There's a ray of light in the Canadian Football League following last weekend's games. The East Division, the butt of some pretty bad jokes, led by Ricky Ray took three of four games from the powerful West Division. It could have been four for four minus the questionable missed contacting the kicker call that allowed Saskatchewan to score a touchdown and defeat the Ottawa RedBlacks 35 - 32 in overtime. Take away that one play and the RedBlacks have their second win of the year.Ray passed for 284 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the Argonauts defeated the BC Lions 40 - 23.
And in a CFL simulation of who will win the East Division the Argonauts were slightly favoured with at 45.8 per cent compared to Hamilton TigerCats 45.6 percent. The Argo's with their sparkling record of 4 wins and 8 losses are currently in second place right behind the equally embarrassing TigerCats who have a 4 win and 7 loss record.
In the West the same CFL simulation picks the Calgary Stampeders to finish first in a walk. 89.75 per cent compared to second place Saskatchewan at just of 7 per cent. The simulation picks Edmonton for third, BC Lions fourth and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for last. The CFL has a rather complicated playoff cross over formula this year which would just take to long to try to go through here. I'm not sure anyone understands it.
The lack lustre East gained some ground with Edmonton defeating Hamilton and Montreal upsetting Calgary but if you go to the cross over standings the five West Division teams are one through five in the standings and the fourth East Division teams occupy sixth through ninth and last.
Things will start to sort themselves in the next few weeks as teams in both the East and the West start playing more games in their own division.
This week
Montreal Alouettes at Ottawa RedBlacks
Saskatchewan RoughRiders at Edmonton Eskimos
Hamilton TigerCats at Winnipeg Blue Bombers
British Columbia Lions at Calgary Stampeders