Here are our predictions for All Hallow’s Eve weekend
of football!
RUGBY) We
think the New Zealand All-Blacks will
continue their dominance and rout Australia
by more than a try (five points). The finals are on NBC this Saturday – check your
listings; we don’t remember what time. (And
if you’ve never seen the Haka, tune in early just for that!)
NFL) For
some reason, we think it’s a boring weekend in the National!....Football!...LEAGUE!
Out of the fourteen games on the slate for week eight, we see twelve of them as
the favorite beating the spread:
New England (-8) over the Jets; Kansas City (-4.5) over the Lions; Atlanta (-7.5) over Tampa; Baltimore (-3) over the Chargers; Minnesota (-1) over Da Bears; Arizona (-5) over the Browns; Houston (-4) over the Titans [this one
makes us uncomfortable, though, because of both teams’ QB situations]; New Orleans (-3.5) over the Giants
[this one also took a long time…]; the New
York Jets (-2) over the Raiders; Seattle
(-6) over the QB-less (and rudderless) Cowboys; Green Bay (-3) over Denver [wanted to take Denver, and all our
metrics say to…but Aaron Rogers, man…]; and Carolina (-7) over the listing Colts.
The only two underdogs we’re
going with this weekend are San
Francisco (+8.5) against the Rams [it’s just too high a spread], and we
like Pittsburgh (+1.5) to beat
Cincinnati outright at home this weekend, as much as we like the Bengals.
Call it the 6-0 jinx – we don’t see any of the others losing (except Denver or
Green Bay to each other, which is required), and it’s hard to see four 7-0
teams moving forward. Pittsburgh with Landry Jones has a functional offense,
and the Bengals have a down game coming…
CFL) Two weeks left! Playoff spots and
positions are on the line! Here are the
standings as we speak…
CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
2015
|
Week 18
|
FF Elo-style
|
||||||||
Western Team
|
W
|
L
|
PpG
|
PF
|
PA
|
Avg PF
|
Avg PA
|
P +/-
|
RATING
|
FF rank
|
Edmonton
|
13
|
4
|
1.53
|
426
|
319
|
25.1
|
18.8
|
107
|
36.4
|
2
|
Calgary
|
12
|
4
|
1.50
|
408
|
320
|
25.5
|
20.0
|
88
|
38.4
|
1 (-2)
|
BC Lions
|
6
|
10
|
0.75
|
403
|
433
|
25.2
|
27.1
|
-30
|
32.7
|
4 (-1)
|
Winnipeg
|
5
|
12
|
0.59
|
342
|
481
|
20.1
|
28.3
|
-139
|
23.6
|
8
|
Saskatchewan
|
2
|
14
|
0.25
|
381
|
497
|
23.8
|
31.1
|
-116
|
23.1
|
9
|
|
|
|||||||||
Eastern Team
|
W
|
L
|
PpG
|
PF
|
PA
|
APF
|
APA
|
P +/-
|
RATING
|
FF rank
|
Hamilton
|
10
|
6
|
1.25
|
496
|
335
|
31.0
|
20.9
|
161
|
35.0
|
3 (+2)
|
Ottawa
|
10
|
6
|
1.25
|
408
|
420
|
25.5
|
26.3
|
-12
|
27.4
|
6
|
Toronto
|
9
|
7
|
1.13
|
392
|
461
|
24.5
|
28.8
|
-69
|
24.3
|
7 (+3)
|
Montreal
|
6
|
10
|
0.75
|
342
|
332
|
21.4
|
20.8
|
10
|
29.9
|
5 (-2)
|
Hamilton and Ottawa
happen to have their two remaining games with
each other on back to back weeks, starting this Sunday in Hamilton and
concluding in Ottawa on Saturday the 7th. Meanwhile, Toronto gets two home games to end the year,
against BC this Friday and Winnipeg next Friday, but to place first they have
to depend on Ottawa and Hamilton tying both of their games! (The CFL computers give them a
one-in-ten-thousand chance. Not sure how they figure it.) For the Ti-Cats
and RedBlacks, it comes down to the head-to-head; Hamilton owns the tie breaker
in a three-way tie; if Toronto falls by the wayside, it becomes a soccer
playoff scoring – point differential in two games.
Meanwhile, Edmonton plays
its last game of the season on Sunday, and if they win against 6-10 Montreal,
they clinch the division. If they lose, Calgary’s
got to win both this Saturday at home against poor Saskatchewan, and
next Saturday in Vancouver.
There are three playoff
spots in each division – the first place gets a bye, which is all-important,
and hosts the winner of the third-at-second place game the week before. So,
Hamilton, Ottawa, and Toronto are in for the East, while in the West it’ll
be Edmonton, Calgary, and either BC or Montreal,
who would get in using what they call the “crossover” rule – if a fourth place
team is better than the other third place team, they steal that playoff
spot! MY FAVORITE PLAYOFF RULE! Last year, it worked the other way: BC
stole a spot in the East. So why not root
for Montreal to steal the West spot this time? Basically, though, BC owns
the tiebreaker, so Montreal must win more of their two remaining games
(@ Edmonton and home v Saskatchewan) than British Columbia does (@ Toronto and
v Calgary). Very possible. It’s also
conceivable that Winnipeg steals the spot, but they’d have to win at Toronto
next Friday and have Montreal and BC lose
both games. Good luck, Blue Bombers.
Our Picks This Week) Toronto over BC, 28-20…Calgary
routs the RoughRiders, 41-19… Hamilton edges Ottawa at home, 33-27…Edmonton
clinches by beating Montreal, 31-13.
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