Since Matt is having trouble writing about the increasingly irrelevant Flames half of the Battle of Alberta, I though it would probably be a good time to bring up the huge Eskimos-Stampeders tilt tomorrow afternoon. Depending on the results of the BC-Sask game tonight, the Edmonton-Calgary game could put Edmonton in 1st -- or it could drop them down to 3rd.

The winner of the Edmonton-Calgary game is guaranteed 2nd place and a home semifinal playoff berth. If the Lions lose tonight vs Saskatchewan and Edmonto wins tomorrow, then the Eskies grab 1st, get the bye, and the Western Final comes home to Commonwealth.

Some of the Stamps are already talkin' trash:

"I'm going out with the intent to make Garrett look bad," said Lewis yesterday. "My intent is to make it so after this year, he won't want to play football again . . . Garrett is too old (to cover me)."

That's the spirit! At least someone in Calgary still has a little bark.

Edmonton has now made the playoffs 34 straight years - a North American pro-sports record.

The Stamps . . . well, they made they won the Grey Cup in 2001 before they:

• sold their team to a couple of Californians with no football experience but with a lot of shoes who only bought the team so that one of their son's could play quarterback;
• had the police escort one of these Californians out of McMahon stadium over a money dispute with the other Californian;
• ran out of town perhaps the best coach in the league and even offered to pay the remainder of his salary if any team would take him because he wouldn't play the aforementioned son;
• got rid one of the top 3 quarterbacks in the league to make room for the son;
• fired another coach 2 days before Christmas for not starting the son - "Happy Holidays!";
• hired their old field-goal kicker Mark McLoughlin as club president - for 56 days - before firing him and promoting the public relations director, instead,
• hired a tv broadcaster with no experience as coach and GM to clean up the mess.

Recently a local group (including the Flames) has bought the team and they've shown signs of that the circus might be ending. Of course, they did hire Tom Higgens as coach and GM after he was fired by the Eskimos.

Anyway, the game should still be a corker.

Ricky Ray needs only 12 completions to break Doug Flutie's 1991 CFL record of 466. He also needs 367 passing yards to break Warren Moon's record of 5648 - that one could be tough to get.

The Stamps are on a roll having won 6 of their last 7. Given the insanity that has surrounded this team, it is actually nice to see them making the playoffs. But it's a bit too early for them to start hosting playoff games again.

Prediction: Eskimos 31-17. I'll also predict that Calgary will have the ball just before half-time, but Higgens will decide not to try for a big play and will instead run out the clock.

P.S. The Inner Circle documentary on Ricky Ray and Jason Maas will by on TSN after the BC/Sask. game tonight. The write-up says that it "gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the quarterbacks during Labour Day week. The hotel room, the team bus, the locker-room - no area is out of bounds."

I love that kind of stuff.