CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 6

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week six 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.

This is the first weekend of the season with three teams on a bye. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Alouettes all had a week to sit back and watch the other teams battle it out.

Let’s dive right in. The first game of the weekend saw the Calgary Stampeders in Regina to take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who were the only remaining unbeaten team going into the weekend. This one was delayed a full day due to poor air quality in Saskatchewan. Which led to the visiting Stampeders looking at different options for accommodation as the game was played the next day. I don’t know how that went for them but early on they looked determined and angry which all translated to dominance that laid a foundation for their 24-10 win. That also means the Stamps have now knocked off the only unbeaten teams in back-to-back weeks.

The Calgary D brought Saskatchewan’s vaunted running game to a grinding halt here, as they were held to just 16 yards on 9 carries. That meant the passing game would have to take up the slack. Statistically it looks good for Trevor Harris who finished 36 of 44 for 425 yards and a touchdown. But it only looks good on paper. In reality, he had very little to show for the first half and the second half was all about giving up underneath yardage but bending and not breaking from the Stamps.

For Saskatchewan one standout was the receiver Joe Robustelli who finished with 11 catches for 191 yards and a touchdown. On the other side however, Calgary had plenty of great performances.

Vernon Adams Jr went 28 of 36 for 428 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 picks. Dedrick Mills kept some balance with 14 carries for 85 yards, Clarence Hicks had 2 tackles, 2 sacks and 1 forced fumble, and Tyler Richardson logged 14 tackles.

However, one real standout performance came from the rookie receiver Damon Alford who had 6 catches for 156 yards and 2 touchdowns. The first overall pick in the 2025 CFL Draft, Alford scored his first CFL career touchdown last week and given the start this week really delivered.

The second game of the weekend was in Hamilton as the hometown Hamilton Tiger-Cats took on the Ottawa RedBlacks. This was the first game in a home-and-home series between the two being played this week and next. The Ticats only held the lead once in the game, but once they had the lead they saw it our for a 23-20 win.

A shout out must go to Jamal Peters in this one who picked off Dru Brown twice. Brown was 24 of 38 for 283 yards with a touchdown but a few of his passes were ones receivers needed to fight for or in potentially dangerous areas and Peters made the most of that.

Last week the Mitchell to Lawler connection proved lethal for the Ticats against the Argos. This week, it wasn’t so dominant, but still Lawler had 95-yards receiving and 2 touchdowns. He made a fabulous catch on a 44-yard grab but perhaps the most important one came with under two minutes left that kept Hamilton moving on the drive they delivered their winning score. It is hard to square the Mitchell we are seeing now with the one from early last season whose coach pulled him for not being careful enough with the ball. The East Division MOP finalist in 2024 is having another good year so far and finished this one 23 of 41 for 266 yard with 2 touchdowns and no picks. Mitchell needs just 27 yards passing to break into the CFL all-time top ten career passing yardage leaders and should surpass Tracy Ham to take his spot next week.

We have mentioned it before in these pages, but special teams is an area that can often get overlooked. You can’t do that with the CFL. Their special teams are just that, – special. For a while Hamilton could not crack Ottawa then up stepped Isaiah Wooden Jr. He ignited something with a 47-yard return that gave Hamilton plenty of momentum to feed off. He should be in the early running for special teams player of the year right now with two kickoff return touchdowns, over 600 yards in kickoff returns, and 257 in punt return yardage. Of course, it’s too early for all that, but you can’t deny he has had an impact.

Speaking of special teams Marc Liegghio went 3 for 3 on field goals here and his current streak of 25 made field goals has set the Hamilton team record for most consecutive field goals surpassing the record of 24 set by Luca Congi in 2012.

From an Ottawa perspective you have to think Bob Dyce is on the hottest of hot seats amongst the CFL coaching ranks right now. The RedBlacks do have talent across their roster but sit at a league worst 1-5. Dyce now has a 15-30-1 overall record coaching the RedBlacks. Last year they started out 7-2-1 but finished 9-8-1 and have lost 11 of their last 14 games. Take out that 7-2-1 run and in the rest of his games in charge Dyce is 8-28-1. After the return game against Hamilton next week the RedBlacks have a bye so that would be the most likely time for something to happen if they lost.

The third and final game of the weekend was between the Edmonton Elks and their guests the BC Lions. It was the visiting Lions who dominated here, coming away with a 32-14 win. You may see more dominant scorelines during the season, but it is unlikely you will see much more dominance in terms of time of possession as BC had the ball for 42:54 of this contest! Having the ball 71% of the game would usually equate to a win and that is what happened here as the Leos racked up 519 yards of offence to Edmonton’s 160. Could it have been different? Early on Edmonton tried to hit BC with deep passes and had players open, but a couple over overthrows and an underthrow saw those chances missed.

BC managed to balance their rushing and passing games too as James Butler had 30 carries for 172 yards and a touchdown to help with the ball control approach, whilst Nathan Rourke went 26 of 30 for 345 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. This is Rourke’s 12th 300+ yard passing game – a record for a Canadian born QB. The legendary Russ Jackson is second with nine. Keon Hatcher led all receivers with 9 catches for 130 yards.

The Lions had not led after the first quarter of a game all season long but her they were up 3-0. By halftime that had moved out to 24-7. Rourke hit on his first eight passes and had touchdowns to Jevon Cottoy and Stanley Berryhill III before the break.

For Edmonton, Tre Ford started out with a couple of good scrambling runs and finished with 4 carries for 47 yards. Those missed deep balls really hurt though and he was an anaemic 4 of 12 for 34 yards with 1 pick throwing the ball. No doubting that Rourke won the battle of the Canadian QB’s! Cody Fajardo came in later for Edmonton and went 5 of 7 for 78 yards and a touchdown.

Nick Anderson and Kenny Logan Jr both had 10 tackles for the Elks – but they had plenty of opportunities for that given how long they were on the field!

Week 7 returns to a four-game schedule and starts out with Toronto visiting Montreal for Thursday night football (early Friday morning here in the UK). All four games will be in Division games with all the games being into the early hours UK time. That said, all the 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 6:

O – James Butler RB, BC Lions: 30 carries for 172 yards and 1 touchdown, 3 receptions for 35 yards, 207 total yards.

D – Jamal Peters DB, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 2 interceptions.

ST – Nick Constantinou P, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 8 punts for 416 yards, (298 net), 52-yard average.

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

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 2 West Division 7

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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