TORONTO — If you’re a Power Rankings-minded person the way that we are, you were likely watching the fireworks that Week 6 of the CFL season provided while trying to appropriately sort the fallout that resulted.
Toronto haven’t lost so undisputed top
BC on a bye so doesn’t move
Winnipeg lost to 2nd bottom team so should move down but no one deserves to take their spot
Redblacks beat 3rd place so deserve huge jump plus Crum very effective
Calgary beat 4th place deserve to move up
Sask lost to Calgary so move down 2 spots plus Fine effective
Montreal has lost 2 in a row (both top teams) deserve drop
Ticats win against Elks proves nothing plus lost Shiltz
Elks certified last team
Winnipeg didn’t go down a rank most likely because Calgary didn’t deserve to go up.
Ott doesn’t move up to 4th with one good half.
Now if they beat the Stamps this week, then yes
I still have to agree with the released rankings 100%
I think the people who do the rankings do an excellent job. They did a perfect job on this week with the surprises and closeness. It is such an exciting league with well played football.
This is a good week for Power Rankings. I would have understood if the Bombers went down one spot, but leaving them at #3 is not wrong.
Can’t disagree with anything here.
This is a joke
I can see the bombers sinking quickly in the rankings unless something is done to shore up the defensive secondary. Some help on the O-line would be nice as well. Richie’s “bend but don’t break” philosophy is not working any longer. They are being scorched by everyone they play.
After a crazy week of CFL football these power rankings look pretty much bang on. The top three won’t move much until the Argos get caught by surprise… they now have the target on their backs (as a Bomber fan once told me). “Lions only had it for one week”. My buddy is an Argo fan and says they have a great schedule going forward so should hold onto the #1 spot. One team needs to take them by surprise and shake things up when he least expects it… maybe Edmonton?
Made an account just to say this? Really?
This team currently (after week 6) has given up the 2nd least amount of yards, and 3rd least through the air.
What they do need is some help with the front 7, the secondary is a strength.
Argos were ranked third for the first three weeks essentially because the jury was out on their quarterbacking. Now that the verdict on Kelly is in, they’ve vaulted to first and seem a good bet to stay there. The team looks super-alert this season, which certainly hasn’t always been the case in previous years when they had a tendency to self-destruct. They react well in all situations and are definitely entertaining to watch. It’s always fun to see things done competently.
Hey, give the guy a break. New blood always welcomed on this site. Help on the OL is hardly a slight vs the Bombers. The Bombers’ calling card in the “Buck” years has been heavily rush oriented - no team rushed more than them in the past 2 seasons & here we are again. But only 2 teams avg less yds/rush than Winnipeg. As for pass protection - it bears repeating. On an adjusted basis (14 games in 2021) to 2022 sacks allowed increased by 40%. They are on track currently to register 48, another increase at this rate of 19 sacks, should this pace continue. At any rate, I don’t see them allowing less than last year. So this is going backwards.
So how good exactly is this OL in both phases? #66 in particular has stood out in more than 1 game for all the wrong reasons. So for dxcc to say “some help” is needed, there is ample evidence to support that. No need to jump on a new guy for a very mild rebuke, no?
Don’t think I “jumped” at the guy at all. You always like to point out facts, and that was exactly what I debunked from his post. Notice how I dodn’t mention anything about the Oline? I can agree they have been very inconsistent, but still have the ability to be dominant. They may switch someone up by adding Eli/Dobson, but there won’t be any new adds there.
It was his comment about the secondary that was just flat out wrong.
As for the sacks, yes some of that blame is on the OL, but some also lies on Zach who hasn’t had the same mobility since the WF lastyear.
Definitely, can’t blame everything on the Offensive Line. They still have what it takes to dominate, and just because they’ve lost two this year doesn’t mean they’re any less than what we’ve seen in the past couple years. It’s disappointing to see them lose, but we need to get used to losing as well, we’ve gotten so used to winning we’ve forgotten the feeling of losing. And yes, it’s not fun to lose but that’s how it works. Zack hasn’t been the same since last years Western Final and that game was only an 8 point difference in the end. Had Grant not scored that Punt Return TD, we would’ve been in quite some trouble.
Same with the Grey Cup, the Bombers didn’t play the best. Had we played like our dominant selves during the regular szn, they would’ve won it. Toronto just outplayed them in the end.
I think it’s fair to say it wasn’t all our kickers fault, however had he scored the extra points earlier we would’ve likely gone to Overtime.
Can only go forward and hopefully “eat” some Elk on Thursday.
There isn’t any dominant team. BC has an excellent defence but with VA they will only be a threat to those teams with a weak d-line. The one area the defence is susceptible is the run and the edges. The trick to handling BC is pressing VA but keeping him in the pocket.
With Winnipeg if you can take the run away you can have more success. Buck doesn’t call a lot of pocket movement or screens. I personally don’t like how the secondary plays the short and medium routes or that they don’t do controlled pass rush. Without the controlled pass rush they are susceptible to good rushing QBs as you saw on Saturday and in the GC.
Toronto is not as powerful on defence as they were in the second half of the season last year but their secondary and LBs are very good. Their offence is not firing on all cylinders but Kelly had a good team in front of him so he’s developing well. The thing that has been their saviour is they haven’t made many mistakes. They’re very beatable but you can’t afford to make mistakes or take a lot of penalties.
Ottawa and Edmonton have very solid defences but their offences were making lots of mistakes and Edmonton takes too many penalties. Coaching and management are Edmonton’s biggest problems. Until they have a consistent lineup they will continue to struggle.
Hamilton, IMHO, is a mess but if they play clean and give the QB time they can have success. They aren’t what they were in 2019 though.
Calgary is pretty banged up and they are weak at QB and RB. Saskatchewan is plagued by inconsistent play. They still take too many penalties and they never addressed their real offensive issue, the oline. They’ll continue to be up and down until they address that.
The Bombers made too many errors in the GC, both sides of the ball. That game was exactly what I expected because I wasn’t blind to the fact that Toronto had the best team in the second half of the season. As well, Winnipeg has had a hard time with Toronto especially when out east. Toronto played a cleaner game and won as a result.
As for the oline. I think they’re just fine. I think the problem is more with adjusting on the fly and play calling. Case in point the BC game, they had success with the run but didn’t stick with it. They didn’t move the pocket, hot pass, screen, or delay draw. The dline was pretty vanilla and they missed Jeffcoat. Haba is just not the same pass rusher that Jeffcoat is and with him in they could focus more on Jefferson. In the Ottawa game the dline didn’t adjust and they kept losing contain because they didn’t control the rush and had no one spying the QB so the line just pushed the dline deep or opened the middle leaving it open since the LBs were all in cover. Their offensive play calling in the second half played right into the defence’s hands. No hot passes, attacking, the edges, moving the pocket, screens, delayed draws, etc. There’s ways of spreading the D out and they didn’t use them. Throw in the turnovers and they just made too many errors to survive. Ottawa offensive line won that game for them they really stepped up and that time was valuable to their rookie QB. That’s the best half they played in a long long time. If they can keep doing that they can win more games.
Calgary will remain ahead of Montreal only until they play. I have no faith in Meier, and just think Montreal looks stronger. Winnipeg is showing their age. Cracks are appearing. (Yeah!) Both Willie AND Biggie missed tackles that they would have made 2 years ago, on that last run by Crumb. They are still the standard but IMHO getting too much respect carried over from previous years excellence. Sask. is not going to be all that fine with Fine. Lions D is just too strong, even if VA has a so-so game. Then again, he could go off, and be amazing, in which case it will be a blow out. (Remember Good-Henry, Bad-Henry? I see a lot of similarity in this two-faced monster they call V.A.) As to TO, well it’s early, but they do look solid. Elks, well, how do you spell D I S A S T E R! Looks good on their coach though! Guess he isn’t ‘all that’ after all.
The weakness isn’t the oline it’s play calling. The problem comes if the line is having issues opening up the run. Buck has shown, like Lapo before him, a lack of using other plays to spread out the defence. Zac is one of the best passers on the move … so move him. There’s also screen passes, delayed draws, and hot passes thing the Winnipeg playbook rarely ever uses.
We also have to take into account that other teams are going to get better. Just because Winnipeg (or any other team) has the same lineup as previous successful years means that they’ll have continued success. Teams are going to make moves to match and eventually you get serious challengers. Look at Calgary. Lots of success for years but eventually other teams came up and replaced them. Calgary, for all those successful years also didn’t hoist the GC a heck of a lot. Continued dominance is hard and even when you have it it doesn’t guarantee a championship.
“Continued dominance is hard and even when you have it it doesn’t guarantee a championship.” - I absolutely agree. The previous Championship was a great result of that.
Teams will eventually catch up to the Bombers and will end a lot of the dominance that they’ve had over the past years.
BC and Toronto are great result of that. BC opened the season 3-0 last season and met the 4-0 Bombers, in which BC suffered a 21 point difference loss in week 4.
As well as in week 3, the Argos got crushed by the Lions 44-3. (2022)
This season Toronto and BC have proved that they also have what it takes to compete with a mighty Blue Bomber team and won’t make it as easy as a task to get to the Cup for Winnipeg.
IMO Both the Argonauts and Lions defence is giving Kelly and VA lots of time to work and that is a major part of the early on successes that both teams have had.