Football Week 2: Huskies deny Dinos' two-pointer, win in OT

It does kind of feel odd having a week where none of the 11 games are actually on Saturday. Three of the four games on Friday were decided by a total of seven points, so here goes nothing (please click through):

Canada West

No. 4 Saskatchewan 34, No. 3 Calgary 33 (2OT) — Playing under Friday Night lights beget an ending straight out of, well, Friday Night Lights. On the TV show, the coach usually gets rewarded for showing the kind of chutzpah Calgary coach Blake Nill showed in going for the win on the second OT possession. In real life, Huskies corner Jonathan Krahenbil batted down Erik Glavic's pass to seal the win, giving the U of S a leg up for home-field advantage in the playoffs and cough, reward any Ontario-based Top 10 voter who had the Huskies in the No. 2 slot on his ballot (just sayin').

It might prove Pyrrhic yet for the Huskies, who had a 300-yard passing night from Laurence Nixon but lost running back Tyler O'Gorman to injury. They won despite the offence needing more than 60 minutes to get in the end zone (Travis Gorski's 118-yard missed field-goal return TD and Grant Shaw's kicking got them to overtime.)

Calgary had penalty problems (each team was flagged for more than 100 yards), including a time-count violation which wiped out a last-minute field goal try and forced them to punt. Tailback Matt Walter was contained. On the plus side, the Dinos stopped the U of S during the first 60 minutes and Glavic threw 27 times for 246 yards. These teams might meet again in the same stadium on Nov. 14.

Huskies Football Outsider has a complete wrapup.

UBC 25, Alberta 24 — T-Birds QB Billy Greene told CITR, "I'm not going to let this team crumble" after last week's loss to Simon Fraser, and what happened? The kid ended up guiding the T-Birds on 71- and 105-yard drives in the final 10 minutes to give UBC the lead, which it escaped with after the Golden Bears' Hugh O'Neill missed a 48-yard field goal on the final play.

Dave Boyd rushed 32 times for 221 yards for UBC (1-1) and kept the T-Birds moving through the second half. Greene scored the decider on a quarterback keeper.

It's bound to get lost amid a fourth-quarter turnaround, but Alberta provided a gold-plated example of why CIS might consider adopting the CFL's rules regarding safety touches.
The CFL moved the kickoff following a safety back 10 yards before this season to discourage teams from giving up the two points. Up 24-6 in the third quarter, Alberta elected to give up the safety while pinned on their 8-yard line (they had gone two-and-out). The kicker was they didn't get much in field position. UBC's Spencer Betts broke off a 45-yard kickoff return to the Alberta 48, about where the T-Birds might have taken over with a decent punt by O'Neill, the all-Canadian. UBC kicked a field goal and was suddenly within 13 points instead of 15. Point being, with the CFL rule, perhaps Alberta would have punted the ball away.

Speaking of returns, UBC's two wideouts, Betts and Jordan Grieve, each had more than 100 yards on runbacks.

Regina 28 Manitoba 10 — Rams QB Marc Mueller put up a passing line his grandfather would have loved: 24-of-34 for 360 yards, two TDs and no picks, plus he used nine receivers. Regina went through almost that many offensive linemen, since three of their pass protectors went down with injuries. Manitoba was held to 284 yards, as both Nate Friesen and Khalial Williams played and could get little going. Regina looked pretty decent all-around.

Great go-for-the-jugular moment from the Rams: Up two touchdowns deep in the third quarter, they went for it on third-and-3 rather than kick a field goal (Perri Scarcelli had already booted three). The football gods rewarded them with a touchdown.

Québec
Sherbrooke 25, Bishop's 20 — The expected outcome, maybe, but the Gaiters almost had the Vert et Or dead to rights. A scoop-and-score by Jonathan L’Esperance, who took a fumble 35 yards to the house late in the first half, ultimately gave Sherby its winning margin. The Gaiters had the edge in yards (430-340) and first downs (26-10), plus they had the ball for 18:52 of the second half.

Bishop's QB Jesse Andrews, who threw 37 times for 329 yards (8.9 avg), twice led Bishop's within 15 yards of a go-ahead TD in the fourth quarter and they could only get a safety and a single on a 19-yard field goal. The safety came after Steven Turner caught a pass just shy of the goal line and was stopped at the 1-yard line.

Sherbrooke was saved by Pascal Fils' 189-yard effort, which included a 70-yard TD. J.P. Shoiry passed 18 times for 177 yards, with seven receivers catching at least one pass but none catching more than two.

Bishop's had 100-yard efforts from receivers Shawn Gore (7-109) and Olivier Mongeau (6-108). The Gaiters have three W's for the taking (the home-and-home vs. McGill and an interlocking game at St. FX, pending how the X-Men look). They really could used a win in this one, but at least they showed they'll be heard from in the Q this season.

Montréal 66, McGill 14 — The score is pretty self-explanatory, eh. The odd part is the Carabins only had 406 yards net offence. They must not faced the long field too often.

Please remember the CIS_SIC Twitter will have quarter-by-quarter updates all season.