We finally found offence and exciting finishes in the CFL last week so we can call off the search dogs and concentrate on the upcoming games for Week 7.
The East Division still has a 98-pound weakling vibe this year, but the West has been able to dial in their game against their eastern brethren.
The biggest game of the week has to be the clash between long-time rivals Saskatchewan and Winnipeg.
The 5-1 Bombers are the biggest surprise of the early 2014 season and the 3-2 ’Riders have demonstrated complete dominance in their past two games.
The problem is, both teams have dined heavily on Eastern opponents and a true measure of their actual status is incomplete because they have not faced many credible opponents.
Winnipeg is clearly a much better team than the 2013 team and owes much of the team’s 2014 success to better coaching and a legitimate quarterback.
The Roughriders have undergone a big change on offence as their two biggest offensive weapons left for the NFL.
The saving grace has been the ’Rider defence because these guys are assassins in green and white jerseys this year.
The game in Winnipeg will be sheer pandemonium because Bomber fans are loud and proud even in bad years.
A game against the ’Riders will dial up the crazy and influence Saskatchewan’s ability to call plays on offence.
Both defences will exert tremendous pressure on the quarterbacks and it will become a battle in the trenches.
I pick the ’Riders to win the battle in the trenches and hand the Bombers a loss in front of their disappointed hometown faithful.
The 1-4 Montreal Alouettes host the 4-1 Edmonton Eskimos in the early Friday night game. It would take a miracle worthy of investigation by the Catholic Church for the Als to win this game.
Montreal keeps adding coaches when they should be adding quarterbacks to their roster and the team is in complete freefall.
The A.C. (After Calvillo) era has not been pretty and Als general manager Jim Popp seems less genius-like without his former star quarterback.
The 1-4 Hamilton Tiger-Cats head west to Vancouver to play the 3-3 B.C. Lions and I fully expect the West Coast curse will continue for the Ticats.
Eastern teams always struggle with late games in Vancouver and the best team in the East (Toronto) has lost twice as many games as it has won in ’14, while Hamilton is tied for second and last place with every other team in the East division.
If this feline football matchup is not a recipe for disaster, then I do not know my CFL cookbook. B.C. hangs one on Hamilton in a one-sided catfight.
The last game of the week features a homecoming for former Stampeders and current Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris as 1-4 Ottawa visits 4-1 Calgary.
Hank has been largely ineffective this year and has fought accuracy issues in most of his games as a Redblack.
Burris has also felt plenty of heat from other defences and now looks like a guy playing out the string in his career.
None of this translates into a Redblack victory in Cowtown and I expect the Stamps will be in an ugly mood after their loss to the Lions last week.
Calgary wears out its touchdown horse in this game against the woeful Ottawa Redblacks.