyd breaking off big runs and Cleo Lemon catching some rhythm in the fourth quarter, Toronto was able to score a TD to crawl within three points. From there, it was only a Byron Parker pick six to the Argos’ third-straight win.   No matter which side of that rapid shift in fortunes you were on, though, it was pretty clear Lulay showed he had the goods to be an effective CFL starter, and the Argos proved they’ve acquired some finishing skills. 

RWB’S PRIMETIME PERFORMERS  
1)      John Bowman
2)      Anthony Calvillo
3)      Cory Boyd
4)      Byron Parker
5)      Moton Hopkins
6)      Jovon Johnson
7)      Romby Bryant
8)      Juwan Simpson
9)      Travis Lulay
10)   Ryan Phillips  

WEEK 5 PREDICTIONS DOOMED TO GO WRONG 
I’m ditching the gut this week after an ugly 1-3 performance. I definitely gave too much credit to B.C. and Edmonton’s desperation to turn things around for their seasons, and to Saskatchewan’s grit to win on the road. That puts me at 8-8 for the season now and needing to get things going in the other direction fast.   This week, I’m following stats and momentum—Montreal, B.C., Saskatchewan, and Calgary.  

UP NEXT  
Check back early next week for my take on all the week 5 action, and to see if I’m eating any humble pie after dissing the gut in my picks.   Until then, take care.  And please don’t take a knee while you’re still on the clock at work this week! Thursday will get here soon enough.