CFL Beat: Week 15

September may honestly be the perfect month. With the back-to-school routine now established and with football Sundays in session, I can also now fill out my Fridays and Saturdays perfectly. Some people tell me the weekend weather is beautiful, but as all good football fans know, I have no idea if that’s actually true or not. The start of Week 15 marks the final third of the CFL’s regular-season schedule – and despite Winnipeg and Toronto locking down playoff spots already, much intrigue remains.

In league news this week:

• Montreal signed LB Darnell Sankey to a one-year deal, keeping him with the team through the last portion of this season. Sankey, a West Division All-Star in 2021 with Calgary, also played with Saskatchewan in 2022. He was most recently with the XFL’s Arlington Renegades, and won a title with the team before asking for his release in early August. With LBs Avery Williams and Tyrell Richards both on the six-game injured list, the Alouettes desperately need some help at inside linebacker.
• Edmonton signed centre Mark Korte to a three-year contract extension which will keep him with the team through to the end of the 2026 season. Born and raised in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Korte was drafted by Ottawa and played three seasons with the team before joining Edmonton last season. As a Canadian who can play both left tackle and centre, Korte is a key piece of the Elks’ O-line, who appear to be going through a little bit of a mid-season renaissance as of late.
• The Ottawa REDBLACKS’ DB Abdul Kanneh will miss the rest of the season after suffering a broken hand in last week’s matchup with Hamilton. That’s a blow to a secondary that is already very leaky. Kanneh, a three-time All-Star in nine CFL seasons, is most famous in Ottawa for his game-saving shoestring goal-line tackle of Calgary QB Andrew Buckley late in the 2016 Grey Cup championship game, which Ottawa went on to win in overtime. I hope this won’t be the last we see of him, but at 33, if he decides to call it a career, it’s fair to say it was a successful one. Regardless, I hope he gets well soon.

Onto the games!

WEEK 14 RECAPS

Hamilton 27 vs. Ottawa 24: The Ottawa REDBLACKS have to be the league’s worst team over the last four seasons. Yes, the Elks had their dreadful home loss streak – which ended just a few weeks ago – but it’s important to remember that there was a conscious plan to tear everything down during part of that awful tenure. Ottawa’s now been through two GMs and two head coaches, and still nothing’s changed. The Tiger-Cats had just three days between games and were on the road coming off a disappointing loss to Toronto last week. This game should have been Ottawa’s for the taking – and they couldn’t get it done. Rookie QB Taylor Powell had his best game to date in black and gold, throwing for 326 yards and three TDs, while the defence took away Ottawa’s pass game extremely well. If it hadn’t been for the work that REDBLACKS RB Devonte Williams put in on the ground – with 146 rush yards and 200 total yards – the home side wouldn’t have been in this game. The Ti-Cats swept the season series 3-0 against their East counterparts.

PICK: Hamilton

RESULT: Hamilton

Montreal 10 vs. Toronto 39: Montreal’s O-line is made of dandelion seeds, it seems. Cody Fajardo got absolutely obliterated in the pocket once again by the Argos’ dominant pass rush, and the Alouettes dropped to .500. This recent losing skid has to be concerning – if they can’t fix their pass protection, they’re not going anywhere as a team. Als leading receiver, rookie Austin Mack, was also tossed early in this game after hitting Argos DB Qwan’tez Stiggers several times in the helmet in a scrum following a tackle. The Argos clinched a playoff spot due to their win in this game – and while Chad Kelly didn’t throw a pass TD, he did rush for a score, and Toronto’s elite offence keeps on chugging, scoring over 30 points for the tenth time in 11 games this season. The East is Toronto’s to lose – and I don’t think I could find a single person out there who doesn’t believe they’ll take the division title this season.

PICK: Toronto

RESULT: Toronto

Saskatchewan 6 vs. Winnipeg 51: Hoo boy, talk about a beatdown. The Bombers definitely got revenge for last week’s OT loss in Regina. They had a perfect offensive first half, going 6/6 on their drives, with touchdowns in each one, going into halftime up 42-6. Zach Collaros threw five of those TDs, with receiver Dalton Schoen snagging three of those scores. RB Brady Oliveira, now the league’s top running back, singlehandedly had more total yards from scrimmage – 211 – than the Roughriders had as an entire team – 204. The Riders had basically nothing going on all night. QB Jake Dolegala faced relentless pressure all game and had just 113 pass yards, with Saskatchewan’s only points coming off of two Brett Lauther field goals. It was a game to forget for the visitors, and reason to celebrate further for the home crowd – with their tenth win of the season, Winnipeg also clinched a playoff spot.

PICK: Winnipeg

RESULT: Winnipeg

Calgary 23 vs. Edmonton 25: It wouldn’t really be the Battle of Alberta if the games didn’t go right down to the wire. Last week, Calgary won at home on a go-ahead rush TD by Dedrick Mills late in the fourth quarter. This week, the Elks got their revenge – Edmonton won its second straight home game thanks to more theatrics from Tre Ford, and a huge field goal from English kicker Dean Faithfull. The Elks turned the ball over four times – extremely bad – but the Stamps also took eight penalties on the night – also awful. Despite the ineptitude, we still a couple of stellar performances; Edmonton RB Kevin Brown had 15 carries for 143 rushing yards and a TD, while Stamps QB Jake Maier was very tidy, going 21-29 for 210 yards and two TDs. Calgary had a ten-point lead in the fourth quarter, but Edmonton steadily chipped away; Tre Ford found Dillon Mitchell in the end zone with just over seven minutes to play to make it a 23-19 game, while Dean Faithfull redeemed himself for the missed convert and hit from 40 to cut the Stamps’ lead to one. Finally, after Edmonton forced a final Calgary two-and-out, the Elks had just 36 seconds to march down the field and kick the winning FG – but they pulled it off.

PICK: Calgary

RESULT: Edmonton

BYE: BC (8-4)

WEEK 15 PREVIEWS

Toronto (10-1) vs. Montreal (6-6), Friday, September 15th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): The Alouettes have allowed 44 sacks in 12 games – the most in the whole CFL. Cody Fajardo is a tough son of a gun for continuing to get up and get back out there, but the O-line needs to figure it out in a major way if Montreal wants to turn things around at this point in the season. Obviously, a home-and-home against the league’s best team is probably not the best way to try and fix those issues… so they’ll likely be left to flounder for a while yet, unfortunately. Toronto is truly a juggernaut. For a team to so consistently score 30+ points in a game, even on the occasions when your quarterback doesn’t throw a TD pass, is really quite remarkable. Maybe Montreal just needs to do nothing but chuck it deep all game long this time around. I mean, they’re probably losing anyways.

PICK: Toronto

Edmonton (3-10) vs. Saskatchewan (6-6), Friday, September 15th, 9:30 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): Saskatchewan is technically the favourite here, but the Elks have momentum. It’s quite something to watch this team compared to a few weeks ago – they genuinely have energy and chemistry out there on the field in a way that was notably lacking before. Winning really does fix a lot of problems, it appears. The question is whether or not there’s still a backdoor chance to snag a playoff spot – though that’s likely slim. As much as the Riders got thrashed last week – and they were completely and utterly outclassed – it’s important to remember that they have still shown, at times, that they can beat good teams, including that same Winnipeg side. I guess it all starts with pass protection. If the Elks choose to blitz a lot, I’m not sure their secondary can deal with a lot of the one-on-one matchups the Riders receivers may get – even with a third-stringer in at quarterback.

PICK: Saskatchewan

Winnipeg (10-3) vs. Hamilton (5-7), Saturday, September 16th, 4:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): When you dismantle a team so thoroughly, like what we saw the Bombers do last week to Saskatchewan, basically every coaching staff wants to ensure the team doesn’t rest on their laurels the following week. At least there’s some 2019 and 2021 Grey Cup recent history to draw on to light a fire in the visitors. Hamilton’s win against Ottawa last week was huge in the East playoff race, and despite likely seeing their divisional rivals in Montreal and Ottawa probably losing again this week, the Ti-Cats still need to stay afloat to hang onto that third playoff spot. That’s a big ask for a team so inconsistent, and with one starting a rookie at quarterback. Taylor Powell does seem to be finding his footing a little more with each passing week, however – and that has to be a positive for Hamilton fans.

PICK: Winnipeg

Ottawa (3-9) vs. BC (8-4), Saturday, September 16th, 7:00 PM EDT (TSN, CFL+): Not a lot of hope in the nation’s capital right now. The REDBLACKS are 13-49 since the beginning of 2019; that’s horrendous stuff. Ever since they let Rick Campbell walk from his job as head coach, the team has been in a dumpster – and in his new home in BC, the Lions have taken off. Not only are they playing at home, but they’re coming off the bye week feeling rested and ready, I’m sure. If star Canadian pass rusher Mathieu Betts can shake his double-teams, then Ottawa QB Dustin Crum is in for yet another miserable night. A lot needs to change if Ottawa’s going to somehow turn it around at this point in the year – but if this team continues to lose close games so consistently, particularly in the way they’ve done these past two seasons, then we may yet again see another full house sweep of the organization.

PICK: BC

BYE: Calgary (4-9)

STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

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

Passing Yards 

1. Maier, CGY – 3307
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 3136
3. Collaros, WPG – 2957

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 27
2. Adams, Jr., BC – 20
3. Kelly, TOR – 18

Rushing Yards

1. Oliveira, WPG – 1144
2. Brown, EDM – 829
3. Ouellette, TOR – 815

Receiving Yards

1. Mack, MTL – 971
2. Schoen, WPG – 925
3. Begelton, CGY – 919

Defensive Tackles

1. Awe, CGY – 96
2. Morgan, EDM – 81
3. Pickett, TOR – 73

Sacks

1. Betts, BC – 12
2. Leonard, EDM – 10
3. Orimolade, TOR – 9

Interceptions

1. Houston, WPG – 7
2. Dandridge, OTT – 4
3. Marshall, SSK – 4

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 41
2. Whyte, BC – 32
3. Cote, MTL – 32

PICK POOL

Apparently I entered a different pick on PoolTracker than what I did here in this article. At any rate, I had a perfect week, so I won’t complain. Thanks Edmonton!

Remember to submit your picks here! https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=205786

Enjoy the games, everyone.