Lemon Party!

In a big shocker, the Argos won 36 to 34 over the Bombers, behind the quarterbacking of Cleo Lemon. Lemon was only 15 for 23 for 162 yards compared to Buck Pierce's 25 for 35 for 366 yards with 3 TDs and a pick. Looks like my prediction that the Argos would win more than three games (four games was the precise prediction) is a lot more likely.

CFL Predictions, Week 2, Part A

Toronto at Winnipeg
The Bombers are favoured by 11 at home last I checked which is amazing. I think as the season progresses, Toronto will improve to at least become semi-competitive. Barring a stiff shot to Buck Pierce's melon early in the game (which if I was an Argo fan I would highly recommend as a strategy) the Argos get beaten badly. Sorry Cleo, no Lemon Party tonight.
Winnipeg 35, Toronto 11

Calgary at Hamilton
Hamilton is favoured by two at home which I'm a little surprised at. Evidently the bookmakers figure Rottier will somehow do a better job at tackle than last week. The Cats could strategize and have Glenn roll out more to compensate, but I doubt they will. Calgary's defence is hard to grade from last week after playing the double blue's feeble offense, but I suspect they're not that great. Hamilton's offense should be able to do more, but I'm going with Bill James' baseball truism that teams that improve greatly from one year to the next inevitably take a step backward the following season.
Calgary 22, Hamilton 21

CFL Power Rankings Week 1

1. Saskatchewan
Showed their offense could light it up, despite some defensive shortcomings.
2. Montreal
Lost a tough one on the road, but should annihilate the weaker teams in the league
3. BC
Beat Edmonton on the road. Printers looks reasonable.
4. Winnipeg
Surprise winner in week one. Look good as long as Pierce doesn't get his 23th concussion. LaPolice is a massive upgrade at head coach.
5. Calgary
Beat the Argos with a lot of offense, although the fact they couldn't get more points out of it is distressing.
6. Hamilton
Lost on the road, but didn't look too bad in the second half.
7. Edmonton
Lost at home. Does Ricky Ray still have what it takes to guide his team above 500?
8. Toronto
Bad. Will they get more than the three wins from last year? I predict yes. Four.

East Mountain Site Inevitable

From all the stories I've read online today, it looks like the East Mountain site is looking more and more inevitable. I'm disappointed, for a lot of reasons. The main one is the fact that money from the Future Fund is being used on a green field site, that probably would have been developed anyways and had commercial property taxes paid on it. Why use the Future Fund if you're not going to clean up a derelict brown field and instead facilitate sprawl, which eventually ends up costing the city even more money? That's what a lot of media types from outside the city don't understand. If it was just federal and provincial money, I wouldn't care as much, but the city is putting up a lot of their own cash for this. If it was known in the beginning that a green field site would be chosen, the Future Fund cash would never have been committed in the first place. Now the city will be accused of being dysfunctional if they were to withdraw it.

I'm also not convinced that the location will be as successful at drawing regional fans as the Ticat management claims. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'll be disappointed if the new stadium gets built and the Cats still have trouble drawing crowds. What then?

Ticats Stadium, West Harbour versus East Mountain

I should comment on the Spec story about the two locations that came out of the facilitation process. I've already gone on and on about the West Harbour, but the East Mountain location, up at Pritchard is new. Obviously, I'm not a fan of it either, although I'm mildly more in favour of it than Confederation Park. From a regional transit standpoint, it is a disaster. Compared to West Harbour, where GO train service is going to be extended to Liuna Station, there's pretty much nothing. One could catch the GO bus from Toronto and then take a bus up the Mountain, but that's a pretty long journey and not really practical. From Mississauga, Oakville or Burlington, one could take the GO train to Liuna, take a bus to Gore Park and then more buses. Even less practical. Who knows what the price of gas will be in 2015 and beyond? What will traffic be like on the QEW and 403 in 2015 and beyond? Compared to Confederation Park, where currently regular service consists of buses on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer there is regular service. Although I can say as someone who grew up on the East Mountain, the HSR isn't orientated towards getting people from all across the city to the southern part of the East Mountain.

I concede that the Cats will get considerably more revenue from parking at this site, maybe close to a million a year. Because nobody will take public transit there.

Basically this site does the bare minimum for Hamilton. It keeps the Cats here, but does almost nothing else for the city. It is far from city hotels (although if Mercanti actually builds his hotel on Stonechurch that's something) and restaurants save for the chains in the power centre nearby.

The focus on "driveway to driveway" makes me wonder if we're still in the seventies. Where else in North America are people still building stadiums on the outskirts of town?

Ticat Aftermath

Well, I wasn't expecting the Cats to royally suck against the Bombers. Especially considering they had both a kickoff and a missed field goal return TD from Thigpen. Clearly Rottier was having a difficult time with the tackle position and makes Jason Jimenez' potentially long term injury especially troublesome. Cobb certainly didn't do much going 22 yards on seven carries. Glenn by no means had a good game, and I'm willing to call him out on it, unlike some on the TSN panel at half-time. Glenn ended up going 15 for 30, with a TD and a pick and a fumble. That's some Bishop-like numbers. He'll have to play better next week or starting Porter becomes an option for week three. McDaniel had a good game, with over 100 yards receiving, but Bruce didn't do a lot and Stala was criminally underused. Drisan James in incompetent and shouldn't be starting.

The defence was especially disappointing, giving up a lot yards and 49 points. There was four sacks, with Floyd getting two himself. The linebacking corps had a large number of tackles between them, but didn't seem like they had a great game apart from limiting the run. I'm not sure what safety Sandy Beveridge was doing, but I didn't notice him during the game and that's not a good thing. The defence was hung out to dry by the offense, spending too much time on the field, but Pierce getting 89 yards on the ground with 6 carries was a big difference maker.

Hopefully the Cats can learn from the tape going into this week against the Stamps. They basically have to improve everywhere.

CFL Predictions, Week 1, Part B

Hamilton at Winnipeg,

Winnipeg's Buck Pierce starts out the season uninjured, but no one really knows how long that will last. Hamilton is infinitely deeper at quarterback and has a continuity at coaching and overall that the Bombers just don't have. Admittedly, the Cats are on the road where they were last year. The spread I saw last was three in favour of Hamilton; I'll give the Ticats a slight edge.

Hamilton 29, Winnipeg 22

BC at Edmonton,

Edmonton is favoured by four at home. I'm not sure really where to go on this one. Printers played well in the playoff victory against Hamilton last year then sucked against the Alouettes the following week. I'm not sure Ray is as great as he once was, but Printers can be hot and cold. So consistency versus ups and downs. In week one, I'll take consistency in a close one.

Edmonton 25, BC 23