Signs of Hope, Signs of Doom

Two back to back games complete and two teams with completely different thoughts on where they stand at the moment.

For the Hamilton Tiger Cats, two huge wins against the Eskimos are providing a sign that all may not be lost in Steeltown, true there’s little chance of this team making the playoffs, they’ve played two more games than all others and find themselves too far behind the pack to seriously make a charge for a playoff spot.

But, in two consecutive games they seem to have banished a good number of their bad habits and have had their quarterback rediscover some of the range and skill that made him the most sought after player last year.

The latest addition to the running game, Jesse Lumsden gave Ti-cat fans reason to re-subscribe to their season ticket package for next year, Lumsden in his CFL return bulled the ball down field through the game, crashing through the lines, able to slip behind the line backers to take the hitch pass further down the field. His presence gave the Cats a bit of an advantage in the early going, as the Esks were never quite sure what Hamilton was planning next.

Terry Vaughn collected his 1000th catch of his remarkable 12 year CFL career and reminded the CFL that he’s still a pretty good receiver when utilized, something that hasn’t happened near enough in Hamilton this season.

It’s probably a case of too little, too late for this year, a season that began with such high expectations, crashed and burned at mid season and finally seems to righting itself as the final third of the season winds down.

Four points behind the Bombers for third in the east, and having played two more games most likely rules out any post season activity for the Cats, especially since they have to play the high flying BC Lions twice before the final gun sounds on the season.

They will be more of a challenge for the Lions than they would have at mid season, but in the end it seems unlikely that they’ll be providing a huge surprise to the end of the season, but the prospects for 2007 are looking a lot brighter than they did in August.

For Edmonton, the two consecutive losses have only exacerbated an already frustrating situation for the Esks and their fans. Hugh Campbell joined in the chorus of Eskimo managers, going so far as to guarantee head coach Danny Maciocia his job for the rest of the season, management ut seens isn’t going to give the Esks a handy excuse of dumping the coach. Too bad they seem to play like they’d like just that.

Once again they failed to execute the key plays when needed, they let the Cats pick themselves up time and time again and take control of the field and the game at points. They seemed incapable of stopping Lumsden coming out of the backfield; the only success against his first appearance of the year was a touchdown saving tackle late in the fourth.

The offence is having problems getting untracked this year, something the Eskimo faithful is not used to seeing and makes no attempt to remain patient over. It’s most unusual to see an Eskimo team struggling to make a playoff spot; the perpetual playoff machine is normally well assured of at least a semi final appearance by Thanksgiving, but not this year. Suddenly the Eskimos are standings watchers, keeping track of both the Riders and the Bombers hoping one or the other stumbles a bit, in order that they may catch up. That 34 year record of playoff appearances seems in pretty dire shape all of a sudden.

Winnipeg seems to be the team the Esks have the best shot of tracking down; the Bombers have been too inconsistent in the last half of the season to be considered a sure thing. That crossover format may be the Esks salvation, providing they can get untracked themselves in time.

Edmonton has five games remaining, two against Toronto, one against Montreal and two against Saskatchewan, those two Rider games will petty well decide if they have a hope in the West, even a split skews things in favor of Saskatchewan. That means that the three games against the East are must wins in order to catch the Bombers.

It’s tough road they’ve chose to travel this year, sometimes when you watch them play you get the feeling that they’re tired of making the journey this year and would rather rest up for 2007. A few more losses and that will be exactly what they can do.