Monday Morning Sentimonies: Are We Better?

Welcome back from the bye week.

The question posed in the title of this post seems like it has a pretty obvious answer… Yes. Yes, this team is better than it was at this point in 2024. Its so obvious even CFL Command Centre couldn’t get it wrong (maybe). I mean we could go 3-7 to end the season and still have a better record than 2024. But I always like to dig a bit deeper into things. Wins can hide underlying issues. While the signs started showing up in year 2, we did not realize that Craig Dickenson was in free fall until it was much too late.  So let’s take a look at how the stats compare to this time last year.

 

	2024	2025	Difference
Wins	5	7	+2
Offensive Pts	195	215	+20
Offensive Tds	19	21	+2
Pass yds	2172	2353	+181
Rush Yds	718	884	+166
Sacks Allowed	19	10	-9
Giveaways	11	11	0
Big Plays	14	29	+15
Def Pts Allowed	194	174	-20
Def Tds Allowed	18	19	+1
Pass yds allowed	2490	2453	-37
Rush yds allowed	611	527	-84
Sacks	17	22	+5
Takeaways	22	17	-5
Big plays allowed	18	15	-3
Penalty Yds	568	665	+97

 At first glance everything looks pretty good. We are showing improvement across all but a couple categories. 

Offensively a couple things stand out. Scoring and yardage are up slightly but I think that is mainly due to Trevor Harris playing more games this season. But giving up 9 less sacks definitely jumps out. 10 total sacks is just objectively a great number. But consider the context. We lost McEwen and Gagnon before the first preseason game. We have since lost Tate and Johnson. That is 4 starting caliber players, 3 of them Canadian. That would normally be crippling. Hell, it was not that long ago that our starters we allowing exponentially more sacks that these depth guys are. The other thing that really caught my eye was that the number of big plays (30+ passing, 20+ rushing) has doubled. You see this clearly in the pass game. Guys like Myers are powering our deep game and that is making a difference. 

Defensively while 5 less takeaways might seem like a negative, in the larger context it tells a positive story. We are getting less takeaways than last year, but also allowing less points. That means we are less reliant on takeaways and more solid overall. We are also doing a better job of not letting opponents drive into FG range. We have actually allowed more TDs the season but less point overall. 

Two other things that don’t show in there that I think are important:

-        Last year we had a .500 record on the road at this point. This year we are undefeated on the road. The strength and resiliency to win on the road is a very positive thing.

-        Depth. Last year when Harris got hurt we did not win very much. Fortunately its only happened once this year but we won. We are down many starting OL as previously mentioned. We are down many starting WR. The guys who have been called to step in aren’t just surviving.. they are thriving. Real credit to O’Day and his scouting staff. 

This next 4 weeks is a critical and very difficult part of the season. We play Hamilton, Calgary and Winnipeg twice. If we go 2-2 in those games we are in great position in terms of looking to lock up a home playoff game. The way this team is playing 2-2 seems pretty realistic.