Power Poll (Week 18)

One more week to go and still no one knows who is playing who in the playoffs. Everything that had to happen to make Week 19 meaningful occurred in Week 18. There are now five teams with identical 10-7 records, and this will be the first time since the CFL expanded to an 18-game schedule that not one team will win at least 12 games. You try to make sense of it all because I know I can't.

1. British Columbia Lions (Last Week: 4)

Clobbered one week, back on top the next. Such is life in this season of parity. The Lions looked good against the Eskimos. Now to secure first in the West, they have to handle business against the Als.

2. Calgary Stampeders (Last Week: 6)

Am I over valuing the Stampeders? Perhaps. But since Drew Tate took over at Quarterback, this is a different team. Very few squads have gone into Montreal and beaten the Als, and the Tate-led Stamps just did that. That scores big points from where I sit.

3. Edmonton Eskimos (Last Week: 1)

Hard to knock a team too much when they lost on the road to another first-place team. If Edmonton wins, they will get at least one home playoff game. The rest they cannot control.

4. Montreal Alouettes (Last Week: 3)

Seeing Montreal come out flat in a big game tells me that Montreal has still yet to find its groove. For the first time in a long time, the Als look vulnerable heading into the playoffs.

5. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Last Week: 2)

Losing at home to the Argos is almost inexcusable, especially when first place in the East was on the line. Bu Winnipeg received a reprieve thanks to Montreal's loss to Calgary. If Winnipeg wins in Week 19, they still get first in the East.

6. Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Last Week: 5)

The Tabbies stunk in Regina, which means they will come out this week and destroy the Argos. That is the tale of the season for the Tiger-Cats.

7. Toronto Argonauts (Last Week: 7)

The gutsy win for the Argos has been overshadowed by the Johnny Sears-Steven Jyles mess. Sears's hit was nasty. and he is deserving of any punishment the league hands out. But Argos players and TSN's Chris Schultz went overboard in their reaction to the hit. Two wrongs do not make a right, gentlemen. But you have to be impressed with how the Argos are finishing out the season. Too bad for their fans they didn't play like this from July to September.

8. Saskatchewan Roughriders (Last Week: 8)

Even in victory the Riders didn't look particularly strong. They won, but they failed to score over 20 points for the sixth week in a row. This has been a season to forget in the province of Saskatchewan.

Highest Climb: Calgary (+4)
Steepest Fall: Winnipeg (-3)