Because I was asked...

[DRU2012]

It WAS a good game--but after the Gator game on Saturday, watching ANOTHER team (and I WAS nominally a Bomber-fan for this one, in solidarity with you, FG) with TOUGH "D" doing everything IT could to keep things "close", falling short 'cause its OFFENSE wasn't quite up to the challenge (I mean, BC's "D" was apparently "having one of its better games", according to the announcing team, an "International Crew") was a little frustrating--NOT that it was ANYTHING like THAT bad; I just wanted to see your Bombers be able to match them--but you're right: in the end, they were beaten by the overall better team that day. I know that 34 points doesn't SOUND like "good D" to fans down here in The Lower 48, but it IS in the CFL against a top, high-flying offense like that of the Lions--and it becomes obvious why that is so when you watch it (ie. the Canadian game) again after some time away...Man, it just FELT fast, everything in motion all the time (even before the ball is snapped!) on that humongous field (How much wider IS it, btw?), where you can still run deep passing plays into that ("endless") endzone from the 5-yard-line, and so on...and of course the 3-downs-instead-of-4 both forces the strategic and tactical hands of offensive coaches and players (it's the equivalent of OUR "3rd-and-long" almost immediately), AND forces numerous possession changes for the same reasons. Once again, I am reminded of how that version of football lends itself to the skills of certain types of players.
(PS What I DID find HILARIOUS, is a scene that would have been handled I think in a much more serious way, fraught with phony outrage, by the mainstream American press if it had happened down here, was that cane-dueling incident between Joe Kapp and Angelo Mosca, two old rival CFL coaches (and I do mean OLD--they are positively UP there, among the "crotchety elderly") who have held a mutual long-term grudge against each other and were brought together on a popular Canadian (late-night?) talk-show--with (according to CFL-insiders and long time fans) "predictable" results: an immediate renewal of their animosity and a rejoining of the old arguments, all quickly escalating into a physical confrontation (or as close to it as they could manage) involving the aforementioned canes. Really deserved one of those jocular beer commercials framing it, all ending with the voice-over: "It doesn't GET any better than THIS...")

 

[FrozenGator]

Glad you got a chance to watch! Stay tuned next year!

The field is 65 yards wide, and 110 yards from goal line to goal line. The endzones are 15 yards deep. The slotbacks (inside receivers) are usually in motion before the snap, but anyone can be, in any number, except the linemen.

One timeout per half, one free challenge per half. 20 second playclock, but don't like that fool you because it won't start until the ref whistles it in; it winds up being about 30 seconds.

So, with all of that, the game feels faster, I'll agree with you there.

And yes, the D did well, but most teams need their offenses to be on the field to score points, and we couldn't pull it off.

 

[DRU2012]

Boy, that last line sums up our Gators' last game too--and the whole season for our team, as it turns out. Very frustrating--that's what I was saying about why the Cup game had overtones that were particularly painful, less than 24 hours later.
I have ALWAYS enjoyed the CFL-style game, found it different but just as balanced, in its own way, as the US version. The pace, the flow-of-movement, the overall VISUAL "feel" I actually find more viscerally satisfying than the American PRO-game. SEC-style college football will always be at the top of all spectator-sports for me, but that is only because it is the forum in which our GATORS compete...With the NFL's huge popularity (not just in the US, either, but in Mexico, where they're all Cowboy fans, Canada, where something like 90% of the population lives within 200 miles of the border and receives American TV signals, and now growing in Britain and Europe as well), I know I am in a small minority, but after college football, I think that, in terms of what I PERSONALLY find most fun to watch, I can honestly place CFL football at the top of the heap, not just of professional football, but of ALL PRO-Sports.

 

[FrozenGator]

One thing I just re-read in a previous comment, DRU, was that Mosca and Kapp weren't coaches. They were opposing players on the Ti-Cats and Lions who played for the Grey Cup back in the 70s. Mosca hit a Lions receiver late and sent him out of the game, and the Ti-Cats won. Kapp had gone after Mosca then, and they've gone after each other since. This last time was just hilarious because they're both really old, and they're still ridiculously fired up about it. Old grudges don't die, I think....

There are some neat commercials out for the CFL now that say, "Watch every last second, or you could miss everything," and they recap some of the most amazing comebacks in the CFL. Worth watching.