Here's how I see the West after the first quarter of the season:
Tier 1: PO teams
1. Queensland Exiles: Having already beaten the two team below them in the standings and handing them both their only season losses, (3-1 Montreal and 3-1 Dallas) as well as beating the Thunder Bay Wolverines, a preseason favourite to win it all this season, I cant rank these guys anywhere else. Plus NIboris WL/pro rankings has them at the NO.1 spot. With the best defense in the conference these guys should be a home playoff contender, with a real shot at returning to WL.
2. Montreal Rulers: After Queensland the water is pretty murky as to who is NO.2, 3 and 4. Dallas, Montreal and Detroit are all teams vying for these spots. Looking at the schedules of each team, Montreal has come closest to knocking off Queensland, and has quality wins over the 3-1 roadfrogs and the underrated LAWN. Their offense is stagnating around middle of the conference, so that has to improve for the stretch run when more teams like Dallas, Detroit, Quebec and Houston are up.
3. St John's Salty Dogs: Although they got beat in a shocker opening game, as of late they have taken care of business beating a good Detroit team and two middling 1-3 teams. This team has yet to play their best this season, but I would look for them to make some noise in the POs.
4. Dallas Longhorns: Have beaten a good Raging squad to open the season, but then lost in a nailbiter to Queensland. A young team aiming to cause an upset or two, they will have more chances to prove they belong in the top four when they play teams like Quebec and Montreal, amongst others. With the best rushing attack in the conference backed up with their fifth ranked passing game, these guys are a tough out. They need to tighten up their pass defense if they want to contain teams like Quebec and Houston.
5. Detroit Pyromaniacs: With a 2-2 record you must be wondering why they are ranked so highly here? Well its simple. They went 2-2 against 4 teams with an overall record of 11-4. That tells me their season should translate to an 10 to 11 win season, which should be enough to make it as the 5th seed, perhaps even a little higher. Their two losses are to St.Johns and Bastard Sons of Doug Flutie, so there is nothing to be ashamed of there as both of those teams are CPL gold contenders. To rise in this list and knock off some of the teams above them, they will need to tighten up a leaky secondary and get that run game going.
6. Miami Roadfrogs: Strong team that takes care of teams it should take care of. Only loss is to Montreal, and it was a BLOWOUT. That concerns me down the stretch. Montreal hung 42 on them with a solid mixture of running and passing, and allowing 503 yards of offense is blasphemous.
7. Quebec War Eagles: Underrated team who I believe at this stage anyway, will be the seventh seed or better in CPL this season. Their passing numbers are skewed from a blowout win over Hub City in the interconference game, but nonetheless a team to watch out for during the season.
8. LAWN! : people are probably going to deride me for putting these guys in 8th. With their three losses coming to teams with a combined 11-2 I am inclined to believe they will bounce back down the stretch, this team is full of agents in trust will right their ship and be ready come PO time to win some games and upset some top seeds. Well I hope they can so we can have it easier in the next round LOL.
Tier 2: PO contenders
9-11:
(in no particular order)
Jet Nation Pride: solid team, but with three wins over nobodies like Beantown and Kingston I cant see them getting over LAWN and into the POs. They play LAWN and Quebec mid season so we will see where they stand then.
Houston Vikings: solid team again at 2-2 to start the season. Both wins were over two teams I consider out for the count so I cant judge them as PO contenders just yet!
Moss Point Tigers: Probably the best shot out of any of these three teams, as they have solid losses to good to great teams. They have to convert those games into wins if I am to rank them any higher in 4 weeks.
Tier 3. 12-16: Put a fork In Em
Kingston Birdmen: disappointing start to the season.
Beantown Bastards: self-proclaimed out of their league. I agree with them.
Alabama Crimson Tide: disappointing start to the season. Could very well be 2-2 now, surpassing Moss Point.
40 Days and 40 Nights: good name actually, i really like the subtleness. Now only if your team were as good...
Highland Hawks: GUT
Tier 1: PO teams
1. Queensland Exiles: Having already beaten the two team below them in the standings and handing them both their only season losses, (3-1 Montreal and 3-1 Dallas) as well as beating the Thunder Bay Wolverines, a preseason favourite to win it all this season, I cant rank these guys anywhere else. Plus NIboris WL/pro rankings has them at the NO.1 spot. With the best defense in the conference these guys should be a home playoff contender, with a real shot at returning to WL.
2. Montreal Rulers: After Queensland the water is pretty murky as to who is NO.2, 3 and 4. Dallas, Montreal and Detroit are all teams vying for these spots. Looking at the schedules of each team, Montreal has come closest to knocking off Queensland, and has quality wins over the 3-1 roadfrogs and the underrated LAWN. Their offense is stagnating around middle of the conference, so that has to improve for the stretch run when more teams like Dallas, Detroit, Quebec and Houston are up.
3. St John's Salty Dogs: Although they got beat in a shocker opening game, as of late they have taken care of business beating a good Detroit team and two middling 1-3 teams. This team has yet to play their best this season, but I would look for them to make some noise in the POs.
4. Dallas Longhorns: Have beaten a good Raging squad to open the season, but then lost in a nailbiter to Queensland. A young team aiming to cause an upset or two, they will have more chances to prove they belong in the top four when they play teams like Quebec and Montreal, amongst others. With the best rushing attack in the conference backed up with their fifth ranked passing game, these guys are a tough out. They need to tighten up their pass defense if they want to contain teams like Quebec and Houston.
5. Detroit Pyromaniacs: With a 2-2 record you must be wondering why they are ranked so highly here? Well its simple. They went 2-2 against 4 teams with an overall record of 11-4. That tells me their season should translate to an 10 to 11 win season, which should be enough to make it as the 5th seed, perhaps even a little higher. Their two losses are to St.Johns and Bastard Sons of Doug Flutie, so there is nothing to be ashamed of there as both of those teams are CPL gold contenders. To rise in this list and knock off some of the teams above them, they will need to tighten up a leaky secondary and get that run game going.
6. Miami Roadfrogs: Strong team that takes care of teams it should take care of. Only loss is to Montreal, and it was a BLOWOUT. That concerns me down the stretch. Montreal hung 42 on them with a solid mixture of running and passing, and allowing 503 yards of offense is blasphemous.
7. Quebec War Eagles: Underrated team who I believe at this stage anyway, will be the seventh seed or better in CPL this season. Their passing numbers are skewed from a blowout win over Hub City in the interconference game, but nonetheless a team to watch out for during the season.
8. LAWN! : people are probably going to deride me for putting these guys in 8th. With their three losses coming to teams with a combined 11-2 I am inclined to believe they will bounce back down the stretch, this team is full of agents in trust will right their ship and be ready come PO time to win some games and upset some top seeds. Well I hope they can so we can have it easier in the next round LOL.
Tier 2: PO contenders
9-11:
(in no particular order)
Jet Nation Pride: solid team, but with three wins over nobodies like Beantown and Kingston I cant see them getting over LAWN and into the POs. They play LAWN and Quebec mid season so we will see where they stand then.
Houston Vikings: solid team again at 2-2 to start the season. Both wins were over two teams I consider out for the count so I cant judge them as PO contenders just yet!
Moss Point Tigers: Probably the best shot out of any of these three teams, as they have solid losses to good to great teams. They have to convert those games into wins if I am to rank them any higher in 4 weeks.
Tier 3. 12-16: Put a fork In Em
Kingston Birdmen: disappointing start to the season.
Beantown Bastards: self-proclaimed out of their league. I agree with them.
Alabama Crimson Tide: disappointing start to the season. Could very well be 2-2 now, surpassing Moss Point.
40 Days and 40 Nights: good name actually, i really like the subtleness. Now only if your team were as good...
Highland Hawks: GUT
