Friday, October 29, 2010

A (very) brief look at this week's CFL games

Last week the Lions managed to somehow a) hold onto a lead and b) win at McMahon for the second consecutive time. That gave the Lions just as many wins at McMahon Stadium this year as they have all year at Empire Field.

Point being, it looked like the Leos playoff fortunes will secure until Jared Zabransky went all not-Ricky Ray over the Roughriders. He didn't put up astonishing numbers, even for a rookie, but he held onto the ball and let the Esks running game control the flow.

By the way, last week was the first game in which Zabransky played start to finish since the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma as a member of Boise State, in what remains the most entertaining football game ever played.

Oddly enough, the most important game this week is Edmonton/Winnipeg, in which Paul LaPolice is starting fourth-string quarterback Joey Elliot. It is officially October.

In the Eastern playoff race, Toronto need a miracle to get another home game. They need to win both games, backs-to-back against Montreal, and for Hamilton to lose both of theirs. The Als have locked up first place in the East, but they've never been a team historically to slow down once clinching. Maybe this changes with Anthony Calvillo having been injured earlier this year.

We don't have a cold weather game alert this week, but we do have rain in forecast in Vancouver for Sunday, in what will surely quell Lions fans love of Empire Stadium and make them pine for that $545 million roof.

Montreal @ TORONTO (+4)
Hamilton @ CALGARY (-4)
Winnipeg @ EDMONTON (-7)
Saskatchewan (+3.5) @ BC

Signoff... not an optimist right now.

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