Week 4 Preview

My personal picks for this week.

Ancient sages have long prognosticated their prognostications with an eye to ‘The Short Week’.  It’s the football analyst’s best friend and worst nightmare all rolled into one.  It’s the twilight zone.  Basically, The Short Week means right is left, upside down is sideways, and everything that came before means nothing.  This week will probably see an upset.  Good teams will look average and bad teams will look great – or much worse.

Week 4 begins WEDNESDAY, and here’s a preview.

Winnipeg @ Toronto

Winnipeg has an extra day of rest, but they’re playing their forth straight game on the road – with their backup quarterback behind centre.  They also had their asses handed to them by an Edmonton team bent on retribution.  They could not be in worse shape heading into Toronto, to face a team who also has a point to make.  The Argos left 35 points on the field after entering Hamilton’s red zone with regularity.  A few tweaks and adjustments and the Argo O should be running like a well-oiled machine.  It makes no sense, but this has all the ingredients necessary for an upset.

My Pick: Toronto

Saskatchewan @ Calgary

Saskatchewan comes off the high of defeating the Grey Cup Champs to face a rather dysfunctional Calgary team.  Calgary is rested and will be taking the field with the serviceable Kevin Glenn at the helm.  The Roughriders are undefeated, and they’re playing well in all facets of the game.  They’re favoured to win.  This is exactly the sort of game that gave Rider Fans fits in the past, watching their team donate 2 points to underdogs.  Cory Chamblin’s crew seems bent on turning around bad habits.  Local media have him walking on water these days.  We’ll see if his charges will follow him into the Red Sea.

My Pick: Saskatchewan

Edmonton @ BC

Edmonton is coming off an emotional win.  BC is coming off an emotional loss.  Emotions do funny things to football teams.  Rich Stubler’s Eskimo defence affects powerful offences in curious ways.  BC best bring their A game.  There’s much to be learned about both these teams.

My Pick: BC

Montreal @ Hamilton

Hamilton owes its win to Jim Daly’s special teams unit, scoring 2 touchdowns and providing field position all night.  Unfortunately, good Henry and bad Henry also showed up for that game.  A good indicator for how Hamilton’s defence will stack up against Montreal’s offence may be found by looking at last week’s game against Toronto.  If AC and company enter the Red Zone as often as Toronto did, playing the same offence, will they leave 35 points on the field?

My Pick: Montreal