Eastern dominance?

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sj-roc
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I know it's still pretty early but the East vs West narrative has done a total 180 on what it was last year.

Jun 26: Cgy over Ham, 24-23
Jun 27: Tor over Edm, 26-11
Jul 02: Ham over Wpg, 52-26
Jul 03: Mtl over Cgy, 29-11
Jul 04: Ott over BC, 27-16

East is 4-1 against the West and outscoring them 157-88 head-to-head. The lone West win came by one point on a last play FG where Cgy had not held a lead at any point of the game until the final gun.

Tor faces Durant-less Ssk tomorrow with a chance to extend the gap.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Ravi
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sj-roc wrote:I know it's still pretty early but the East vs West narrative has done a total 180 on what it was last year.

Jun 26: Cgy over Ham, 24-23
Jun 27: Tor over Edm, 26-11
Jul 02: Ham over Wpg, 52-26
Jul 03: Mtl over Cgy, 29-11
Jul 04: Ott over BC, 27-16

East is 4-1 against the West and outscoring them 157-88 head-to-head. The lone West win came by one point on a last play FG where Cgy had not held a lead at any point of the game until the final gun.

Tor faces Durant-less Ssk tomorrow with a chance to extend the gap.
This is a continuation of what we saw during the second half of last season when Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto all rebounded from poor first halves to the season. I, for one, would love to see an eastern crossover this year but I am acutely aware that we have a long way to go yet.
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Toppy Vann
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It is possible IF MTL's QB is not a 1 game wonder and their team keeps playing as they are. Same with Harris with Argos. Hamilton too looks good and Burris looks like he used to be with the arsenal of receivers and playmakers he has now.
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WestCoastJoe
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sj-roc wrote:I know it's still pretty early but the East vs West narrative has done a total 180 on what it was last year.

Jun 26: Cgy over Ham, 24-23
Jun 27: Tor over Edm, 26-11
Jul 02: Ham over Wpg, 52-26
Jul 03: Mtl over Cgy, 29-11
Jul 04: Ott over BC, 27-16

East is 4-1 against the West and outscoring them 157-88 head-to-head. The lone West win came by one point on a last play FG where Cgy had not held a lead at any point of the game until the final gun.

Tor faces Durant-less Ssk tomorrow with a chance to extend the gap.
Do we really want to sneak in the back door again? Crossover teams deserve to get their butts kicked, it seems to me. OK, nice to make the playoffs, but ... you ... snuck ... in. Yeayyyy, we made the playoffs.
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TheLionKing
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I don't consider making the playoffs via the crossover route as sneaking in the playoffs. If the 4th place team in the West have more points than the 3rd place in the East, they deserve to be in the playoffs IMO. Sneaking into the playoffs is when the 3rd place team in the East makes the playoff with less point than the 4th place in the West. My .05
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sj-roc
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TheLionKing wrote:I don't consider making the playoffs via the crossover route as sneaking in the playoffs. If the 4th place team in the West have more points than the 3rd place in the East, they deserve to be in the playoffs IMO. Sneaking into the playoffs is when the 3rd place team in the East makes the playoff with less point than the 4th place in the West. My .05
Some years we've seen 4W > 2E let alone 4W > 3E.

I said all last season that I wanted to go to one division and I still feel that way.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Rammer
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Toppy Vann wrote:It is possible IF MTL's QB is not a 1 game wonder and their team keeps playing as they are. Same with Harris with Argos. Hamilton too looks good and Burris looks like he used to be with the arsenal of receivers and playmakers he has now.
Burris still had three throws that should have been picked off, same old Burris that will lose games when the D's are able to make the picks that the Lions aren't able to do. East may be better given that two of the 5 West teams are missing their starting QB's for a significant portion of the season or all of it and Willy's injury length is to be determined yet. Montreal's QB injuries may be a blessing in disguise, they are very fortunate to have that gem in Cato siting in the wings.
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aklawitter
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Kevin Glenn is dominating the Argos D right now. Interesting what happens when you have a competent O line and receivers not afraid of the ball.
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Argos 42-40 in double overtime.
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sj-roc
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The Tor@Ssk game was only on TSN3/4/5 so I couldn't watch it but I see from the play-by-play that Tor outlasted Ssk 42-40 in double OT. Teams exchanged TD + 2PCfails on their respective initial OT series. Then Tor got a TD+2 to assure themselves of no worse than a tie. On the final series Ssk replied with a major and another 2PCfail to hand Tor the win.

Not sure how long this eastern edge will last and it may well eventually revert to the historical western advantage will but it's 5-1 east right now. A W->E crossover is not a good bet at the moment and as Ravi indicated the other way around looks more likely at this stage.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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sj-roc
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Haven't updated this thread in a while; maybe time for another look at the West vs East record:

Jun 26: Cgy over Ham, 24-23; 1-0 W
Jun 27: Tor over Edm, 26-11; 1-1
Jul 02: Ham over Wpg, 52-26; 2-1 E
Jul 03: Mtl over Cgy, 29-11; 3-1 E
Jul 04: Ott over BC, 27-16; 4-1 E
Jul 05: Tor over Ssk, 42-40; 5-1 E
Jul 09: Edm over Ott, 46-17; 5-2 E
Jul 10: Wpg over Mtl, 25-23; 5-3 E
Jul 13: Cgy over Tor, 25-20 5-4 E
Jul 17: Edm over Ott, 23-12; 5-5
Jul 24: Ott over Cgy, 29-26; 6-5 E
Jul 24: Tor over BC, 30-27; 7-5 E
Jul 26: Ham over Ssk, 31-21; 8-5 E
Aug 01: Cgy over Mtl, 25-22; 8-6 E
Aug 08: Tor over Ssk, 30-26; 9-6 E
Aug 09: Ham over Wpg, 38-8; 10-6 E
Aug 13: Edm over Mtl, 15-12; 10-7 E
Aug 14: Tor over Wpg, 27-20; 11-7 E
Aug 15: Ham over BC, 52-22; 12-7 E
Aug 15: Cgy over Ott, 48-3; 12-8 E
Aug 20: Mtl over BC, 23-12; 13-8 E
Aug 21: Ham over Edm; 49-20; 14-8 E

So with just over half of the 40 W/E matchups in the books, the East currently has a 14-8 edge over its Western opponents. 10 of the 14 wins are from Ham & Tor who each sport 5-1 interdivision records and who have both faced and defeated every Western team except for Cgy, who are the only Western team to have faced and defeated every Eastern team. Cgy at 4-2 and Edm at 3-2 account for all but one of the West's 8 wins against the East.

BC have faced all Eastern teams once each but have no wins to show from these contests, yet are 3-1 against other Western teams, which represents the most in-division wins of any Western team so far in 2015 (in fairness Cgy and Edm have only played in-division 2 and 3 times respectively).
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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