Thursday, October 21, 2010

CFL Previews, Week 17, Part A

Montreal at Hamilton,
The Alouettes are favoured by 2.5 on the road and have beat the Ticats both previous games and in fact are riding a six game win streak against the poor Tabbies. Both are riding two game win streaks. The Alouettes are only 4 and 3 on the road as opposed to 7 and 1 at home, so they are almost two different teams. The Cats are 4 and 3 at home, which isn't particularly impressive considering they went 6 and 3 at home during the regular season last year. There is some hope for the Cats though in this late season engagement. The Alouettes have already locked up home field for the East division final so they don't really have a lot to play for and won't take many chances injury wise. The Alouettes won't have running back Avon Cobourne, linebacker Diamond "the Pimp" Ferri nor kick returner Tim Maypray and still no Kerry Watkins nor kicker/punter David Duval. It helps to have a veteran booting the ball late in the season at Ivor Wynne.

The Cats on the other hand still need to beat out Toronto to host the East semi, so they should actually care somewhat. The Cats also picked up linebacker Kyries Herbert (who I was shocked to learn was actually in the NFL the past couple of seasons with Cincinnati) who probably won't do much apart from special teams this week. Stevie Baggs should make things more difficult for Anthony Calvillo, who probably is on a pretty short leash anyways, being pretty crotchety and all.

Hopefully the Cats can get a decent crowd out this game, as the Cats should beat the Alouettes this week. However the Cats could end up sucking as usual versus Montreal.
Ticats 29 Montreal 25

BC at Calgary,
Calgary, unlike Montreal hasn't quite locked up the Western final home field advantage. Calgary, unlike Montreal is also at home this week. Plus BC is a lot worse than Hamilton. So it isn't really a surprise the Stampeders are favoured by 9.5 points. The Lions are a surprising 3 and 4 on the road, but the Stamps are 6 and 1 at home. BC has lost 2 while Calgary won last week. In theory BC should be desperate, considering they are life and death with Edmonton and the Peg for the final spot in the West, but they are a bad team starting the mediocre Travis Lulay who apropos of nothing reminds me of former Hamilton quarterback Timmy Chang. Barring a small Brother Andre sized miracle, the Stamps easily take it , even covering the spread.
Stampeders 31, BC 22

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