Thursday, September 5, 2013

2013 CFL Power Rankings Week 10

1. Saskatchewan Roughriders
Still have only one loss and several teams are on to their backup quarterback. Kory Sheets is on pace to break Mike Pringle's single season rushing record. Class of the CFL for now.
 
2. Calgary Stampeders
Lots of quarterback injury problems, but a lot of answers too, with three decent quarterbacks in Drew Tate, Kevin Glenn and Bo Levi Mitchell. Losing Nik Lewis had hurt. Almost an epic collapse last week against the Eskimos, but still managed to hang on at home, as good teams do.

3. BC Lions
Travis Lulay managed to pass for over 300 yards against Hamilton at home last week, showing that he still has it. The defence did give up a lot of offense against Hamilton last week, but was able to persevere when it counted. Still needs to show against a top CFL team.

4. Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Came close to defeating the Lions in BC late at night, which has historically been difficult for Eastern time zone teams to do. The pass offense is rolling with Henry Burris having many games with over 300 yards passing. Not many rushing attempts. Last week the pass completion percentage was great, but a large number of sacks caused problems, especially in the first quarter. Defence has improved since the start of the year, but it is still weaker than the offense. Having a healthy starter as your quarterback is something this particular week.

5. Montreal Alouettes
Beat Toronto in the battle of the backup quarterbacks in a low scoring affair.  Great defence, especially Chip Cox in the middle who has a ridiculous number of tackles. However going with a backup quarterback for the rest of CFL season will be a learning curve, graded hard early.

6. Toronto Argonauts
With Ricky Ray, the Argos are an efficient offensive machine with gaudy pass completion numbers. Without him, they have a mediocre offense at best combined with a decent defence. Not a great recipe against the better teams in the league.

7. Edmonton Eskimos
I saw someone comment on the internet that this is the best 1 and 8 team ever. That is true and the Eskimos came close to upsetting the Stamps in Calgary. Quarterback Mike Reilly has decent pass numbers and has improved with more starts. To move up the rankings the Eskimos will actually have to win a game. Can they win enough to save head coach's Kavis Reed's job? Doubtful.

8. Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Beaten pretty soundly in Regina last week, although the first half was something of a moral victory for a team with one win. Lots of quarterbacks on the roster, but one hasn't really emerged. Changing the general manager and offensive co-ordinator mid-season isn't good for a team's power rankings.

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