Saturday’s CFL clashes feature two sets of teams facing rather different circumstances

Every CFL game counts exactly the same in the standings; a win earns you two points, a loss gets you none and a (rare) tie will give you a single point. However, not all games carry equal stakes, and that's certainly the case with Saturday's action. The matinee between the Montreal Alouettes and B.C. Lions (4 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3) should provide excellent viewing as a clash between two of the league's best teams, but there isn't really a lot of pressure on either squad; both teams are leading their respective divisions at the moment, would only drop into a tie for first (at worst) with a loss, and anything less than utter annihilation can probably be written off as a regular-season defeat against a good team. Sure, the players and coaches on each side will be still fired up to prove themselves against the cream of the crop, but the looming presence of Damocles' sword is nowhere to be found for either club. That's probably because it's ominously hanging from the rafters of the Rogers Centre at the moment, ready to threaten the loser of the 1 p.m. Eastern clash between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts.

It's in Hamilton where the situation's exceptionally dire. The Tiger-Cats, which entered this year with massive expectations following a wave of high-profile offseason acquisitions, have gone just 3-6 though the season's midway pointand have lost the last four games. Their offence has been quite impressive overall (in fact, heading into this week's action, they were averaging a league-high 29.6 points per game), but their defence has been only slightly less of a disaster than Springfield elevated mass transit projects. Heading into last week, they were last in 16 of the 25 defensive statistics tracked by the CFL, and conceding 33 points at home in their Labour Day loss to the Argos probably didn't help matters any. They have solid personnel, especially in the linebacking corps, but have been unable to generate pressure on the passer, stop the run or defend receivers. There are plenty of different opinions on what's wrong with the Tiger-Cats and how it should be fixed (it's particularly interesting that head coach George Cortez cites the issue as "we haven't scored enough points": what, the league's highest points-per-game numbers aren't good enough any more?), but it's clear that they need to turn things around sooner rather than later if they want to have any hope of acheiving the high goals they set for this year.

Oddly enough, things aren't all that different with their opponents Saturday. Yes, the Argonauts are second in the East at 5-4, but they've only scored 210 points (23.3 per game) and have allowed 222 (24.7 per game). Allowing more points that you score is never sustainable, and it speaks to their offensive struggles, which haven't exactly gone away since league-leading rusher Cory Boyd was cut. Replacement Chad Kackert has been okay but not spectacular, and quarterback Ricky Ray can't do it all himself; while he's put up solid stats on the year and threw for 375 yards last week, too often Toronto's been unable to capitalize on the field position given them by Ray and spectacular returner/receiver Chad Owens (who's in a tight battle with Hamilton's Chris Williams for the best at that position). The Argos have plenty of impressive pieces, and at 5-4 heading into this, it won't exactly be full-fledged panic if they lose, but they still carry plenty of question marks and haven't entered the realms of the elite yet.

Those are the realms where the Lions and Alouettes currently dwell. Sure, they're both only 6-3 heading into Saturday afternoon's clash (which puts Montreal a single game ahead of Toronto before both play, while B.C. would need a win to stay ahead of Calgary following the Stampeders' win Friday), but they've both looked substantially better in general than the rest of the CFL's teams. The Lions' defence has been lights-out all year, conceding a league-low 171 points (19.0 per game) and putting up stints of historic dominance, while 40-year-old Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo is once again tearing up the CFL, throwing for a league-high 2,978 yards thus far even without favoured target Jamel Richardson and playing a key role in the Alouettes' offensive success (they've racked up 29.2 points per game, second only to Hamilton). Moreover, after somewhat-slow starts, the Montreal defence and B.C. offence both seem to be rounding into form. That should make Saturday's late game a great contest to watch, but it means that the stakes are much closer to mere bragging rights than the Tiger-Cats' desire to turn their season around and the Argonauts' eagerness to live up to their potential. A loss would sting for the Lions or Alouettes, but in Hamilton or Toronto, one could result in much tougher questions.