After the seemingly endless pregame hoopla was finished, it became clear that if the Mustangs are to be successful in the upcoming playoffs, they'll have to take their play to another level, one that includes a passing game.

There seemed to be somewhat more passing this past Saturday than in previous weeks. Perhaps head coach Larry Haylor, sensing that this aspect of the game needed practice, decided to change the standard game plan to inlcude more passing against the hapless defence of the Toronto Varsity Blues. All it served to do, however, is to illustrate how far the passing game needs to come before it can be considered an effective offensive weapon.

Quarterback Mike O'Brien was, for the second week in a row, off target more than to which we have become accustomed. Passes were either too high, too low, ahead or behind the receivers. But this would not have been much of a problem if the receivers had been able to catch any of the excellent balls that O'Brien did throw. Time after time perfect passes and perfectly catchable balls were simply dropped. If they can't catch these passes, imagine the trouble they'll have against effective coverage.

But there was one exception.

Tightend Hud Clark had an excellent game receiving. As he did last week against McMaster, Clark made a number of great catches when the Mustangs needed them most. Overall on the day, Clark caught four balls for 93 yards including one big one for 38 yards.

The Mustang defence, after a rough start to last weeks game, was solid as usual. Along with a number of quarterback sacks, the defence yielded just 2 points and 152 yards in total offence.

Notes

Saturday's game was the final reguarly scheduled game at Little Stadium. Pregame festivities, which included skydivers and a recreation of a photograph from the first season delayed the start of the game by more than 30 minutes. The players of both teams had been standing on the sidelines for all of this and can be forgiven for the sluggish performances in early part of the game.

Mustang fullback Fabian Rayne, who suffered an ankle injury during the Bishops game, was not dressed against Toronto. This after he was dressed last week at McMaster. Either the injury was worse than previously publicised and he needed the weeks rest, or he aggravated it last week.

This week's mustangfootball.com player of the game is tight end Hud Clark.

The gods were shining on Western this weekend. With all the overdone ceremonies surrounding the closing of the stadium, the weather was sunny and very warm with temperatures above 20 degrees.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good - Mike O'Brien performance as punter. He punted six times for an average of 50.3 yards with a long one of 74 yards.

The Bad - The mustang wide receivers. It the job of these guys to catch the ball. They simply can't. Perfectly thrown balls with no coverage are routinely dropped. It's the exception, not the rule, when a pass is caught. (Note to coach Haylor: Write in more passes to Hud Clark and to your backfield. At least they can catch.)

The Ugly - Once again, the officials get the ugly of the week. Something needs to be done to improve the quality of officiating in this league.