Bobo said'
"Mtl earlier on when they imploded and ended up losing the game by a 7 point margin...38-31."
Don't forget that MTL had the ball inside our 30 yard line and took a knee to kill the clock rather than kick a field goal.
Higgins squandered points to a division rival, It could easily been 10 points rather than 7.
That 3 points could become a huge factor on our Nov.8 home game against them!
Similar to Toronto deciding not to kick a field goal at the end of Friday’s game. Opposing coaches must really fear our field goal blocking abilities. Or at least, they think the probability of us blocking a FG and returning it for a TD in the dying seconds is greater than the threat of being tied with us in the standings at the end of the season.
So, who do we want to win between the Als and Argos? 
If the Ti-Cats beat the Redblacks Friday night in Hamilton and Montreal beat Toronto on Saturday at the Rogers Centre that could be pretty interesting heading into the following week with the Cats playing the Argo's in a rematch game at the Roger's Centre, because Toronto would basically have to win to stay alive and of course a Cat victory in the next two games would basically give us at least a playoff spot in the East.
It is a Race for sure, all three teams are hitting their stride in the East at the right time of season, all started out slow but now the East is looking good, still losing records compared to the West but that much tighter, with Hamilton, Montreal and Toronto tied up, four more to go, should be an interesting finish to the season.
Much on the line in the next two weeks for the Cats, come on lets Win again!!!
GO CATS GO!!!
I hate to say it, but the blew team. Since we have only two games against Montreal this season and three against Toronto, any scenario that puts the Als behind us is good in my books (not that you will EVER catch me actually CHEERING for the blew team, of course…)
Of course it’s the Arg___. To win a tie finish with them, all we have to do, in addition to matching their win/loss record from here out, is win our game there on the 25th, even if it’s by just a single point. To win a tie finish with MTL, also in addition to matching their win/loss record from here out, we have to win vs. them on Nov. 8th by 8 or more pts. The best scenario, for us, is a split in the two remaining TOR vs. MTL games.
I think we want them to split their series, so next week we sorta want to see the Blue team win, because they are likely to at home more then in Montreal where the Als have a big hometown advantage.
Hopefully we come away with a win vs Ottawa and we go back to Toronto tied up. That should hopefully encourage more Ti-Cat fans to make the trip in the hour of need that will be week 18. In theory, if Montreal and Toronto split their series and conquer Ottawa (which is likely, sorry Ottawa fans) then we can afford one loss if we also beat Ottawa twice.
Realistically though, we want Ottawa to steal a game from Montreal and/or Toronto and not steal a game from us. Ottawa getting a win over any team in the east right now, does serious damage to that team’s playoff aspirations, to the point of if you lose a game vs Ottawa, you probably aren’t going to make the playoffs because you’ll have lost ground to another team that week. Oct 24th is the game we hope Ottawa can reestablish themselves as Montreal’s rival and stomp the Als @home, because I doubt they are going to get a win on the road.
One week at a time though, we can not look past Ottawa, even @home. Look what happened to Winnipeg, they went from contender to missing the playoffs.
A tie would work out well.
But at this point with the stakes being what there are. Does a team losing to Ottawa really deserve to make the post season ?
The possibilities for how the final four weeks will play out in the East are incredibly intriguing. All three of the teams tied for first place control their own destiny as of now, but at least one of them (the loser of Montreal-Toronto) will no longer be in that position by Sunday. Hamilton would also lose control of its own destiny if it somehow loses to Ottawa.
As I see it, here are the possibilities for each of the three teams in the hunt.
Win all four games and you finish first, obviously.
Win three games and you are in the playoffs for sure, with an excellent chance of finishing first but could also finish second (if another team goes 4-0 down the stretch).
Win two games and you could finish anywhere from first to third – first would still be possible, but all four Eastern teams would have to go 2-2 over the final four weeks. That would result in tie-breakers being applied. I have no idea how a three-way tie would be decided. At the moment Tor holds the tie-breaker over Mtl, Mtl holds the tie-breaker over Ham and Tor is even with Ham.
If B.C wins one of its last three games, there will be a western crossover team. The Lions are at eight wins now and if it is impossible for three Eastern teams to get to nine wins. If the Lions lose all three and all four Eastern teams go 2-2 to close out the schedule, there will be no crossover. That is extremely unlikely, but still possible.
pw13 said'
"At the moment Tor holds the tie-breaker over Mtl, Mtl holds the tie-breaker over Ham and Tor is even with Ham."
We are not even with TOR.
TOR holds the tie breaker against HAM, we have to beat the TOR by 8 points to win the tiebreaker
The tiebreaking rules
[b]When two or more member Clubs are tied in the final Division standings at the conclusion of the regular season schedule, preferential ranking for playoff purposes shall be determined on the basis of the following descending-order priorities and shall be awarded to the Club that:
has won the greater number of games played against all member Clubs of the League, then,
has the higher winning percentage in all games played against all of the other tied Club(s), then,
has scored the higher net aggregate of points (i.e. points scored for less points scored against) in all games played against all of the other tied Club(s), then,
has scored the higher net quotient of points (i.e. points scored for divided by points scored against) in all games played against all of the other tied Club(s), then,
has the higher winning percentage in all games played against all member Clubs of the Division, then,
has scored the higher net aggregate of points in games played against all member Clubs of the Division, then,
has scored the higher quotient of points in games played against all member Clubs of the Division, then,
has scored the higher net aggregate of points in games played against all member Clubs of the League, then,
has scored the higher net quotient of points in games played against all member Clubs of the League, then,
has won a coin toss against the other tied Club.
Note: If two Clubs remain tied after other Club(s) are eliminated during any step, tie breaker reverts to step a).[/b]
http://www.cfl.ca/page/game_rule_tiebreakI agree that “We are not even with TOR” but we don’t have to beat them by 8 on the 25th. A 1 pt. victory will give the Cats the Ballard Cup. It’s MTL that we have to beat by 8 on the final day of the season to avoid losing out on a tie-breaker with them.
The team that manages to win on the road should grab the division. Looking at the matchups, you have to give a slight edge to Hamilton right now, Toronto second and Montreal with the toughest road.
Right now the key games are...
Oct. 25th - B.C. at Winnipeg - A B.C. win and they clinch a playoff berth and a crossover is assured.
Nov. 8th - Montreal at Hamilton - Might be deciding third place and who is in or out. Unless Toronto goes 0-3 against Hamilton and Montreal before then.
BC will be coming off their Bye week and going into Winnipeg coming off two games against the Alberta teams. BC has to be heavily favored in that game.
If we are tied with Arblows at the end of the season and we won 2 of the 3 meetings, then we win the tiebreaker. I don't understand this 8 points thing.
"I agree that "We are not even with TOR" but we don't have to beat them by 8 on the 25th. A 1 pt. victory will give the Cats the Ballard Cup. It's MTL that we have to beat by 8 on the final day of the season to avoid losing out on a tie-breaker with them."
Thank you for correcting. :?
The tie-breaker is simple enough if we tie with either Toronto or Montreal. It's the possibility three-way tie that makes my head ache a bit.
It's too early to try to figure out scenarios, given that Tor-Mont still have two games head-to-head. I'm not even sure what I should be hoping for - i.e. close games vs blow-outs - or whether it even matters in the event of a three-way tie, since a big positive for one of them means a big negative for the other.
Barring a three-way tie at 8-10, something tells me that the first place team will finish at least 9-9. Though I wouldn't complain if we reached 10-8.
The 8 point thing is in regards to Mtl not Tor. The Cats play the Arblows 3 times this season,thus the point total doesn’t come into effect as whoever wins the game in two weeks time,gets the tie breaker based on winning 2 games to 1 game. The interesting thing is what exactly would happen if the game ended in a tie score ? The 3 game set would be deadlocked at 1-1-1 with both teams scoring the exact amount of points as each team currently holds a 1 pt victory over the other.
The 8 point thing is due to the fact of us playing Mtl only twice this season therefore with Mtl winning the 1rst game by a 7 pt margin 38-31,unless 1 team sweeps the other it comes down to point differential. It might come down to who wins that final game,but even if the Cats win the game and let’s say for instance both teams wind up with 8-10 records,the Cats would need to win by a margin of at least 8 points to gain a differential of 1 pt to finish ahead of the Al’s in the standings. Hopefully this explains things for you Waldo 
Like I said before let’s just take out all the possible angles and leave nothing to chance and just WIN out on a 4 game win streak and none of this 8 pt thingy thing will matter in the end. 
:rockin: