McDonald CFL Power Ratings – Week 8

It was a quieter week in the CFL this week with only 3 games played.  Plus, the first game of the week was played on Wednesday, and two games were played on Friday.  No weekend games!  Very odd.  Plus, one game that looked close in the final score wasn’t, and another that didn’t look close was!

The Wednesday night game saw number 3-ranked Hamilton visit the lowest ranked team in the CFL, Ottawa.  Hamilton beat the RedBlacks easily, 24-7.  In a rainy night in Ottawa, the RedBlacks were only able to score one special teams touchdown, as DeVonte Dedmon returned a punt 63 yards for Ottawa’s only score.

In the first game of a Friday night doubleheader, Montreal visited Toronto.  Toronto led 21-10 at the half, and 30-20 with just over a minute left.  Montreal scored a touchdown to make the game closer, but weren’t able to come back, as Toronto defeated Montreal 30-27.  Vernon Adams passed for 382 yards for the Alouettes, and William Stanback rushed for another 133, but neither performance was enough to secure the victory.

And the most exciting game of the week, Saskatchewan squeaked by British Columbia 31-24.  BC led 24-18 with 20 seconds to go in the game, but the Riders were third and goal at the BC 1 yard line.  Cody Fajardo did the old quarterback sneak to tie up the game with 2 seconds left, and Brett Lauther converted to give the Riders a one point lead.  On the resulting kickoff, the Lions fumbled the ball, the Riders picked it up and rumbled into the endzone to put an exclamation mark on the victory!  Final score, Saskatchewan 31, BC 24.

Week 8 Results

Hamilton 24  at Ottawa 7
Montreal 27  at Toronto 30
Saskatchewan 31  at British Columbia 24

McDonald CFL Power Ratings

There wasn’t a lot of movement in the McDonald CFL Power Rankings this week.  Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, and Hamilton remain numbers 1, 2, and 3.  Toronto jumped from 6th into a tie for 4th with British Columbia, pushing Calgary down to 6th.  There’s only 23 rating points separating the 4th through 8th teams, so all those teams are pretty close.  Ottawa continues to hold the lowest ranking.  And once again, only the top 3 teams have ratings above the 1500 point average.

Grey Cup Predictions

Winnipeg remains the favourite to win the Grey Cup, as they win it all in 29% of our simulations.  However, that is a drop of 1% from last week.  Hamilton is the second favourite at 26%.  Saskatchewan at 15% and Toronto at 12% are the only other teams with more than a 10% chance of winning.  And lowly Ottawa now has just a 1% chance of taking home the Cup.

Our Full Predictions

Week 9 Game Predictions

Edmonton (50%) at Ottawa (50%)
Winnipeg (55%) at British Columbia (44%)
Montreal (33%) at Hamilton (66%)
Saskatchewan (52%) at Calgary (47%)