Chasing Glory: A CFL Preview and Predictions
By Brendan Erick on November 5, 2024
The NFL has crossed the halfway mark of their season. An MLB champ has been crowned. We just experienced the first snow fall in the capital region. And the clocks got flipped back. I’m not sure your milestone but all mark playoff football on our side of the 49th for me.
In case you missed the Conference Semi-Finals, I’ll keep you up to date!
Out east, the Argos hosted the Redblacks. Toronto exploded for 58 points while conceding 38. The 20-point margin had the home crowd partying, and the fourth quarter back-to-back picks returned for touchdowns helped with that.
On our side of the country, the Lions visited the Roughriders. Home crowds stayed happy this last weekend as the Riders took this one 28-19.
Moving forward to Saturday November 9th, the East Final will be played in Montreal and Winnipeg will host the West Final. Both teams got home field advantage for the Conference Finals and the bye week by finishing first in each respective conference.
Previewing the east matchup first, I like the the Argos.
The Als finished first in the league, they are the defending champs, but the Argos have all the momentum. 58 points is a franchise record in a postseason game. They took the season series against the Als including a 37-18 road beat down in their last matchup. And I promise they haven’t forgot what happened in last years East Final, where the Als walked out of BMO Field with a 38-17 win.
This has potential classic written all over it. It will all happen on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Looking at the West Final, I have the Bombers.
The Bombers have run the west in recent memory. They’ve moved on to the Grey Cup in all of the last four seasons. They went back-to-back in the first two and then they dropped the last two by a combined five points. They’ve played big brother, and I don’t see any reason not to believe this run will continue.
The run cannot last forever but I can’t see this Riders team be the one to slay the dragon. We will see the West Final on Saturday at 4:30 p.m, right after the East Final.
For fun say both of my predictions come true. The 111th Grey Cup will showcase the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Toronto Argonauts in Vancouver.
It would be a 2022 rematch where the Argos were victorious. A slim 24-23 win gave them their 18th Grey cup.
I like the script to be very much the same. In their two meetings this year the Argos took both by a field goal or less, this would be the definition of a coin flip game. I expect the Argos to exercise their demons in the East Final, come into the Grey Cup riding quite the high and win their 19th Grey Cup in an absolute war.
A score prediction for fun too… 20-17 Argos.
Photo Credit: Unsplash