Week 9: Return to the Wild West

The East is on the bye-week and it is time for the Western teams to decide who moves into second place and who stays behind in third.

It's a late posting this week (sorry, things have been insane at work and home) so updates on Week 8 action and updating our leader board will have to wait for another day. However, I want to get the Week 9 games up now so you have all of tomorrow to pick.

Game 1: Saskatchewan at Edmonton, Thursday, 9pm ET: With both the Eskies and the Riders coming off a much needed break it looks as if these two teams will face each other in similar positions as the first time they played in the season. We all know who is injured on the Rider team but returning players to the starting roster are James Johnson (you guys should recognize that name) and Glenn January. The Eskimos are the sleeper in the West and the TSN power rankings don't really give as much credit to the Edmonton team as it should (in my opinion). Playing at Commonwealth Stadium is a big advantage, but with Cates and Co. back in good form after a much deserved rest and coming off a bad loss to Calgary, I think it's going to be a win for the Roughriders.

Game 2: Calgary at BC, Friday, 10:30pm ET: Calgary looked good against a piece-meal Saskatchewan team, but they really broke down defensively in the fourth quarter. Remember: football is a 60 minute sport. BC is also going into this game on a winning note themselves after beating Edmonton in Week 7. Wally Buano has a reputation to think about and with their team seriously under performing this season I think that they're going to be hungry to try and move past Calgary and Edmonton into sole possession of second place. Burris has been improving but he's never as consistent as Stamp fans (and coaching staff) would like. BC, however, is capable of going on a winning streak on the back of Jarious Jackson and Geroy Simon - they did it before and they can do it again. BC wins.

Good Luck. God Speed!