2015 CFL Predictions 19

Crunch time.

BC at Toronto
Ricky Ray starts at home instead of Trevor Harris, which may or may not be a good idea. The Argos looked poor last week against Montreal but at least they are in their real home this week, Dead Ted's Dome. BC looked good against Hamilton last week. They are fighting for a playoff spot so I think they are more motivated.
Lions 30 Argonauts 23

Saskatchewan at Calgary
I can't really see the Riders winning this one. Best team versus worst team.
Stampeders 37 Roughriders 20

Ottawa at Hamilton
This one is interesting. If the Cats can win, they pretty much lock down a home playoff spot. I think the home crowd at the Timbit should be enough.
Tiger-Cats 28 REDBLACKS 22

Montreal at Edmonton
This game is interesting. The Alouettes really need to win if they have any hope of making the playoffs. Against my better judgement, I'll pick desperation.
Alouettes 26 Eskimos 24

2015 CFL Prediction Week 18

Montreal at Toronto
The Alouettes really need to win this game if they're going to make the playoffs. Kevin Glenn at least has had more practice. Toronto really needs to win this game if they want to win first in the CFL East. This is another pseudo-home game for Toronto in Hamilton. Harris is just better than Glenn at this point, even with a lot of practice.
Argonauts 30 Alouettes 22

Hamilton at BC
Rookie quarterbacks going against each other in BC. Hamilton has the better overall team, although winning a night game in Vancouver is always tough for Eastern teams. Still I think the Ticats take it.
Ticats 35 Lions 33

Ottawa at Winnipeg
Winnipeg really needs to win this game. Ottawa needs it if they want a home playoff game. Winnipeg is at home, although that hasn't seemed to help much this year. Ottawa's superior receivers win.
REDBLACKS 23 Blue Bombers 20

Edmonton at Saskatchewan
Only the Eskimos have something to play for. So there will be some unhappy Green Rider fans.
Eskimos 35 Roughriders 20

Bell and Larry Tanenbaum to Buy Argos, Rogers Doesn't Want Them, Grey Cup 2016?

TSN.ca is reporting that the mystery group that wants to buy the Argos and move it to BMO Field is actually MLSE owners Bell and Larry Tanenbaum minus the other owner of MLSE Rogers who apparently don't want the Argos.

That's a pretty good group to have and it makes sense for Bell considering that they own TSN whose prime property is pretty much the CFL now (after Rogers snarfed up the NHL). As has been reported before, two Grey Cups in ten years would be needed to hosted in Toronto to justify the deal.

Rogers appears to be trying to free ride on the Argos to some extent. Since MLSE pretty much controls BMO Field, and gets the revenue from the naming rights, the Argos being playing at BMO Field likely boosts those naming rights.

What does that mean for the Ticats chances for hosting a Grey Cup in 2016? I actually don't think it is that bad for their chances. With the Argos moving next year, I'm not sure they could be organized enough to host a Grey Cup in time for November 2016. The Cats organization which is pretty strong (plus the city has good experience as the recent Junos showed) I'm sure could be ready.

Still it is a little strange no host for 2016 has been named considering it is almost May.

Did Pigskin Pete Ever Get on the Field For the 102nd Grey Cup?

Before the Grey Cup, Dan Black, the fourth of the Pigskin Petes, tweeted that he wouldn't be allowed at field level for the Grey Cup. Whatever happened with that? I didn't really notice him watching the game on television, but then again TSN has never seemed to have a lot of love for Pete over the years.

CFL Team Twitter Follower Numbers, December 2014

Which CFL team has the most Twitter followers? Which has the least? Unsurprisingly the Riders have the most (as of today):

Saskatchewan Roughriders 101,000
BC Lions 64,900
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 63,300
Montreal Alouettes 60,300
Toronto Argonauts 57,300
Calgary Stampeders 53,500
Edmonton Eskimos 48,300
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 47,600
Ottawa REDBLACKS 27,600

So the Ticats are second last in the CFL, ahead of the obviously new REDBLACKS. But they aren't that far behind the other teams. However the Ticats follow the least people, while some teams are following whores by comparison, which may be boosting their own follower numbers:

Saskatchewan Roughriders 18,900
Toronto Argonauts 13,900
BC Lions 3509
Montreal Alouettes 1364
Calgary Stampeders 680
Ottawa REDBLACKS 679

Edmonton Eskimos 620
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 447
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 139

I'm not sure why the Ticats follow so few people on Twitter, but they do follow less than one hundredth of what the Argos do. Do the Ticats follow all their players? Or maybe when a player leaves the team, they unfollow them because they don't want them cluttering up their Twitter feed.

I'm a little surprised that Edmonton has so few followers, but perhaps as a community owned team they're not as focused on social media as a private company would be. 

Pigskin Pete Not Allowed On Field For Grey Cup 102

I just saw a tweet from Pigskin Pete (Dan Black) saying he isn't allowed on the field for the Grey Cup between Hamilton and Calgary:

"Just informed I'm not allowed on the field for the #GC102 very upset 10 years and this is what it's all for and not allowed #? #OskeeWeeWee" @pigskin_peteIV

This obviously seems wrong. Pete is an icon and something the CFL should be celebrating.

Not That Surprising That the Saskatchewan Roughriders Go Over 2013 CFL Salary Cap

So only the Riders went over the salary cap in 2013. However the team only went over the cap (4.4 million) by 18K. That's below the barrier of 100K where a team loses draft picks and the penalty is just a 1 for 1 extra dollar hit. 

I've argued before that there is an incentive for richer teams (which is pretty much the Riders and maybe the Edmonton Eskimos) to go over the salary cap by $99,999 as the monetary penalty is relatively small and no draft picks would be lost. The Riders are widely profitable compared to the other teams in the league, so the extra money is meaningless to them. 100K is potentially 20K per starting offensive lineman, which isn't chump change in the CFL.

I suppose it should be pointed out that only Saskatchewan went over and they won the Grey Cup. However what I find interesting, is that the Ticats set a record for players used in a season (88) due to injuries (and maybe trying out a lot of stiffs in game) and didn't go over themselves. I know a player going on the nine game injured list means their salary doesn't contribute for those games on the salary cap, but what happens for players that are injured for one game at a time?

Grey Cup 101: That Kinda Sucked

I'll have more posts going over Grey Cup 101 which turned into a debacle for the Cats. I was afraid of the scenario where the Cats got down early and they did.

Two plays stick out. The first is the one where Durant fumbled and the ball popped straight up into Korey Sheets hands and he rumbled for a ton of yards. Teams don't get much luckier than that and if the ball doesn't advance from the point of the fumble, the Riders are punting and maybe the game turns out a lot differently. Durant fumbled three times in the first half and usually that's bad for a team, but not in this game.

The second was in the second half where the Cats were sort of coming back and had the Riders at second and 19 fairly deep in their own end. Korey Sheets rumbled 20 plus yards up the sideline, the Riders made the first down and that was pretty much the end of the comeback.

The last game did suck for Ticats fans (apart from the first five minutes). The Cats were unlucky that they were facing the Riders in Regina, which is a home game for the Riders. A bit obvious, but if the game happened to be in Winnipeg or Edmonton things would have been a little different (although there still would have been a lot of Rider fans).

Still it was a good season for the Ticats. Two close playoff wins, including one in Toronto against Toronto were highlights. Going into next year, the Cats have a good coach and GM and pretty decent talent and should contend for top of the East next year (especially with Ottawa joining the East).

Grey Cup 101 Preview

Well it's game day and the Cats have made it to the Grey Cup, for the first time since 1999. Although statistically the team has a one in four chance of making it, so it should seem that remarkable.

Looking at the lineup, the Cats are pretty healthy. The offensive line is the one that gets used when the Cats are healthy, with imports Simmons and Figuero as the tackles, and Dyakowski (future Jeopardy contestant, Hage and Wojt in between. That should be better for both run and pass blocking, although the Cats haven't run with a running back much the past couple of games.

For the receiving corps, the Cats are again going with import Luke Tasker plays again at wide receiver after making one catch last week against the Argos. He was injured previously and goes instead of Onrea Jones, who is at least a decent blocker and isn't even on the roster.

Ellingson is the other import receiver. Bakari Grant is a slot along with non-imports Giguere and Fantuz. Gable is the running back with non-import Delahunt as the fullback when the Cats aren't using five receivers.

Burris is obviously the starter with LeFevour as the backup quarterback.

This is the starting offense the Cats generally wanted. The last few weeks the non-quarterback running game has been non-existent. Not being indoors maybe Gable sees more runs rather than just catches? Also indoors last week Burris handled almost all the snaps. In colder weather do the Cats use LeFevour for running plays like against Montreal in Guelph?

On defence, the defensive line is the regular one with Boudreaux and Norwood as the ends, with non-import Bulcke and Davis in the middle. Whether they can stop running back Kory Sheets probably deterBremines who wins the game.

The starting linebackers are Lawrence, Johnson and Murray.

The secondary has Breaux and Davis as the starting cornerbacks with McCollough and Hobbs as the defensive halfbacks. Webb is listed as a backup. Non-import Stephen is the safety.

Congi kicks and Bartel punts, with Banks as the returner.

The game really depends on the Cats not falling behind early. If they do, the Riders will pound Sheets over and over again. The Cats also have to watch for Durant running.

Newest Ticat Stadium is Name After Tim Horton's

Seemed somewhat inevitable, but the new stadium will be named after the donut giant that sprang from a location on Ottawa Street nearby. Primus Communications had also been bandied about. One would assume that there will be a fair amount of Tim's products available.

The company no doubt hopes that the stadium will get into the regular rotation for the Grey Cup to maximize the advertising impact. Hopefully this aids the team's pursuit of a cup soon. Tim's also has stores in the US, so broadcasts on the NBC Sports network are a small added bonus. It will be interesting to hear the terms, for sake of comparison between the other CFL teams and BMO Field in Toronto. According to this TSN article, BMO's deal with TFC's meccano set stadium was $27 million over 10 years, for $2.7 million per year.