There’s been a lot of fiddle music in my life this past week out here in southern Nova Scotia. With just over a week to go before our wedding, we’ve been trying our best to relax before everything hits the fan all at once. At least there’s always some football to help wind down the evenings and steel the nerves ahead of such big, life-changing events.

In league news this week:

• After bouncing around the NFL for the last season and change, sensational Canadian QB Nathan Rourke is officially re-joining the BC Lions and will immediately vault them back into Grey Cup contender status. With Vernon Adams, Jr. presumably out for a while yet, the Lions can kick the salary cap issues down the road for a few weeks – but I would expect to see some changes coming shortly. With Rourke and Tre Ford both leading their respective teams, this is a new golden age for Canadian quarterbacking that I never thought I’d live to see. Very, very cool. A weird thing about his new contract, which runs through 2026: each of the final two years include $200,000 in “marketing money”, which does not count against the salary cap. As such, he’ll make over $750K CAD in 2025 and over $810K CAD in 2026, but the salary cap hits will only be about $550K and $610K, respectively. I have absolutely no idea how this is legal or above board, but the league has ratified the deal and he’s slated to dress this week. A quick turnaround indeed. Jake Dolegala, who was signed to be the Lions’ #2 quarterback behind Adams, was released shortly after the Rourke signing was announced by the team.
• The Edmonton Elks are on the verge of announcing new ownership: after 75 years of public shareholders, the team is slated to be taken private very soon. According to TSN’s Dave Naylor, local Edmonton construction magnate Larry Thompson, a longtime season ticket holder, was the winning bid on the franchise. I am confident there will be an official announcement soon.
• Ottawa REDBLACKS head coach Bob Dyce had a strange incident on the sidelines last week towards the end of their home game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders; an unidentified fan managed to gain field access before the end of the game, despite lacking credentials, and was apparently harassing the coach and players. The REDBLACKS have a longstanding tradition of allowing fans onto the field at the end of their home games, but this typically happens only after the teams have returned to the locker rooms; in between all the chaos of the end of the game, which involved a video review that called both teams back from the sidelines and got the REDBLACKS a game-ending field goa, was certainly very weird. I hope this doesn’t sully the team’s tradition.
• The CFL is reviewing the potential of Toronto Argos’ QB Chad Kelly to return to the team after having served his “minimum” nine-game suspension for sexual harassment and gender discrimination against a former team staffer last season; I have to say that I don’t expect this to be prolonged any further despite the fact that his conduct was indeed egregious. The Argos need him – and the lead needs a good team in Toronto to try and help stabilize their TV market and revenue streams. That shouldn’t trump ethics-based decisions, but it likely will, unfortunately.

Onto the games!

WEEK 10 RECAPS

Saskatchewan 22 vs. Ottawa 22 (2OT): This is a quintessential CFL outcome. Though we haven’t seen any ties in the league since the 2017 regular season, a wet and windy game played itself through multiple overtimes before things concluded in arguably the most Canadian fashion possible. While it would be nice to say that things unfolded naturally, the main issue with this game was the fact that the CFL Command Centre seemed to feature so heavily in proceedings, particularly in the dying minutes of the game. In overtime, the command centre ruled that Ottawa DB Alijah McGhee committed pass interference, giving the Roughriders a fresh set of downs and letting them score a key TD for the lead – though the REDBLACKS tied it up again afterwards. In the next overtime, the Roughriders appeared to have the game-winning stop, but a late review by the command centre ruled that LB Zakoby McClain roughed the passer – setting Ottawa’s Lewis Ward for a 14-yard field goal to close out the game and end it in a tie. A very weird ending indeed. A slight damper for home fans was the loss of starting QB Dru Brown to an apparent leg injury early in the second quarter – hopefully he won’t be out long term.

PICK: Ottawa

RESULT: Tie

Calgary 25 vs. Toronto 39: Safe to say that the Argos got revenge here for last week’s fourth-quarter collapse. Back at the comfortable confines of BMO Field, Toronto evened the home-and-home with Calgary thanks to a big second-half effort. Ka’Deem Carey had a big night, rushing for 89 yards and a TD on 13 carries, while QB Nick Arbuckle, making his first start in Toronto since 2021, threw for two TDs and did enough to get his team the victory. The Stamps fall to 0-5 on the road with the loss; if they’re going to stave off the Blue Bombers potentially lapping them for the third playoff spot in the West, they’ve got to get that figured out soon. Calgary allowed return wizard Janarion Grant to score another punt return TD against them, further cracking the game wide open in the second half – his fourth return TD of the season – and Jake Maier threw a pick-six, snagged by Toronto’s DaShaun Amos, that was a true back-breaker for the visitors.

PICK: Toronto

Hamilton 23 vs. Montreal 33: The Alouettes are off to their best start in 20 years coming off another solid outing. With the Montreal secondary buzzing, Bo Levi Mitchell threw an early interception and was benched for Taylor Powell, who played the final 55 minutes of the game. Despite the closeness of the final score, it was really 26-9 with ten minutes remaining in the game. The Als had a 15-0 lead in the first quarter, and Davis Alexander, starting probably his last game before Cody Fajardo takes over the reins again, threw two TDs on the evening. Powell had 319 pass yards and two TDs, but it wasn’t enough to mount a comeback for the Tiger-Cats, despite the fact he did a better job of not turning the ball over.

PICK: Montreal

RESULT: Montreal

BC 16 vs. Edmonton 33: And just like that, the Elks have now won two games in a row… but the damper from this one is that Tre Ford appears to be out for a while with a rib injury. With Edmonton up 16-10 going into the half, Ford took a big shot late in the second quarter and did not return. The Lions had a difficult time keeping up offensively with the Elks, as backup Jake Dolegala didn’t get a lot going on in his first start in orange and black… there’s a notable dropoff in efficiency that’s happened due to Vernon Adams, Jr.’s extended absence.

PICK: Edmonton 

BYE: Winnipeg (3-6)

WEEK 11 PREVIEWS

Ottawa (5-2-1) vs. Calgary (4-5), Thursday, August 15th, 9:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The last time these two teams met, the Stamps got absolutely manhandled. Coming off a split against the Argos, one thing we can say for sure about Calgary at the halfway point of the season is they’ve been wildly inconsistent from one week to the next – but they certainly seem to play better at home. The REDBLACKS are probably kicking themselves for the tie last week against the Roughriders – it certainly wasn’t their best game of the year – but I expect them to rebound. Defensively, the Stamps have less to offer resistance-wise than the Riders; with a run game fully available this week to the REDBLACKS, I expect that the Calgary front seven will be forced to be versatile. I am not sure they’re really up to the task. We’ll also see Jeremiah Masoli back in a starting QB role for the first time since July 2023 after Dru Brown went down last week; at 35 and coming off a plethora of significant injuries in each of the last two seasons, I’m not sure he’s got anything left to offer in terms of pocket mobility at this stage in his career… but it would at least be a feel-good story for him to come in and play well after getting just five games in the last two seasons for the REDBLACKS.

PICK: Ottawa

Montreal (8-1) vs. Saskatchewan (5-3-1), Friday, August 16th, 9:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): Davis Alexander sure has been an asset for the Als in Cody Fajardo’s absence; beyond his continued growing confidence on the field, it’s also a sign of some really effective coaching. When Hall of Famer Anthony Calvillo is your OC and QB coach, I suppose that’s not all actually that surprising – but it’s cool to see that this remarkable turnaround of a once-lowly franchise has been an entire organizational effort. Saskatchewan, of course, is still smarting about the questionable roughing the passer call that cost them a win – but at least they still have a point to show from last week’s weird game. That’s better than nothing, I suppose. I also expect to see QB Trevor Harris back in action very soon for Montreal, which would be another added boost to a team looking to make the most of their division rival BC slumping at a crucial point of the season.

PICK: Montreal

Edmonton (2-7) vs. Hamilton (2-7), Saturday, August 17th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): In the previous matchup between these two teams, the Ti-Cats walked all over the Elks until Edmonton finally decided to bring in Tre Ford in the fourth quarter – who then proceeded to score three TDs against them. With Ford helping the Elks record their first two wins of the season in back to back weeks, Edmonton has looked much sharper in recent days. The real question here will be Ford’s health after taking that big hit last week – he’s a true X-factor. If he can’t go, I don’t like the Elks’ chances here. We’ll also see about how the Tiger-Cats do under Taylor Powell this week; there could be a litany of QB changes we see this week.

PICK: Edmonton

Winnipeg (3-6) vs. BC (5-4), Sunday, August 18th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): I had a writeup here for this one that I completely scrapped following the news of the Nathan Rourke signing. He instantly transforms the BC Lions; not only are they even greater Grey Cup contenders than they were at the start of the season, they’ll have the best QB depth in the entire league if and when Vernon Adams, Jr. gets healthy. That’s a huge amount of money, of course, but an embarrassment of riches for the team. That’s going to be a huge ask for the Bombers to handle Rourke. Winnipeg has played a little better in the middle section of their season, but they’re not the team that managed to shut him down so effectively in 2022. I look forward to seeing his return to the CFL this week.

PICK: BC

BYE: Toronto (5-4)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Mitchell, HAM – 2522
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 2469
3. Maier, CGY – 2355

Passing TDs

1. Mitchell, HAM – 18
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 14
3. Maier, CGY – 14

Rushing Yards

1. Oliveira, WPG – 611
2. Carey, TOR – 611
3. Stanback, BC – 518

Receiving Yards

1. McInnis, BC – 834
2. Philpot, MTL – 779
3. Hollins, BC – 724

Defensive Tackles

1. Morgan – 64
2. Beverette, MTL – 57
3. Milligan, SSK – 56

Sacks

1. Johnson, SSK – 5
2. Ceresna, TOR – 5
3. Johnson, MTL – 5

Interceptions

1. Milligan, SSK – 6
2. Houston, CGY – 4
3. Ford, WPG,  – 3

Field Goals

1. Ward, OTT – 30
2. Castillo, WPG – 28
3. Whyte, BC – 27

PICK POOL

Looks like ties give out free points to everybody. It’s been so long that I honestly forgot how the scoring system works. Everybody wins? COMMUNISM.

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=231808

Enjoy the games, everyone.