The Winnipeg Preseason Game

Last night, I was able to sit in some nice Box D seats due to the generousity of a friend. I have season tickets in section 5 so it was nice to be close the action for once, as well as being able to view the various hangers on who loiter around on the side line.

So we won. Last year we won both preseason games, but then we ended up with a 3 and 15 record so I'm a bit dubious of winning preseason records. Plus I read this morning that Winnipeg left their entire front seven of their defence in Winnipeg because of the high price of jet fuel. I didn't notice Lumsden playing either so maybe it all evens out. What I did notice was the new Pigskin Pete. Looks like he has a few years left on him although in bodyshape he didn't look much like the previous one. Surprisingly our Pigskin Pete doesn't have a Wikipedia page, although there is one for some loser radio host in Cleveland who is now dead. Doesn't seem right. Somebody should fix that.

Players who seemed to be doing something: Nick Kordic seemed to be around the ball on the defensive end, Setta's placekicking was good and his punting was satisfactory, and I think that Woodcock might have caught a pass, indicating that's he's not totally spent. However, just like last year in the home exhibition game, my man Timmy went wild. Ok, not super wild, but the Changster looked the best out of all the quarterbacks who played, including Dinwiddie. Surprisingly, I saw a number of Chang adorned jerseys in the crowd. They must have felt proud last night and somewhat prescient to boot. I just liked being able to yell out "Timmy" like on South Park at random times. Richie Williams looked mediocre and that's being charitable. I like Richie, however I'm now wondering if he just looked good last year in relation to Jason Maass...

And so it begins...

So this is my initial post for my Tiger-Cats blog. I had thought about doing one before, but attending the preseason game last night inspired me to finally get around to making one. It will mostly be my thoughts on the Cats, although I'll offer my opinions on some of the other teams too. I am a fairly stats oriented guy, so I will probably go on endlessly about obscure statistics. I'm a fan of the book Moneyball, so maybe I'll try my hand at that type of analysis for the Cats, although never really knowing the salaries makes it a bit difficult. I may even offer some analysis of what Vegas predicts. Last year I arrived in Vegas on Grey Cup Sunday and promptly put down $50 dollars for Winnipeg to cover the spread so obviously I'm a betting guru.

My predictions on this year's season, right at the start? The optimist in my says 8 and 10, but if I had to put money down, I'll say 7 and 11. That is still a bit optimistic, but I feel that the Cats were a bit better last year than their 3 and 15 record would indicate (5 and 13 sounds about right) and some of the Eastern teams don't strike me as being much better than last year. Toronto might be better, but we lost all our games to them last year, so we can't be any worse against the blue team. With a new coordinators who hopefully know what they are doing and hopefully a GM can pick some players, 7 wins is not unreachable. And no limp armed Jason Maass this year must be worth a couple of wins...