Ah the football playoffs, a time that the unexpected happens with amazing regularity.
First off, a tip of the Roughrider toque to the Yorkton Regional High School Raider Gridders on winning a provincial championship.
To win the championship in overtime is dramatic, reminding of the Terriers Royal Bank Cup win back in 2014.
The win has to be seen as something of an upset as the Saskatoon team was rated higher in national rankings than were the Raiders most of the season, although home field likely played a role in evening things up Saturday.
It has been a long time in coming for a football program that has most certainly grown in recent years, and of course it’s a great thing for the school and city.
Of course being favoured doesn’t seem to mean a lot in football.
Western University were undefeated this season in Canadian University football, but lost to McMaster in the Yates Cup on the weekend.
And powerhouse Laval lost to Montreal in the Dunsmore Cup.
Both games have to be thought of as upsets.
Switch gears to the Canadian Football League.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers went to Calgary to play the defending Grey Cup Champions and came away with a win. As defending champs, with a better regular season record, and home field Calgary was easily favoured, but that didn’t
matter in the end as the Bombers won.
It sets up Winnipeg in Regina to face the Roughriders in the west final this weekend. The two teams are among the biggest rivals in the CFL, and with Zack Collaros at the helm on the Bomber offence there is an intriguing subtext to this one.
It’s the ‘Riders to lose, but as memories of Tony Gabriel and then the 13th man attest, Saskatchewan can find some incredible ways to blow important games.
My dark horse for the Grey Cup is already out to pasture too. Montreal was ousted by Edmonton. The only way I saw the Eskimos winning was if Trevor Harris put together one of those games he can, where he is a massive shining star. He went 36-for-39 and 421 yards.
Harris will need to repeat that performance this weekend for Edmonton to get past Hamilton. That won’t be easy as the knock on Harris is that he can’t maintain the highest level his game can attain. Expect him to dip and the TiCats to the Grey Cup.
