CFL Predictions, Week1, Part B

Toronto at Edmonton
Vegas seems to have this as a pick'em game, so I guess at a neutral site, Toronto would be the stronger team. Toronto should in theory be better than last year, although putting together a lot of new pieces, including a quarterback early is never easy. I don't have a lot of faith in Edmonton this year. Somehow they managed to get a good record, mainly on the back of Fred Stamps receiving. I don't have a lot of confidence in the Eskimos starting quarterback Steven Jyles, so strange as it may seem, I'll go with the Argos.
Argos 25, Eskimos 22

Montreal at Calgary
The Stamps seems to be favoured by three at home. I'm not convinced by Drew Tate yet, I need to see a string of good games before I jump on that chuckwagon. Calvillo played well in last year's Eastern final. It was the defence that failed. After an off-season shakeup, are the Alouette defenders better? I'm not sure, but Montreal GM Jim Popp always seems to find gems. I'll go with the Alouettes in a close one.
Alouettes 28, Calgary 26

Ticats Honk It Up, Lose to Riders 43 to 16

Well that sucked. I didn't go into the game expecting that, but the Cats coughed up another opening night furball and lost at home to the Riders. More annoying was the fact that two Saskatchewan fans were sitting to rows above me squawking all night. At half time I thought, we've got this, but then we played even worse.

I'll say more tomorrow, but the defence wasn't great, especially the front four. They got pressure sometimes, but Durant always seemed to wiggle away. The Riders also often had second and long and found ways to convert. That's never good.

All in all, a poor night for the Cats, one in which poor Ted Michaels is forced to take call after call on the fifth quarter berating the Cats. Next week is in BC too. Ugh.

Riders at Ticats Preview

The CFL season opener takes place in Hamilton tonight and a Ticat team with some differences takes the field tonight at Ivor Wynne for the last season before demolition.

Looking at the offensive line, the Ticats stick with import strategy with the returning Simmons at left and new comer Dile at right. Dyakowski (Canadian genius) is back at right guard, with UBC product Husband at right guard. O'Neill starts at centre. Hage is listed as backup, but I don't know if he will even dress after a long recovery from last season's knee injury.

Reigning rookie of the year Williams and the finally here non-import Giguere start at wideouts, with second year Grant and non-import signing Fantuz at the slots. Stala is a backup although I'm not sure if he will come on with five receiver sets or six. Brown is back as the non-import fullback, although I'm also not sure how many four receiver sets the Cats will run, but I'm sure he will be in for short yardage.

Burris starts (duh), with Porter backing up and no doubt has the sneak job. Cobourne is back as the running back.

The defensive line is a work in progress and all import. Boudreaux and NFL third round pick Crable are the ends, with the returning McElveen and Rose in the middle.

The linebacking corps differs from last year with Johnson and Williams back and non-import and former Argo Eiben. Knowlton is listed as a backup.

Changes from last year on the corner. Rookie Windsor (obviously a non-import) product Bucknor is on one side and the recently acquired former Cat Tisdale on the other. Bucknor wasn't even drafted as far as I can tell, being signed as a free agent. This is unusual and hopefully he won't be burned too badly.

Imports Smith and Young are back as the halfbacks and import Young is back as the safety.

Congi is the kicker and Australian Bartel is the punter. Hopefully Bartel won't be put in some weird situations.

So five non-import starters on offence and two on defence.

The Riders also go with two import tackles in Fulton and Patrick with an all-Canadian interior.

The Riders have an import wideout and slotback, Harper and Dressler with two Canadians, Bagg and Getzlaff at wideout and slot and non-import fullback Hughes. Durant starts at quarterback with Willy (that's his last name) as backup, with Sheets as running back.

Both starting defensive ends are imports, Hawkins and former Bomber Willis, with import George in the middle with non-import Shologan.

For linebacker, the Riders go with two imports on the outside, Brackenridge and rookie Kromah with 2010 number 1 draft pick Shomari Williams in the middle.

The Riders go with an all import secondary, with Jackson and Graham as the corners, Russ and McKenzie as the halfbacks and Patrick as the safety.

Milo is the kicker and punter.

So that's five non-import starters on offence and two on defence, one more than the minimum. That's usually a good sign.

CFL 2012 Predictions, Week 1, Part A

Saskatchewan at Hamilton,
You never really know what teams are going to be like before the season starts. The Riders will probably not be good. I won't say there will be terrible, like 3 and 15 terrible, but I doubt they will be 500. The Cats should have a good enough offense to carry them this year.

That said, I'm pretty sure the Cats will take this one. They are at home, looked good in the pre-season when Burris was at the controls and the Riders were poor during the pre-season and lost Fantuz to the Ticats. Current Vegas odds are the Cats by 7.

Ticats 27, Fantuzless People 18

Winnipeg at BC
BC is coming off a Grey Cup win, playing at home, looked like they were going to lose some players to the NFL and then didn't and have the best quarterback. The Bombers didn't do much of anything in the off-season and don't have ratio breaker Doug Brown to stuff the middle anymore. And their starting running back just exploded his Achilles. Current line is the Lions by 7.5.

Buck Pierce could have a monster game or get injured. You just don't know. I'm going with the Lions.

Left Coast People 23, Mosquito People 16

What's the 2012 Ticats Opening Crowd Going to be?

Scott Mitchell has been quoted saying the Cats have 3,000 more season ticket holders this year. Last year's season opener had 23,852 fans, which isn't bad, but isn't great either. This year has the added bonus of being the last year for Ivor Wynne plus some of the stench from the stadium issue has drifted away. Going into the season, the Cats have appeared to have made some good personal moves.

Saskatchewan is also traditionally a good draw, although I wonder if so early in the season is the best placement for maximizing Rider fans. The Riders could suck this year, so maybe having them in when they are 0-0 and the fans are still delusional could work out better.

I would say over 25,000 is easily doable, but I wouldn't tack on 3,000 to last year's number. I would love to be wrong though.

CFL in 2012 on ESPN3.com

@CFL just tweeted that the entire CFL season will be available on ESPN3.com. Also apparently they are working with another broadcaster.

Looking at the wikipedia entry for ESPN3, it is a strange beast. Who gets it depends on whether their ISP provides it. Also interesting is that Xbox Live Gold members get it. I wonder, no NFL network this year?

CHML Writes the Blog Post I Always Wanted to, Beer Prices Across the CFL

CHML has a post comparing beer prices across the CFL. They're surprisingly close. Unsurprisingly, like real estate, BC has the highest prices. Weirdly Hamilton has slightly higher prices than Toronto. I seem to remember big beers in Dead Ted's Dome (TM) being higher than Ivor Wynne, but that may have been premium beers. Do the Argos even get money from beer sales? I seem to recall no, but who knows.

Also if you look closely, CHML can't do math.