Tiger-Cats looking to upset Eskimos in Eastern semifinal

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be hosting the Edmonton Eskimos in the Eastern semifinal on Sunday, but they won't be the favourites.

Edmonton finished with a 10-8 record to earn the crossover spot, while Hamilton managed only seven wins on the campaign. Even though the Ticats dropped five of their final six games, their 7-11 mark was good enough to finish second in the East.

If Hamilton hopes to have any chance, they'll need a strong performance from quarterback Zach Collaros. The signal caller missed the first six games of the season recovering from a knee injury, and then much of October due to a concussion. Collaros returned two weeks ago with a pair of decent showings to conclude the year, but the pivot hasn't thrown for more than one touchdown in a game since early September.

Finishing fourth in the West might end up being the best thing to happen to the Eskimos. Instead of having to run a gauntlet through the league's toughest division, Edmonton just has to beat two teams with losing records to get to the big game. Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly has only thrown one interception in his past four starts, and will be hoping to ride that momentum to his second straight Grey Cup MVP award.

The teams split their two meetings during the regular season.