Where does everyone land after a wild week in the CFL? | CFL Power Rankings - video Dailymotion

Peter Klein

A wild week in the CFL has left basically everything in the CFL up in the air. Peter Klein has taken on the tough task of trying to place everyone in the right spot in this week's CFL Power Rankings.

Transcript

00:00I mainly just do this every week because I like the music.

00:14It is time for CFL Power Rankings.

00:17And I have said for a little bit that two things in this league are true.

00:21Hamilton's bad and Montreal is good.

00:23And now, I don't even know if we can say that.

00:27Everything in this league is so bundled up.

00:29By the way, I'm on this week in the CFL on the Ticats Audio Network this week, so make

00:34sure you check that out.

00:35I believe it's coming out a little bit later on today, but I had an absolute blast.

00:38I could do that show every week, man.

00:40Bubba does an amazing job with it this week, a couple pretty good guests as well, and then

00:45I'm just here making jokes in the corner.

00:47So it's a really, really fun time, and definitely check that out.

00:52But now, CFL Power Rankings.

00:55Coming in at number 9, the Calgary Stampeders.

00:58Hey!

00:59They didn't lose.

01:00They didn't lose last week.

01:02That was, this whole CFL week, we talked about it on Monday, this whole CFL week was so weird.

01:07When you look at the insanity of, like, we went through all the stats, like, oh yeah,

01:14Toronto's only won one home game, or one road game, all season long against BC, who seems

01:17to have figured it out, and it's the Lions who lose and Toronto wins.

01:20Hamilton, yeah, what are the Ticats anyway?

01:24They're not a very good team.

01:25Ottawa's coming into, oh, Hamilton just blew them out.

01:28Okay, well, Calgary, 2-7 since Stampede started.

01:32Montreal, they got embarrassed last week, they're going to be refocused, and it was

01:35a tie?

01:36Goddamn.

01:37So, just coming off of a very unpredictable week, this is going to be a little all over

01:42the place.

01:43But, at 9, it is still the Calgary Stampeders.

01:46They are, I think, still the worst team in the league.

01:48I think they have the worst quarterback situation in the Canadian Football League, and they

01:53hung with the Montreal Alouettes, and kudos to them for that.

01:57But I do think that this is still a team that is severely flawed, and still has a lot of

02:03things that they need to work out.

02:04And it just feels like, a lot of times this year, when Calgary stays in games, it is more

02:10what the other team didn't do than what Calgary did do.

02:14And I think that was another case on Saturday night.

02:16At 8, it's Hamilton.

02:18They continue to kind of show up.

02:21This is back-to-back wins over two teams that will probably be in the playoffs.

02:25And now, all of a sudden, Hamilton's at 8 points.

02:29Saskatchewan, who is in 3rd right now, in the West, is at 11 points.

02:34That whole little East-West crossover thing, we've never seen it before.

02:38That starts to come into play.

02:40Hamilton's playing some legitimately pretty good football.

02:42And the thing that should worry teams is that defense.

02:46And this is not a podcast, or a Twitch stream, or a YouTube video, or whatever.

02:50This is not a content-generating system that has ever said anything kind about Chris Jones.

02:57That being said, when he can just focus on a defense, that defense is pretty good.

03:03Do not let him near one roster meeting for the rest of his life.

03:07But when he can just coach up a defense, he can coach up a defense.

03:11And now, you look at, they're getting the most out of guys like Usher, and like Barlow,

03:17and creating turnovers, and creating all of these big play opportunities for their

03:21defense, and allowing this offense that has been good all season long to really start

03:26to thrive.

03:27And now, you have Bo Levi-Mitchell, they still need to figure out the run game, but you have

03:31Bo Levi-Mitchell, who kind of might be the MLP favorite right now, we talked about that

03:35on This Week in the CFL, he's going again.

03:40And he's not turning the ball over, which is huge.

03:42You have Bridges, who has become one of the more reliable second-down targets in the league.

03:47You have Dunbar, who just, like, picked him up and put him down for a big touchdown.

03:51This team is putting up points without Tim White, who is probably still their most talented

03:56offensive player.

03:57He has had his ups and downs this season.

03:59I'm not saying, like, okay, let's go out and get those Ticats Futures tickets, I'm

04:03just saying, this is not a Ticats team that you should be sleeping on.

04:08At all.

04:09At 7, it's Saskatchewan.

04:10I think that the results have not been indicative of how talented this team is, but the results

04:18are still what the results have been.

04:19They need to turn it around very quickly.

04:21Defensively, they have still played very good.

04:24Offensively, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster with Trevor Harris lately.

04:27This is a gigantic week as they come out here to McMahon Stadium.

04:31At 6, it's BC.

04:33There are only so many nights like Friday night that you can tolerate with this team,

04:37and there have been far too many of them lately to consider them an elite team.

04:40Now, I do think the quarterback situation gets figured out.

04:43I think it's very interesting right now, but I do think it gets figured out.

04:46And I do think that defensively, with Betts there causing a little bit more havoc, that's

04:51going to help things for them immensely.

04:54At 5, it's Ottawa.

04:58For a team like Ottawa to stay up as high in the power rankings as they were, they can't

05:01have losses like they had against Hamilton.

05:03This is the second game this year where turnovers have been a gigantic problem for this team.

05:09And again, I have said, I still think Ottawa is growing.

05:12I still think they are quite good.

05:13I just don't think that they are this, like, absolute powerhouse that we have to take seriously

05:22no matter the results.

05:23They have not earned the benefit of the doubt to bounce back from a result like they had

05:27against Hamilton.

05:29And so, I do think that, again, I think it's a good football team, but to keep them up

05:33high in the power rankings, you can't have weeks like you had last week against Hamilton.

05:37At 4, it's Edmonton.

05:38They're just good now.

05:39Jackson has come in and really helped out the offense.

05:42Trey Ford, sounds like he's going to be the quarterback coming off of the bye.

05:45They have a monster game against Winnipeg this week.

05:49And that is going to be a very, very intriguing matchup in the CFL's West Division.

05:53At 3, Toronto.

05:55That defense, stepping up in that way without McManus, was not something I thought they

06:00could do.

06:01The front four is alone, almost enough to get to the quarterback.

06:05They absolutely bottled up Stanbeck.

06:07And then, when they blitzed anyone at all, it was a major issue for the BC Lions.

06:12This team, when they are able to just generate with that four-man pressure, can be really,

06:16really dangerous.

06:17And they're going to be so dangerous when McManus comes back.

06:20At 2, it's Winnipeg.

06:23Start of the season, Owen, everything.

06:25And they have worked their way back.

06:27I'm still not all the way there on this offense.

06:29But the defense is legitimate.

06:31And the defense is legitimately very, very good.

06:33And so I do think that there are some takeaways you can have for this team.

06:39And it's just, when you look at how everyone else is playing, Winnipeg is playing some

06:42of the best football in the CFL right now.

06:44And even though there have been a couple of banana peels on the way, Montreal still sits

06:47as the number one team in the land.

06:49They do need to get their shit right, but for now, they are the number one team in the

06:54power rankings.

06:56And so I do think that it is, it's wild.

06:59It's a very, very wild season.

07:01Toxic in the chat.

07:02Do you think that the quality of talent has gone down as a whole since COVID happened?

07:06I do.

07:07I do think it has.

07:09I think specifically the team here in Calgary has had a really difficult time.

07:12I do think also that the XFL and the USFL, and now the whatever the fuck they're calling

07:18it, I think that has had, it's had to have played a role, right?

07:23And so I do think, there are a few things that have gone into this, Toxic.

07:27But I do think, like COVID for sure, where you just have that stretch where you couldn't

07:32have the random free agent minicamp in Miami and go find the whatever.

07:38And so that replacement, that kind of next man up mentality, that kind of next man up

07:44mentality that we had out here in Calgary specifically, that has been a little bit more

07:48difficult to find.

07:50And so it has gone down a little bit.

07:53There are a few things where it hasn't.

07:57Every game I watch, with the exception, honestly, of Ottawa, and certain degrees Calgary as

08:03well, but almost every game I watch, you look, man, you can make a case this is the best

08:07receiving core in the league.

08:08You know, like every team feels like they go three or four deep at receiver.

08:12And so there's a lot of talent there.

08:14There's always been a lot of talent there.

08:16And I do think, while we have tested it greatly over the last couple of years in the CFL,

08:21I do think that the depth at quarterback is, or the talent level at quarterback is pretty

08:25good.

08:26But we at least have found like a few really good ones.

08:30BC is kind of hoarding two of the best.

08:33But we have found some of those levels.

08:36And so yes, I do think that there's, there's a couple spots still where it has, I think,

08:40fallen off.

08:41And so when you have the COVID happen, and so you can't go out to some of those camps,

08:47and then it affects the revenue for the Canadian Football League just in general.

08:50So maybe you have a few less scouts going to a few fewer places, right?

08:55And then you have two other Spring Leagues that pop up and make it a little bit difficult

08:59for you to just kind of pluck that talent away.

09:02And also, and this is not a bad thing for the players, and I agree with it.

09:06But I do think NIL has something to do with it, where that guy who was coming out of college

09:11now and trying to give it a go at the NFL, and oh shit, I didn't make it.

09:17Where do I go?

09:18CFL.

09:19Let's go.

09:20A, there's more options for him.

09:22because they're making five, six figures a year, still, playing in college football.

09:28And so you don't have that need to go out and make professional football money, Canadian

09:32Football League salaries being what they are.

09:35So it doesn't make financial sense for some of these guys to leave college early and try

09:40to find a pro league like the Canadian Football League to continue to grow their talent.

09:45They can just play for a fifth year and bounce from Bemidji State to Alabama or something

09:51like that, right?

09:52So you are having less players come out early, the players that are coming out have more

09:59places to go, and the CFL has limited resources to go out and find them.

10:03So it has kind of been this just snowballing of things that have built up to to kind of

10:08limit things in the Canadian Football League.

10:12That is to say, I still think that there are a lot of talented players in this league,

10:17and I do think like it has been some pretty good football.

10:19The one other thing I will add is the cap on the salary cap on coaches is the dumbest

10:26fucking thing in sports right now.

10:28I'm sure they're dumber, but off the top of my head, I can't think of one.

10:31It is so ridiculous.

10:32And now again, where you have more coaching options with the XFL and the USFL, and less

10:39money now to spend on those coaches, you are getting less like I'm not saying it's

10:45a brain drain, but you are getting less coaches coming in.

10:49And so you're getting less evolution, less ingenuity, fewer new ideas, because everyone

10:55who is kind of everyone who you're hiring in the CFL was already here to begin with.

11:00You're not plucking from different places to see if you can find a Mark Trestman out

11:03of nowhere.

11:04And then all of a sudden he has become this giant quarterback guru in Montreal and Toronto.

11:10You're not finding these diamonds in the rough in other places because you are now

11:13limited in how much you can spend on some of these as well.

11:16So all of that is to say, I do think that things have gotten down a little bit toxic

11:19since COVID, but I do think that there are ways kind of around it now that you just have

11:24to get a little creative with some of those things.

Where does everyone land after a wild week in the CFL? | CFL Power Rankings

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