Tuesday 9 August 2011

Power Poll (Week 6)

The league seems to be separating into the two groups. The top five teams in the league are all dangerous and capable of winning any game they play. The bottom three look like cannon fodder for the top teams. Despite that, changes made by the bottom three (specifically BC's trade for Arland Bruce) could have them back in contention in no time. For the time being, this is a two-tier league.

1. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Last Week: 2)

Winnipeg's biggest test came against Edmonton, and they passed with flying colours. The Bombers are a one-point loss to Calgary away from being 6-0. There are still some questions about the Offense, but they put together a complete win against the Eskimos, and for that they jump up to the top spot.

2. Edmonton Eskimos (Last Week: 1)

Edmonton was bound to lose sooner or later, but they got beat up by Winnipeg. After a stellar first drive, the Eskimos couldn't move the ball. The loss exposed some flaws, but this is still a team that can compete with anybody. They will be in tough in Week 7, when they travel to Montreal to take on the Als.

3. Montreal Alouettes (Last Week: 4)

Montreal ended their two-game losing streak by beating the pants off the Toronto Argonauts. Anthony Calvillo returned to form by throwing a mere six incompletions against a fairly good Argo Defense. While Montreal no longer looks like the dominant team they have been over the past decade, they are still an extremely talented squad that will be a handful for any and every team in the CFL.

4. Calgary Stampeders (Last Week: 5)

The Stamps leapfrog the Tiger-Cats on the strength of their win against Hamilton in Week 6. I'm still not fully sold on the Stampeders. Their recent win was their most impressive and solid outing to date, but I need to see more out of them before I'm willing to move them higher.

5. Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Last Week: 3)

The Jekyll and Hyde of the 2011 season is the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. That wasn't a bad game they played in Calgary, but it was a very bad second half. A very, very bad second half. That said, the Ti-Cats can put that behind them with a win at home against their archrivals from Toronto.

6. British Columbia Lions (Last Week: 8)

The Lions finally won one, and they looked pretty good doing it. This team is only going to get better with the acquisition of Arland Bruce. They are still far behind the Hamilton-Calgary-Montreal triumvirate, but they look to be on track.

7. Saskatchewan Roughriders (Last Week: 6)

Trying to figure out who to rank last was the toughest decision of the week. Both Toronto and Saskatchewan look terrible. Each has their own set of problems, and that makes it hard to decide who should be seven and who should be eight. Since Saskatchewan won most recently, they get seventh.

8. Toronto Argonauts (Last Week: 7)

The Argos are in a free fall. When you fire a coach six games into a season, things are heading south quickly. The problem is, they fired the wrong guy. Chip Garber was the Defensive Coordinator; there is nothing wrong with Toronto's Defense. All of the Boatmen's problems reside on the offensive side of the ball. I don't know how the promotion of Orlondo Steinhauer is going to fix a unit that didn't need fixing.

Highest Climb: BC Lions (+2)
Steepest Drop: Hamilton Tiger-Cats (-2)

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