CFL Week 13 Preview

Article by Duncan Gray

With the excitement of the big rivalry fortnight behind us it's the time of year for things to get serious in Canada as teams look towards securing play-off places. We're looking forward this week to seeing players on a few teams getting back on the field after early season injuries.
The TV coverage is a bit limited this week. There's only one live game, though Sunday morning could be lost as the overnight games are being shown back to back. The full TV schedule is further down the page.

Play-Off Watch
The CFL play-offs work like this. The Grey Cup is played between the winners of the East and West Divisional Final games. The Divisional Finals are hosted by the team who finishes first in the Division, playing the winners of a semi-final game featuring the second and third finishers.

So currently the teams in position are -

East: 1st Hamilton, 2nd Ottawa, 3rd Toronto
West: 1st Calgary, 2nd Edmonton, 3rd BC
There's a twist though. If the fourth team in one division finishes with a better won/lost record than the third team in the other then a crossover occurs and the higher rated team gets the play off spot. That's how, last season, BC Lions with a 9&9 record got to play in the East semi-final at the expense of Toronto who finished 8&10.

It's never happened  that an East team has crossed over to the West play-offs but this year the Montreal Alouettes are neck and neck with BC and Winnipeg, so it's a distinct possibility.

In the News This Week

The Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris reached a milestone on Sunday as his career total passing reached 58,000 yards. Burris is 40 years of age and, apart from a couple of years in the NFL, he's played in the league since 1997. He's in third place on the all-time list but probably won't catch up with Damon Allen or Anthony Calvillo unless he plays until he's 50.

With the Toronto Blue Jays heading for the MLB play-offs for once the Argonauts are facing their home venue, the Rogers Centre, being unavailable to them. It's been announced that their home fixture against the Redblacks on 6^th October is going to be played in Ottawa. There's a worst case scenario that they might finish the season having managed to play only four games in Toronto with further home fixtures possibly being switched to Hamilton's Tim Hortons Field. The fans must be looking forward to next season, new ownership and a move to BMO Field which they'll be sharing with Toronto's Major League Soccer franchise.

There's more activity in the signing market this week after the NFL's final cuts. Former Winnipeg linebacker and no.1 draft pick Henoc Muamba is reported to have visited several teams since he was cut by the Indianapolis Colts. He's thought to be looking for a team with Grey Cup chances, maybe he'll join his brother in Edmonton. Winnipeg Blue Bombers have traded with the Tiger-Cats to acquire the signing rights to the former Clemson long throwing quarterback Tajh Boyd. He's already been added to their practice squad.

This week's TV Schedule BC Lions at Calgary Stampeders - LIVE Saturday morning September 19, 02:00 hrs – BT Sport 2 repeat: Wednesday morning 06:30 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Edmonton Eskimos at Hamilton Tiger-Cats – recorded Sunday morning September 20, 06:30 hrs – BT Sport ESPN Ottawa Redblacks at Saskatchewan Roughriders – recorded Sunday morning September 20, 09:00 hrs – BT Sport ESPN Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Montreal Alouettes – recorded Thursday morning September 24, 06:00 hrs – BT Sport ESPN

 

Game of the Week

Two heavyweights go head to head on Saturday afternoon as Hamilton Tiger-Cats (8&3) host the Edmonton Eskimos (7&4). The TiCats had a big win in Edmonton three weeks ago but they shouldn't be expecting an easy one here. The Eskimos have regained their confidence with the return of Mike Reilly at quarterback, particularly as he led them to the win over the Stampeders, and they still have the league's best defence. The Hamilton defence isn't to be sniffed at either, though their chase for the record of most touchdowns scored by a defence seems to have stalled lately. Neither team has a great running offence so this could be a classic quarterback battle, Collaros and Reilly against those hot defences. That's got to be worth watching.

Calgary Stampeders (8&3) lost last week in Edmonton and they'll surely be in a mood to make amends on Friday in front of their home fans. BC Lions (4&6) lost their game too, and they did so with an offence that was totally useless. We expect to see star running back Jon Cornish back for the Stampeders after his thumb injury. With Andrew Harris, their rival to Cornish, having produced almost nothing recently the Lions need to find some magic quickly or this one could be ugly.

Another player returning from injury is the Saskatchewan Roughriders' (1&10) quarterback Kevin Glenn who's going to be the starter against the Ottawa Redblacks (6&4) in Regina. There's been a lot of debate this week as to whether this is the right move, a lot of fans have written off the Riders season and would rather see rookie Brett Smith gain more experience. The last meeting of these two was the low point in the Riders season, they got embarrassed and they sacked Corey Chamblin in the aftermath. The Redblacks proved they could win on a trip to the West last week, but who knows how Saskatchewan will play? This might turn out to be a bigger challenge.

Montreal Alouettes (4&6), coming off the bye week, will have Jonathan Crompton starting at QB on Sunday. He's been out since sustaining a shoulder injury in the opening game of the season and his comeback is timely as Rakeem Cato isn't available. Crompton came into the team at this stage last year and rescued what had been a very poor campaign up to then. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4&7) will play with renewed hope after their Banjo Bowl win. Quarterback Matt Nichols will have to do without their leading receiver as Nick Moore has been sidelined with a shoulder injury for at least one game.

Toronto Argonauts are on the bye this week. By another week Ricky Ray might well be fit to return to action. That will be another interesting quarterback decision to be made.