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Toronto is the team to beat in the playoffs

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 | 05:00 PM ET

Another regular season gone - it all happens so fast. Let’s just concentrate on the playoff teams (sorry Hamilton and Edmonton fans).

News Flash: Toronto is the team to beat. Their defence is scary good and special teams are great but the Michael Bishop led offence versus Saskatchewan stole the show. What a great time for Bishop to catch fire.

I can’t recall ever seeing a QB play that well in that kind of wind. He threw a 44-yard pass against the wind to Obed Cetoute that was so beautiful; I just kept repeating ‘WOW’ on the sidelines. I don’t think he threw three bad passes all day. Now, I know that was a career game for Bishop and it shouldn’t be that easy for him in the playoffs.

In saying that, I rate the Argos as the top team for two main reasons: they never have to leave home again and they’ve gone from almost worst to first by winning games under pressure for the last three months.

Lions still have lots of roar

B.C. is just a hair under Toronto in my eyes because the Grey Cup is in T.O., and the Lions have better teams chasing after them in the West. But B.C. is good and have been all year long. Seeing a healthy Geroy Simon added to the offensive mix can’t make other teams feel good.

The running game is the anchor of this team led by Joe Smith and the best O-line in the league. Defensively, they play smart, aggressive football and thrive on causing turnovers. That front four dominates game in and game out and should feel great after a week-long rest. And Wally [Buono] has learned from the past and made this Jarious Jackson’s team (although it was nice to see Dave Dickenson get back on the field). I’d be surprised not to see them in Toronto late this month.

The Roughriders are an enigma. They were very good this year and I don’t exactly know why. They had major injuries on both sides of the ball including their top receiver (Matt Dominguez), his replacement (Mike Washington), their starting halfback (Eddie Davis), running back (Wes Cates), fullback (Chris Szarka), etc ... and still won 12 games. I guess that’s why Mr. Joseph got the most outstanding player nod in the West.

Kerry Joseph must work his magic passing and running for this team to move on. At least D.J. Flick and Andy Fantuz are fresh since I don’t think either of them played versus Toronto this week (my notes say they did play, but I think they were invisible because I was there and I didn’t see them). If Saskatchewan can take it to Calgary, they have a decent shot of beating B.C. and going to the Cup since they do match up well with the Lions.

Calgary is an imposing foe

The Calgary Stampeders are a scary team right now (just don’t focus on that crappy 7-10-1 record). I don’t think anyone is really looking forward to facing them. Their receivers are the best group in the league and Henry Burris was playing great football the last two months of the season. Defence is still a gigantic question mark but the pass rush looked alright against B.C. (although Rob Murphy wasn’t there to regulate). The fact that they haven’t won outside of Alberta bothers me, but there’s no doubt that they have the weapons to make a run.

If the Blue Bombers were a car right now, they would be leaking oil all over the place. That offence hasn’t looked right in more than a month and the defensive backfield is average at best. I’m surprised to see those drops by their receivers too. They should beat Montreal and they definitely have the talent to challenge Toronto. However, I still think they have deep wounds from the gradual implosion it took to lose their season-long hold on first place.

Too much has happened for Montreal to have any bearing on these playoffs. With the loss of Calvillo, coaches fighting with coaches, players fighting with coaches, and players fighting with players, this team is a major mess right now. I expect that Winnipeg will do them a favour by ending their season and allowing them all to get away from one another as quickly as possible.

That’s the way I see it. Talk amongst yourselves and let me know what you think. We’ll chat again later this week.

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Comments

mitchell

Kitchener

Lions defenitly have the skill to do it and go all the way to a second in a row. The argos can challenge and take another for themselves. But i think that this years champion will be an unexpcted one. I think that us Cfl fans will be in for a suprise.

Posted November 7, 2007 12:00 AM

Fred Nickerson

I want to believe that the Bombers can pull it together, but it seems that good things just don't happen to Wpg. Most of all, I want TO to lose, so I'll cheer for whomever they are playing against!

Posted November 7, 2007 07:30 PM

Doug

Hamilton

I think Khari is right. The Argo defence and special teams have proven that if the offence can get 15 or 20 points on the board the other two groups can get it done. Now with rumours of Pinball leaving the helm, it may give the added advantage of "winning one for the Gipper".

BC has yet to meet this Argo team now that everything seems to be coming together and they or anyone else may be unpleasantly surprised.

Posted November 7, 2007 08:08 PM

Henri

Windsor

Hate to say it but Argos look like the team to beat. It's not how you start, it's how you finish and Toronto is peaking at the right time.

I wouldn't count the Als out just yet. Brady hasn't looked that bad the past few games.

I would love to see the Rougies in the cup but BC is too strong for anyone when they play in the loud dome in the playoffs.

This has got to be good news for Toronto and the Argos, whom have had to put up with all the NFL talk recently. But is anyone in T.O. getting excited about the Grey Cup? Do they even know they're the hosts?

Posted November 8, 2007 01:22 AM

Brett Tremblay

Toronto

This is an exciting playoffs. There's been a lot of talk in my circle about who'll do what. We've all tried to be unbiased but still come to the same conclusion as Khari -- that our Argos are the team to beat.

There's a lot of heated debate as to who'll get past the semis (and Khari leaves this one open too with a strong West match up and two flailing teams in the East -- though he did pick Winnipeg and so do I) but there's no debate on who passes the finals. The Grey cup itself is where we get jittery.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a double-blue parade down Bay Street, though it would have required a fair stretch of my tolerance for fantasy to ever predict a winning streak like the one that got the Argos here so I'm already in la la land before I start wagering on increasing it by two.

Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, however, with the Argos, it's just better to believe than to be skeptical.

Posted November 8, 2007 08:48 PM

anthony

vancouver

Kahari is right about calgary, you can't count them out and at the same time I don't think BC has a free ticket to toronto either. Winnipeg has been leaking oil but its better to have it happen before playoffs than during. I think moral is still high and they can pull it together. And no one in this league is more cup hungry than the touchdown king Milt Stegall who's leadership (along with glenn and roberts and the o-line playing like they can) will be essential if they're going to beat toronto which is very possible if we can do some hurry up offense so that Toronto's big D can't always be so suffocating. Go BLUE!

Posted November 8, 2007 09:38 PM

Dave from Estevan

Estevan

The Argos only looked good last week because the Roughriders weren't motivated and didn't use their 'A' game plan. They wanted to save all the good plays for Calgary and not give too much away. Look for whoever limps out of the East to get mangled by the Western Representative. The true Grey Cup will be the Western Final in B.C.

Posted November 9, 2007 05:39 PM

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