Scrum One, Scrum All

I would encourage all of my readers in the Edmonton area with free time on their hands to attend the Women's Rugby World Cup. This is the first time that the competition has been held outside Europe, and I'm hopeful that Edmonton can continue its strong tradition of hosting world class events. This should also be a great opportunity to catch some world-class women's rugby.

In other sporting news, here are my thoughts for the Labour Day match-ups.

Montreal and BC: It's occured to me that I'll be pulling for the underdogs in pretty much every game this week. As bad as they looked last week, I can't see Montreal losing three in a row (though, I think last week I may have said that I couldn't see two in a row. At any event, Montreal is still the pick).

Saskatchewan and Winnipeg: Saskatchewan has looked pretty dominant the past couple of weeks, though that hasn't been hard given their opponent. Winnipeg choked pretty badly last week against the Argos as well. Rocky Butler has quite the record against Winnipeg in Labour Day games. I'll be pulling for Winnipeg, but it just seems to me like Saskatchewan is looking better right now.

Toronto and Hamilton: Hamilton's last game is as bad as I think I've seen a team play, and I remember the Shreveport Pirates and the Las Vegas Posse. John Avery is apparently hurt, so the Argo run game will be a bit less potent. I'm starting to get reckless with these picks, but it can only go up for Hamilton, and Terry Vauhgn doesn't lose on Labour Day. Hamilton shocks the world.

Edmonton and Calgary: I'm a tad annoyed that this is the early game (though, I suppose this guarantees that I get to see the whole game, instead of having them cut to it after kickoff). Given that I'm not volunteering for Orientation this year, I have a pretty good idea how this is going to turn out, however, I'm going to pick Edmonton anyways; in part because I think the return of A.J. Gass should provide a spark. The offence should be better as well.

Ride The Bull

Apparently not even Cook County is immune to those guys that hang out in the bathroom and put soap on your hands and then ask for money. I know others have complained about this practice elsewhere, but it's really starting to get onerous. Usually I'm pretty good at timing it so I'm washing my hands while the attendant is busy with someone else, however, this time there were two of them so I couldn't escape. I'll say this to the local bar establishments: 1. I can wash my own damned hands, 2. It's much harder to over-tip your bartenders and waitresses when I'm being charged every time I go to the bathroom.

Apart from that, I found the Cook County experience rather strange. I would think that people that go there regularly are looking for a certain type of atmosphere, a certain type of music. That environment is typified by the mechanical bull (which I did in fact ride). I'm guessing that people don't go to Cook County so that they can dance to "Baby Got Back". Cultivate your base people.

On the topic of sports, I'll likely do much better in my picks this week as I won't be showing unde faith in a team which clearly doesn't deserve as much as I've shown thus far. Given that I shan't be volunteering for Orientation this year, I'm also a tad concerned as to their prospects for Labour Day. However, that is still a little while away. As for the coming games:

Calgary and Montreal: Speaking of undue faith being shown... I'm going to say that Montreal isn't going to play badly three weeks in a row, and that they aren't going to lose to Calgary at home. Montreal should take it.

Winnipeg and Toronto: Damon's back, now the shoe is on the other foot for Winnipeg. The Bombers were looking good, but injuries seem to have caught up with them. I'm going with Toronto.

Saskatchewan and Hamilton: I honestly didn't see the dismissal of Roy Shivers coming, and while I didn't much care for him I'm not entirely sure it was warranted. That being said, I've never much cared for Eric Tillman either. I think that the media outlets that keep giving him credit for being GM of the Grey Cup winning Argonauts in 97 need to keep in mind that in 1997 they already had Doug Flutie, Don Matthews, Paul Masotti, Pinball Clemons and pretty much everyone else. Tillman would have brought in a then-rookie Derrell Mitchell, but apart from that I don't think he deserves that much credit for their Cup (94 with the Lions may be another matter). Anyways, Saskatchewan's front office aside, the Riders took it to the Ti-Cats last week, and I don't see that changing this week.

Alright, Who's Playing This Week

So, if Montreal had been able to hold onto the ball (or the lead) I would have gone 4-4 last week. Pity. Additionally, last week's B.C.- Winnipeg game was much, much worse than Toronto-Hamilton. On that note, while I won't disagree that for some reason there have been a lot of bad CFL games this year, the pre-season NFL games that have been on so far have reinforced for me the superiority of the Canadian game. Here's how I see things shaking down this week:

Edmonton and B.C.: I still have concerns, but last week was a much better effort. The play calling was the best I've seen all year, and the defence didn't fold when it counted. The return game still needs work, but you can't have everything. B.C. is going to have to play better this week if they want to beat the Eskimos. I'm going to say that Edmonton has turned it around, and they'll come out with a win going into the bye week.

Montreal and Toronto: Toronto is coming off a big win last week, but I think Montreal will rebound from their last second loss. Look for them to take better care of the ball and convert more once in scoring position (something they were quite good at earlier in the year).

Hamilton and Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan didn't really play that badly last week, Roy Shivers' remarks notwithstanding. I'm starting to feel a little bit sorry for Hamilton fans, as it seems that they tend to play their worst games at home. That won't be a problem this week, as they're on the road. Jason Maas has never played particularly well in Saskatchewan, so I'm going with the Riders for this week.

My views on the interest in returning a team to Ottawa should come as no surprise. If it's going to be done, it has to be done right. There have been too many gong shows in the past 30 years, and I daresay that Ottawa public has rightly become a tad cynical about this. Additionally, I would strongly support a return to the Rough Riders name. It represents the history of the team in the city, and also a team which at one point was quite successful. I think it's important to tie in the previous legacy of success. Furthermore, it returns one of the unique characteristics of the CFL. I'm well aware of the snickers from people that aren't fans to begin with, however this league has traditionally got itself into trouble when it's become overly preoccupied with what the naysayers have had to say. I don't think that realistically having two teams with very similar names (that's right, I can tell the difference between a compound word and two words) has an impact on whether people follow a particular league or not. Indeed, if anything says bush league, it's allowing Disney to use a professional sports franchise as a marketing vehicle for a series of crappy movies starring Emilio Esteves and Joshua Jackson (you listening Gil Stein?). If team nicknames was a reason to avoid a league, I would have stopped watching NHL hockey in 1993 (Which actually would have made sense on another level, as the Oilers missed the playoffs that year).

Meanwhile, moving to a different version of "football" it's good to hear that England is off to a good start under the new coach. I obviously didn't watch the game, so I have no insight at all, apart from the fact that a 4-0 scoreline looks good, particularly in light of the fact that it was accomplished without you know who.

On the rugby front, good on the Canadian national rugby team for clinching a berth in the World Cup next year. The rest of the pool looks pretty tough (Australia, Fiji, Wales and probably Japan), but I think it's better to get qualification taken care of early. I'm not sure I like our chances of getting out of the group, but you never know what can happen. A year ago we lost to the Americans in the Churchill Cup, so a lot can happen.

On the topic of rugby, it appears that they are building a new stadium in Dunedin. Ordinarily, this wouldn't merit a comment by me, but it does mean that my dream of watching an All Blacks Test at Carisbrook will likely never be realised. Heck, I'm not even sure if there will be anymore All Blacks tests at Carisbrook, depending on when this stadium is to be built (though, you'd think they'd have a farewell one or something). If the last test has been already been played, then in close to 100 years of international rugby (the first international was played there in 1908), the All Blacks have only lost twice there. Once to the Lions, and once to Australia. I recognise that they don't play a test there every year, but that's still damned impressive. Here's to the House of Pain.

Picks

I was going to post a longish rant on what's wrong with the Eskimos, but that will have to wait. Hopefully they'll win on Friday so I won't need to. At any rate, here's how I see this week:

Winnipeg and B.C.: I'll be pulling for Winnipeg, but B.C. is just less banged up.

Toronto and Hamilton: Uggh. This is going to be a bad game. While Hamilton is on the upswing, I'm looking for the recent changes to be a wake-up call for the Argos.

Edmonton and Saskatchewan: While they beat us pretty badly in the pre-season, generally Edmonton doesn't lose to Saskatchewan at home.

Calgary and Montreal: A lot of the talking heads are calling for an upset here, but I just don't see it. Montreal.

The Gauntlet Has Been Dropped

It appears that some things, in fact, do not change. Gary has quite rightly pointed out that I haven't been prognosticating football results this year. I can explain that with the fact that at the time the season started, I was somewhat preoccupied with another local sports team.

That being said, while I can't promise that I'll have time to stick it out through the season, I do feel a bit like pontificating on the state of various teams this year. For that reason, and because for the most part the games this week pick themselves, I present my thoughts for the week ahead in the CFL:

Toronto and Montreal

With all the talk about how dissapointing Hamilton has been there year, I think Toronto is really the most dissapointing team this year. Two years removed from a Grey Cup, and coming off a year when up until the second half of the Eastern Final they were a solid bet to represent the East in the Grey Cup, they've looked very bad this year. Part of it has been injuries, but Damon has been injured in the past and they've been able to make due. While they don't have Michael Bishop anymore, I would think that Spergon Wynn wouldn't be that much of a step down given how he looked in B.C. (though, his time in Winnipeg was admittedly less inspiring). I'm not as surprised that Ricky Williams hasn't done much, given that Toronto hasn't exactly been committed to the run, and Ricky isn't exactly known as being great catching the ball out of the backfield (I seem to recall reading an article the year he came out where the coach of the Colts said one of the reasons they took Edgerrin James ahead of him was that they weren't confident in his ability to catch balls out of the backfield). I have been a little surprised at the lack of hype in other cities when Toronto comes to town. When they had the Rocket, it was a huge event. Even for non-football fans (though, part of that may have been that John Candy was travelling with the team, and in the case of Edmonton, riding the firetruck around and chucking footballs into the stands). There hasn't been that same hype with Ricky. At any rate, the Argos problems go deeper than that, as apparently this week not only is Damon hurt, but so is John Avery. On Damon Allen, I'd venture that his last birthday was one of his worst. Not only did he lose the game, but it was to the most recent team to have cast him aside. The Argo defence has also not looked as tight as it has in past years.

On the other side of things, Montreal is doing their typical early-season dominance act. However, watching them last week, they didn't look as overpowering as they normally do this time of the season. Part of that may be that the last couple of games I've seen have been generally poorly played. As well, they weren't blitzing Edmonton as much as they usually do. Their offence in the fourth quarter still looked solid though. At any rate, Montreal is going to lose some week but it won't be this week. Toronto is just too beat up and Montreal is just too good right now.

Hamilton and Winnipeg

While I think that Hamilton will at least score a point this week, I don't think that th result will be any different.

I must admit, both of these teams had me fooled going into this season. While I've never been a particularly big Jason Maas fan, and I thought that the Journal's prediction that Hamilton would be representing the East in the Grey Cup was laughable, I thought that they would be doing better at this stage this year. With Terry Vaughn, Corey Holmes and Josh Ranek, they added some key pieces on offence. However, their offence has been largely unimpressive this year (apart from the last Montreal game). I don't recall their defence being this bad last year either. While they have been unlucky in a few games (the first one against Calgary could have gone either way, as really could have the most recent Montreal one), they haven't looked like the team that a lot of people were expecting them to be during the pre-season.

Winnipeg has been the surprise of the season. I had them picked to miss the playoffs this year, but right now they're on pace for a home playoff game. Milt Stegall is playing as good as I've seen him play, while the addition of Barrin Simpson seems to have solidified what was a pretty pathetic defence last year. I anticipate this game being closer than the last one, but with the same result. Winnipeg should win.

Saskatchewan and Calgary

I'm aware that this is the Saturday game and that there is a game before it, but I'm leaving that one for last.

This one is a bit tougher to pick. I'd also like to take this opportunity to shake my fist at the CFL schedule-makers. I'm aware that Ottawa folding made things a bit more difficult, but having the same match-ups every week gets rather annoying after a while (much like the NHL's newly contrived rivalry creation scheduling system). Anyways, Saskatchewan seems to have finally gotten the monkey off of their collective backs and beaten their former quarterback. Calgary also looks to be in a bit of a freefall. Playing at home should help, and this is a team that demolished Saskatchewan earlier in the season. That being said, while I recognise that it's quite hard to beat a team twice in a row, I'm still going with Saskatchewan.

Edmonton and B.C.

I have my own thoughts on what's wrong with the Eskimos, that would probably take up an entire post (this one is probably long enough as is). Suffice to say, there are a lot of problems. All of that being said, they usually seem to come up big against B.C. when the vultures are circling (those with good memories will recall it was on the road against B.C. that they snapped their 3 game losing streak to start the 2004 season. Those with less good memories will recall that they beat B.C. at home the week after getting tuned by Winnipeg on Canada Day of this year).

B.C. has been improving the last couple of weeks, after looking a bit unsettled against Saskatchewan. Joe Smith seems to have provided the needed spark, and Simon is still one of the most dangerous receivers in the league. The smart money on this one says to go with B.C., but I think that the Eskimos can turn it around this week (if not, there will really be hell to pay in Edmonton).