Both of us went 2-1 last week (with A-Rad's lone loss coming on his bizarre Hamilton pick).  Onwards to the big rivalry games.

Rusty's Picks:

BC at Montreal

While this promises to be a fantastic game, something really needs to be done to spruce up this "rivalry", and the most logical person to stir something up is obviously Don Matthews.  Don, for the sake of the league I really think you should consider spending all of Friday's game staring down Wally Buono while eating plate after plate of delicious, high cholesterol poutine.  

If that doesn't work, I guess we could get Brent Johnson to sleep with Anthony Calvillo's wife, or something.

Pick: Montreal

Winnipeg at Saskatchewan

Tough week for Mike Quinn, but admitedly it has to be difficult to come in as a starter after 8 years of basically not playing.  If the Bombers are looking for another QB who hasn't played a meaningful game in 8 years, I hear that Frank Reich is available.  Very available.

Pick: Saskatchewan

Edmonton at Calgary

It's nice that TSN gave Henry Burris his own SportsCentre commercial, but couldn't they have arranged for Ken-Yon Rambo to get in his face when he flubbed a line?

Pick: Calgary

Toronto at Hamilton

While I won't go as far as friend of Boatmenblog Neate Sager and say that the Ti-Cats are going to win, you can rest assured that they'll play the Argos tough this week.  Which is good in a way.  I was starting to worry that the most epic Labour Day battle in Southern Ontario was going to be A-Rad vs. 3 full racks of ribs.

Pick: Toronto

A-Rad's picks 

BC at Montreal 

The best part of this Vancouver Sun Q&A with Dave Ritchie, aside from the preamble likening him to "a hibernating bear," is where - on the flimsiest of pretexts - he casually drops into conversation that "I've averaged 10.7 wins a season, I guess." Luckily, the Sun was kind enough to edit out Ritchie's next sentence: "Sorry, I was just reading aloud from this e-mail I'm sending Eric Tillman."

Pick: Montreal 

Winnipeg at Saskatchewan

Man, I was so excited when I realized that Danny Barrett has his own website. Then, much to my horror, I realized it was this. Still, you'll thank me when Indian Summer provides the soundtrack for the CBC's Labour Day broadcasts.

Pick: Saskatchewan 

Edmonton at Calgary 

One of my favourite things about the CFL is that a team playing in Edmonton is its answer to the New York Yankees. Now, it's around this point in a sub-par season that the Yankees would go out, spend a wad of cash and buy enough players to make a run for it. The Eskies, I imagine, will try to do much the same thing - much like last year's ridiculous "trade"  with the Ticats, where they didn't actually give up anything immediately and then, um, rewarded them with Jason Maas.

There's only one difference, though: Even George Steinbrenner wouldn't be crazy enough to give his kids senior coaching jobs. If he was, the Yankees would wind up with the baseball equivalent of this. (Sorry, Edmontonians, but that clip will never get old. Would you rather I'd thrown to the ending of their last game?)

Pick: Calgary 

Toronto at Hamilton 

Just so it can never be said that you don't learn anything from Boatmenblog, allow me to offer one particularly juicy tidbit. See, you may have noticed that the past three weeks, Pinball has uncharacteristically been sporting a cap on the sidelines. A good luck charm, you ask? No, sir. Word out of Argo practice this week is that Pinball got a horrible haircut three weeks ago that he's been desperately trying to cover up. Better still, he's now given up on this particular 'do entirely and shaved his head - meaning we'll be seeing a leaner, meaner Pinball scowling (or at least grinning slightly less amicably) at the Ticats this week.

Hello, Us Weekly, is that you? Yeah, it's A-Rad again. I was telling you this really hot scoop about Pinball's Clemons' haircut, and we must have gotten cut off. Hello? Us? You there?

Pick: Toronto 

Bonus pick:

All of the Argos have somehow been injured in practice, and Pinball is forced to play the Ticats by himself. At the last second, the dastardly Ron Lancaster does Pinball a "favour" by loaning him Jason Maas as his quarterback. How does Pinball do?*

Rusty's pick: Pinball 119, Ticats 0 (Knowing that Maas may be a hindrance, Pinball decides not to play an offensive series all game long - and cruises to victory picking off 16 Kevin Eakin passes.)

A-Rad's pick: Pinball 44, Ticats 0 (Both teams decide not to play an offensive series all game long, leading to a game decided solely on special teams. Pinball's awesome kicking skills come in handy, as he picks up 16 rouges to go with the four touchdowns he gets off kick returns.)

* = Everything we need to know about football analysis, we learned from early '90s SNL sketches.