CFL Finals
Here we are at another finals, but this time it’s the spring. The first ever CFL spring season has been as exciting as ever. We had many shootouts, a crucial rain out, and even a the game is over no it’s not over oh man the lights went out occurrence. In the end the teams vying for the title are very familiar with each other, that’s right we have a rematch. Fall saw the Interceptors victorious against Imaan and while both sides have new faces the teams have the same success. We wonder who Ezra is rooting for? Let’s dive into the team makeups and see who has the edge.
Quarterback
Here we have Faizan who was having a very steady season until he ran into some trouble in the semis. All season he has been a great game manager, very few mistakes and letting the talent around him shine. He has excellent ball placement and processes the field well, his arm strength is on the lower end but the big play is not a huge part of this offense. On the other side Asif has been as hot as they come at the position in the league. According to one CFL ref, “He’s been throwing dots lately.” He has a lot of experience and also does a great job at ball placement and hitting his receivers in time. His arm strength is a little better than his opponents and Imaan will hit some big plays if given the chance.
Receivers
We have some loaded rooms on both sides here. Imaan comes in with guys like Owais, Umair and Isa. They all are lanky, run routes well, and play aggressive when the ball is in the air. Umair is very technical with his routes and excels at creating separation in the end zone and Owais has the veteran knowledge to find soft spots in the defense and exploit them, -nd when your backup qb in Anas is also producing on the wr side you know you have talent on the team. You also have Faiq running around out there possibly doing something (just kidding Faiq). To talk about the Interceptors we first have to give some context. Sal is the best player in the league, hands down bar none. I’m gonna quote the same ref that gave Imaan praise, when asked about Sal “he’s the best player on the field and he’s not even trying.” The issue then becomes that he is a questionable game time decision for the game. It makes a huge impact on how we can view this group. They still have some beasts in guys like Todd, Prentice and the other Saleem, Fahad is a great deep threat. Adam is a big body with steady hands playing a tight end like role. If Sal is playing they are equal because of the high end talent compared to Imaan which hits you with depth and the amount of good receivers they can put out there. If he’s not Imaan has the advantage.
Defense
This time let’s start with Interceptors in discussing the best defense in the league. This is another area where the cloud around Sal’s status is tricky to diagnose even more so than offense. Adam rolled out a one high safety putting Sal back there and trusting him to handle anything deep while the rest of his guys could focus on everything else. It led to a lot of turnovers for the Interceptors and capitalizing on teams thinking they could take deep shots. Can anyone else replicate that for them tonight. In their semis matchup Caliphs with a backup qb scored a ton on this team just chunking their way up the field. Will Adam have found a counter to stop Imaan from doing just that. Imaan plays your traditional zone and trusts all their players to make the reads and keep things in front of you. It helps when you have veteran and too many times to count champion Pulak out there helping to run things. They do create turnovers but they are more interested in staying disciplined and not getting beat over their heads. If Sal is playing huge stage to Interceptors if not it’s probably a wash.
This game has everything going for it, a rematch of last year, night game under the lights, Farooq won’t be there to cause havoc. It’s going to be awesome. With all the uncertainty and how hot Imaan has been the second half of the season we are going to pick them to reverse fortunes and get the win this time out in a close battle.
Imaan 27 Interceptors 21
Great season guys! See you in the fall!