#Top10VoterProblems: Montréal and Laval stay 1 and 2 in the holiday weekend edition

The upside of crawling out of a tryptophan coma is that there is no reason to change the ballot.

The top half of my ballot were all on bye weeks. The second half all won, by an average of 35.8 points.

1. Montréal Carabins (5-0 RSEQ, --, host Laval): In 1966 when Michigan State and Notre Dame played to their infamous 10-10 tie in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game, a lawyer flew to another city in order to get around the NCAA broadcast policies and watch the game on TV.
   
   Fifty years later, and anyone outside Quebec would have to do the same to see the Rouge et Or and Carabins strap it on in their first-place showdown. 
2. Laval Rouge et Or (4-1 RSEQ, --, at Montréal): Laval needs a four-point win to wrest home-field advantage, since Montréal won by three in their first game.
3. Western Mustangs (5-1 OUA, --, at Ottawa): Visiting teams bolstered by a Redblacks draft choice are 0-2 in the nation's capital. Mustangs DE John Biewald gets a chance to make the third time the charm against the Gee-Gees.  
4. Regina Rams (4-1 CW, --, bye): A Mitchell Bowl between St. FX and Regina? Who would have expected that? Who wouldn't want to see that? All three remaining games are winnable, with Alberta, UBC at home and an Oct. 22 trip to Manitoba.
5. Calgary Dinos (4-1 CW, --, bye): Two in a row at home against Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and a regular-season finale at UBC. Win out and it's still possible they have home-field advantage for the Hardy and Mitchell trophy tilts. 
6. Carleton Ravens (5-2 OUA, --, bye): A subtle bit of chemistry building during Carleton's 53-10 blowout against Windsor. Each of the Ravens' counting-stat contributors scored a touchdown, but no one had two.
   
   There was probably a conscious effort to make that happen. Wideout Kyle Van Wynsberghe ran a perfect corner route for an end-zone catch in the first half, but a holding penalty negated the touchdown. Quarterback Jesse Mills and Van Wynsberghe just barely missed on an end-zone shot. But they connected again when Carleton got their first scoring opp of the second half.
   
   Jayde Rowe will sit on 996 yards ahead of an Oct. 22 roadie at Waterloo. Windsor's Tarrence Crawford (752),  Western's Alex  Taylor (736) and Laurier's Eric Guiltinan (678) are all in striking distance of 1,000 with two games remaining. How the coaching staffs try to balance injury prevention with giving their rushers and their blockers a shot at a 1,000-yard season and the rushing title will be interesting in two weeks, .
7. McMaster Marauders (5-1 OUA, --, xxxx): Who likes record watches? Mac's Mike Kashak has 11½ sacks, one shy of the seasonal standard of 12½, with two games reamining. The Marauders D-lineman had 4½ against Queen's. Also, Adam Preocanin's seven-field goal night against Queen's was tied for third-most in a Canadian university game. Now can Mac ever get it started on offence? Then again, they came within three points of the Vanier two seasons ago without a great offence.
8. Ottawa Gee-Gees (5-1 OUA, --, host Western): All-purpose running back Bryce Vieira was essentially a healthy scratch against York, dressing but not playing a down as the Gee-Gees went with No. 2 man Greg Cherniak. That no-play play was all the wiser since the game got very chippy as the point spread widened steadily across the final three quarters.
   
   Cherniak had 94 rushing-receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns.
9. Laurier Golden Hawks (5-1 OUA, --, host Guelph): Wideout Kurleigh Gittens Jr. averaged 26.8 yards a touch during his three-touchdown game against Toronto. That is rather prolific.
10. St. Francis Xavier X-Men (4-1 AUS, --, at Saint Mary's): Break up the X-Men. Their 42-21 win against Acadia was probably not as close as the score indicated, since they were up 28 by halftime and almost doubled the Axemen in yardage (568-290).
    

Unranked team of the week: Saint Mary's (2-3 AUS, host St. FX). The Huskies are the first AUS team from outside of Antigonish to get a second win after defeating Mount Allison 29-21.

The boxscore indicates that there were "clear" conditions in Halifax, which makes Mount A's 35 passing yards (with three interceptions) look really abject. Saint Mary's must have been that dialled-in on D. Jadarius Ceasar had a fumble recovery to create a short-field scenario that set up the clinching touchdown, while Deandre Smith made the clinching INT in the final seconds.