Ticat Depth Chart, Regular Season Finale

The offensive line is the usual. Gauthier at left tackle, import Goodspeed at right tackle, Dyakowski and Hudson the guards and Hage the centre. Import James is one wide receiver and Bauman is back at the other. Import McDaniel is one of the slotbacks and local boy Dave Stala is the other. Bruce is listed as is customary, backing up Bauman. Rodriguez is listed as backing up James.

Glenn starts, Cobb starts, with non-import Williams listed as the fullback.

On defence, Long and Hickman are the ends, McIntyre and Adams are the tackles.

Knowlton, Floyd and Johnson are the linebackers.

Bradley and Smith are the cornerbacks, with Thompson and Tisdale the defensive backs. Barker starts again as the lone Canadian on defence at safety. Sasha Glavic is listed as his backup, who I thought the Cats had released.

Jeremy Ito is in as the punter and kicker because Setta is injured. Good that we had Ito on the practice roster for a while, although I wonder how he will do.

For Winnipeg on the offensive line, Morley is the left tackle, with import January the right tackle, LaBatte and Mac product Donnelly are the guards and Khan is the centre.

Imports Ryan and Bowman are the wide receivers, Ralph and Hargreaves are the slotbacks. Bishop is the starting quarterback, with Bramlet (who?) the backup. Fred Reid is the starting running back, with Oosterhuis the fullback.

On defence, Hunt and Willis are the ends, with non-imports Brown and Oramasionwu as the tackles. Imports Charlton, Simpson and Shabazz are the linebackers.

Imports Craver and Johnson are the cornerbacks. Imports Walls and Hefney are the defensive backs, with non-import Logan as the safety.

Serna is the placekicker and Troy Westwood is the punter.

Terry Caulley Cut

Sad to see that Terry Caulley has been cut. Drew Edwards reported it in his blog. Caulley was injured for a lot of the year, and the emergence of Deandra' Cobb kept him on the bench. Caulley was a decent player, however his time corresponded with some low points for the Tiger-Cats. Seems with the signing of running back Tyler Ebell, Caulley became expendable. Still wondering what is going to happen to Kenton Keith in the off-season. Outright release?

Morencie Signing

There's an article in the Province about the Cats signing Windsor Lancer fifth year player Matt Morencie. BC had drafted him in the third round before the start of this season, but Morencie went back for his fifth year after I assume the Lions released him. That meant with Windsor out of the playoffs and their season done, he was free to sign with any team and ended up with the Cats.

This is an interesting issue as players routinely go back for a fifth year of CIS ball if they can't make the club. BC could have done what the Cats (Zack Carlson) and Riders seem to be doing and kept Morencie on the roster this season, but then put him on the nine game injury list, where he and his salary doesn't count against the cap or the roster limit. This nine game injury list is now a way of getting around the salary cap. Teams with more resources like the Riders can stockpile players, compared to the Argos who tend to be underfunded (probably from paying too much to coaches past and present) and keep the bare number of Canadians and end up screwed when injuries occur.

The Cats are looking good for next year in terms of young Canadians on the offensive line. They have number one pick Rottier, supplementary pick Carlson and now Morencie getting some practice in before next year's camp. Morencie was highly rated going into the draft but somewhat inexplicably dropped down to third. With guard Dyakowski also being quite young, the Cats are probably OK next year even if backup guard Gagne-Marcoux goes to Montreal to replace Bryan Chiu at centre (his natural position). Hudson is getting quite old, although his play has been reasonable and better than Gagne-Marcoux's. Goodspeed and Gauthier will no doubt be back, with probably this year's crop of offensive linemen making their presence felt in 2011.

CFL Previews, Week 19, Part 1

Pigskin Pete at Ivor Wynne
Originally uploaded by philinator

Edmonton at BC,
So BC is favoured by four at home last I checked, despite BC having had lost two games in a row. Edmonton is on a one game winning streak after spanking the hapless Argos last week. Still not sure who starts for BC this week in a win or go home game (or tie and both stick around) Printers or Buck "the Glassman" Pierce. Printers has played well the past few weeks, but hasn't won. Not sure if BC running back Mallett will play either. BC's defence looks like it has finally adjusted to not having Cameron Wake make everyone else look better. Edmonton's defence has looked porous the entire year. I'm going with BC mainly due to Buono, but really these two teams are not that good.

Montreal at Toronto,
Uh, Montreal is only favoured by 9.5 points? Toronto has lost seven straight, is one and seven at home, whereas Montreal is five and three on the road and has a mighty one game winning streak going. Easy romp for Montreal, especially if Toronto starts Reaves

Odds

So the last odds I have seen have Winnipeg 1.5 point favourites at home against the Tiger-Cats on Sunday. Winnipeg didn't look great against a Montreal with Calvillo at the controls, but this week they are at home and if they don't win, they are out. Hamilton is in unless BC and Edmonton tie and the Cats lose. I think Hamilton has looked quite good the past two games, especially the defence, so barring Bishop heaving bombs randomly down field that happen to land near Winnipeg receivers, I think we have really should be favoured.

BC is favoured by three at home versus Edmonton in their do or die game. Hamilton and BC winning we mean Printers starting in Hamilton the following week. Somehow I think Ray comes out of this one.

The Riders are favoured by one at home against Calgary in their battle to host the Western final. Saskatchewan hasn't won the division since 1976 which is remarkable in a four and five team division. The Riders looked crap against Hamilton and if they bring that against Calgary, they'll get blown out.

Montreal is favoured by 9.5 against Toronto in David Millerville. Toronto is starting that Reaves kid, however if I was betting, I would be tempted to take Montreal against the spread.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Calgary
3. Saskatchewan
4. Hamilton
5. BC
6. Edmonton
7. Winnipeg
8. Toronto

Montreal came back into form with Calvillo back. Calgary won a close one in BC, while Saskatchewan looked terrible in Hamilton, flu or not. Hamilton looked good both
offensively and defensively.

BC can play reasonably with Casey Printers at the controls, but doesn't look like they can make the next step.

Edmonton beats Toronto. Which means little. Winnipeg comes back to earth against a real quarterback. Toronto sucks as per usual. One last game to tie last year's four and fourteen record.

Cats Win!

Wow. That was awesome and most enjoyable. Especially compared to last year, where sitting as I do in section 5, I was surrounded by annoying Rider fans (or even worse Andy Fantuz fans). This year, there weren't a lot of yappy Rider fans, as pretty much every play except for the phantom interception went our way.

Congratulations to Cobb on going over 1000 yards rushing and picking up 159 yards on 25 rushes. Also, awesome play by local boy Dave Stala with nine catches for 126 yards, including a TD. That represented more than half of Kevin Glenn's 233 yards on 21 for 35 passing. Apparently Bruce was one for one passing for four yards, but I missed that.

Also awesome was the Cat defence with six sacks, which hopefully gets up from last place in the CFL sack race. Durant was a sucky 8 for 20 for 66 measly yards. Andy Fantuz had a mediocre game with three catches for 27 yards, which I enjoyed considering the idot "Tuz" fans in my vicinity.

Good to see over 24,500 fans, although probably close to 5,000 were Rider fans. Thanks for your money!