We made it! The playoffs are here! It’s one of my favourite times of year for football; one of the times when I can get away with having a second TV set up to dual-screen NFL RedZone and the CFL postseason without anyone getting mad at me. What a fantastic feeling.

In league news this week:

• The CFL announced their all-star teams at noon on Wednesday… and promptly rescinded the lists a few hours later. In an official statement from the league, officials in charge of tabulating ballots ended up making numerous significant errors in calculation, hence the list of names that drew widespread ire from fans, media members and players alike.
• The Saskatchewan Roughriders fired offensive coordinator Jason Maas and did not renew the contracts of WR coach Travis Moore and run game coordinator Stephen Sorrells. This isn’t a shocker – the Riders’ offence looked very dysfunctional this year, and led the league in sacks surrendered with 77. It could easily be argued that GM Jeremy O’Day and HC Craig Dickenson should also be relieved of their jobs, but all CFL teams operate with a salary cap on their operations budget in addition to their player roster cap. As O’Day and Dickenson are both under contract through the end of 2023, taking on a new GM and head coach while having to pay the salaries of their old ones would have been an expensive – and likely unworkable – proposition.
• Due to extremely high ticket demand for their home playoff date, the BC Lions opened the upper bowl of BC Place to fans earlier this week; the stadium might be fairly soulless, but it’s great to see that many fans are appreciative of a chance to see true greatness perform. Nathan Rourke is that dude, and fans across the Lower Mainland know it.
• According to Sports Tourism Canada, the Touchdown Atlantic game in Wolfville, Nova Scotia apparently generated $12.7 million in economic activity for the province, including visitors to the Annapolis Valley as well as the street parties held in the provincial capital of Halifax in the week leading up to the game. If this is indeed true, it’s a positive – I just hope that in the never-ending debate and hand-wringing over Atlantic Canada finally landing themselves a team that crowds are ready and willing to make a sustained effort to watch them play.

Onto the games!

WEEK 21 RECAPS

BC 9 vs. Winnipeg 24: The Blue Bombers won their 15th game of the season, setting a franchise record for their most successful year ever. Although the game was ultimately meaningless for the standings – and both teams elected to rest their starters for the majority of this tilt – we still saw some noteworthy performances all the same. Zach Collaros threw his 36th and 37th touchdowns of the year in just one quarter of action, while Nathan Rourke, in his first game back since mid-August, went 7/11 in one quarter, for 68 yards. Brady Oliveira cracked 1000 yards rushing on the season for the Bombers, having clearly grown into his role as Andrew Harris’ replacement in the Winnipeg backfield. All in all, both teams stayed healthy – the biggest concern going into the playoffs. All eyes now turn to Nathan Rourke and his readiness for the week ahead.

PICK: BC

RESULT: Winnipeg

Montreal 38 vs. Toronto 33: Chad Kelly’s first start as an Argo was actually quite decent; while it was a meaningless game for both teams, it’s too bad he wasn’t able to come away with a victory after a solid first outing as a starter in the CFL. Kelly finished the night having gone 23-35 for 264 yards, two pass TDs, one rush TD, and an interception off of a tipped ball. Montreal, resting Trevor Harris, Geno Lewis, Jake Wieneke, and several other key starters, had a hot start on offense, with Dominique Davis throwing two TD passes and running in another all in just the first quarter of action. Third-stringer Davis Alexander also saw some playing time for the Alouettes as well, though he was decidedly more quiet in his first-team reps. Toronto, despite being down early, didn’t give up and clawed their way back into the game; down by a score late in the fourth, Chad Kelly’s last pass was knocked down on third and ten, killing the drive and giving the Als the win and letting them finish the season with a .500 record.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Montreal

Hamilton 23 vs. Ottawa 16: The REDBLACKS have now officially gone winless at home in 2022. That’s disappointing for fans, who had such high expectations of the team coming into this year with such a vastly overhauled roster and all this talent – on paper, at least. The Tiger-Cats will enter the playoffs playing their best football of the year – hard to believe they’ll end the season just one game short of .500, especially with their season looking so incredibly dire just a month ago. Tabbies receiver Steven Dunbar had three catches in this one to reach 1000 yards on the season, while REDBLACKS QB Caleb Evans padded his rushing TD total, racking up his 16th of the season, leading all players in the league. Hamilton now prepares for a playoff date in Montreal, while the REDBLACKS clean out their lockers and prepare to rebuild this team from the ground up for the third straight year.

PICK: Hamilton

RESULT: Hamilton

Saskatchewan 10 vs. Calgary 36: The Roughriders started the year with a bang, and ended it with a whimper, as the Stampeders capped off the 2022 CFL regular season with a home win. Bo Levi Mitchell saw what is almost certain to be his last playing time as a member of the Calgary Stampeders, giving the crowd a salute at the end of the game and getting some rapturous applause in return. With two Grey Cups and two MOP trophies in the past decade leading Calgary’s offence, it’s going to be strange to see him in another uniform next year. The Stamps once again ground down Saskatchewan through the strength of their run game; Dedrick Mills had 14 carries for 125 yards and a TD, while backup QB Tommy Stevens had 163 yards and a TD – on just four carries. Wild stuff. Mason Fine started his second straight game as Saskatchewan’s QB, but didn’t do much of anything out there to keep his team in this one. It’s been a really rough year in Regina – change is on the horizon for sure.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Calgary

BYE: Edmonton (4-14)

DIVISION SEMIFINAL PREVIEWS

EAST DIVISION SEMIFINAL

(3) Hamilton (8-10) vs. (2) Montreal (9-9), Sunday, November 6th, 1:00 PM EST (TSN, tbd for US viewing): With both teams having sat so many of their guys recently, I look forward to seeing both sides at full strength for the first time in a while. Montreal has a 2-1 lead in the season series this year, having won their most recent matches in Week 10 and Week 13. All were one-score games, with the Week 10 victory coming with margin of just one point. I am curious to see if Montreal will give RB William Stanback more of a role in the ground game now that we’ve entered the playoffs; having spent much of the season recovering from that broken ankle, I hope he’ll have some gas in the tank left for a big workload in these playoff games. The Als are lucky that their other backs in Jeshrun Antwi and Walter Fletcher have proven to be trustworthy – but Stanback at his best can really tilt a field. Hamilton needs to have a simple game plan to win this one – most of all, they need to protect the football. They’ve done a far, far better job of that in recent weeks and I give them credit for working on it. The start of the year was rough.

PICK: Montreal

WEST DIVISION SEMIFINAL

(3) Calgary (12-6) vs. (2) BC (12-6), Sunday, November 6th, 4:30 PM EST (TSN, tbd for US viewing): The biggest question on everyone’s mind has to do with whether or not Nathan Rourke will be rusty. He looked pretty good in his one quarter of action last week, though he did have a fumble that proved to be costly… but with more practise time and full integration into the first team once again, one can only feel like he’s going to be good to go. BC’s beaten Calgary in every matchup this year, but the Stamps have looked really, really good as of recent – as a result of Rourke’s prolonged injury, Calgary finished the year with the best offence in the league. Having two really awesome running backs in Ka’Deem Carey and Dedrick Mills is enough to tire out even the stoutest of defences, but perhaps maybe the bigger issue is simply going to be if Calgary can trade punches with the Lions if Rourke is on his game. There’s a lot of hypotheticals at stake here. I feel like an upset road win for the Stamps is highly doable.

PICK: Calgary

BYE: (1) Toronto (11-7), (1) Winnipeg (15-3)

REGULAR SEASON FINAL STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

x- clinched playoff spot
y- clinched division title
e- eliminated from playoff contention

Passing Yards 

1. Bethel-Thompson, TOR – 4731
2. Collaros, WPG – 4183
3. Harris, MTL – 4157

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 37
2. Rourke, BC – 25
3. Bethel-Thompson, TOR – 23

Rushing Yards

1. Carey, CGY – 1088
2. Butler, BC – 1060
3. Oliveira, WPG – 1001

Receiving Yards

1. Schoen, WPG – 1441
2. Rhymes, BC – 1401
3. Lewis, MTL – 1303

Sacks

1. Mauldin, OTT – 17
2. Lemon, CGY – 14
3. Ceresna, EDM – 10

Interceptions

1. Peters, TOR – 6
2. Peters, BC – 5
3. Kelly, HAM – 5

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 54
2. Ward, OTT – 49
3. Cote, MTL – 44

PICK POOL

Figures that it would be a nail-biter of a finish… it wouldn’t have been an authentic CFL experience without the photo finish! Congrats to SonOfSpam, who unseats Litre_Cola to take home this year’s gently used fleshlight. My sincere congratulations to you!

Thanks for playing, all. Looking forward to 2023 already. Maybe next year will be the year where I will always remember to hit “submit” on my picks each week.

Enjoy the games, everyone.