For the second year in a row, the last two teams standing in the West Division are the BC Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And for the second consecutive year, these two powerhouse teams will meet at IG Field with a berth in the Grey Cup game on the line.
Seems to me the two teams are pretty evenly matched… The one area that’s not been mentioned in all of this beyond the players is both weather/field conditions and IG field atmosphere… these too should be contributing factors that should be considered… should be a classic… Go Blue 
Two very evenly matched teams any way you look at it.
Going to come down to who makes the least mistakes combined with who can overcome the mistakes.
Stating the obvious but it is accurate and for sure these teams are very evenly matched.
Execution of the game plan, and was the game plan correct… That will be the story
I think Winnipeg has the edge.
Mainly due to Collaros.
The two areas missing from this analysis are (1) Coaching (slight advantage to Winnipeg), and (2) intangibles/weather (big advantage to Winnipeg).
Weather won’t be a problem
Sat. Sunny 
, 0 degrees C. wind @ 10km/hr
BC can win only if they get on top by 7+ early…otherwise it will be curtains.
Looks like a beautiful day for football on Saturday at IG field and agree with most, that these teams are both very good and worthy of representing the West but there is something special playing at IG Field in front of the loudest and proudest fans in the league which I believe will make a difference. Anything can happen in a one game showdown but think the Blue Bombers will sneak out with the win… at least I’m hoping. Either way, it should be a great game.
Can’t wait to see how saying BC has the QB advantage ages.
Like a fine wine…or a raw chicken left in the sun in July.
There ain’t no inbetween
Marshall, Marshall, Marshall. How can you use the BC Western Semifinal against a 6-10 Calgary team to say that Vernon Adams and his receivers are better than Collaros and his receivers. I voted for you as the top play-by-play commentator. I will need to reassess my evaluation of you! Get real, please.
The last two wins cowtown had were vs the inept Riders and then the BC team trying hard to not hurt key players for the showdown vs the bombers in the West final… Not a true synopsis of why they won those two games… So basically a 4 win team going into the semifinal vs the Lions who dominated … Other than the first 3 downs.
I still like Marshall the best for PBP but he does miss a lot of boats on his opinions here.
There is nothing that can possibly be read into Adam’s performance last week that might apply this week. Dru Brown and the Bomber B team torched the Stamps even worse the week prior. Adams also disappeared in the second half against the Bombers in the most important regular season game of the year for both, thereby no doubt convincing the voters that while he had a good year, he clearly isn’t MOP material just yet. It was Zach who schooled him in that second half.
Even what I just said won’t matter on Saturday. Could Adams play better than Zach and lead BC to victory? Of course he could. I just don’t see how it is possible to give him an edge over Zach going in given Zach’s recent triumph when it counted most.
Clearly Marshall Ferguson wanted to force an equal number of advantages per team. Here’s a comparison of the teams’ defence and offence based on statistics, and not merely conjecture.
Didn’t know all those stats Arnie but had heard some of them. Obviously on paper it’s not even close but unfortunately the game isn’t played on paper.
One thing I was thinking before, and the stats bear that out, is that the Bombers offense was clearly the best in the league this year and BC doesn’t have a chance in a shootout. Bombers defence is better too. Very importantly BC doesn’t have the running game Winnipeg does.
For BC to win their defence has to excel in my opinion. Turnovers and penalties can help as well and anyone can win one game, although it’s pretty clear where the smart money should go.
I think Marshall nailed it on pretty much all counts. Good work. 
Of course you do. Don’t let minor details such as actual stats cloud your opinion.
Wasn’t talking to you, Jon. Is it okay to agree with Ferguson? People like to talk about good Adams/bad Adams but Zach gets a pass. What about good Zach/bad Zach? To wit.
Edm (wk 10) - 2/5, 6 yds passing. Leaves game in 2nd Qtr after pick 6. Score 22-0 for Elks. In the last 2 games with Edm Zach was 15/22, 131 yds over 5 quarters. His PFF passing grade in wk 20 (courtesy CFL) was 44.6 - dead last among QB’s. That was his better game of the two.
BC (wk 3) - ST’s scored the only 6 pts of game. Offence laid goose egg @ IGF.
Ott (wk 6) - zero pts on offence last 20 minutes of the game. Blow 19 pt lead.
Labor Day - Zack 13/26. Lost in OT.
Ham (wk 15) - three picks. Another loss.
Zach can be brilliant but in half a dozen games this year - meh, not so much.
Zach has some great games but he’s perfectly capable of duds. You can check all those stats for yourself Jon. And as for the GC game - up 9 points in the 4th with plenty of time left. What happened to the offence?
In this case got to pick your stats. Zach has thrown some AWEFUL picks this years.
I do agree it’s recency bias putting BC at advantage in the QB category. I know previous years they have called some matchups a tie. Probably should have done that in my opinion but again, it creates content.
Truthfully, the Bombers are at their best when it’s Brady Olivera and that Oline doing the work, with Zach then picking apart the spread out secondary. BC needs Vernon Adams to be on his A game on a week in week out basis.
There is no question that the Lions have to have all aspects rolling in order to beat the Bombers this weekend. But the Bombers are not all that… like in the past years and can be taken down. I was so excited to see how Winnipeg would make out against the one and only regular season game, at home even , against Toronto would turn out. For the life of me I still can’t figure out why Toronto didn’t want to win that game. Played their second string QB all game until they might win… so put the third string in at the end to make sure they didn’t.
Was it all a set up… waiting for the Grey Cup again?