10 Five Things I Learned... In Week 13

I might get some heat for this, but I didn't watch all the games this weekend. With two games played on Sunday, it was a lot of flipping between those games and the NFL action. With the Saturday night game going head-to-head with the Michigan-Notre Dame game, there was a lot of flipping there also. The only game I watched from start to finish this weekend was the horrible Hamilton-Winnipeg game on Friday night. So instead of the normal 10 things, this will only be five.

(1) Argos won't win anything without Ray
Ricky Ray left Saturday's game with a knee injury and losing him for any extended period of time could be catastrophic to their playoff prospects. Don't get me wrong, the Argos will still make the playoffs, but if Ray is lost for too long or for the season, the Argos won't get to the Grey Cup. They are probably still good enough to finish ahead of the Ti-Cats and Bombers for second in the East, but they won't catch the Als for first place without Ray at the helm.

(2) Pierce is the clear leader of the Bombers
You could see the difference between Winnipeg this week and in previous weeks. Yes, they are clearly a much better team at home, regardless of who plays for them, but they also looked energized and rejuvenated with Buck Pierce back under centre. The problem with Pierce, and this has been said a million times over, is that he is not reliable for a full season. He is clearly the guy the Bomber players want at quarterback, but with his injury history, he's not the guy they can rely on.

(3) Eskimos or Ti-Cats will just be fodder
One of Edmonton or Hamilton is going to make the playoffs (as much as Winnipeg is just a game back of the Cats, I don't see them getting above both to finish third) and with the way they play, it looks like both would be one-and-done. Both teams look terrible on the road, with just three combined road wins between them, so to think either of them will win not one, but two road playoff games is a stretch. Whichever team finishes second in the East probably won't be challenged all that much on Semi-Final weekend.

(4) Sanders clearly fumbled
I don't know what the replay officials saw on that play, but it was pretty clear to me that Jock Sanders fumbled. We saw the replay at home and the ball was clearly coming out before any part of Sanders' body hit the ground, so I don't understand how the incorrect call was made in the booth. My understanding is that they have the same camera shots that we do at home, so if it was obvious at home, it should have been just as obvious up there.

(5) Players of the Week
It was a bit of a battle for top offensive player, but I'm giving it to Chad Simpson. Andrew Harris had a great week and would have been worthy of the award, but with both he and Simpson playing running back and Simpson having more total yards, neither player scored a touchdown, the award goes to him.

Another Bomber gets the defensive player nod and that is Alex Hall. Hall was a force on Friday night, picking up two sacks to go along with his team-high five tackles.

Any doubt that the top special teams award will go to Trent Guy? He had a 129-yard missed field goal return for a touchdown and no other special teams play would come even close to that this weekend.

While he didn't win the offensive player award, BC's Andrew Harris put up 181 total yards against the Eskimos, which was by far the best day of any Canadian, and is the top Canadian for this week.