Week 14: Races wide open down the stretch
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09/30/2011 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Usually by Week 14, teams seem to have one another figured out and positioning for the postseason begins to become a clearer picture. Not this CFL season.
Continuing in the tradition of one of the most unpredictable years in recent memory, last week was just another example of how wide open the race for the Grey Cup really is.
Injuries to quarterbacks spread across the league like the plague as three QB's - Anthony Calvillo, Buck Pierce and Steven Jyles - were forced out of action. Surprisingly, despite having backups close the show, the Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts were still able to come away victorious.
Failing to put away the lowly Argos, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers allowed the Als to inch within a game of the East Division lead. They will also be without their starting quarterback for their upcoming divisional matchup.
With the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders both licking their wounds after losses, the West Division title is suddenly a three-team race as the B.C. Lions have ridden a five-game win streak to get within one game of the Alberta duo.
Though the window is closing in on the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and Argonauts slim playoff hopes, they can still play the role of spoiler if the teams ahead of them aren't careful. What seems only mathematically possible may suddenly become reality.
Every game will be a meeting of divisional foes in Week 14 and here's a look at how the matchups breakdown.
MONTREAL ALOUETTES AT WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS
If losing the services of their starting QB wasn't bad enough, the Bombers will now have to deal with the league's highest scoring offense, one that certainly hasn't forgotten the last meeting between the East Division's top two teams.
It was just Week 12 when Winnipeg narrowly edged past Montreal to win on the road and get a leg up on the competition. Though it came to within a failed two-point conversion from Calvillo and company to send the game into overtime, the loss to a Bomber team that was reeling and the failure to capitalize are what separates the two eams at the moment.
There will clearly be an advantage for the Alouettes considering Pierce will be watching from the sideline due to a decision Bomber head coach Paul LaPolice made as a precaution. Despite the starter's absence, the Blue Bombers still have running back Fred Reid to hand the ball to, and after an 84-yard, one touchdown performance in the previous game against the Als, he certainly won't be hesitant to challenge the front line.
Establishing the running game without a reliable man to handle the snaps may be difficult and certainly gives Montreal a strategic advantage knowing Winnipeg will be limited in its offensive abilities. To further the dilemma for the Bombers, the Als have scored 30 or more points in seven games, six of which were wins - a mark the Blue and Gold have attained only twice this season.
Though the Blue Bombers hold claim to the league's leader in sacks and interceptions - Odell Willis and Jovon Johnson - their abilities may be negated as the Alouettes have turned into a more balanced offensive unit despite possessing the league's highest-rated quarterback. Much of the switch in approach has been due to the stellar play of Brandon Whitaker who leads the CFL in rushing yards by a wide margin.
Unless the Bomber D can keep the Alouettes offense in check things may get out of hand in Swaggerville.
EDMONTON ESKIMOS AT B.C. LIONS
The only two clubs to reach a win streak of at least five games square off in an unlikely battle for what may be a share of the West Division title. It only seems improbable considering how the first five games of the season played out - Edmonton was undefeated while British Columbia failed to win anything.
Less than 10 weeks later, the Lions have climbed their way back and are currently playing as well as any team in the league. Befitting to their new- found identity they will be playing in their newly renovated B.C. Place Stadium for the first time.
The biggest difference between the first five games and the last five for the Lions has to be the defense. They began the season by allowing opponents to average over 32 points per game combining for a whopping 161 points against. It's quite a stark contrast compared to the current stretch where no opponent has scored more than 19 points, combining to score a paltry 47 points in total.
Not to be outdone, the play of the offense has been nothing short of spectacular all season long and continues to improve each week. Averaging over 37 points per contest during the current win streak, B.C. is not only winning, it's winning large.
Quite contrary to their divisional counterparts, the Eskimos have regressed as the season has progressed. Now 2-5 since the perfect start, the Eskis have been outscored 175-145 over their last seven games and have not won back-to- back contests since Week 5.
This will mark the third meeting of the season between B.C. and Edmonton. With the series already tied at a game apiece, this matchup may help determine playoff positioning down the road with still one more game scheduled before the end of the season.
Unless QB Ricky Ray can get his team on the board early and often, the deficit may be too large to overcome and the West may change hands once again.
SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS AT CALGARY STAMPEDERS
Two teams battling inconsistency will have a chance to right the ship against an equally shaky opponent.
The struggles of the Riders has been well documented all year long and despite seeing their season high three-game winning streak come to an abrupt halt at the hands of the hottest team in the CFL, there is still chance they can salvage a year that seemed over well before the end of summer after a 3-1 record in September.
Despite being the brightest team at the end of August, the Stampeders have struggled as of late going 1-3 this past month. A big reason for the slide has been the defense, which has been anything but productive allowing opponents to score an average of 33 points against them over that span.
Good news for Calgary is it won't have to deal with an offense lighting up scoreboards as Saskatchewan has scored the second least number of points this season and has come up short in two previous meetings against the Stamps. Bad news for Cowtown is it will have to play at McMahon Stadium where it has struggled all season going 2-4.
For all the inconsistency both of these clubs have displayed over the year, one thing fans can count on is this willlikely to be a high-scoring affair as both teams are far from defensive juggernauts. In fact, they are tied for the most anemic defensive units in the league as no other team has given up more points this season than either the Stamps or Riders with 345 total points against, or 28.8 points per game.
Though there remains one more meeting between them, this could be an opportunity for the Stampeders to ensure they won't fall into a tie for the final playoff berth as the Roughriders sit two games back of the final spot and just three games behind the division leaders.
HAMILTON TIGER-CATS AT TORONTO ARGONAUTS
In only the second installment of the three-game series between the bitter provincial rivals, we find the battle of Ontario not as intriguing as it once was.
Of course diehard fans would never admit as much but the way the season has progressed it's hard to give the matchup the attention it once may have commanded.
It's no fault of the Ti-Cats who responded to back-to-back losses with an offensive downpour against the Stampeders en route to scoring 55 points in Week 13.
Reason for the lack of interest, however, falls solely on the shoulders of the Argos and their woeful season.
Regardless of coming off a victory - its first since August 18th - Toronto has been the most disappointing team this season and it doesn't appear things are about to turn around anytime soon. An injury to Jyles may mean Dalton Bell gets the call to be the man running the show on offense, and though sending in a third-year quarterback with less than 140 career pass attempts is risky, it's not as if things can get much worse.
Though the Tiger-Cats are currently stuck at .500, there still is a chance they can pull to within a game of the East Division lead, pending what transpires in the first game of the weekend. A win over the Argos is absolutely paramount if the Cats have any hopes of sneaking into the top-seed by the end of the season.
With the way the Hamilton offense has performed of late it is likely that another high-scoring affair is in store, as the Black and Gold are the league's second highest scoring team and Toronto gives up nearly the most points in the league with opponents scoring a total of 344 points.
There still remains a slim chance the Boatmen can turn around their abysmal 2011 campaign and actually qualify for the post-season but they will need to begin with a win over their provincial rivals to warrant any such thought going forward.
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2007 online football betting Preview
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
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There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
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The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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Marlins could start season without No. 2 starter Johnson
JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.
Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.
MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .
''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''
Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.
He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.
''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''
Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.
Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.
With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.
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