If there is one thing which is very predictable about prognosticating results of a sporting event is it’s a process which is very unpredictable.
All one needs to do is look at three football games in our country this past weekend to see the evidence of the above statement.
In the CFL east final the Toronto Argonauts were at home with the best quarterback in the league up against a Jekyll and Hyde team from Hamilton.
The end result was a solid performance from the Ti-Cats and a reward of going to the Grey Cup game.
In the west final we had the Calgary Stampeders with three good options at quarterback, a top rated running back and the home field advantage versus the Riders.
The men in green had their own running back who had something to prove and his offensive line kept pounding the daylights out of the Calgary defence all day long.
In the end, it was Saskatchewan going home to play for the cup against Hamilton.
The third game was the CIS semifinal with the number one team in the country from Western taking on the U of C Dinos. The final was 44-3 Calgary and I don’t think anyone predicted a win by that score.
So what did three teams who were not favoured to win manage to do in order to come out on top?
Well the one thing in sports which is so hard to understand and predict is the will to win in an athlete specifically and a team in general.
It’s not to say the other three teams didn’t want to win. Of course they did but as a group the eventual winners had a slight edge in the drive factor which proved to be more than enough in each case. It is the unknown factor which creates the upsets, big or small.
In the Stampeders case, it didn’t help matters turning the ball over so many times. For the Argos it was, to a degree, Ricky Ray going cold at the wrong time and for Western – well they just were overwhelmed by a very prepared Dinos team.
So kudos to the coaches for bringing the best out of their players when it mattered.
Now to predict the Grey Cup.
Saskatchewan 27-23 over Hamilton.
sports@reddeerexpress.com
