Thoughts on Winnipeg Pre-Season Game, Results and Guelph Experience

I drove up to Guelph yesterday for the pre-season game against Winnipeg. I already blogged about the price of beers, $9 for a bottle shaped can of Canadian or Coors Light. I had a sausage on a bun for $6 and some popcorn for $5. Don't get the potato chips, they were $2.50 for a 40 g bag. Several food trucks were there, including Dirty South, whose prices were pretty reasonable considering it was inside the stadium. Lots of concessions overall, considering there was over 12,000 in attendance and a capacity of only 15,000 or so. Port-a-Potties for washrooms. Interestingly the smoking area was outside the stadium grounds and required re-entry (as my friend pointed out, there's probably no smoking allowed on the university grounds).

I paid $10 for a university lot that was a long, long walk. My friend parked at a closer lot and paid nothing, although in future one should be careful of parking tickets. Didn't seem to be many residential lawns to park on.

Obviously winning 52-0, the Ticats looked good. Most importantly Henry Burris connected with non-import slotback Andy Fantuz several times in the first half and looked in mid-season form. Some nice tosses to non-import Sam Giguerre right on the sideline, sometimes with another receiver right near by.

The secondary looked good, with a ridiculous number of picks thrown by Winnipeg's backups. The Bombers did leave 11 starters at home, however if and when Buck Pierce goes down, those quarterbacks are who Winnipeg is going to be throwing into the fire.

I believe the return team returned a punt for TD, which was nice considering it looks like there's no Chris Williams coming anytime soon.

Considering Winnipeg wasn't at peak form with a lot of backups and no-hopers, one shouldn't draw too much from the game. I don't think the Bombers are really 52-0 bad, but contesting for last place does seem to be a pretty decent bet.

Toronto will be tough next week in Dead Ted's Dome (TM), however as previously mentioned the Ticat passing offence was looking good, which can often be enough in the CFL for the first couple of games, considering there are only two pre-season games.