With five weeks to go in the regular season, there’s much to be decided in the playoff picture still. Ottawa and Winnipeg both have a chance to clinch a spot this week, but after that, there’s still lots of intrigue still – especially in the chaotic West Division. I look forward to seeing how the final four games for each team shape up accordingly.

In league news this week:

• There’s a major shakeup on the Canadian sports media landscape as of late last week. In Toronto, telecom and media company Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE), who owned 37.5% of Canadian sports conglomerate Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), elected to sell their ownership stake to Rogers, a rival telecom and media company, who own an equivalent 37.5% ownership in stake. In the deal, Rogers will now own 75% of the NHL Maple Leafs, NBA Raptors, MLS Toronto FC, and CFL Argonauts, plus several minor teams and facilities. Couple this with their 100% ownership of the MLB Blue Jays and their major league ballpark the Rogers Centre, that’s a huge amount of power for one company to have on the sports landscape in Canada’s largest city… and in the TV broadcasting rights business as well. This is where things get a little murky – with Bell giving up their ownership rights, they’re apparently receiving, in return, the right to keep their local broadcast deals for the Leafs, Raptors and the CFL on Bell-owned TSN. However, the CFL’s league-wide broadcast rights are still technically coming up for negotiation soon… one must wonder if this new ownership arrangement spurs Rogers to push harder to make a bid on purchasing the broadcast rights in order to get more lucrative coverage for their CFL property… things remain to be seen. We likely won’t know until 2026, but I am still concerned about that concentration of sports media power all the same.
• Edmonton released American DB Leon O’Neal after he got in a scuffle following a kick return in last week’s game against Winnipeg; video evidence shows him slapping Bomber LB Michael Ayers in the helmet several times, which garners an automatic ejection at just about every level of football.

Onto the games!

WEEK 16 RECAPS

Hamilton 33 vs. Toronto 31: The Tiger-Cats are following recent franchise trends and continue to heat up in the second half of the regular season, much as they have in recent years. While a significantly improved defence is, to me, the most significant factor for this turnaround, QB Bo Levi Mitchell is playing at a level we haven’t seen since his 2018 MOP victory. While 362 passing yards and a TD was a very good contribution to this particular game, it was in fact kicker Marc Liegghio who stole the show in this one, as he went 6-6 on kicks to help his Tabbies sweep the season series against their hated Argo rivals.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Hamilton

Saskatchewan 37 vs. Calgary 29: New Roughriders running back Ryquell Armstead made his presence known in his Saskatchewan debut, rushing for 206 yards on the night and shining brightly for his new team. Saskatchewan, riding a seven-game winless streak, desperately needed something – anything at all, really – to reverse the terrible slide they’ve been on recently, and getting back to some very basic, north-south ball got the job done against a Stampeders team that continues to flounder at the bottom of the West. Calgary backup QB Tommy Stevens scored a really cool rush TD; designed as a third-and-one QB sneak, he managed to hit the gap so cleanly that he turned into an awesome 69-yard score… but after that hot start, things deteriorated for Calgary. By the end of the first half, Saskatchewan, pouncing on some timely opportunities, had a 24-9 lead going into the locker room. While both teams traded some points back forth in the second half of the game, it wasn’t until very late that Rider LB Jameer Thurman snagged Stamps’ QB Jake Maier’s pass in the end zone, giving the visitors the game-clinching interception they needed.

PICK: Saskatchewan

RESULT: Saskatchewan

Montreal 27 vs. Ottawa 12: The Alouettes swept the season series against the REDBLACKS, clinching the right to host a playoff game at home and also ending Ottawa’s unbeaten streak at home this year. The REDBLACKS, dealing with a litany of injuries, couldn’t get much of anything going at all on offence; Dru Brown was yanked in favour of Jeremiah Masoli, as he appeared to be dealing with a lower body injury. Montreal snagged an early pick-six on Brown courtesy of DB Dionte Ruffin, while QB Cody Fajardo had both a pass TD and rush TD for his side in this one. The Als’ D managed to snuff the life out of any Ottawa comeback attempts, with stifling coverage in the fourth quarter and forcing a turnover on downs that really drove the dagger through any late hope of coming back in this game.

PICK: Ottawa

RESULT: Montreal

Winnipeg 27 vs. Edmonton 14: The Bombers continued their hot streak, winning their sixth straight game of the 2024 season and clamping down on a top-tier Elks offence while on the road. Edmonton RB Justin Rankin had a stellar game, with 14 carries for 157 yards, but the Elks couldn’t turn his yardage into any meaningful points on the board, as the team stalled out in the red zone on multiple drives. Winnipeg’s Brady Oliveira also had a similarly strong game on the ground, rushing for 127 yards and two TDs, becoming the first running back to crack 1000 yards rushing this year in the CFL. The Elks did score a cool flea-flicker touchdown, but QB Tre Ford was off in his return from injury, throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble as well.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Winnipeg

BYE: BC (7-7)

WEEK 17 PREVIEWS

Edmonton (5-9) vs. Winnipeg (8-6), Friday, September 27th, 8:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): With the Bombers winning last week’s matchup on the road, they get to return home this week for the second half of this back-to-back, with their visitors full of a lot of questions. The Elks are still right in the thick of it for that final playoff spot in the West – although with Hamilton making a late season push, we still have a chance of an Eastern team crossing over to claim the third seed in the West for the first time in the history of the crossover rule dating to the 1996 season. Tre Ford will be benched in favour of McLeod Bethel-Thompson at quarterback, and I think that the Elks will try to go run-heavy to try and counter the dominant pass-rushing prowess of the Blue Bombers… though I’m still not sure how much good it will do against the league’s top defence in terms of total points allowed. This may not be a high-scoring one if Winnipeg is again allowed to dictate the terms of the game – but if the D has another excellent night as they did last week, I don’t think home fans will mind all that much.

PICK: Winnipeg

Hamilton (5-9) vs. BC (7-7), Friday, September 27th, 10:30 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): With the Lions coming in at .500 coming off a bye week, the team has announced they plan on sticking with Nathan Rourke as their starting QB this week against the Tiger-Cats. Hamilton has improved their play quite a bit in recent weeks – especially on the defensive side of the ball – but Rourke, at his best, gives everybody fits. The real test here will be to see if they can force some good pass-rushing pressure on him – the Lions O-line hasn’t had a stellar stretch since their convincing Labour Day Weekend win over the REDBLACKS, so forcing him to drop back will be key for the visitors. The Lions remain an enigma – they’ve got talent for days on paper, but just can’t seem to take that next step. If Hamilton can stay disciplined – something the entire team has worked really hard on trying to achieve over these past few weeks… then maybe an upset is in the works.

PICK: BC

Ottawa (8-5-1) vs. Saskatchewan (6-7-1), Saturday, September 28th, 3:00 PM EDT (CTV, CFL+): Dru Brown hasn’t looked right for a while now. He’s going to sit this one out with an ankle injury – and who knows what other things may or may not be going on right now with him. Jeremiah Masoli will start in his absence. The REDBLACKS have had some problems on offence – which, while unfortunate, are also understandable, as many of their top receivers are currently unavailable, not to mention new starting tailback Jamal Morrow. Throw in the depleted LB corps, and that’s not a recipe for winning football. The last time these two teams met, they battled to a 19-19 tie… Perhaps Riders RB Ryquell Armstead will have some further axes to grind against his old team in this game, particularly since their unceremonious mid-season release of him due to their perceived character issues of his on-field conduct… all of that may be true, but he sure had quite the debut last week in green and white.

PICK: Ottawa

Montreal (11-2-1) vs. Toronto (7-7), Saturday, September 28th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Argos were unquestionably the team to beat last year in the CFL en route to a stellar 16-2 regular-season record… this year, they can’t seem to find any of that same consistency even if you pointed it out in a dictionary to them. I believe the largest issues with this stem with the fact that sex pest Chad Kelly has probably made the locker room quite toxic. I’m not there, however. So I’m merely implying it. The Als have the chance to lock up a division title if they win two more games; the way that things are going right now for them, even with some of the injuries they’re dealing with in their receiving corps, one has to like their chances. It’s not always necessarily super flashy football with this team, but they’ve been extremely consistent this year, and are leading the league because of that consistency.

PICK: Montreal

BYE: Calgary (4-10-1)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

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

Passing Yards

1. Mitchell, HAM – 4044
2. Maier, CGY – 3354
3. Bethel-Thompson, EDM – 3146

Passing TDs

1. Mitchell, HAM – 24
2. Bethel-Thompson, EDM – 19
3. Maier, CGY – 18

Rushing Yards

1. Oliveira, WPG – 1021
2. Stanback, BC – 959
3. Carey, TOR – 872

Receiving Yards

1. McInnis, BC – 1169
2. Hardy, OTT – 1130
3. Begelton, CGY – 921

Defensive Tackles

1. Beverette, MTL – 92
2. Sankey, MTL – 89
3. Morgan, EDM – 88

Sacks

1. Teuhema, BC – 7
2. Ceresna, TOR– 7
3. Wakefield, OTT – 7

Interceptions

1. Milligan, SSK – 6
2. Ford, WPG – 6
3. Amos, TOR – 5

Field Goals

1. Ward, OTT – 45
2. Castillo, WPG – 41
3. Hajrullahu, TOR – 36

PICK POOL

A tiny little bit of a gap opening here, but I don’t want to speak too much to it. There’s still a chance for some movement here with five weeks remaining in our pick’em pool challenge!

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

Enjoy the games, everyone.