The fall is now officially here. The leaves start to turn, the plaid shirts are out, and the den is fully kitted out for just lying underneath a couple of blankets to watch football all weekend long. I know that your basic fall girls enjoy the season for different reasons than myself, but the autumn is truly a season for the masses to enjoy. I’m just glad that there’s no pumpkin spice anything in my house. For now, I suppose. At any rate, let’s talk Canadian football once more.

In league news this week:

• Ottawa REDBLACKS kicker Lewis Ward is done for the year, with a torn pectoral muscle – an unusual injury for a kicker. Ward tried to make a tackle on BC Lions returner Terry Williams on a missed field goal attempt that was run back for a TD, but couldn’t wrap up properly. Ottawa has signed Michael Domagala, who spent two seasons with Hamilton, and Kieran Burnham, who spent two seasons on the Stamps’ practise roster, to duke it out to claim the kicker job for the final portion of the season in Ward’s absence.
• Toronto put WR Kurleigh Gittens, Jr. on their six-game injured list – while this is a blow to the offence, the chance for him to heal up over the final third of the seasons and heal up in time for the East Final is definitely some welcome relief. Gittens injured his hip last Friday against the Alouettes, and with his absence, Canadians Tommy Nield and Dejon Brissett will get some more snaps for Toronto.
• Edmonton added WR Steven Dunbar, Jr. to their six-game injured list due to a rib injury; he’s had a productive year for the Elks with 39 catches for 536 yards and five TDs, and to boot, with his absence, the Elks’ best receiver Eugene Lewis will likely see more double teams over the next few games with Dunbar’s absence.
• In the wake of their record-setting season, the Argos signed ST coordinator Mickey Donovan to a contract extension, though terms and length haven’t been announced; Donovan won the Grey Cup last year with Toronto in the role, and this season, the Argos are the league’s best special teams unit in virtually every single category. They also haven’t given up a single return TD on the year – an all-around impressive unit. More importantly, they also signed Michael “Pinball” Clemons, the team’s GM, to an extension as well – and that is fantastic news to keep the man who’s the heart and soul of the Argos franchise in the fold. During his time as a player, coach and executive in the CFL – all in Toronto – the Argos have won seven Grey Cup championships in seven appearances. He’s a tremendous reason for this team’s upward trajectory since his return to the the franchise in 2019. This is a huge success story and the Double Blue will continue to be dangerous on the field.

Onto the games!

WEEK 15 RECAPS

Toronto 23 vs. Montreal 20: It was probably Toronto’s toughest win of the year, but they got the job done and wrapped up the East Division with the final third of their regular season schedule remaining – we’ve been lucky to witness history this season. This Argos team, as excellent as they are, was down late to a desperate Alouettes team that had a really strong second half. Montreal scored 17 unanswered points to roar back into the driver’s seat after being down by 10 through the first 30 minutes. Toronto was similarly down late, but in the three-minute warning, they scored 10 points off a late TD from Chad Kelly to receiver Damonte Coxie, and a 38-yard field goal that came off of a crippling interception by Montreal’s Cody Fajardo. While Toronto found enough offence to take a late lead, their special teams stepped up to polish off the win by blocking David Cote’s field goal attempt from 45 yards out. A dramatic end to this one – and reason for Argos fans to celebrate a little extra. In 150 years of Argonauts football history, there has never, ever been a team this good – this is the first time they’ve ever been 11-1.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Toronto

Edmonton 36 vs. Saskatchewan 27: CFL pundits have talked a ton about the revival of the Elks with Canadian QB Tre Ford under centre – and for good reason. They legitimately look like an entirely different team from the sad-sacks that started the season. While Ford has given the offence some new life – particularly due to his ability to break out of the pocket – it’s also given RB Kevin Brown a ton of room on the field to work with, as teams have had to gameplan so heavily for Ford’s running skills and can’t always pick up the tailback effectively. Brown had 175 rushing yards and a TD on the night, while Ford rushed for a score of his own and threw another to star receiver Eugene Lewis. This was a back-and-forth battle, particularly in the second half – Lewis grabbed the winning score for Edmonton, but the Elks’ D stepped up to force an incomplete pass on third-and-10 to keep Jake Dolegala and the Riders from completing the comeback. The Roughriders drop to 6-7, but Dolegala had a good night, throwing three touchdown passes on the evening; it’s not the offence’s fault that the home side lost this one.

PICK: Saskatchewan

RESULT: Edmonton

Winnipeg 23 vs. Hamilton 29: This was a massive, massive win for Hamilton. Not only does it always feel good to win at home – especially when you’re home underdogs – the implications of this week’s slate of games (Montreal and Ottawa both losing) means that the Ti-Cats are now tied in points with the Alouettes for that second slot in the East division, while also putting another game lead on the REDBLACKS, who are virtually toast now in the playoff race. Credit to the Tabbies for playing a complete game, but especially to the defence, who forced three interceptions on Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros. The Bombers had an unusually quiet night on offence, which feels strange to say considering they still scored three touchdowns – but for a team that hung 51 points on Saskatchewan last week, that feels like a disappointment. Credit as well to Hamilton OC Scott Milanovich to get the ground game going for this one – both James Butler and Sean Thomas-Erlington were effective at grinding things out and carrying the load to make life easier for rookie QB Taylor Powell.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Hamilton

Ottawa 37 vs. BC 41: It wouldn’t be a REDBLACKS game if they didn’t figure out a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, now would it? The visitors were up by 19 late in the fourth quarter – and they still ended up blowing it. Truly a disgraceful end to a game and a scathing indictment of a coaching staff – especially Bob Dyce and OC Khari Jones – who have played so many games way too conservatively late in the fourth. Even with Ottawa still leading by 10 with less than two minutes to play, the Lions had their work cut out for them. Lewis Ward’s missed field goal was snagged by returner Terry Williams, who ran it back all the way to the house to cut the lead to three. After forcing a quick two-and-out, Vernon Adams, Jr. found receiver Lucky Whitehead in the end zone for the game-winning score with just 16 seconds left to play. What a horrendous showing. Dustin Crum had three rushing TDs for Ottawa, and DL Douglas Coleman added a pick-six for the REDBLACKS, but with no points in the fourth quarter, this team just utterly collapsed. That’ll just about do it for their playoff chances this year. Again.

PICK: BC

RESULT: BC

BYE: Calgary (4-9)

WEEK 16 PREVIEWS

Saskatchewan (6-7) vs. Ottawa (3-10), Friday, September 22nd, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): I have less than zero hope for these REDBLACKS to do anything of substance. The issues are myriad – the playcalling is too conservative, the players aren’t executing, and the coaching staff is consistently making poor decisions. Considering that Dustin Crum had a really good game last week through the first three quarters, to take the ball out of his hands and gain a total of nine net yards of offence in the final frame is inexcusable. This is a vulnerable team that the Roughriders have every opportunity to take advantage of – unlike Edmonton, Ottawa appears mentally fragile right now. The Riders haven’t had a good year – injuries haven’t helped – and while they’re still in control of that third and final playoff slot in the West, the Elks are surging as of late. Saskatchewan could really use both a big win here as well as some Elks and Stamps losses in help to rebuild some of that gap a little bit.

PICK: Saskatchewan

BC (9-4) vs. Edmonton (4-10), Friday, September 22nd, 9:30 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): A road win for the Lions means locking down a playoff spot, and even with being away from Vancouver, the Leos are favoured. It’s true that they’ve shut out Edmonton twice so far this season – but the Elks have been fundamentally transformed in the past month. They may not win, but they’ll definitely be on the scoresheet and I hope that it’ll be a close contest. Surprising to say that the Elks are legitimately playing some fun football right now. If Kevin Brown can get some open lanes to run, the Elks can definitely be in this one for much longer.

PICK: BC

Montreal (6-7) vs. Calgary (4-9), Saturday, September 23rd, 4:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Stamps are coming off a bye, while the Als are coming off two disappointing losses to the Argos and are in need of a change of scenery. Calgary’s record certainly indicates numerous underlying issues with the team, but the pass game, as it currently stands, is not one of them – in the past month, Jake Maier has rediscovered his game and been much more effective. The offence has been putting points on the board, but the Calgary D, still dealing with many injuries, continues to be extremely leaky. The Alouettes, for all their own imperfections, are fortunate to have a number of receivers – Alex Mack, Kaion Julien-Grant, and Tyson Philpot – who can all go deep and make explosive plays when the opportunity arises. As of recent, there hasn’t been much of that, as the Als O-line continues to crumble, and Cody Fajardo is just getting beaten up out there. Montreal really doesn’t want to get leap-frogged by Hamilton for the second seed in the East, but Calgary really cannot afford a loss of any kind whatsoever, especially with a resurgent Elks team breathing down their necks and with Saskatchewan’s current playoff spot looking so vulnerable.

PICK: Calgary

Hamilton (6-7) vs. Toronto (11-1), Saturday, September 23rd, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Ti-Cats had every right to be flying high after their huge win over Winnipeg – it was probably the best game they’ve played all year, and it shows that when the timing is right they can still absolutely go toe-to-toe with the best teams in this league. The problem here, however, is that Toronto has had their number for quite some time now. As good as last week probably felt, every single guy in that locker room probably already has that sinking feeling going up against the league’s best team. While Toronto already has the East locked up, it’s still too soon to be resting guys. I expect the starters to get a good amount of playing time through the first half – and if things come to fruition then Toronto may have a sizable lead to let the backups milk to try and run out the clock. Even with nothing particular to play for right now, the Argos are still the class of the league.

PICK: Toronto

BYE: Winnipeg (10-4)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

x – clinched playoff spot
y – clinched division
e – eliminated from playoff contention

Passing Yards 

1. Collaros, WPG – 3480
2. Maier, CGY – 3310
3. Adams, Jr., BC – 3282

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 29
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 23
3. Kelly, TOR – 19

Rushing Yards

1. Oliveira, WPG – 1190
2. Brown, EDM – 1004
3. Ouellette, TOR – 868

Receiving Yards

1. Schoen, WPG – 1035
2. Mack, MTL – 1016
3. Demski, WPG – 931

Defensive Tackles

1. Awe, CGY – 96
2. Morgan, EDM – 86
3. Pickett, TOR – 86

Sacks

1. Betts, BC – 12
2. Leonard, EDM – 10
3. Orimolade, TOR – 9

Interceptions

1. Houston, WPG – 7
2. Katsantonis, HAM – 4
3. Dandridge, OTT – 4

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 41
2. Whyte, BC – 34
3. Cote, MTL – 34

PICK POOL

Those Ti-Cats got a ton of us. One of the biggest upsets of the year for sure. All in all, a rather gruesome week for the pick pool, unfortunately.

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=205786

Enjoy the games, everyone.