Sunday, November 06, 2005

 

Battle of Alberta - Eskimos vs. Stampeders




The stars aligned -- BC lost last night to set up the most important edition of the Battle of Alberta for quite some time.

Some background can be found by scrolling down two posts (or clicking here if that scrolling seems like too much work).

The bottom line is that if Edmonton wins they clinch 1st place in the West and get a bye to the Conference Final, which will be held in Commonwealth Stadium -- Calgary will fall to 3rd place.

If Calgary wins, they clinch 2nd place and get to host the Western Semifinal in McMahon Stadium -- against Edmonton.

On the one hand, I'd obviously like to see Quick Six never even take the field. On the other hand, if Calgary did win today it would sure set up a sweet Western Final rematch between the two teams.

Prediction: Horse for dinner

On a somewhat related note: Farewell to the Throwin' Samoan. He may not be the best coach in the world, but man is he ever a great guy. It was nice to see that his players and the crowd made sure to let him know.

Comments:

This CFL scenario--a team going into the last game with the choice of either snagging first place, or not even getting a home playoff game--is pretty exotic, isn't it? Anybody remember the last time this happened?

I wish I had any confidence in these Eskimos. The one plus is that a bye week is the perfect carrot for a lazy thoroughbred. Expect the Evil Empire to open up a 23-3 lead at the half and win 26-23 on a last-minute FG. [Cue "Imperial March" from "Star Wars"]
 


Last day/last game of the season? I sure don't remember it (although in the other football league, I have vague recollections of finales where a team could win their division or miss the playoffs).

I'll pick Coach Flanders leading the boys in red to a convincing (two-touchdown) win. Sacamano can feel free to keep his dinner menu plans regardless.

It's going to be a disappointing eight days for Edmonton sports fans.
 


I have, in fact, eaten horse. It tastes pretty much as you would expect.
 


Oh yeah, because little Neddy, genius that he is, is going to beat us twice back-to-back. [rolls eyes] When's the CFL going to get wise and stop trying to beat us with people who played or coached their way out of Edmonton?
 


Whoa. They actually play the Imperial March for the Esks in McMahon? That's ten kinds of awesome.
 


Uh oh.
 


Relax. Flanders is screwing us here with wacky offensive blocking schemes, and they're victimizing Wiltshire on most of these big plays. This is a whole different game when we get Jeanty back next week. (Though it'd sure be nice if Maciocia were plugging any kind of diagonal element to the passing game.)
 


Oh I'm not worried about next week, I'm worried about what I'm going to have for dinner tonight.
 


You were asking for trouble posting that Elston cartoon.
 


Hidly-ho, Esks fans! Maybe Danny M. will be able to cook up a better scheme for next week than he was in the two weeks leading up to this game. Okely-dokely!
 


Whoops! The Esks bye-week was two weeks ago, wasn't it. Sorry! Coach Maciocia will have the same amount of time to prepare for the rematch as he did for this one, and presumably will sketch out something equally effective.

I regret the error.
 


Too bad it is not a 2 game total point season. No matter, I expect the Stamps will still cover what will likely be a 7 point spread (the Stamps were 2 point favorites going into today's game).

ick Lewis backed up all his trash talk, Quick Six had a quick six, and I can see why even the Jest (the Jets!) had no use for Ricky Ray.
 


Can't wait to see what kind of excrement metaphors the Sun columnists cook up for this one. Or maybe they'll kick it up a notch to menses and pus.
 


Agreed, but I don't even want to know what kind of Google hits that comment is going to bring in.
 


You were asking for trouble posting that Elston cartoon.

Yep. My bad.
 


I see 4 of the first 12 commenters at TSN think new CFL record-holder Ricky Ray should be on the bench next week.

Personally, I think they should keep him in (duh), but he should change his name to "Rick".
 


I've always been a Ray backer, but I'd rather have first place than the fuckin' completions record. Anthony Calvillo's TD-INT ratio this year was 34/19. Damon Allen's was 33/15. Ray, who took nearly every snap from centre, is a grim 25/24: he leads the league in the bad category, and isn't close to the front in the good one. (Maas was a splendid 31/14 in 2004.) That's as damning as hell, and it doesn't even take Ray's numerous fumbles into account. Either the Frito Man has to wear this one, or Maciocia needs to take the rap for the design of the offence. At this point I'm hoping that side deal with Hamilton involves them taking the QB we don't want, rather than just Maas.

All that said, the Esks still win on Sunday, with Ray, Maas, or Brian Broomell lining up behind centre.
 


Let's face it. The only reason Ray got the record is because the Eskimos had no running game for most of the year.

And when I say "no running game", I mean fewer than 5 running plays/game "no running game."
 

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