CFL Power Rankings, Week 10, 2011

1. Winnipeg
OK so they sucked on the road in Regina. Every time has a speed bump now and then. With only two losses, the Bombers are still the class of the CFL. Unless they lose to the Riders at home this week.
2. Hamilton
Homer pick? Good point differential, plus they've now beat Montreal twice, with a thumping last week. Good team with potential to be great.
3. Montreal
Needs to stop losing to Hamilton. Defence is still good, but Calvillo is looking a little shakier. Always waxes the crap teams.
4. Calgary
Good record, loss to the Eskimos at home, have only scored one more point than they've given up over nine games.
5. BC
Bad record, beat Toronto on the road, have scored 13 more points than they've allowed. Not really sure what they would do right now against a great team.
6. Edmonton
Excellent victory over the Stamps showed they've still got something. When Stamps comes back from injury, they'll move up.
7. Saskatchewan
Beat the top team at home, new old coach and have Fantuz coming back. The Riders should move up the rankings, but they're still 2 and 7.
8. Toronto
Getting rid of Cleo "the Party" Lemon is definitely addition by subtraction. Until Jyles shows something, the Argos are a bad team trying to figure out who to keep for next year.

CFL Power Rankings, Week 13

1. Montreal

There, I did it. Montreal back on top. Sure it was close against the Bombers, but you're not going to win every game with a bitchslapping.

2. Calgary

Obviously still a great team, but getting pounded by 19 points by the Lions doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

3. Saskatchewan

Weathered an early storm and beat the Ticats with bombs and some convenient turnovers by Hamilton.

4. Hamilton

Had their chances against a good Rider team. Doesn't have the killer instinct like the top teams in the rankings. Secondary appears to smell too.

5. BC

Beats Calgary and suddenly not so crap. We're pretty sure that Printers will soon get some silly injury and they'll start to suck again, but for now they're the best of the mediocre.

6. Toronto

Sure they lost somewhat pathetically against the Eskimos. Still they have good defence and special teams and if they could get back Cory Boyd they would be reasonable.

7. Edmonton

Not the worst team in the league. We'll see if they're sort of for real this week.

8. Winnipeg

Somebody had to be the worst team this week and despite playing the Alouettes tough, there's not a lot of wins this year for a team that was freed from Mike Kelly.

These photos of Calgary Stampeder quarterback Henry Burris posing in a bra, with a woman also wearing a bra are a bit puzzling. Surely there will be some signs in the stands in the next couple of weeks.

Here's an article suggesting the Cats be the team to be the home team in Moncton next year (I'm sad that I've never included Ticat Boogaloo as a post title). Attendance hasn't been bad this year, but it hasn't been great this year either. It makes sense for Bob Young financially. The Cats spread their group sales over one less game and potentially lose one of their poorer performing home draws. I still would bet on the Argos being the team next year though.

CFL Power Rankings Week 5

1. Montreal
I've been saying for years that Calvillo will eventually get injured and then there go the Alouettes. Yeah, well it hasn't happened yet.
2. Saskatchewan
I still like the Riders better than the Stamps. No particular reason.
3. Calgary
See above
4. Toronto
Well they have the best record of the remaining teams. Things may change against Edmonton this week, but until the then the Lemon Party continues. Shudder.
5. Winnipeg
Two wins bitches! Those 1 and 4 teams can suck it.
6. Edmonton
For the three 1 and 4 teams, I'll go with the hot hand. Getting rid of Maccocia doesn't hurt either.
7. BC
BC quarterback Travis Lulay turns out to be not good, to be charitable. The Lions don't really have what it takes anymore, regardless of a small intimate outdoor stadium.
8. Hamilton
Probably the best team that has occupied the last spot on the rankings for a while, but wins don't lie. Or maybe losses tell the truth. Anyways, punter Palardy has been punted, which should help. Maybe.

CFL Power Rankings Week 3

So I missed last week's power rankings. It happens.

1. Saskatchewan
Can't go against the only undefeated team in the league. It pains me to say it, but Durrant may be the best quarterback in the league.

2. Montreal
Still have it going on, including a rare win last week on the road in Vancouver. This week's game against the Ticats should be illuminating.

3. Calgary
Probably don't really belong here, but they do have two wins.

4. Toronto
Wow top half of the rankings. Wouldn't have expected that at the beginning of the year. If I had more balls, I would probably have them above Calgary. Lemon is pretty mediocre though.

5. Hamilton
They played excellently last week, but the next two weeks are not friendly at all. The top two teams on the road. The Cats should have gotten wins when it was easy.

6. BC
Printers is starting to play like in his era in Hamilton. Not a good sign for the Lions.

7. Winnipeg
Crappy and maybe worse with Buck "the human concussion" Pierce out for a spell.

8. Edmonton
Sure they've been in some close games, but you can't argue against 0 and 3. They're stuck at the bottom of the ratings until they win a game.

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.

CFL Power Rankings, End of Regular Season

1. Montreal
2. Saskatchewan
3. Calgary
4. Hamilton
5. Edmonton
6. Winnipeg
7. BC
8. Toronto

Montreal wiped the floor with Toronto, doing the job with a lot of backups and finished the season perfect at home. Saskatchewan prevailed over Calgary at home in a game that decided home field advantage for the Western final. Burris isn't quite the same quarterback he has been in previous years.

Hamilton wins easily over a terrible Winnipeg team, extending a win streak and arguably the hottest team in the league. Edmonton slaughtered BC in a potential win or out game (which it turns out wasn't but the teams didn't know it at the time), but haven't beat a decent team in a while.

Winnipeg gets an edge over BC, because as bad as Michael Bishop is, he's better than BC's fifth string quarterback or whatever quarterback they are on now.

Toronto hasn't won since the week after Labour Day. Not good.

That's the end of the power rankings this year. I think I did one for every week during the season, plus a few random ones during the off-season that were pretty much based off of nothing but free agent signings and making fun of Jesse Lumsden's bobsleigh career. For laughs, here's my first set of power rankings for 2009, done in April: Calgary, BC, Montreal, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Hamilton and then Winnipeg. Could have been worse I suppose. BC was probably the team that seemed least likely to have quarterback troubles, but then did. Saskatchewan was better than I thought, mainly due to Darian Durant, who I honestly thought would be exposed as a fraud this year, but ultimately showed me up. Winnipeg did end up sucking in my defence.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Calgary
3. Saskatchewan
4. Hamilton
5. BC
6. Edmonton
7. Winnipeg
8. Toronto

Montreal came back into form with Calvillo back. Calgary won a close one in BC, while Saskatchewan looked terrible in Hamilton, flu or not. Hamilton looked good both
offensively and defensively.

BC can play reasonably with Casey Printers at the controls, but doesn't look like they can make the next step.

Edmonton beats Toronto. Which means little. Winnipeg comes back to earth against a real quarterback. Toronto sucks as per usual. One last game to tie last year's four and fourteen record.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Saskatchewan
3. Calgary
4. Winnipeg
5. Hamilton
6. BC
7. Edmonton
8. Toronto

Montreal is still number one, despite a rather half-assed effort last week without Calvillo. I liked Saskatchewan's win against a good BC team, albeit one led by Casey "I sucked for Hamilton" Printers. Calgary blew out a rapidly declining Edmonton team, which is not particularly impressive. Winnipeg is looking surprisingly good even with Bishop at the controls. Hamilton looked decent against Toronto, although the lack of second half production was somewhat disturbing. BC with Casey Printers I am not a particular fan of, however he didn't look too bad out there. Edmonton, suck city. Toronto, positively honktastic.

I ended up catching a little of the Argo Access show, hosted by Pinball and some woman who was able to fake some enthusiasm about the Argos, despite them being eliminated from the playoffs. The show is on the Sun network, which is primarily really old sitcoms, plus weird programs that are pretty much just informercials for Casino Rama. Likely the Argos pay for the time (which considering it is Sun TV wouldn't be much) and provide the content. Which got me to thinking about the Cats and CHCH. The Cats pretty much have a lot of video content on their site already, so putting together a half hour show probably wouldn't cost them much extra. Considering that CHCH broadcasts somewhat old movies to incredibly old movies, which I can't imagine get many viewers, there's probably a half hour available for a Ticats show, likely on the weekend. If the Cats made the content available for free, CHCH would probably get more viewers than whatever terrible old movie they would show (which would cost something for the rights, although in reality almost nothing). Hopefully the Cats will get on that.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Saskatchewan
3. Calgary
4. BC
5. Edmonton
6. Hamilton
7. Winnipeg
8. Toronto

Montreal wins, even without Calvillo. Have to go with Saskatchewan tying Calgary in Calgary over Calgary. Burris looked better this week though. BC beats Winnipeg, even without Pierce or Jackson. Edmonton manages to beat Toronto which isn't saying much. Hamilton puts on a valiant, albeit ultimately futile effort in Montreal against the league's best team. Michael Bishop woke up and realized he was Michael Bishop, complete with ridiculously low completion rate. Toronto just sucks. With three games left, can Toronto win a game and tie last year's 4 and 14 record. I bet no.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Saskatchewan
3. Calgary
4. BC
5. Winnipeg
6. Edmonton
7. Hamilton
8. Toronto

Big upheaval in the rankings this week. Montreal stays on top after heartily handling Calgary in a game that didn't mean much for them. Saskatchewan beats Toronto fairly easily. Calgary looked sad and really, has Henry Burris switched bodies with Michael Bishop? BC beats an Edmonton team that has been finding ways to lose for a while and may not even end up with a cross over spot. Winnipeg is surging, with Bishop looking like the second coming of Dieter Brock and somewhat embarrassingly for all of us, Mike Kelly is not as dumb as he looks and sounds. Hamilton should feel lucky I put them above the Argos. As for Toronto, they should really dress a third quarterback.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Calgary
3. Saskatchewan
4. Hamilton
5. Edmonton
6. BC
7. Winnipeg
8. Toronto

Montreal is obviously head and shoulders above the rest of the league, although Toronto surprisingly was able to at least somewhat keep up with them. Calgary did not look impressive winning by a single point at home against Hamilton. Their offense in the fourth quarter was anemic, however they got the win and have the second best record. Saskatchewan lost to BC on the road, but with the third best record I will stick with BC. Hamilton did not look too terrible on the road in Calgary, with a surprisingly dominant defence. Edmonton losing to Winnipeg hurts, however I still like their quarterback situation better than BC's. Winnipeg wins and has managed to get back into the race for the playoffs, even with Michael Bishop quarterbacking. Toronto looked better than Hamilton against Montreal at home, but as per usual could not get it done. The boatmen likely have the worst one two quarterbacks in the league and that's saying something this year.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Calgary
3. Hamilton
4. Edmonton
5. Saskatchewan
6. BC
7. Toronto
8. Winnipeg

This was a tough week considering that there are now four teams with 6 and 5 records. Montreal at the top is obvious, as usual. Calgary stays at number two, with the relatively close loss on the road (even if they didn't look particularly good). Hamilton generally looked to be the better team on Friday and could have moved up a spot if they hadn't given up 14 easy points at the start of the game and instead blew out Calgary. Edmonton and Saskatchewan are especially tough, with the Riders having a way better point differential, but the Eskimos won on the road so I have to give them the higher spot. BC at 5 and 6 is easy for sixth place. Toronto, still mediocre and losing, but better than the Peg.

The Globe had an article Saturday on the Cats, which included a photo of the fan walking across the goalpost. Here is a youtube video of said fan, which I must say really got the crowd going and which I found highly entertaining. Some fans on ticats.ca forum have argued that it was a dumb idea because the fan is now banned for life, but honestly how are they going to enforce that?

Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Edmonton
3. Calgary
4. Hamilton
5. Saskatchewan
6. Winnipeg
7. BC
8. Toronto

Montreal and Edmonton are fairly easily explainable just based on their records. For Calgary, Hamilton and Saskatchewan, I based it on points for and points against. Calgary has scored way more points than they have allowed, Hamilton is pretty close to even and the Riders have allowed considerably more than have scored (in fact they have allowed the most points scored throughout the league). Winnipeg is looking better at three and five, although it looks like no Pacman for them. BC is still very mediocre and likely to miss the playoffs at this rate. Toronto I think will have a better record in the second half than in the third half, but coach Bart Andrus has to learn enough about the CFL to stop costing the Argos games.

Received a season ticket holder email, saying that over 27,500 tickets (out of a total available of 29,600 available) had been sold for the Labour Day game. I always wonder if the people in the tents beside the West endzone are included in this capacity or not? Anyways, looks likely that the game will end up sold out. Which brings up another question. How much are Labour Day game receipts worth it to the Cats? Single game tickets for Labour day are $175 for Hall of Fame, $95 for platinum, $75 for gold, $60 for silver, $50 for bronze, $30 for red, $27 for family and $25 for endzone. Obviously the season ticket contribution will be less per seat than the single and I doubt many have been sold at the group rate. Say the average ticket price per seat is $45, that's $1,332,000 for one game. Tack on another $150,000 for merchandise and concessions and that's a big chunk of the $4 million salary cap.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Edmonton
3. Hamilton
4. Saskatchewan
5. Calgary
6. Winnipeg
7. Toronto
8. BC

Obviously with only two games this week, not much can happen, especially with Montreal winning and staying on top. Edmonton doesn't play so stays up there. Hamilton also doesn`t play, but moves up one over Saskatchewan due to the Riders losing in Montreal and showing that they are mostly a home team. Calgary doesn't go anywhere.

No for the last three spots, Winnipeg moves into sixth after their 37 to 10 thrashing of BC. I don't usually toot my horn when it comes to my weekly picks, but I did predict that Winnipeg would beat BC, not just by that margin. Evidently from running back Fred Reid's rumbling all throughout the area where the linebackers should be, and Hamilton's two victories over BC, BC's run defence honks worse the Liberals under Stefan Dion. Frankly going forward, I wonder how well BC can do when everyone now knows this. Winnipeg, under the excrable Mike Kelly at least has now a template to possibly win games: run Fred Reid as much as possible, try to keep Michael Bishop from having to do too much and hope a strong defence keeps you in the game.

Toronto seems to be at least improving a little bit with Cody Pickett in at QB. Proving that Pickett is no worse than Kerry Joseph is something somewhat valuable to have learned. With cornerback Byron Parker returning and the receiving corps perhaps shaping up from the clusterfuck it had been after the release of Arland Bruce, the double blue at least are a bit better than the Lions who seem truly pathetic. Jarious Jackson as starter? Not exactly sure who the number three QB for BC was at the start of the year, but we may be seeing more of him.

Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Edmonton
3. Saskatchewan
4. Hamilton
5. Calgary
6. BC
7. Toronto
8. Winnipeg

Montreal first is obvious. Edmonton gets a bump for beating Calgary, while Saskatchewan gets a bump as well for beating Hamilton. Hamilton drops mainly because of the terrible first half. Props for coming back to tie, but looking that dreadful in an opening half isn't usually indicative of a good team and usually one assumes the worse. Calgary actually has to show they can beat a good team. Looks like losing linebacker JoJuan Armour (now with BC which perhaps is not coincidentally doing better) for discipline reasons before the real season starting isn''t working out so well. BC better than the last two teams, but still was down and could have lost to Toronto. The double blue look better with Pickett in and with cornerback Byron Parker coming back from the NFL, could end up a bit better, considering the mediocrity that abounds in the CFL this year. Winnipeg, well, someone has to be last.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Hamilton
3. Calgary
4. Edmonton
5. Saskatchewan
6. BC
7. Winnipeg
8. Toronto

Things are still relatively tight after the games in week 6. Montreal is still on top after blanking the rather hapless Argos. Hamilton moves into the second spot as the only other team with a winning record by handling Edmonton at home. Previously it could be argued that Hamilton only beat BC and Winnipeg, but after the win against the Eskimos the Cats appear to be for real.

Picking Calgary second was somewhat tough, as they almost ended up losing to Winnipeg after gaining an initial big lead. Edmonton could easily be third, after a strong effort against Hamilton on the road. Saskatchewan has lost a little momentum losing to BC on the road, plus their quarterbacking is becoming more and more suspect.

Of the three teams with 2 and 4 records, BC at least managed to win this week, dragging itself out of the basement. BC still doesn't seem to be a great team, but with the leaders in the west only one game ahead, BC is in reasonable position to make something out of their season. To me Buck Pierce is still a little overrated, however compared to some of the other honking QBs in the league, he is relatively decent. Winnipeg at least made a game of it with Calgary this week, and potentially Michael Bishop could occasionally do enough to help their defence to a win, but that's unlikely. Toronto offense simply sucks, with QB Kerry Joseph's limitations becoming plainer and plainer and the loss of Arland Bruce looking stupider and stupider. Maybe Bart Andrus is realizing the CFL isn't just a version of NFL Europe (and the Argo owners are probably realizing that he isn't Marc Trestman either). Defence isn't bad.

Still trying to figure out when the Cats last won three games in a row and so far Google hasn't been my friend. I have to check the results for 2004 just to make sure it didnt happen then, otherwise it is probably a few years before.

The other thing I'm trying to figure out is what is the longest amount of yards a team has even required to make a first down. Theoretically, if you were on the opponent's eleven yard line and somehow ended up back at your one, you would need 98 yards to make a first down. I seem to remember a Ticat game involving Billy "the Skid" Dicken as our quarterback against the Blue team that had a series where the Argos were penalized a ridiculous amount of times leading to a fairly large amount of yards being needed for a first down, but I'm sure there has been a down requiring a lot more yards to make the first.

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Saskatchewan
3. Hamilton
4. Edmonton
5. Calgary
6. Toronto
7. Winnipeg
8. BC

Some difficulty this week, although not as many teams log jammed at 2 and 2. Montreal at the top is still an easy pick. Saskatchewan managed to pull out a win against Calgary on the road and generally finds weird ways to win. Hamilton has to go above Edmonton, simply because I still don't believe in the Eskimos over the long term. We'll see in any case this week if the ranking is justified. Calgary manages to lose at home to go below 500 but they are still miles ahead of the bottom three. Toronto wins handily last week, loses incompetently by one this week at home. Still better than Winnipeg, even if Winnipeg is somewhat better with Michael Bishop at the helm. BC still hasn't shown anything and one has to wonder if after being favoured last week against Hamilton whether they can be favoured again.

In BC news, the Lions have picked up JoJuan Armour, a former Cat linebacker and a winner last year with Calgary of a Grey Cup last year, before being booted for altercations with teammates during training camp. The Lions defence was effectively a sieve last week against Ticat running back DeAndra Cobb. Often Cobb would get past the line and where one would expect a linebacker to be, instead there was open space. Armour is getting up there in age, but the Lions defence is holding them back and they'll rarely win if they can't stop the run

CFL Power Rankings

1. Montreal
2. Calgary
3. Saskatchewan
4. Hamilton
5. Edmonton
6. Toronto
7. BC
8. Winnipeg

Tougher this week. Montreal tops is easy. BC and Winnipeg at the bottom easy, with Winnipeg obviously worse considering their QB situation. Calgary looks like they are coming on, although losing a Rambo will hurt. Saskatchewan still has a good defence, but going 1 and 2 at home shows their are some issues. Hamilton is probably better now that I'm writing this after Bruce, plus they played respectable football against Montreal and didn't get blown out. Plus second best points for and points allowed amongst the 2 and 2 teams. Edmonton, still don't really believe, but they are better than some teams. Toronto only beat Winnipeg and they no longer have Bruce. Although playing Winnipeg again this week they could be 3 and 2 which is somewhat disturbing.

Final Preseason Power Rankings

I did one earlier set of preseason power rankings and always meant to do more. So one day before the kickoff of the 2009 CFL season here are my rankings:

1. Calgary
2. BC
3. Montreal
4. Edmonton
5. Toronto
6. Saskatchewan
7. Hamilton
8. Winnipeg

Calgary looks good again this year and BC should still be decent. Montreal will probably get back to the Grey Cup if only because their competition in the East will be feeble this year, although I expect Cavillo's age will hurt them a bit down the stretch (yes I do say that every year). Some people are impressed with Edmonton this year, I'm not particularly, regardless of what Jesse Lumsden does this year. Toronto is probably ranked higher than one would think, but somehow they often end up near 0.500 and the bottom four teams have to be ranked in some order. Saskatchewan will get shellacked by in their own conference games. Hamilton, while being better than last year, won't unfortunately be that much better. Winnipeg will be a disaster, but they probably will improve towards the end of the year.

Just an update, I never did find who got what penalties in the last preseason game against Toronto. After the Toronto game tomorrow, I will look at who got what penalties, based on import status and whether they are a raw CFL rookie (five years of NFL experience doesn't count for this analysis). And I will do it for both teams.