Tiger-Cats and Argonauts provide the usual oddities for CFL East semifinal

It just wouldn't be a CFL East semifinal unless there wasn't some kind of weirdness involved.

Consider:

– Sunday's game between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats is only the fourth in the last eight seasons to feature two teams that are actually members of the East Division. Technically, this is business as usual in the CFL, which is odd enough in itself.

– The visiting team, the Argos, have played two ``home" games at Hamilton's Tim Hortons Field. They lost both.

– Despite being 0-4 at the House that Doughnuts Built and 0-3 against the Ticats this season while being outscored 111-57, the Argos are considered the favourites.

– The second-place Ticats (10-8) and third-place Argos (10-8) pretty much coasted into the playoffs, despite ending the season a combined 2-6.

But in a season that saw the Argos dress two kickers named Palardy in the same game and the Ticats trying to decide whether to start their third- or fourth-string quarterback on Sunday, weirdness is pretty much the norm.

On the other hand, the Ticats are looking at this as a return to the norm.

"I think it's better this way, being underdogs again," Ticat linebacker Taylor Reed told the Hamilton Spectator this week. ``It felt wrong to be a front-runner, a favourite.

 "Like coach (Kent Austin) said, this is the Hamilton Tiger-Cats: we like to do things the hard way."

To understand how things ended up this way, you need to look no further than the quarterback position.

The Ticats were flying earlier this season at 8-3 and were considered to be either the best or second-best team in the CFL. Then, quarterback Zach Collaros was knocked out for the season with a knee injury and everything changed.

The Ticats became a very ordinary football team, finishing 2-5 in the post-Collaros era with rookie Jeff Matthews at the helm. Things got worse when Matthews suffered a concussion and the Ticats found themselves trying to decided whether third-stringer Jeremiah Masoli or fourth-stringer Jacory Harris could do the least damage.

The jury is still out on that one and apparently ordering in pizza as neither looked impressive in the season finale against Ottawa.

On the visiting side -- though it would be understandable if the Argos are confused as to which side of the field to stand on -- things are looking a tad rosier behind centre.

Veteran and future Hall of Famer Ricky Ray will start his third consecutive game after missing almost an entire year with shoulder problems. He looked pretty comfortable in the season-ender against Winnipeg, though it must be taken into consideration that looking comfortable against Winnipeg is pretty much a given.

Should Ray falter, or be injured, the Argos have a pretty good fallback in Trevor Harris, who looked great earlier this year when Ray was still on the shelf.

But all is not doom and gloom for the Ticats. Their defence is still statistically one of the best in the league despite the fact they've been on the field a lot longer since Collaros went down.

The Argo defence hasn't scared anyone all season and might provide Masoli or Jacory Harris with enough room to produce some points.

Kicker Justin Medlock can handle Tim Hortons' capricious winds, while Argos kicker Swayze Waters will have to hope his repaired hip holds together for the entire game.

But the biggest factor for the Ticats, in addition to the raucous crowds that make Tim Hortons a tough place to play, is Brandon Banks.

The jockeyesque kick returner is a game-changer as he illustrated so graphically in last year's East final -- and, at least until a flag appeared, in the Grey Cup.

Banks may be the Argos biggest challenge on Sunday -- and the Ticats greatest hope.

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