I think we have an outstanding team this year. I think we have a great shot to win the Grey Cup.
But I cringe at talk of this being the greatest Ticat team of all time. We’ve racked up a lot of wins, but we’ve had the luxury of padding our record with wins over teams who weren’t able to field a bona fide starting QB. Full credit to our coaches and to Dane Evans for not allowing the injury to Masoli to derail our season, but let’s look at the quality of QBs who have opposed us this year.
The top 10 QBs in the league in 2018 were:
Reilly
Masoli
Mitchell
Harris
Nichols
Collaros
Lulay
Bethel-Thompson
Franklin
Jennings
The top 10 so far in 2019 are:
Fajardo
Harris
Bethel-Thompson
Reilly
Adams
Evans
Mitchell
Arbuckle
Davis
Nichols
Pruning those lists to “proven” starting QBs who are active this year and aren’t Ticats, we get:
Reilly
Mitchell
Harris
Nichols
Collaros
Bethel-Thompson
Fajardo
Adams
We could debate how “proven” those bottom 4 are (and especially the bottom 3), but I think the top 4 are pretty widely regarded as the top non-Ticat QBs in the league (with Fajardo making a case for himself this year, and Adams clearing his throat).
How have we stacked up against that top 4 this year:
Reilly:
2 Wins.
Arguably the best QB in the league, so respect to the Cats for the two wins over BC. But our wins over BC were by 1 point and 3 points, despite the fact BC has only won 5 games this year, and had been struggling with QB protection.
Mitchell:
1 Loss.
We only lost by 1, and it’s a game we probably should have won. Would be very interesting to see how these teams match up again.
Harris:
Have not played him this year. If we face Harris this year, it won’t be until the playoffs.
Nichols:
1 win.
This was a legit win over a tough opponent with a strong veteran QB (week 7). The fact the Cats persevered despite the injury to Masoli in this game made it that much more of a statement.
So against those top 4 qbs, we have an emphatic win over Winnipeg with Nichols, squeaked out 2 wins over a weak BC team led by Reilly, lost a tough one to Calgary led by Mitchell, and have yet to face Harris.
So against proven QBs this year, we have 3 wins, two of them with asterisks. If you want to be charitable, you can put an asterisk on the loss to Calgary with Mitchell.
This team has yet to win head-to-head against Harris or BLM this year.
I’d also credit our week 3 win over Adams-led Montreal and our week 12 win over Bethel-Thompson-led Toronto as solid victories over teams with “capable” QBs.
But we also lost 2 games against relatively “unproven” up-and-comers Adams (week 4, though the story was more Montreal’s running game) and Fajardo (week 8 with Dane Evans getting his 2nd career start in arguably the most hostile stadium in the league). Despite the emergence of Fajardo, when the Cats did beat him, he was being thrown into the fire as a backup in week 1.
This doesn’t mean the 2019 Cats aren’t a great team. But pump the brakes on any “greatest ever” talk. This team has spent much of the season beating up on the Arbuckles, Arndts and Kilgores of the league.
Seriously, I congratulate the mods on keeping us in line, while still allowing some spirited discourse. More than a few have crossed my cringeworthy threshold, but as suggested, I tend to avoid those posters, and to avoid completely reading those posts, I find offensive.