Henry Burris may have a sore shoulder, but he's still the No. 1 quarterback in Calgary - especially since the Stampeders are gunning for homefield advantage in the playoffs. (Canadian Press)

After his rough patch at the beginning of the season, Saskatchewan Roughriders slotback Andy Fantuz has really emerged as a legitimate offensive threat especially with [wide receiver] Matt Dominguez out with an injury. Are Kerry Joseph and Fantuz the best quarterback-wide receiver duo in the CFL right now? If not, who is?

GF: Who I would put up there is Kevin Glenn and Terence Edwards. Edwards's career has really rejuvenated with the move from Montreal to Winnipeg. He's come to the forefront as a tremendous talent. Obviously to become a talent when you have a guy like Milt Stegall on your team, that's saying a lot. They have a nice connection there, but Winnipeg has had some shaky games.

It's easy to look at the connection between Joseph and Fantuz because Saskatchewan has been playing some good football and Fantuz has had some big games with the biggest one being last week [three touchdowns, seven receptions for 240 yards].

Henry Burris is coming off a sensational week. He returned from a shoulder injury and was named the league's offensive player of the week for his five-touchdown performance against Winnipeg. Calgary coach Tom Higgins said Burris is still sore and that backup Ben Sankey is taking most of the reps in practice this week. If you're Higgins, how do you approach these final weeks of the season? Ride Burris even though he has just returned from injury, or play it safe with Sankey and rest Burris for the playoffs?

GF: Well, first, Burris isn't taking many reps this week because he knows what to expect from Winnipeg since the Stamps just played them. Calgary is still fighting for a home playoff spot. I think you push Burris. He's sore, but structurally he's sound. [B.C. Lions coach] Wally Buono is always saying there's a big difference between injury and pain. As a football player or an athlete in general, you need to be able to differentiate between these two. If he's sore and it's about pain, then he can deal with it. He'll push through it. Right now, their goal as an organization is to host the West semifinal playoff game. They have a chance to do that.

As a coach, you need to show a level of intelligence and figure out how far you can push a player. You don't want to end up in a situation where you're in that West semifinal and you've got a quarterback that's 70 per cent healthy. It's probably better to have your guy be 100 per cent healthy and be playing in Saskatchewan or B.C. The athlete needs to have awareness of pain and injury, and the coach needs to be able to push his players beyond what the player thinks he can do himself. Those are ultimately the best coaches out there.

The psychological component of the game is just as important as the physical component. If the Calgary Stampeders can maintain a level of consistency and continue to win football games going into the playoffs, that level of confidence they generate is going to compensate for some physical weaknesses.

In last week's loss to B.C. Lions, Edmonton rookie quarterback Stefan LeFors had a breakout performance (even with three interceptions) with 250 yards in the air and 60 yards rushing. The rookie showed his scrambling ability and nearly guided the Eskimos to a last-minute comeback. Do you think LeFors could be lured away elsewhere next year, say the NFL?

GF: He's under contract in Edmonton [LeFors signed a three-year contract last fall], so he won't veer far. He's been thrown into the fire, and he still has a lot of growth and learning to do as a CFL quarterback. He can learn from a Ricky Ray, and he needs to take these opportunities that he has and make the most out of it. The positive that's coming out of this for [Eskimos coach] Danny Maciocia is LeFors's confidence has increased instead of decreased.

Is [Hamilton rookie] Timmy Chang a good quarterback in your mind? Well, you might question him. The only reason you question his abilities is because he didn't have the same level of success, or obvious success, that LeFors has had. Although LeFors hasn't won football games, he hasn't looked out of place on the football field. Both Chang and LeFors are good quarterbacks with a long way to go to be a consistently, high-performing quarterback. But LeFors is getting better week in and week out, and you can see he's improving with each opportunity he gets. Is he a Ricky Ray? Absolutely not. Is he a Buck Pierce? No. He's going to have a future and he's going to be able to make the most of his opportunities to learn from Ricky Ray.

The other key thing with LeFors is he's been very well prepared by who I believe to be one of the best offensive co-ordinators in the CFL in Jacques Chapdelaine. If you look at Timmy Chang, if he was in Edmonton or maybe in Saskatchewan, he could get some great coaching and be well prepared. I don't know if I would say Hamilton has that ability from a coaching standpoint to be able to prepare their quarterbacks like some of these other CFL veteran coaches can.

[B.C. Lions veteran quarterback] Dave Dickenson made a great point a while back. Any quarterback that you bring in to camp is able to throw an out route during one-on-one drills and look pretty good. The great quarterbacks are those people who throw to the open receivers. I don't need to have an accurate throw or a hard throw as long as I'm throwing to the open receiver. If I was looking at characteristics when bringing a quarterback into the CFL, my No. 1 attribute - because athleticism is pretty much a given when people get to a certain level would be, 'Are they a mature individual that is coachable and prepared? Does this person understand the offensive framework so that they are throwing to the open person?' LeFors is obviously a coachable individual and he is taking the lessons from Chapdelaine. He understands his read progression and is getting the ball to the appropriate open receiver.

Should the B.C. Lions be concerned with Joe Smith's production as of late? It's hard to point a finger at a guy who has almost 1,300 yards rushing on the season, but he's been kept to under 50 yards in his last two contests (40 against Edmonton and 45 two weeks ago in Winnipeg).

GF: I think it's important for the fans to understand that going into the last couple weeks of the season, defensive co-ordinators have compiled a lot of data and are more prepared to play the B.C. Lions today than they were five weeks ago. You've got to give a lot of credit to the preparation of the defensive co-ordinators and how they've communicated that into their defensive game plan against the Lions.

For B.C., it's really difficult to be able to scheme against a defence that's committing more players inside the box (the defensive line, linebackers and sometimes defensive backs) and are very focused on stopping the run. If I'm going to play against the B.C. Lions, I'm going to make them do something they're not comfortable or not as comfortable doing, which is passing the ball. That's just good strategy. Last week, the Edmonton Eskimos did a good job of forcing the ball into [quarterback] Jarious Jackson's hands and forced him to be a quarterback, not a just quarterback that hands the ball off to Joe Smith. They need to be able to have a guy like Geroy Simon step up and be great, and Jason Clermont to be great, and Paris Jackson to be great. Smith is always going to be a threat that draws attention, and if in fact the Lions continue to push the run and defences stop it, then other areas of the offence will be open and B.C. will need to take advantage of that.

This weekend's CFL on CBC game is Toronto at Montreal (CBC, 3 p.m. ET). It's a game full of playoff implications for both sides. What are the keys to victory for each team?

GF: Well, Toronto has been winning games from really solid performances from their defence. Obviously from their standpoint they've been winning with special teams and their defence - that's Argo football. So they'll continue to strive to have success in those two areas and eventually look to get better offensively. I think the addition of Tony Miles into the mix last week looked great. The Argos don't have to put up 30 points to win football games. Many of their points come off turnovers generated from their defence.

For Montreal, they need to have ball security. Playing against the Toronto defence, first and foremost, don't hurt yourself. The ball security, I believe, has to come from their ability to rush the football, which they weren't able to do last week and haven't really done a good job of with [running back] Jarrett Payton for at least the last three weeks. Here's this big back with lots of press clippings, but the Alouettes have been inconsistent with their rushing attack. I think you control the game and you control ball security if you have a good rushing attack.

If I look at Montreal and what they need to improve down the stretch, they need to work on their defence, specifically in their secondary, and offensively, they need to have a strong rushing attack. They haven't had either of those over the last couple weeks and it's shown in their inability to win football games.

Lenny Kravitz was just announced as the halftime act for the 95th Grey Cup. What Lenny tune are you looking forward to hearing?

GF: Oh, Are You Gonna Go My Way, for sure. Lenny Kravitz is solid.