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2014 CFL Predictions Week 1

The CFL regular season is back! Along with my weekly picks.

Toronto Argonauts at Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Newsflash! Winnipeg still sucks in 2014, but it may get better. Appointing former Argos special teams coach as head coach may or may not be a good move for the Bombers. The Bombers will go with Drew Willy at quarterback. Willy had some success last year with the Riders, but the Bombers aren't anywhere near as good as the 2013 Riders (the 2014 Riders aren't as good as the 2013 either).
The Argos still have Ricky Ray as their quarterback who should reliably although not particularly excitingly dissect the Bomber defence. Maybe Chad Owens will do something for the Argos.

Toronto 26, Winnipeg 19

Montreal Alouettes at Calgary Stampeders
The Stamps seem to be starting Bo Levi Mitchell at quarterback which is a smart move. Drew Tate is a whiny bitch. Jon Cornish is back to carry the mantle of best Canadian running back while also probably being the best running back. Montreal is going again with Troy Smith at quarterback. I'm not really sold on Smith, although at least he got some experience last season. The Als also have Chad Johnson to drive page views although whether he'll do much is a pretty open question. Stamps are at home and are likely to come out of the gate better than Montreal
Calgary 25, Montreal 19

Edmonton Eskimos at BC Lions
The Lions are the better team and are at home. Travis Lulay is injured but Kevin Glenn isn't much of a step down. Mike Reilly threw for a lot of yards for the Esks last year, most of it while running for his life. Edmonton could eventually end up better than last year, but I think the first game will be tough.
Lions 31, Esks 27

Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Saskatchewan Rough-Riders
The Cats are back to the seen of last year's Grey Cup against the same opponent. The Riders have lost of important players from last year's Cup winning team. The Cats lost Henry Burris and have replaced him with Zach Collaros. If the Cats were at home, I would go with a narrow Cat win, but the Riders (and basically every CFL team) are strong at home. Plus Collaros has only had a few weeks of training camp to get used to brand new receivers and to top it off, Cat slotback Andy Fantuz is out for a week.
Riders 29, Ticats 19

Rod Smith New TSN CFL Panel Host

TSN announced that Rod Smith will be taking over from the departed to Sportsnet Dave Randorf as the host of the panel on their CFL broadcasts. TSN took their sweet time deciding on Smith as the host and had panel member Jock Climie as the host for all the pre-season games. I've got no problems with Rod Smith, although I would have been OK with TSN going with someone newer either.

Update On Ticats Tim Horton's Field Expected Tomorrow

The Spec has an article up stating that Ontario Sports Solutions and Infrastructure Ontario will give an update at 9:30 tomorrow morning on the stadium. I'm expecting delays to be spelled out as this will be the first update in a while, but who knows.

Mid Pre-Season CFL 2014 Power Rankings

Power rankings during in the middle of the pre-season is bound to be arbitrary. But it is necessary.

1. Calgary
Mostly on the strength of John Hufnagel, Jon Cornish and Bo Levi Mitchell and definitely not the whiny and injury prone Drew Tate. Calgary I can say will field a decent team this year. That's enough to be number one at this point.

2. Hamilton
Can Hamilton win with Zac Collaros as quarterback. That I'm not completely sure about, but with LeFevour and Masoli as backups if Collaros falters someone will emerge. C.J. Gable has the capabilities to have a breakout season and the Cats have a strong receiving corps. Plus surprisingly strong Canadians on defence. In the land of the eunuchs, the man with one ball is king.

3. BC
I'm not sure if Travis Lulay has begun his descent into an injury prone quarterback like Drew Tate, but I'm not not sure either. If he's in he's good, otherwise they have Kevin Glenn and the chip on his shoulder to come in and play successfully if Lulay is injured. And then not play after Lulay becomes healthy again no matter how well Glenn had played during the interim.

4. Saskatchewan
They won the Grey Cup last year, but they lost a lot of talent, like Butler, Dressler, and Kory Sheets. They still have Darian Durant so they shouldn't be total excrement this year, but expect a lot of bitching in Saskatchewan.

5. Toronto
Rick Ray is still an effective if somewhat aged quarterback and I'm going to assume the Argos defence will be good, because they always seem to be of late. That's enough for the fifth ranking out of nine teams.

6. Montreal
Since the last pre-season rankings, the Alouettes fired their offensive co-ordinator possibly because he had a beer during a meeting. I guess head coach Tom "Ned Flanders" Higgins runs a pretty tight ship. I'm not particularly impressed by the Alouette quarterbacks and won't be until they show me something. Chad Johnson strikes me as a distraction, although I'll admit by CFL player standards his Twitter feed is amusing.

7. Edmonton
Maybe Mike Reilly will have better protection this year and won't get killed. I don't know if that last statement is true and I kind of doubt it is. They lost Ted Laurent to Ticats just before the start of camp. Considering the mediocre play of the Eskimos last year, that can't help.

8. Winnipeg
At least former geezer GM Joe Mack isn't around to fuck things up anymore for the Bombers. However he left his mess behind and the Bombers are now in the West. Much bitching from Bomber fans and Doug Brown's newspaper column will ensue.

9. Ottawa
Last place prediction for an expansion team seems safe.

Boom! Ticats Want $1 Million Per Game If Stadium Delayed

Tigercatatonia has been posting and wondering about what the current construction state the new Tim Horton's Field with all the bad winter weather. It was announced in January that the stadium was two weeks behind and it has been nothing but unseasonably cold weather since the announcement and early March is looking unseasonably cold as well.

Now we have a bit more information about what happens if the stadium is delayed past the first scheduled CFL game in July. From a Spec article:

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be looking to recover at least $1 million for every home game they miss if the new Pan Am stadium is not completed on time.

Infrastructure Ontario says Ontario Sports Solutions — the consortium building the $145-million stadium — is on the hook for the costs if the team can't play its first scheduled home game at Tim Hortons Field on July 26. 

 At least the city isn't on the hook for that, but the province. With a potential million dollar penalty per game that at least gives an incentive to the province to get the work done faster, although in theory they could pay only nine million if the stadium isn't ready for the regular season, which in the grand scheme of cost overruns isn't that much.

Where would the Cats play if they can't play at Tim Horton's? Mac? Quite small and couldn't get a fraction of the season ticket holders. Guelph again? Maybe. Are the temp stands even still up? Expect after winter is finally done to find out a better estimate of how delayed the stadium is.