CFL Beat: Your 2024 Season Wrap-Up

The Maestro - November 21, 2024November 21, 2024

Another season, another end-of-year wrapup. Once again, the Grey Cup surprised us all, in the best way possible! Before the recap, we’ll lead off with the final round of league news for 2024:

The 2024 CFL award winners were also announced on Thursday, November 14th, in advance of the Grey Cup game.
- Most Outstanding Player: RB Brady Oliveira, WPG
- Most Outstanding Defensive Player: DB Rolan Milligan, Jr., SSK
- Most Outstanding Canadian: RB Brady Oliveira, WPG
- Most Outstanding Lineman: OL Ryan Hunter, TOR
- Most Outstanding Special Teams Player: KR Janarion Grant, TOR
- Most Outstanding Rookie: DL Nick Anderson, EDM
- Coach of the Year: Jason Maas, MTL
- Hugh Campbell Distinguished Leadership Award: Stephen Shamie, CFL Legal Counsel
- Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award (player best portraying positive qualities found in members of the Canadian Armed Forces): LS Jorgen Hus, SSK
- Tom Pate Memorial Award (for community service and sportsmanship): LB Adam Bighill, WPG
The Edmonton Elks re-hired Ed Hervey to serve as the team’s new GM following an extensive search by new team owner Larry Thompson; Hervey previously served as the team’s GM from 2013-16, and won the 2015 Grey Cup with Chris Jones as his head coach. He also served previously as the GM for the BC Lions, which was controversy-filled era; he egregiously violated the CFL salary cap when he signed QB Michael Reilly to a rich deal which had part of the contract in a secret deal never submitted to the league, and his hand-picked head coach, DeVone Claybrooks, was fired after just one season in the top job when the Lions missed the playoffs in 2019. So there’s been some peaks and valleys there. Hervey was most recently the GM of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The BC Lions fired HC Rick Campbell on Wednesday, after taking several weeks to debrief following their loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West semifinal. It’s not clear right now what the succession plan will be, considering the firing is so fresh.
The final Canadian football game of the season happens this Saturday in Kingston, ON, where the Canadian U Sports Vanier Cup is being held this year at Queen’s University’s Richardson Stadium. The Université de Laval Rouge Et Or will face the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks for the rights to the national title; I expect this game to be close to sold out once again – the 10,500 seat stadium is one of the best in the entire country for Canadian university football. Should be a fantastic game.

Onto the game!

111th GREY CUP RECAP

(1W) Winnipeg 24 vs. (2E) Toronto 41, BC Place, Vancouver, BC

First Quarter

With Argos QB Sex Pest Chad Kelly on the shelf due a broken ankle last week in the East Final, Nick Arbuckle, who had almost retired from football last off-season, was cast into the spotlight as Toronto’s starting QB for this game. The Argos got things going early with a drive deep to the goal line, but were forced to settle for a chip shot field goal after a time count violation on third down. Later, Winnipeg opened the game with two two-and-out drives, but then got on the board courtesy of a deep ball from Zach Collaros to rookie receiver Ontaria Wilson, who had a big 49-yard gain to get the Bombers in deep and put short-yardage QB Terry Wilson into the end zone. The Bombers then added a field goal on the next drive to give themselves a seven-point lead over Toronto after the first frame.

Second Quarter

The Argos would add two more field goals in the second quarter, with Winnipeg’s defence causing some disruption to the rhythm that the Argos were working to discover. Just before the second Argo field goal, Toronto DB Benjie Franklin picked off Zach Collaros to stop a promising Winnipeg drive dead in its tracks, giving the ball back to the Double Blue and allowing them to pull within one.

Halftime

This was the only part my wife cared about, as the Jonas Brothers were this year’s featured performer. They were… decidedly meh. Joe (I think? Isn’t he the one divorcing Sansa Stark?) in particular looked like he didn’t especially want to be there. There was a marching band for parts though, so I must give a tiny little bit of credit there.

Third Quarter

The Argos tied the game at 10 early in the quarter courtesy of a ROUGE! from punter Jon Haggerty; several minutes later, Toronto’s special teams capitalized when Fraser Sopik stripped Bombers return man Lucky Whitehead of the football, and the Argos put the turnover in good field position to use. Nick Arbuckle hit rookie Canadian receiver Kevin Mital for his first career CFL touchdown, giving the East champs a 17-10 lead with the convert. Later, Winnipeg got a break of their own, picking off Arbuckle and turning the interception into a field goal, cutting the Toronto lead to 17-13. The Bombers did it again a few minutes later when Willie Jefferson snagged another pass, and once again, Sergio Castillo kicked field goal following the opportunistic Bombers turnover, cutting the lead to just a single point. Troubling, however, was that Zach Collaros cut his finger in the series – bad enough that he had to go to the locker room to get stitches.

Fourth Quarter

It was close… and then it wasn’t. First, Nick Arbuckle found Canadian Dejon Brissett (brother of NBAer Oshae Brissett) for a TD, giving Toronto a 25-16 lead. Then, Zach Collaros returned to action for Winnipeg – using a glove on his throwing hand for the first time in his career – and threw three back-breaking interceptions that completely iced it for Toronto. The Argos scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to completely blow the game wide open, including a 61-yard pick-six by DB Robert Priester and a rushing score by Ka’Deem Carey; not even a late Brady Oliveira touchdown for Winnipeg could make the final score look respectable. With four interceptions in a Grey Cup game, Zach Collaros was at his absolute worst for this contest.

Aftermath

Nick Arbuckle was named MVP of the Grey Cup game. From third-string to champion in just over a week is a wild ride for sure. Arbuckle finished the game 26-37 with 252 pass yards, 2 TDs and 2 picks; he did what needed to be done to get Toronto to win. I think most would agree that it was the Argos’ stellar defence, especially in the fourth quarter, that truly sealed the deal, but it’s hard to quantify that versus an individual player’s efforts.

With a third straight loss, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – who were the first team to reach five straight Grey Cup games since Edmonton accomplished the feat in six straight years from 1977-1982 – are now also the first team to lose in three consecutive Grey Cup games since the 1954-56 Montreal Alouettes. Not only that, but they still have yet to defeat Toronto in a Grey Cup game for their entire existence as a franchise. They’ve faced off eight times – in 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, and 2022 – and have lost all eight. For everything said about considering Winnipeg to be a modern-day dynasty in the CFL, one can’t lose sight of the fact that dynasties… actually win. And the team hasn’t managed to figure that out in the biggest game of the season for quite a while now. As hosts of the next Grey Cup, the team might try their best to load up for one last run… but there are cracks at the seams and a lot of free agents to deal with in the off-season. That might be it for their run as the West Division’s top dogs.

The Argos have now won two Grey Cups in the last three years and four in the last twelve. In fact, in each of their last eight trips to the Grey Cup, they’ve won all eight times. Despite all the tumultuousness surrounding the franchise – from the Chad Kelly debacle to the still-ongoing attendances issues to relocation to a new stadium – it’s been interesting to see the team continue to find ways to win even as they struggle to retain their former relevancy in what is now a crowded Toronto sports landscape. Now, with Rogers Communications set to assume full executive control of the franchise due to their new majority ownership of parent company Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, I don’t know if the team will be able to keep things going. Rogers has previously shown to be all about economic efficiency, rather than good product on the field; their ownership of the Blue Jays has been living proof of that. The Argonauts are very low on the priorities of Rogers and MLSE compared to the major portfolios of the NHL Maple Leafs, NBA Raptors, and MLS Toronto FC, but I can’t help but feel that change is on the horizon. At least this coaching staff is one of the best they’ve ever had. That will help things moving forward for certain.

And with that, we’re officially into the CFL offseason once more.

SEASON RECAP & STATS

East Division Standings

Team	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points For	Points Against
y-Montreal	18	12	5	1	455	404
x-Toronto	18	10	8	0	515	479
x-Ottawa	18	9	8	1	443	488
e-Hamilton	18	7	11	0	495	557

West Division Standings

Team	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points For	Points Against
y-Winnipeg	18	11	7	0	447	366
x-Saskatchewan	18	9	8	1	478	434
x-BC	18	9	9	0	448	439
e-Edmonton	18	7	11	0	504	500
e-Calgary	18	5	12	1	410	427

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