Football: Dunsmore Cup Preview: Green, Gold, Red, Gold

Third in a series. Up next: the Dunsmore Cup, with Andrew Bucholtz and Rob Pettapiece.



Sherbrooke Vert et Or at Laval Rouge et Or
12:30pm ET


OVERALL

Category	SHE	LAV
W-L	6-4	10-0
RPI (rank)	8	3
SRS	+10.1	+28.6
PF/G	29.4	46.7
PA/G	23.1	5.9

Rob: That +28.6 for Laval is after you cap their margin of victory at 35. Otherwise they'd be even higher.



BURNING QUESTIONS ... ANSWERED?

Andrew: Rob's "Honestly? It's Laval. The only question is how many playoff games they'll win" summary proved quite accurate. As for the rest of our questions, it was J.P. Shoiry instead of Bruno Prud'homme being great at quarterback (though Prud'homme wasn't so bad himself), but the Laval defence was incredibly effective. Laval went 9-0 this year, scoring 411 points and allowing only 58, and they've now won 41 straight home games. They'll look to extend that streak this week against Sherbrooke to claim their eighth consecutive Dunsmore Cup.



OFFENCE

Category	SHE	LAV
Pass Yards/Game	210.2	253.8
(CIS rank)	16	8
Surplus Passing	48	47
(CIS rank)	2	3
Rush Yards/Game	116.1	207.0
(CIS rank)	18	3
Surplus Rushing	1	40
(CIS rank)	11	2
Ground-vs-Air	8	19

DEFENCE

Category	SHE	LAV
Pass Yards/Game	270.9	175.7
(CIS rank)	23	3
Surplus Passing	25	-52
(CIS rank)	23	1
Rush Yards/Game	120.8	54.9
(CIS rank)	10	2
Surplus Rushing	2	-42
(CIS rank)	12	2

Rob: Laval is top-notch across the board, basically. If the Vert et Or fall behind early, their third-worst passing defence might not keep them close.

Andrew: Yeah, there really isn't too much to say about these rankings. Laval's passing game is a little weaker than their running game, but they're still eighth in the country. Their defence is dominant against both the pass and the run, so it's tough to see Sherbrooke doing too much against them.



FLASHBACK
Laval won both games, with an aggregate score of 59-13.

Sep. 11: LAV 36-6 SHE and Sep. 26: SHE 7-23 LAV.

Rob: Sherbrooke's only touchdown against Laval this year came in garbage time. This is not a good omen.

Andrew: I think that second game actually wasn't too bad for Sherbrooke. If they can hold Laval to 104 yards rushing and 211 passing yards with an interception, that's about as much as can be expected from their defence. That gives them a bit of a chance if they can do that, but they'll need the offence to come up with something more than they've shown this year.



THE CALL
Rob: Laval 48, Sherbrooke 13.

Andrew: "This isn't entertainment, it's genocide!" Laval 45, Sherbrooke 7.

Rob: Season 19 Simpsons? Andrew's references are, as always, very much in tune with the zeitgeist.