Who wants the East??

With four games left for the Tiger-Cats in the 2016 season and after a dismal loss to Calgary yesterday, Ottawa's loss to BC and today's Argo loss to Montreal and all teams playing at below 500 except for Ottawa who are one point above you have to ask who really wants the East and race for the playoffs??

With four games remaining for the Cats and Argos and five each for the Al's and Redblacks and now with Collaros injured along with so many Ti-Cats what are our chances now to grab a playoff spot?

The Cats are heading into a bye week now and have the opportunity to rest a few players and maybe get a few back but we have a tough back to back against Ottawa coming up, one against Edmonton and finally Montreal. The positive I guess is that the Cats beat both Toronto and Montreal twice this year to win the series but will the Cats have enough gas left in the tank and healthy players to fight for a playoff spot this year, especially with only two spots available and a western crossover likely?

I hope the Cats can hold on and pull off at least a second spot in the east, maybe win two out of four games remaining but you have to wonder.

IMO, unless we get some guys healthy, there's no way we win another game this season.

The main problem area is now the secondary, where Stephen and Murray may be out until the playoffs. Maybe if Sears and Demond Washington return after the bye we can keep our head above water, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I think Austin would be happy with just making the playoffs, even if that meant playing a semi-final game on the road.

I don’t know if that’s even, still, mathematically possible, but I do 99.9% know that if the Cats play in the semi-final, it’ll be at THF.

Considering that Ottawa had to travel to the West coast and play a late game they looked pretty good.
They pass for 500 yards but lose? I hate to use the excuse about a stupid penalty late in the game but Ottawa should have taken that game.
The Als looked pretty good yesterday and they could possibly finish ahead of the Argos but it looks like the Esks or Bombers take that final east playoff spot.

I agree with the crossover from the west either Edmonton or Winnipeg no doubt. With four games remaining each for the Cats and Argos that just comes down to the Cats being able to win two of the remaining four and Argos losing two of their four, although the Cats will play three of their remaining games at home.

Toronto has a tougher road with four games remaining and currently two points back of the Cats and the same with Montreal with five games remaining and four points behind Hamilton.

The back to back match up in two weeks against Ottawa should tell us if we have a team or not, we can win with Masoli we have in the past we just need to surround him with good healthy receivers and decent protection up front.

GO CATS GO!!!

We can actually be tied for second in points with either Toronto or Montreal, but they would both trail us due to the fact that we have won the season series 2-1 over both of them...

Let's just make sure we don't finish third. It looks like there's good potential for it to be a crossover year from West to East.

It would be pretty hard for this team to finish 3rd even for them considering how bad they have played lately. In order for us to windup behind the Blah team we would need to run the table and lose out the rest of the season and Toronto would have to win at least 2 of their remaining 4 to pass us for 2nd place. Any combination of 1 Cat victory and 2 Toronto losses and we finish no worse then 2nd. So basically outside of a total meltdown by us and a total resurgence by Toronto the last 4 gms of the season we are pretty much assured of no worse than a 2nd place finish this season.

We hold the tiebreaker on both MTL and TOR, and both MTL and TOR still have to play CGY twice each, NUFF SAID!!!

I can see where that season closing game against Montreal has the potential to be do-or-die for our season ender. IF Toronto can go 2-3 or IF Montreal can go 3-2 down to the wire, they would sit at 14 points to our 12, assuming we are potentially going to skid out 0-5.

More likely, with Toronto blowing up their receiving corps, and Montreal coming back to earth after that emotional high from the coaching change, Toronto goes 1-4 and Montreal 2-3 for a three-way tie at 12 points with Hamilton holding the tie-breakers. But I’d be a whole lot more comfortable to see Hamilton rebound into a split with Ottawa, then to carry a 0-4 into the final game, down to Montreal and needing a win.

IMO we still hold our destiny in our own hands, but could really use at least one win and preferably two to give us some breathing room.

Regardless, unless we develop the ability to beat an above .500 team and to string three wins in a row, I’m afraid it is going to be a one and out play-off year anyway.

As sad as it is, I don't think I can dispute this list, other than perhaps giving some thought to switching #8 and #9 around: http://www.cfl.ca/2016/10/04/alouettes- ... -rankings/

Sad thoughts reading the above posts...
But very realistic.
Guess we will know for sure after the Ottawa back to backs. :cry:

I think it’s a given that Mtl and Tor are out of it.
Milonovich was in the media yesterday saying that they are still in it and playing for a playoff spot, but it will be the Bombers or Esks crossing over.
Ott will probably go 3 points up this weekend when they play the Riders. I think the best Hamilton can do is split the series with Ott and beat the Als at home the last game of the year. The Esks are in Ham and they are going to be desperate to get a playoff spot.
I can see Ott splitting their series with the Bombers and probably end up 1 point ahead and hosting the East final.

I really hate it when my team backs into the playoffs. They haven't beaten anyone with a winning record all year and have been especially terrible the past 4-5 weeks. The whole east is in disarray which really reminds me of the 80's. It's been a long time since the team was 8-3. Looking like another lost disappointing season.

Who wants the east?? The way the OTTRBs are playing at the moment against the greenies I’d say they aren’t interested in keeping their first place standing! 10-0 Sask early in the 2nd and they’re threatening to score again off a botched punt!

Well, that Ottawa-Saskatchewan game was quite an entertaining one. As Ottawa got back into it and tied it in the last minute of the 4th quarter after being down by a TD, Saskatchewan had a chance to win it on the last play of the 4th quarter. But Crapigna missed from 55. In OT, on a 2nd down play, Gainey actually did a good job covering Ellingson in the end zone, then Milo missed an easy one. Then Saskatchewan played it safe, knowing they were already in Crapigna’s range, and Crapigna got the game-winning FG.

The way that went back and forth toward the end, Simoni Lawrence have have said it best with this tweet:

Simoni Lawrence ?@Simoni_Lawrence 21m21 minutes ago

The CFL is bad for my blood pressure.

[url=https://twitter.com/Simoni_Lawrence/status/784575638216773633]https://twitter.com/Simoni_Lawrence/sta ... 8216773633[/url]

Ottawa did make a QB change in this one. Will Burris be starting against us next week? It should be noted that Chris Williams left the game with a knee injury. So yes, this Ticat team winning next week’s game looks more likely now.

Ummm, No!

The Cats have eroded into a complete mess right now. No need to elaborate on that since the multi-layered problems have been well discussed in other threads. We couldn’t even beat the lowly Riders and Argos in the last few weeks. While it is possible the Cats could squeek out a win against Ottawa, I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

Chris Williams is not their only weapon. They had a chance to go three points up and blew it, the first place east team this year may end up with 7 wins.

It's possible that four teams in the Western CFL conference will have more points than the first place team in the East!
Time for one division where you make the playoffs on merit not by location E/W.....
That would give the top two teams home field advantage and a bye .Big difference for the BC Lions this year if they finish second as it appears they will,huge difference and maybe a berth in the Grey Cup instead of playing the Grey Cup in Calgary in the Western final,they would get to play GC in warm Toronto (compared to Alberta cold).

I'm pretty sure it's never happened before but we might be looking at the very first time in the leagues history that an entire division has every team all finish below the .500 mark. It is a real possibility the ways things are going this season when you consider that one more loss each by both Mtl and Tor all but guarantees them a sub .500 season and the Cats and RB's will need to go 3-1 in their final 4 games to avoid a below .500 record as well. Even if both teams split their last 4 games remaining and go 2-2 it would leave Ottawa sitting in 1rst with an 8-9-1 record and the Cats would be 2nd with an 8-10 record.

As it stands now it's certainly looking like that tie earlier in the year by the RB's might just be enough to insure them of a 1rst place finish this season that is unless the Cats can somehow go 3-1 and finish at 9-9 and the RB's only go 2-2 which would give them an 8-9-1 record for 2nd place. But the way it's looking an 8-9-1 by Ottawa will most likely be enough for a 1rst place finish this season and a sub .500 Eastern division from top to bottom :oops: :frowning:

Remaining schedule down the stretch for Eastern teams

Ottawa....... (4) (6-7-1).........@ Hamilton / Hamilton / @ Winnipeg / Winnipeg
Hamilton....(4) (6-8 )................Ottawa / @ Ottawa / Edmonton / Montreal
Toronto......(4) (5-9).................Calgary / Saskatchewan / @ Calgary / @ Edmonton
Montreal....(5) (4-9).................Edmonton /@ Calgary / @ Saskatchewan / Calgary / @ Hamilton

Predicted Final Standings
Ottawa............8 - 9 - 1 - 17
Hamilton.........8 - 10 - 0 - 16
Montreal.........6 -12 - 0 - 12
Toronto...........5 - 13 - 0 - 10