For any sports fan that was thinking about “the game” in grade nine science class or checking his fantasy league in grade 11 physics, let me give you a brief description of the strongest influence on our lives: gravity. As a student studying the sciences, I know a thing or two about the phenomenon. And the Canadian Football League is now following the rules of the planet: the Western Division went up, and is now going down.
Back in week four I suggested that the CFL should remove the divisions so the Grey Cup game is truly a best vs best game, regardless of geographical location because all the good teams are from out West. In our weekly power rankings, from week six through twelve the top five teams were all in the West and everybody around the CFL was thrashing the East even up until two weeks ago. But now, the league seems to be back at par on both sides of this great country. Just don’t look at ONLY the standings to say the West is better than the East.
Applying Science to the CFL: What Goes Up Must Come
Just before week 13, the last-placed team in the West, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had six wins while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, first in the East only had three wins. Last place has double the wins than first place. Easy to rant about, eh? But that was the past. Now we just completed week 15 and the East has gone 7-1 in interdivisional play since the start of week 13, the only loss Ottawa in overtime at Mosaic Stadium.
There have been some shocking Eastern victories over West teams, too, notably Hamilton’s defeat of Saskatchewan 28-3 in week 12. More recently, this past week the Redblacks beat up on Winnipeg 40-23, Toronto protected home turf with a 33-32 win over Edmonton, and the Tiger-Cats won another game at Tim Hortons Field, against B.C, 19-17.
Next week will be the last week with intra-division match-ups as the East looks to improve on its 11-27 record against the West, with Ottawa at B.C. Place Stadium while the Roughriders visit Percival Molson Stadium on Thanksgiving Monday.
Just how has the East dominated so much the past three weeks? Simple physics would say the fact that the West was once high up, they must fall down. But let’s look at this from a football standpoint.
Three of the West’s starting quarterbacks, some of the best in the league, all went down with injuries in weeks 11 or 12. That means players like Kevin Glenn, Tino Sunseri, and Drew Tate have had to come in. Glenn was playing all season up to that point so he was familiar with the situation (he’s a Grey Cup finalist quarterback, and no rookie) but Sunseri and Tate need time to settle in and get in the groove of playing the starting QB role in the CFL.
Their Eastern counterparts, half of them are young inexperienced quarterbacks, Zach Collaros and Jonathan Crompton, have already had time to settle in. Ricky Ray and Henry Burris are their usual selves, talented Grey Cup-winning pivots who know what they’re doing out there. Collaros is doing an amazing job in Hamilton; he’s doing what he did in Toronto before the Ticats picked him up: winning games. Crompton is taking on the personality of his predecessor, Anthony Calvillo, a cool, calm, and collective leader who’s winning games for his team.
And the defences deserve a lot of credit too. Ottawa is surprisingly fourth in the league with 11 interceptions this season, good enough for the second most interception-return-yards this season with 228. Hamilton has the best defence against the rush with 76.3 yards against per game and they have recovered a league-leading 22 fumbles. Toronto has given up the third least passing yards against per game with 219.3. Montreal’s 36 sacks (4th) and 15 fumbles (6th) adds to the accomplishments the East has done on the defensive side of the ball. These performances have gone almost unnoticed considering the battle out West between tackles leader Solomon Elimimian and sacks leader John Chick for possibly the league’s Most Outstanding Player.
What gravity does to you every second of the day is no different on the CFL. The West enjoyed their time being dominant against the East, but as the season dwindles down, so does the Western dominance. Of course, this whole East-West argument will come to a conclusion November 30 in Vancouver.
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