CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 4

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week four of our weekly review of each week of the 2025 CFL season. ‘Quick Kicks’ brings you week to week news of how the games went, scores, surprises, and a general feel of ‘what we learned’ from the games.

Let’s dive right in. The first game of the weekend saw the Edmonton Elks  visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for Thursday night football. In front of their seventh straight home sell-out crowd, Winnipeg notched up a 36-23 win that took them to 3-0 and dropped Edmonton to 0-3. This is Winnipeg’s 13th consecutive win against Edmonton. A franchise record streak for the Blue Bombers against any CFL rival.

They didn’t have it all their own way as Edmonton actually started out with an impressive touchdown drive. Whilst, despite Winnipeg being up 23-13 at halftime the game was tied at 23 heading into the final quarter. However, they held Edmonton scoreless in the final period and we saw a real rarity as Zach Collaros ran in only the third rushing touchdown of his illustrious career.

It came at just the right time too. Winnipeg were 26-23 up in the fourth quarter when Collaros led an 11 play 86-yard drive that took 6 minutes of game time up, and when Zach ran in, that put them two scores ahead.

Speaking of Collaros, he was in midseason form here. Finishing the game 25 of 30 for 344 yard with 3 touchdowns as well as that one carry for a 13-yard touchdown scramble. He was ably assisted by game-time decision to go Nic Demski who had 5 catches for 97 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Edmonton who had led 7-0, 10-6 and got back to 23-23 will have been disappointed to fall off at the end, but they were competitive in one of the tougher environments to play in the league so they will want to take some positives out of that.

For Edmonton Tre Ford went 18 of 29 for 252 yards and a touchdown and had 1 carry for 6 yards while Kaion Julien-Grant had 5 catches for 115 yards and a major.

The second game of the weekend was in Hamilton as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats hosted the Montreal Alouettes. Montreal had started the season off looking dominant, but in the absence of starting quarterback Davis Alexander they were upended 35-17 in Hamilton as the tabbies notched up their first win of the season. With the win Hamilton snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Alouettes and moved to 1-2 whilst Montreal fell to 3-1. With the win Ticats starting QB Bo Levi Mitchell notched up his 100th career victory in the CFL too.

The key to the win really rested with the way the Hamilton D controlled things. They had struggled against the run so far this year, but here held the Als to a total of 38 yards on the ground. At the same time scoring a pick six and a fumble recovery touchdown to seal the win.

Mitchell, who became the fastest QB to reach 100 wins in CFL history, finished this one 25 of 31 for 247 yards with 2 touchdowns. Tim White was the main recipient with 9 grabs for 78 yards and a touchdown. Devin Veresuk on the defence had 8 tackles, 1 pick and a touchdown.

For Montreal, stand in QB McLeod Bethel-Thompson was 24 for 41 for 203 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Much of Montreal’s troubles here can be seen in the fact that he was also the team’s leading rusher with 3 carries for 19 yards.

The third game of the weekend was between the BC Lions  and the hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders.  For the second year in a row under Head Coach Corey Mace the Roughriders have started 4-0, here thanks to a 37-18 win over the Lions. For Saskatchewan this is the first time since 1969-70 that the green and white have started back-to-back seasons 4-0.

This game really swung on a couple of plays near the end of the first half. First it looked like BC had taken a 13-9 lead as Jeremiah Masoli threw a touchdown pass with 27 ticks on the clock. However, that was called back for offside, and on the very next play CB Tevaughn Campbell intercepted Masoli and ran it back 89-yards for a touchdown as the half expired. That 10-point turnaround really set a tone for the Riders to see out the win.  

For the Riders AJ Ouellette was the main conduit on offence as Jake Maier stood in for an injured Trevor Harris at QB. Ouellette had his best game as a pro carrying the ball 23 times for 139 yards and a touchdown. 17 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown from James Butler for BC notwithstanding the Roughriders had a balanced attack (188 yards rushing and 170 yards passing) which they used to good effect dominating the time of possession 38:35 to 21:25 and limiting the Leo’s chances to score.

Jake Maier went 13 of 23 for 170 yards and 1 touchdown. Not throwing a pick was crucial, although his ball placement was nowhere near as good as Harris routinely manages. For BC, Masoli finished 16 of 29 for 173 yards with 1 touchdown but crucially three interceptions. In a game where Saskatchewan scored 16 points in total off turnovers those picks did the Lions no favours.

The final game of the weekend was the matchup in the nation’s capital where the Toronto Argonauts faced the Ottawa RedBlacks. It was the Argos who walked away with the win here with a 29-16 victory marking their first win of the year.

This was another battle of the backups as Nick Arbuckle once again led the Argos and Dustin Crum the RedBlacks. Whatever they did however was destined to be overshadowed by the Argos’ rookie safety Derek Slywka who scored two touchdowns to break open the game. He had a 105-yard fumble return which would normally be his game highlight, but he arguably topped that with his second touchdown, a 120-yard blocked field goal return.

One week after the Blue Bombers gave us a big man touchdown, Toronto followed suit as this time Nick Arbuckle found former Super Bowl champion and 2 times Grey Cup winner O Lineman Ryan Hunter in the endzone for the score. He may not have had the grace on the catch of Asotui Eli for the Bombers last week, but his celebration was certainly athletic.

Now there are no winless teams left in the league and only Saskatchewan (4-0) and Winnipeg (3-0) remain unbeaten. It will be very interesting to see how things shake out for the teams once some of the starters (especially QB’s) make their way back.

Week 5 starts out with Winnipeg travelling to Calgary and all the games are into the early hours UK time. That said, all of these games are available free on CFL+. The league’s free streaming service is a great way to check out some CFL action and see what you think of it. They are also available to catch up the next morning so there is every chance to see some three-down action.

MOP's of Week 4:

O – Zach Collaros QB, Winnipeg Blue Bombers: 25 of 30 for 344 yard with 3 touchdowns. 1 carry for 13-yards and a touchdown.

D – Derek Slywka S, Toronto Argonauts: 2 tackles, 1 fumble recovery (105 yards, touchdown), 1 missed field goal return (120 yards, touchdown).

ST – Brett Lauther K, Saskatchewan Roughriders: 5 for 5 on Field Goals, 7 for 7 on all kicks.

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 0 West Division 0

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 2 West Division 5

CHRIS LAWTON

CFL ANALYST

Chris originally started following the NFL with the ‘first wave’ of fans when it was shown on Channel 4 in the 1980’s. He has been a keen supporter of the Miami Dolphins since 1983. Chris first encountered the CFL in 2016 and instantly fell in love with the Canadian game. He has been writing about the CFL 2017. Chris has a degree in history, postgraduate degree in librarianship and can be found on twitter as @CFLfanUK

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