As the CFL season winds down a new team has taken over as the number one team in the league. Peter Klein explains why he made the change to his CFL Power Rankings while going over every team in the league.
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00:00Power Rankings in the Canadian Football League have been very difficult to put together,
00:16but now we got a new number one.
00:19We do not have a new number nine, and it's going to be tough to usurp the Stampeders
00:24from the number nine spot.
00:25It is Calgary as the worst team in the Canadian Football League, eliminated from the playoffs
00:31for the first time in a very long time.
00:33There is no aspect of this game that looks like it is going well for the Stampeders right
00:38now.
00:39And it just, it feels like beating a dead horse, that like every week, it's like, yeah,
00:43team sucks.
00:44There isn't a whole lot that we can really go with that.
00:47At eight, it is Hamilton.
00:49The clock striking midnight and all of those sorts of things on the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
00:55And now, it gets, the hole that they dug for themselves early in the year gets much
00:59more difficult to dig out of as the last three weeks of the season pick up.
01:04At seven, it's Ottawa.
01:06It has fallen, and it has fallen very quickly for the Ottawa Red Blacks.
01:09I had said coming into the year, I think this is an improved football team.
01:13But it wasn't as improved as we saw at the early part of the season.
01:17And I kind of warned people, as we were going through the season, they, I know that this
01:22was used as something in our NFL talk yesterday, they aren't beating anybody.
01:27Like, the wins that they have are not as impressive as you think.
01:31And they have a couple impressive wins in there, but a lot of the wins that they had
01:35kind of made the record seem a little bit fraudulent, and I think that is catching up
01:39to them very, very quickly.
01:40At six, it's the Edmonton Elks.
01:42Again, the playoff push falls short for the Edmonton Elks, but I do think that there is
01:47a little bit of optimism for the future, and I don't know why McLeod Bethel-Thompson would
01:51play another snap for this football team.
01:53Honestly, ever.
01:54But, um, for the rest of this season, no.
01:57At five, it's the BC Lions.
01:59As I have said before, I think that there is a very talented football team in there,
02:03they just have a tough time dragging it out every single week.
02:06But I think now that, you know, it's another week of getting ready and getting used to
02:09everything and all of these things, I do still, they are a I-can't-quit-you team.
02:14And odds are, they're going to be playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West Semi-Final,
02:18whether that be out in BC or over in Regina.
02:23And I do not feel comfortable with that at all.
02:26At four, it is the Toronto Argonauts.
02:31They are another one where I just kept waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the
02:35defense to get better, and it was kind of like, there's probably a more recent reference
02:40than this, but back in 04, in WWE, when Randy Orton and Mick Foley were doing their Legend
02:48Killer thing, and Mick Foley, like, he, I think it was when Randy Orton spit in his
02:54face, and Foley, like, backs up, and he keeps backing up, and he keeps backing up, and they
02:58kept being like, oh, he's going to take a running charge at Randy Orton, he's setting
03:00him into whatever, and then he just backs up, and he just leaves.
03:03That's kind of what my thought is on Toronto, and how my opinion on them has gone.
03:07It's like, alright, here it comes.
03:09Here it comes.
03:10It's going to go.
03:11It's going to get you.
03:12No, you know what?
03:13I think it's just bad, as they, it just, it doesn't, nothing there has really clicked
03:17in the way that I thought it would this season.
03:19At three, it's Saskatchewan, they have won three in a row, um, I think the defense is
03:24still obviously the star of the show with this team, and if the offensive line could
03:29have stayed healthy this year, I think that this would have been a really, really dangerous
03:33football team.
03:34As it is, they are kind of peaking at the right time, and the defense is good enough
03:38that they can, I think, steal a game, or maybe even two, in the postseason, which gets you
03:43to a championship and then anything can happen.
03:46I do think that, um, some predictable play-calling, and offensive line injuries, and just some
03:52relative inconsistency have held this offense back, but I do think there's a lot of talented
03:56pieces on the offensive side of the football for Saskatchewan, it's just not executing
04:00still, but, like, three feels very high for them, I will admit that, and there's probably
04:05some bias in this, but, like, the way Toronto is playing right now, do you take Toronto
04:08over Saskatchewan?
04:09I don't.
04:10Same thing goes with B.C.
04:11Edmonton.
04:12Like, Saskatchewan just beat Edmonton.
04:13So, I have a tough time putting Saskatchewan lower than three.
04:17At two, it's Montreal.
04:19And it's more what number one has done than what Montreal hasn't done, but, since Cody
04:24Fitzgerald came back, and honestly, since they clinched a playoff spot, this team has
04:28not clicked in the same way.
04:30Even when they win, it still doesn't look as impressive as you would want it to.
04:35And I think the Philpott injury really is hindering this offense in more ways than we
04:40want to give credit to, and I do think that that is kind of holding them up a little bit.
04:45So, we will see if they can flip the switch, because this was kind of the thing they benefited
04:49from with Toronto in the previous year, right?
04:53Where the Argos kind of were able to take their foot off the gas and kind of cruise,
04:58and then they played a meaningful game, and eight picks, sixes later, all of a sudden,
05:02the Alouettes are going to the Grey Cup, and then they're winning the thing.
05:05So, can the Alouettes avoid the same pitfalls that they took advantage of last season?
05:11But at number one, it is Winnipeg.
05:13This defense went from being underrated to very much appreciated, and now the offense,
05:17which kind of went from being overrated, is now appropriately rated, because they're BALLIN.
05:22And they are lighting it up.
05:23And so this is an offensive football team that I think scares people.
05:28And it is now looking like the most complete team in the Canadian Football League.
05:32That would be the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
05:35So I do think they are the number one team in the league for, and rightfully so, I would say.