Week 12 of the season was, to put it mildly, a difficult time in terms of options. The band was in full force as the Edmonton Elks defended their home turf against an Ottawa REDBLACKS team they handled on the road a week earlier. This of course did not happen. The Elks’ home loss capped a rough week that saw no one go better than 2-2, while three of our writers went 1-3. With the traditional OK Tire Labor Day Weekend games on deck, there was near unanimity with the picks this week. Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto and Calgary took the majority of the votes this week, but we have some dissension in the ranks. Let’s take a look at who was cheating and possibly why. OK TIRE LABOR DAY WEEKEND» Weekly Predictor: Time for Labor Day Weekend» CFL and Genius Sports: Check out the CFL GameZone!’ CFL Pick ‘Em: Make Your Picks for Labor Day Weekend” Labor Weekend is here! Build your fantasy roster now OTT to MTL The writers like the Als at home this week and that makes a lot of sense. The Als are coming off a pair of impressive wins, handing the Bombers their only loss of the season, and then a last-second field goal win over the Ticats before heading into their bye week. A rested Als team takes on a REDBLACKS team that, under quarterback Nick Arbuckle, picked up just its second win of the season in Edmonton. While Arbuckle and the REDBLACKS talk about the new half of the season, we young writers tend to fall into the believe-it-when-we-see-it mentality. CHOOSE Authors: 83% Montreal Fans: 91% Montreal WPG to SSK As CFL.ca’s Jamie Nye points out in his weekly prediction column, homefield is an advantage on Labor Day. He wrote that over the past 10 seasons, regardless of the teams’ records going into the game, the home team in Sunday/Monday rivalry games is a combined 23-5, with the Argos and Ticats not meeting on Labor Day in 2011 and 2013. This is a stat to discard if you want to go green this week. If you want to go Blue and Gold, history and records are on your side. Consider that the Bombers swept the season series with the Riders last year – including the Labor Day game at Mosaic – and look at the Bombers’ shocking d-line going up against a Riders o-line that has a lot to be desired this year and is easy to lean towards the defending champions. Who would have been better to reach these Gray Cup games over the last two seasons? Correctly. CHOOSE Writers: 66% Winnipeg Fans: 76% Winnipeg TOR to HAM At this point, as they are set to meet for the fourth time in five weeks, Argos and Tikat are likely to see each other when they close their eyes to sleep at night. Despite their historic home run in this game, it looks like an uphill battle for an injured Ticats team this week. Dane Evans and Matthew Shiltz are dealing with injuries, which leaves the inexperienced duo of Jamie Newman and Jalen Morton to take control of the offense against an Argos team that came away with last week’s game the second Shiltz was injured and left the game. You can look at this week’s picks and see Chris O’Leary taking the Ticats and wonder what he’s thinking, also taking the REDBLACKS and the Riders. Well, Chris O’Leary is feeling cheeky this week guys, simple as that. CHOOSE Authors: 83% Toronto Fans: 59% Hamilton EDM in CGY There’s no uncertainty here with the writers and that’s likely based on Jake Maier’s strong game against the Bombers last week. That’s also the fact that the Stamps walked away with a 49-6 win in Edmonton the last time these teams met in Week 5. The Elks have shown they’re more than capable of giving teams a tough game most weeks, but the unpredictability — and that the Elks are now 0-7 against division opponents — kept even our most arbitrary picks away from him. CHOOSE Writers: 100% Calgary Fans: 95% Calgary
