CFL Previews, Week Whatever, Part 2

Calgary at Montreal,
Calgary somehow managed to win at home last week against the Cats, despite going two and out on their last five offensive series. I'm thinking that won't work against the Alouettes. Somewhat curiously, the Larks are only favoured by three, which seems a little to little considering Montreal is perfect at home and Calgary is only a 500 road team. The one thing working in Calgary's favour is that Montreal has locked up the top spot in the East and doesn't really have to do much for the final five games. Burris looked terrible last week at home and he may bounce back somewhat, but Montreal has a better defence than the Cats. I'll call it close for Montreal, but only because they don't need to win.
Montreal 23, Calgary 22

Winnipeg at Hamilton,
Looks like Porter is starting again, with Michael Bishop of course starting for Bombers. The Bombers are coming off of victories against Toronto and Edmonton. Hamilton lost by a single point in Calgary last week. The Bombers have a good running game with Fred Reid and unlike a lot of CFL teams, stick with it from the start of the game. That running game becomes more valuable as the season goes on and the weather becomes colder. Hamilton's running game isn't bad, although they do get some yards from Porter.

Winnipeg's defence has been reasonably all season, even when the offense has been sucking mightily. Hamilton has a more middle of the pack offense but certainly looked excellent last week against Henry Burris (and Michael Bishop is kind of like the poor man's Henry Burris, with even more interceptions). Winnipeg's defence will be missing defensive end Gavin Walls, as he is gone for the season. Simpson is supposedly back with the team, although I'm not sure how much he will play tomorrow.

Hamilton is currently only favoured by 3 at home, despite having a relatively good home record at 5 and 2. Temperatures don't appear super cold tomorrow, which is better for Hamilton. If Porter can manage to at least move the ball somewhat tomorrow, the Cats should be able to beat a Michael Bishop led team.
Hamilton 29, Winnipeg 24

Here's an article in a Winnipeg paper saying the Cats only expect a crowd of 20,000 tomorrow. I think that is probably a little low, because as I reported yesterday, the Cats seemed to have moved some tickets in sections 5, 6, 8 and 9 with their various $10 ticket deals. Hard to have those sections completely filled and only get 20,000 but I guess we will see tomorrow. Decent weather could help with the walkup crowd, although apart from the endzone, there's not a lot of the cheaper seats available. Hopefully the Cats get a decent crowd for such an important game.