CFL Beat: Week 11

Hello from the IJsselmeer! No, that’s not a typo – the Dutch language uses the letters IJ as a digraph character in the same context as the letter Y in many other Western languages, so if the word uses IJ as a capital letter for a proper noun, both letters must simultaneously be capitalized. And you thought Canadian English, with its superfluous “U”s, was strange… At any rate the Maestro family continues to enjoy vacation here in the Netherlands. Lots of biking around on dikes looking at water and boats and windmills and farms and old things – my son continues to want to crawl to his doom in as many different places as possible so I have been a bit terrified of letting him out of the bike trailer, but I figure that his determination for north-south movement on the ground is going to make him a killer running back when he gets a bit older. Guess we’ll see…

In league news this week:

• The Ottawa REDBLACKS, still yet to win a game this season, continue to shake up their roster, releasing defensive starters Demerio Houston and Amari Henderson, both DBs. They also signed depth DL Sione Teheuma, who played nine games last year with the BC Lions last year before suffering a season-ending injury.
• The BC Lions announced two new additions to the team’s Wall of Fame – QB Travis Lulay, who won the Grey Cup and CFL Most Outstanding Player in 2011 and spent his entire ten-year career in BC, and DB Ryan Phillips, a two-time Grey Cup champ in 2006 and 2011 who is now on the Lions’ coaching staff as the defensive secondary coach and pass game coordinator.
• Saskatchewan placed key receivers Kian Schaffer-Baker and Sam Emily’s, as well as DB Tevaughn Campbell, on the six-game injured list – three important guys who will be sorely missed down the stretch. That adds a wrinkle to the race to a division title in the West…

Onto the games!

WEEK 10 RECAPS

Calgary 30 vs. Toronto 33: The Argos gave up five turnovers in this game – including three in the first quarter – but still found a way to win when the chips were down. Both QBs struggled in this game – Sex Pest Chad Kelly threw four picks, while Vernon Adams, Jr. had only 159 passing yards and no pass TDs at all. Both teams kicked a lot of field goals – none more important than the one by Brady Lidster with just 11 seconds left on the clock that ended up winning it for the Argos in dramatic fashion.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Toronto

Ottawa 20 vs. Saskatchewan 42: The REDBLACKS hung with the West Division leaders through the first half, but completely fell apart once again down the stretch to fall to 0-8 on the year. Short yardage specialist QB Tommy Stevens had three rushing TDs in the fourth quarter that helped blow the game wide open and let the Riders pull away; it was his second consecutive three-score game. Trevor Harris also hit a career milestone, passing 40,000 passing yards in this contest, which also saw him throw two TDs to receiver KeeSean Johnson.

PICK: Saskatchewan

RESULT: Saskatchewan

Edmonton 30 vs. Montreal 48: The Alouettes got their revenge against Edmonton, who gave Montreal their one and only loss of the season earlier this year in their visit to Commonwealth Stadium back in Week 3. The Als offence continued to roll; Davis Alexander had 352 passing yards, four pass TDs (including three to Tyson Philpot, the league’s clear-cut best receiver), a rushing score, and a pick; Philpot racked up 131 yards receiving to go with those three scores while teammate Tyler Snead added 146; RB Travis Theis had 141 total yards from scrimmage, and Edmonton just had no answers defensively for this juggernaut. The score was not as close as it looked – it was 41-18 late in the fourth quarter before the Elks had a couple of garbage time scores to make it ever so slightly more respectable.

PICK: Montreal

RESULT: Montreal

Hamilton 24 vs. BC 27: Nathan Rourke was back for BC and immediately made an impact in his return from injury with 370 passing yards, two TDs, and a pick; he also helped spur his team to victory by putting together an excellent final drive that saw BC march 69 yards on 11 plays to set up Sean Whyte for the game-winning chip shot field goal from 24 yards out with 30 seconds left on the clock. Hamilton’s Harrison Frost, in his first career CFL start at QB, hung in there and helped keep the game close, but was unable to come away with a win, as Marc Liegghio missed from 57 as time expired which would have tied it up.

PICK: BC

RESULT: BC

BYE: Winnipeg (4-4)

WEEK 11 PREVIEWS

BC (3-5) vs. Calgary (4-5), Thursday, August 13th, 9:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): The Stamps are a confounding and frustrating team. On the one hand, their offence is clearly elite; on the other, those two fifty-point games against the Argos and Bombers are also skewing the numbers somewhat. But that defence – what an Achilles’ heel. It’s clearly a detriment – and now that we’re into the second half of the season, it’s something that needs clear and immediate attention to fix in what is once again a very tight West Division race to the playoffs. With Nathan Rourke now back in the mix for BC as of last week, as well as a few injured receivers returning, this is a game that may potentially make or break the Stamps’ season if they can’t keep things tidy without the ball. Fortunately, Calgary has been very good at home through this first half of the season.

PICK: Calgary

Ottawa (0-8) vs. Winnipeg (4-4), Friday, August 14th, 9:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): Zach Collaros is back in action, and no better team to square off against to find some rhythm to snaps than the feckless REDBLACKS. Despite injuries, age, and mediocrity, Winnipeg remains very squarely in the playoff hunt in the West Division, and getting Collaros back is going to help down the stretch. Ottawa continues to overhaul its roster following more losses, and as such, I honestly think it bears asking the question at this point in the year if any of the team’s Week 1 starters will still be on the team by the end of the season.

PICK: Winnipeg

Toronto (4-4) vs. Edmonton (6-3), Saturday, August 15th, 3:00 PM EDT (TSN, CTV, Crave, CFL+): Yes, Toronto picked up a big win last week at home for the first time since 2025, but they’re back on the road once more and facing a difficult test in the Elks, who have lost two in a row – albeit to the two best teams in the league in Saskatchewan and Montreal. That’s going to be much tougher than the defence the Stamps showed last week, particularly in the dying minutes of the game – the Argos are an imperfect team but may walk to second in the East all the same. At least there are a ton of home games for them to look forward to in the second half of the season following this week’s contest.

PICK: Edmonton

Saskatchewan (6-2) vs. Hamilton (3-6), Saturday, August 15th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CBSSN, CFL+): Saskatchewan has some injuries going on right now, but they have healthy quarterbacks, which is more than Hamilton can say. The Ti-Cats have imploded in Bo Levi Mitchell’s absence, underscoring his value to the team and across the entire league, even in the twilight of his career. The Roughriders just need to keep using their depth, especially in their receiver room, in order to keep just plugging away at things against these Tiger-Cats; I’m not even sure being at home is going to be significant enough to help them this week against the West’s top team.

PICK: Saskatchewan

BYE: Montreal (8-1)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Alexander, MTL – 3140
2. Fajardo, EDM – 2808
3. Kelly, TOR – 2672

Passing TDs

1. Adams, Jr., CGY – 21
2. Harris, SSK – 19
3. Alexander, MTL – 18

Rushing Yards

1. Mills, CGY – 707
2. Theis, MTL – 700
3. Oliveira, WPG – 658

Receiving Yards

1. Philpot, MTL – 11154
2. Snead, MTL – 940
3. Mack, EDM – 766

Defensive Tackles

1. Lee, CGY – 53
2. Pickett, TOR – 51
3. Jones, WPG – 50

Sacks

1. Betts, BC – 6
2. Hicks, CGY – 6
3. Ceresna, WPG – 6

Interceptions

1. Ford, EDM – 5
2. Labrosse, CGY – 5
3. Alexander, CGY – 4

Field Goals

1. Blanchard, EDM – 25
2. Castillo, WPG – 25
3. Maltos Diaz, MTL – 23

PICK POOL

Big ups to BC Dick and Gumbygirl on the perfect weeks last week. The Stamps going down got a lot of us, it seems… but not you guys.

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.officepooljunkie.com/picks-pickem.php?Pool=NFA9D4OXO6C2U0A1

CFL FANTASY

In Week 10 matchups, BC Dick’s Dead Horse almost doubled up Superfluous “U”s by a final score of 124-65. O Spamada defeated my dear Maestrottawa by a final score of 111-84, and RoughRougesGTD absolutely demolished Sacre Blew 90-26. I think a whole bunch of us forgot about the importance of checking bye weeks – necessary skills considering NFL Fantasy is similarly right around the corner once more…

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Enjoy the games, everyone.