Time to Power Up in the East!

Dan Ralph of the Canadian Press has examined the current woes of the Eastern based teams when it comes to points on the board, he presented his findings in Tuesday's Globe and Mail.

Power outage in Eastern Conference
DAN RALPH
Canadian Press

TORONTO -- Six games into the Canadian Football League season, the Eastern Division is shaping into a two-team race.

The Montreal Alouettes, 6-0, are the CFL's only undefeated team and the lone squad to beat the surprising Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 5-2. Lagging behind the division leaders are the struggling Toronto Argonauts, 2-4, and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 1-5.

The Argos and Ticats can't be content to just fight between themselves for the third and final Eastern Division playoff spot.

The crossover still exists, meaning that if the fourth-place team in the ultracompetitive Western Division had a better record than the third-place finisher in the East, then the Western club would assume the No. 3 seed in the East.

And right now, the Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos are fourth in the West with a 2-4 record, but two points behind the Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders and four behind the first-place B.C. Lions.

Much more was expected this year of the underachieving Argos and Ticats, after both teams made headlines in the off-season with major acquisitions.

Hamilton completely revamped an offence that was among the CFL's worst last year, trading for quarterback Jason Maas, receiver Terry Vaughn and running back Corey Holmes and dipping into free agency to land running back Josh Ranek and offensive lineman George Hudson in the Ottawa Renegades dispersal draft.

The Ticats also signed former Ottawa head coach Joe Paopao as its offensive co-ordinator and Kani Kauahi as the offensive line coach.

But the changes haven't transpired into victories, and that cost head coach Greg Marshall his job.

Marshall, the CFL's coach of the year in 2004, was fired after Hamilton opened the season with four consecutive losses. Interim coach Ron Lancaster led the Ticats to victory in his first game, but the team has lost its past two contests, including an embarrassing 29-0 home loss to Winnipeg last Friday, the first time the Ticats were shut out at home since 1951.

Maas has completed 68 per cent of his passes, but has thrown only three touchdowns and seven interceptions. Vaughn, who recently became the CFL's career receptions leader, is Hamilton's top receiver with 33 catches for 360 yards, but hasn't caught any touchdowns. The team's next best receiver is Craig Yeast (25 catches for 298 yards and one touchdown), but he was abruptly released moments after the loss to Winnipeg.

Hamilton has also struggled on the road this year. The club was 0-9 away from Ivor Wynne Stadium last year and is 0-4 so far in 2006.

For the second consecutive year, Toronto opted to go pretty much with the veterans who led the club to its 2004 Grey Cup title. But the Argos did make the biggest splash of the CFL off-season by adding running back Ricky Williams, the Miami Dolphins star, who was suspended for the entire 2006 season by the National Football League for a fourth violation of the league's substance abuse policy.

Williams, a former NFL rushing champion, was expected to give Toronto's pass-happy offence a viable running attack. But the 5-foot-11, 220-pound rusher ran only 57 times for 231 yards -- a 4.1-yard average -- with one touchdown in five CFL starts before requiring surgery for a broken forearm suffered in a 26-23 road win over Saskatchewan on July 22. Williams will be out for four to six weeks.

This season, Toronto's offence is the CFL's worst, averaging 276 yards a game. Hamilton is ranked seventh with 291 yards.

Many football pundits point to Williams's lack of a production as a big reason for Toronto's struggles. But consider that, in last Saturday's 28-8 home loss to B.C., the Argos ran the ball only 11 times for 60 yards. By comparison, the Lions had 21 running plays for 99 yards, with three of their four touchdowns scored on the ground.

B.C. running back Joe Smith scored three touchdowns against Toronto and has six in his past two games since replacing veteran Antonio Warren, who was released last week. The Argos have mustered 10 touchdowns this year.

Things also have the potential of going from bad to worse for both teams. Toronto will be in Montreal on Thursday, while the Ticats will take on the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg on Friday.