2016 BC at Hamilton Depth Chart Analysis

The big news is that Canadian defensive tackle Ted Laurent is back for the home opener tonight against BC.

As last week, the Cats go with two American offensive tackles Simmons and Lewis. Canadians Dyakoski and Bomben are the guards and Filer the centre. So that's three Canadian starters out of the seven required on the offensive line.

Wideouts are Underwood and the Canadian Spencer Watt. Slots are Tasker, Owens, and Fantuz, another Canadian. Starting running back is C.J Gable and the Canadian fullback Prime. My assumption is that with four receiver sets with Prime in as fullback, then only one Canadian receiver will be in usually. So that's always two Canadian starters for the receivers and fullbacks, for five total on offense.

Masoli starts at quarterback, with Maher kicking and punting.

On the defensive line, Chick and Tracy are the ends, with the aforementioned Laurent as one of the tackles and Nevis as the other.

The linebackers are Lawrence, Dean and Rico Murray. Corners are Tisdale and Pointer. Defensive halfbacks are Sears Jr. and Lewis. The Canadian Stephen is the starting safety, so that's two Canadian starters on defence.

Very little change from last week's starting lineup against Toronto.

BC at Hamilton Gameday 2013

Who's in and who's out for the Ticats this week? Giguere is still out, with Stala in for his non-import spot amongst the receivers. Boudreaux is out at one of the defensive end spots, with Norwood and Scott as the defensive ends. Hage is back in after a few games injury as the centre.

Johnson is the middle linebacker, with Lawrence and former Argo Issac as the other linebackers. Murray and Davis are the corners, with McCollough and Webb as the halfbacks and non-import Stephen as the safety.

For BC the most important injury is middle linebacker Solomon Elimimian is missing, which has to help the Cats. Will the Cats try and run without him? I'm guessing no, because the Cats hardly run in 2013, but who knows.

The Cats were burned a few times by the long ball last week. Will they drop more players into coverage compared to the blitzes they did last week? Again who knows. They only had one official sack last week, although their coverage of the run game was excellent.

Who am I looking for to make a big contribution this week? Ellingson on offense and Bulcke on defence.

Finally the red uniforms the Cats will use to honour the Flying Wildcats will be strange as a spectator.

2013 CFL Week 6 Predictions.

Hamilton at Edmonton
Battle of the 1 and 4 teams. Edmonton won the first encounter in Guelph. I probably should bet on the Esks at home, however I think that the Burris will probably have a good game and the defense won't do too badly. That may be a bit of bias, but the team is bad, not completely bad. Still not having Fantuz back really hurts.
Tiger-Cats 29 Eskimos 22

Winnipeg at BC
BC lost pretty badly to Toronto in Toronto, so I'm sure they'll want to avenge that lose. The Lions are significantly better at home than on the road in history. The Bombers have at least moved on from Buck Pierce to Goltz which is something. He'll have a hard time outgunning Lulay though.
Lions 35 Bombers 21

2013 CFL Predictions Week 1

Montreal at Winnipeg
The Bombers have their new stadium open and home field advantage so that's something. Buck Pierce is also not injured yet which is also something. But Winnipeg just isn't much of a team. Anthony Calvillo is also not injured yet, however the Alouettes no longer have Marc Trestman as coach anymore. I still like the weapons Calvillo has at his disposal and that should be enough.
Alouettes 26 Bombers 19

Hamilton at Toronto
For a lot of Hamilton fans, getting to Toronto is easier than Guelph. The GO bus from downtown runs quite frequently. So there may be a lot of Cat fans in attendance and the Argos have never been a great draw. Both teams have veteran quarterbacks that should be in decent form in the first game in the season. The Argos are coming off a Grey Cup, while the Cats were the worst team in the league. Against a bit worse opponent or at home I would have picked the Cats, but missing Chris Williams at receiver and as a returner will hurt.
Argos 24 Cats 18

BC at Calgary
I think the Lions are the best team entering the season and Drew Tate hasn't really shown he's a great CFL quarterback. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm picking BC, even on the road.

Lions 28 Stamps 26

Saskatchewan at Edmonton
Veteran quarterback Darian Durrant for the Riders versus that guy who's not Matt Nichols and has a functioning ACL for Edmonton. Durrant has certainly been, to quote a Katy Perry song title, Hot and Cold over the pass few years, but early in the season, his experience and running ability if he gets in trouble will be the edge over some guy I can't be bothered to look the name up of and probably wouldn't be starting if Nichols hadn't blown out his knee doing basically nothing my 70 year mother doesn't do in her aerobics class.

Riders 31 Edmonton 29

CFL Predictions 2012 Week 6

Montreal at Winnipeg
Battle of the losing record teams! I assume the Bombers are going with Brink at quarterback, but I don't know that for sure. The Alouettes will obviously go with Calvillo who is a little beat up of late. Montreal is favoured by two on the road, which is basically damning with faint praise. Basically one team has a good offense and a bad defence and vice versa for the other. When that's the case, I'll go with the home team.
Bombers 24 Alouettes 23

BC at Toronto
The Argos now have a competent offense with Ricky Ray at the controls. Certainly not awe inspiring, but Ray is quite capable of burning a secondary if given a chance. The Lions have a ton of talent but have been inconsistent so far this year. Coming off a solid victory last week the Lions are favoured by a mere field goal on the road. I'm not sure if the Argos can contain the Lion offense enough to get by with their offense. Lions.
Lions 31 Team Suck 28

Ticats at Lions Halftime Report

Well things were looking good until the Ticats managed to totally self-destruct at the end of the half. The defence has looked excellent thought, including the non-import rookie cornerback Bucknor who I predicted the Lions would go after and they did but unsuccessfully. Ryan Hinds may not have a starting job when he comes back from injury.

Burris sort of looked good early, then started sucking, enough so that Quinton Porter had to come in after a Burris pick. I assume Burris is coming back after halftime, especially considering Porter didn't do anything for the few plays he was in. Chevon Walker looked good on the long run for a TD. He has excellent speed.

Where was Fantuz? From what I saw all he did was drop one pass, that would have been called back on a penalty anyways.

I think the turning point was Stala unfortunately fumbling after gaining a first down. Stala has had a few catches at least and shows that he still knows where the first down yard marker is.

Rey Williams has looked good again on defence as has Markeith Knowlton back as a starter. The front four has looked good too. Too bad the offence's incompetence at the end of the half ruined a good defensive effort.

CFL Predictions 2011, Week 7: 1 and 5 Teams Sally Forth

Edmonton at Montreal
The Eskimos are 5 and 1 versus the Alouettes 4 and 2. Two pertinent facts, Montreal is at home and probably the best receiver in the CFL Fred Stamps is out with internal bleeding for the Esks. The Alouettes aren't as good as they were in previous years, but they're still pretty good, especially when a team isn't on the top of its game. Unsurprisingly the Als are favoured by 6.5
NDP People 35, Mall People 19

Calgary at Saskatchewan
The Stamps are 4 and 2 and coming off a victory. The Riders are 1 and 5 and lost last week to the previously winless Lions. Stamps are favoured by 3.5 on the road, which means no one has real confidence in the Riders. I thought the Riders would be worse this year, but not this bad. Greg Marshall, I fear your head coaching career will be short, shorter than the other Greg Marshall.
Stetson People 29, Potash People 19

Toronto at Hamilton
Hamilton is favoured by a relatively massive 7 points at home against the 1 and 5 Argos. The Cats played well last week in the first half and then sucked and were shut out in the second half. The Argos mostly sucked last week and sucked more as the game went on and then fired their defensive co-ordinator when their offense sucks. I've heard rumours that Boyd is back this week at running back for the Argos this week, but I'm too lazy to check it. Ticats still win.
Timmies People 30, Suck People 24

Winnipeg at BC
Winnipeg is so hot that the players have dubbed themselves Swaggerville, no doubt to move as many T-shirts as possible. BC is 1 and 5 and beat the Riders last week. Buck Pierce is currently uninjured and the Bombers have a lethal defence. Lulay is becoming better for the Lions (certainly better than Cleo Lemon), but he'll be running for his life this week.
33 Jets People, 22 Rain People

CFL Week 3 Predictions

My weekly predictions are back, but I didn't have time to do last night's game. Too bad since I was thinking of saying the Bombers would cover, but still lose. Then I would have looked like Nostradamus.

Toronto at Montreal
Last I checked Montreal is favoured by ten. That seems generous to Toronto, but the Argos defence is pretty good. Considering how the Alouettes have rolled early in season, I can't see things changing. Alouettes get a reasonable lead going into the second half and then expand it.
Alouettes 32, Argos 16

Sasktchewan at Hamilton
The Ticats are favoured by 2.5 points at home, which since home teams are generally favoured by 3 points, means on a neutral field Saskatchewan is the slghtly better team. Arland Bruce or whatever you want to call him is out and Marquay McDaniel is back catching balls. Considering Bruce has caught four balls in two games, that's not as concerning as it would be normally. Chris Getzlaf is supposed to be back in as an import receiver for the Riders, which is good for them considering they don't have non-import receivers Fantuz or Bagg available. This could be construed as a homer pick, but I don't think the Cats are that bad to lose three games in a row early on.
Ticats 27, Riders 20

BC at Edmonton
The 2-0 Eskimos are only favoured by 2.5 points at home against the 0-2 Lions. I don't think that's fair to the Eskimos, but I'm going to go against the grain and go with the Lions. I've become less and less impressed with Kavis Reed's coaching abilities over the years; to me he's a good example of failing upwards. Buono isn't the superstar coach he once was, but he's no Bart Andrus.
Lions 25, Edmonton 23

Lions at Stampeders Pre-Season Game

Well when things started looking poorly for the Canucks, at least there was this game. Although I think the football team at my high school had more fans in the stands than the Stampeders appeared to tonight.

Non-import quarterback Brad Sinopoli looked OK in one series for Calgary and then poor for the following one. Not much interesting if you're not a Lion or Stampeder fan.

Least Watched Pre-Season Game Ever?

The CFL pre-season kicks off tonight with BC at Calgary, starting at 9 pm EST. The first ever pre-season game broadcast on TSN (OK there was a Touchdown Atlantic pre-season game in Halifax a few years ago, but that was a special event) is going up against the Vancouver Boston Stanley Cup game 7. I'm guessing the folks at TSN might have preferred for the Canucks to have won game 6 so they would have tonight to themselves, but things happen. I suppose if Boston has another monster first period, TSN may get a few people switching back and forth, but this is going to be a low rated game.

BC Lions Finally Release Yonus Davis

Looks like the Lions have finally released running back and special teams player Yonus Davis. Obviously being arrested after getting delivered 40,000 pills of ecstasy isn't a good strategy to stay with the team (also how many rookies own a BMW 745i?). Too bad as Davis was one of the relatively few bright spots for the Lions last year. However, one credo of Tigercatatonia is that import running backs are a fungible commodity in the CFL, so I'm sure someone else will emerge.

CFL 2010 Attendance, Best Road Drawing Teams

Note this post has the new numbers for 2011.

So I already looked at the home attendance records for the 2010 season, but for quick reference, here's the average home attendance for each team in the CFL:

Edmonton 35025

Calgary 30715

Saskatchewan 30048

Winnipeg 26083

Montreal 25012

BC 24327

Hamilton 23890

Toronto 22069

Obviously that ranking is interesting, but what's also interesting is which team is the best road draw in the CFL (probably someone has already done this, but I'm posting it anyways). For the road game attendances of one team, subtract the average home attendance of the host team from the game's attendance, total them up and divide by the number of road games (9). This year's list was surprising apart from the obvious leader:

Saskatchewan 3506.5

Hamilton 122.21

Toronto -47.296

Calgary -313.75

Montreal -469.54

Winnipeg -1073.9

BC -1385.9

Edmonton -1558.7

Shockingly, the Hamilton Ticats were second overall and the only team besides the Saskatchewan Roughriders to post a positive average number. How did Hamilton become Canada's team? Mainly by having the first and second highest Argo attendances for 2010 (the Riders game was third). Obviously the Ticats are again a draw in Dead Ted's Dome (TM). Toronto managed to come third, mainly due to the Ticats getting more than 30,000 fans for Labour Day, way higher than the Ticat average attendance. How did Edmonton suck so hard as a road draw, besides sucking as a team in 2010? Low numbers in Toronto and Hamilton.

Also there appears to be a weak correlation between a team's record and road draw ranking, with Montreal being lower than expected and Saskatchewan and Hamilton drawing better than their rankings would warrant.

One issue with these calculations is that both Saskatchewan and Montreal sold out all their games, so the number is really based on just six or seven road games. So don't get too excited by these numbers.

Here is last year's numbers on the best road drawing teams (2009 season).

My other blog.

CFL Predictions, Division Semifinals

Toronto at Hamilton,
Hamilton is favoured by 6.5 points at home, which seems a little high. Hamilton has lost two coming in, while Toronto has won one. The Ticats are 5 and 4 at home, while the Argos are 5 and 4 on the road. The Argos are still starting Cleo "the Party" Lemon, who has passed for 3,433 yards going 285 for 462, a not terrible 61.7% completion rating. 15 TDs to 19 picks certainly isn't good. Glenn went 388 for 602 (64.5%) for 5,102 yards with 33 TDs and 17 interceptions. Amusingly both teams ended up with 9 and 9 records despite the quarterback disparity.

Toronto has a chance if Cory Boyd gets hot and they get excellent special teams play and don't fall behind early. That's a lot to count on. Hamilton wins their first playoff game in quite some time.
Hamilton 29, Toronto 25

BC at Saskatchewan,
The Riders are favoured by 4 points at home, where they are a stellar 7 and 2. The Lions do sport a good 5 and 4 away record. BC is 7 and 3 over the last ten games and has won their past 3. The Riders have a one game winning streak, ending the Eskimos' season. BC has some good offensive weapons, but quarterback Travis Lulay isn't as good as Saskatchewan pivot Darian Durant. There's a chance of a BC upset, but the Riders are a different team at home.
Saskatchean 33, BC 27

BC at Hamilton

I suppose after the disappointment of yesterday's 23 to 21 loss at Ivor Wynne to the BC Lions I should say something. Somewhat pathetic that the team couldn't drive into field goal range at the end of the game. They certainly had enough time. Sad the team couldn't win with Glenn out there the entire time. Sad that Porter couldn't make a key third down conversion on a sneak.

At least Stala picked up the yards he needed for 1000 on the season, but 28 yards on three passes isn't too impressive. McDaniel had a shot at 1000 yards as well, but blew it, only getting 29 yards on 3 catches. Certainly the ball was thrown enough his way. Cobb had 36 yards on ten attempts which doesn't bode well for the playoffs.

Bright spots were Mann with 115 yards on 6 catches with 2 TDs, no doubt receiving the ball more due to Bruce's injury. Bauman caught three passes for 95 yards which was also nice and shows the depth the Cats have at receiver this year. Jermaine Reid, in for the injured Kirk was a force with five tackles and two sacks and seemed to be almost playing every down. Maybe the Cats should have been using him all season.

Ultimately disappointing that the Cats finished with the same regular season record as 2009 at 9 and 9. Hopefully fans will take note of this and not continue the Bellefeuille lovefest that seems to have been going on this season.

The Cats finished the season with 481 points scored and 450 points against. Depending on how the Toronto Montreal tilt goes, the Cats do have a chance for the least amount points against in the CFL. So that's something. Photos of the game should be up by tomorrow.

CFL Predictions, Week 17, Part B

Winnipeg at Toronto,

This is a bit biased considering I'm writing this after the BC Calgary game last night, which pretty much screwed the Blue Bombers. Fulling expecting BC to lose, Winnipeg really needed this game, whereas Toronto not so much, especially with Hamilton winning this week as well. Knowing all this, I'll go with the Argos. They find weird ways to win this year, whereas the Bombers have massive skills in losing close games. Admittedly the Argos are still starting Cleo "the Party" Lemon, who may go down as the year long starting quarterback with the worst stats in CFL history. Steven Jyles isn't really that good either.

Toronto 22, Winnipeg 15

Saskatchewan at Edmonton,

This is a hard one. BC has won, putting pressure on Edmonton to step things up. Calgary losing makes this game more important for the Riders, trying to take the division for two years in a row. Saskatchewan has some injuries, Edmonton sucks. The Riders have some pride and aren't likely to go into this game half-assed like Alouettes into Ivor Wynne last night. I'll pick the Riders.

Saskatchewan 33, Edmonton 28

CFL Previews, Week 17, Part A

Montreal at Hamilton,

The Alouettes are favoured by 2.5 on the road and have beat the Ticats both previous games and in fact are riding a six game win streak against the poor Tabbies. Both are riding two game win streaks. The Alouettes are only 4 and 3 on the road as opposed to 7 and 1 at home, so they are almost two different teams. The Cats are 4 and 3 at home, which isn't particularly impressive considering they went 6 and 3 at home during the regular season last year. There is some hope for the Cats though in this late season engagement. The Alouettes have already locked up home field for the East division final so they don't really have a lot to play for and won't take many chances injury wise. The Alouettes won't have running back Avon Cobourne, linebacker Diamond "the Pimp" Ferri nor kick returner Tim Maypray and still no Kerry Watkins nor kicker/punter David Duval. It helps to have a veteran booting the ball late in the season at Ivor Wynne.

The Cats on the other hand still need to beat out Toronto to host the East semi, so they should actually care somewhat. The Cats also picked up linebacker Kyries Herbert (who I was shocked to learn was actually in the NFL the past couple of seasons with Cincinnati) who probably won't do much apart from special teams this week. Stevie Baggs should make things more difficult for Anthony Calvillo, who probably is on a pretty short leash anyways, being pretty crotchety and all.

Hopefully the Cats can get a decent crowd out this game, as the Cats should beat the Alouettes this week. However the Cats could end up sucking as usual versus Montreal.

Ticats 29 Montreal 25

BC at Calgary,

Calgary, unlike Montreal hasn't quite locked up the Western final home field advantage. Calgary, unlike Montreal is also at home this week. Plus BC is a lot worse than Hamilton. So it isn't really a surprise the Stampeders are favoured by 9.5 points. The Lions are a surprising 3 and 4 on the road, but the Stamps are 6 and 1 at home. BC has lost 2 while Calgary won last week. In theory BC should be desperate, considering they are life and death with Edmonton and the Peg for the final spot in the West, but they are a bad team starting the mediocre Travis Lulay who apropos of nothing reminds me of former Hamilton quarterback Timmy Chang. Barring a small Brother Andre sized miracle, the Stamps easily take it , even covering the spread.

Stampeders 31, BC 22

CFL Previews, Week 16, Part A

Hamilton at Toronto,

Both teams sport 7 and 7 records, but as I posted yesterday there's a big difference in points for and against, with the advantage for the Tigercats. The Cats are favoured by a slim 1.5 points away, with Hamilton having a 3 and 4 record away and the Argos having a 4 and 3 winning record at home. Both have one game winning streaks. Hamilton's secondary is still banged up, but the Argos are starting Cleo "the Party" Lemon, who one would be lying about if described as mediocre. The Cats already hold the Harold Ballard trophy after winning both the previous games against the Argos. The question boils down to, can the Cats front seven stop the Argo's running back Cory Boyd. The answer is yes. Plus after last week's Argo win powered by several trick plays, the Cats will be ready for them.

Hamilton 29, Argos 21

Edmonton at BC

Battle of the ass teams. The good thing about these two teams is that one of them has to win (barring a tie) which is to their advantage concerning the Bombers crossing over. Edmonton is 4 and 10 which is pretty sad and BC isn't much better at 5 and 10. The Eskimos are 1 and 6 on the road, whereas the Lions are 2 and 5 at home. The Lions last week were leading before losing in overtime whereas the Eskimos were thumped last week by Hamilton. BC should be a little better this week by releasing quarterback Casey Printers, but I don't have a lot of faith in Travis Lulay. I'll pick the Eskimos to tighten up the race in the West even though the Lions are favoured by 5.5 points.

Edmonton 29, BC 26

CFL Predictions, Week 15, Part B

Calgary at Montreal,

Montreal is favoured by 3.5 points at home in the premier matchup in the CFL this week, which means the odds guys think Calgary is the better overall team. I think this is a fairly safe assumption, although Calgary only has one more win this year. The Alouettes are 5 and 1 at home, while the Stamps are an excellent 4 and 2 on the road. The Alouettes are still a great team, but I'm going to go with Henry Burris' better mobility (and not his lingerie choices) compared to Anthony Calvillo.

Calgary 33, Montreal 28

BC at Winnipeg,

This is pretty much a must win game for the Bombers if they have any hope of beating out BC for the crossover. Considering Winnipeg is two wins behind and has to have more points than BC to cross over, it isn't likely even if they do win. BC is 3 and 3 on the road and Winnipeg is 3 and 3 at home. BC has won the last two games while the Bombers have lost three in a row. I'm going to go out on a little bit of a limb and say the Bombers win this one. They're kind of due and they are OK at home. The Lions I just don't trust this season. Sadly the Bombers look unlikely to beat their record with Mike Kelly last year.

Hamilton at BC Lineup Preview

On the offensive line, Gauthier and import Jimenez at tackle, Dyakowski and Rottier at guard and Hage at centre. Mann and Bruce start at wide receiver, McDaniel and non-import Stala start at slot. Reggie Fish is listed as a backup receiver. Glenn starts, as does Cobb at running back and non-import Brown at fullback. That's six Canadian offensive starters.

Some weirdness this week on the defensive line, with Hickman and Jeremy Gibbs as the starting ends, and Bolden and non-import Kirk starting in the middle. McIntyre is listed but I thought he had an ankle injury.

Linebackers as always, Johnson, Floyd and Knowlton.

In the secondary, Heward and Tisdale start, with Dennis and Shivers as the defensive backs. Non-import Barker is at safety. That's two non-import starters on defence and eight total, one above the minimum.

For BC, on the offensive line, import Randolph and McGrath start at tackle. Hameister-Ries and Olafioye are the guards and Reid the centre. Black and non-import O'Neil start at wide receiver. Three starting slots are listed, Simon, non-import Jackson and Arceneaux. Printers starts at quarterback, with Davis the running back and non-import Lee as the fullback. McCallum kicks and punts.

Williams and non-import Johnson are the starting defensive ends, with Williams and Brown in the middle. For the linebackers, I think the starters are McKenzie, non-import Gesse and Reddick, but it is hard to tell from the pdf.

For the starting corners, it is Geogre and non-import Sanchez, with Phillips and Franks as the defensive backs and non-import Arakgi as the safety.

CFL Previews, Week 11, Part A

Calgary at Saskatchewan,

The Stampeders are only favoured by 3.5 on the road, which seems a little light considering the Riders were annihilated by the Bombers last week. Calgary has a seven game winning streak going, four and one on the road however the Riders are perfect at home. Pretty much have to go with Calgary here. The Riders are a good team, but not a great team.

Calgary 35, Saskatchewan 25

Hamilton at BC,

BC is favoured by 3.5 at home, even though they are only 1 and 4 at home. The Cats are only 2 and 3 on the road. BC has won two straight, while the Cats have lost one. This one is a tough one to call. Which Hamilton team will show up? Or more precisely which Kevin Glenn? Unfortunately for the Cats they will not have new signing Stevie Baggs in the lineup, who would definitely help corral BC quarterback Casey Printers. This is a late game, which never benefits Eastern division teams. This factor makes me pick BC in a close one.

BC 25, Hamilton 22