CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 12

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week twelve 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 Winnipeg Blue Bombers travel to face the Montreal Alouettes. It was the visiting Blue Bombers who came away with a workmanlike 26-13 win. It was probably to be expected, as Montreal had a fourth-string quarterback starting for Thursday night football. Following injuries to starter Davis Alexander and then two back-ups, McLeod Bethel-Thompson, and Caleb Evans it was time for Jame Morgan to make the start.

Even then though the Alouettes kept it close into the final frame. In fact, Winnipeg led by just 16-13 heading into the fourth quarter before the Blue Bombers put together a 10-play, 81-yard drive finished off by a Brady Oliveira touchdown. Oliveira was the focal point of the attack finishing the game with sixteen carries for 137 yards and a touchdown as well as 9 catches for 73 yards meaning he had 210 yards from scrimmage in this one. He was looking a lot like last year’s MOP here.

Zach Collaros had one of his better games of 2025 as he completed 27-of-31 pass attempts for 263 yards and one touchdown. All whilst losing key receivers to injuries. Nic Demski caught four passes for 25-yards and one touchdown but was out by halftime with a head injury, and Jerreth Sterns followed him following a clean but big hit from Montreal DB Arthur Hamlin. With Dalton Schoen looking to return from the six-game injured list, backup quarterback Chris Streveler stepped in at receiver, a position he played at the University of Minnesota, and laid some key blocks for Oliveira in the running game.

For Montreal Morgan finished 18 of 33 for 198 yards with 1 score and 2 picks. His leading receiver was Alexander Hollins who had 5 catches for 132 yards.

Overall Winnipeg showed a classic clock dominating, ball control offence that saw them take up 35:52 of the game and have 176 net yards on the ground against Montreal’s 60 yards rushing. Winnipeg also avoided any turnovers and that always helps too.

Prior to this game Montreal had has not lost four straight games, or gone below .500, since September 2023. Those injuries are really hurting them as they fall to 5-6. Meanwhile Winnipeg moved to 6-4 to stay competitive in the West. They will now travel to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Labour Day Classic before a rematch the following week in the Banjo Bowl.

The second game of the weekend had the Ottawa RedBlacks hosting the Edmonton Elks. Once again it was the visitors that came away with the spoils as Edmonton registered their third straight win with a 30-20 victory.

The key to that run for Edmonton has been two things. Playing against weakened East Division teams and finding stability at quarterback. Edmonton are on their third starter of the year in Cody Fajardo and he has brought them stability under centre. His first two starts saw Edmonton competing with Saskatchewan and Hamilton, both Division leaders, and losing both games by a combined seven points. Since then, the Elks have beaten Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa to improve from 1-6 to 4-6. Fajardo has brought veteran composure over that run and here he was 22-28 for 270 yards and an interception. Which may not sound brilliant, but he also had 5 carries for 57 yards and a score and it always seemed like he could lead them to the win.

All that said about leadership under centre, there were two key plays that sealed this for Edmonton. The fist was with the Elks up 10-0 when Javon Leake returned a punt eighty yards down the right sideline for a score. The second late in the game as Edmonton looked to cap the game and shut off an Ottawa comeback. Facing second and seven Fajardo found Kurleigh Gittens Jr. for the first down and what became a 38-yard gain. That would set them up for the field goal and a two-score lead with less than a minute on the clock to see it out.

For Ottawa Dustin Crum finished the game 23 of 29 for 277 yards and a touchdown as well as having ten carries for fifty-nine yards and a touchdown. He did lead the RedBlacks on the comeback trail but thanks to Leake’s punt return giving the green and gold a seventeen point lead it was just too big of a mountain to climb for the home team. A real problem for Ottawa is that they can show fight, and look to come back, but this is the third game in a row they have fallen behind by double digits early on. They really need to get going earlier in games.

For all the talk of the performances and result it looked for a while like this game could be overshadowed by a terrible looking injury to Ottawa defensive lineman Daniel Okpoko. Thankfully, news out of the hospital following an in-game collapse was that was responsive and had movement. By the next day he was released from the hospital, and I am sure CFL fans everywhere will be wishing the 25-year-old well after some scary in-game scenes.

The third game of the weekend was between the Toronto Argonauts  and the BC Lions. This one was an upset as the home team dominated 52-34 to move to 3-8 and drop BC to 5-6. The game itself was hosted in conjunction with the Canadian National Exhibition, an annual tradition, bringing fair attendees into the stadium as part of their CNE ticket and giving the Argos their biggest home crowd since 2018. Those behind the event will have been happy to see a game with eighty-six points and a big home win for any of the less regular crowd members to think about.

The Argos put up 52 points, 529 yards of net offence and eight scoring drives. Which was made even more impressive considering Toronto’s leading receiver Damonte Coxie was out injured for this one. It did not derail the offence though and Nick Arbuckle had a career high 430 yards passing with 3 touchdowns as well as running in another.

Arbuckle started slowly leading the team to a pair of field goals on two red zone drives and seeing the boatmen fall behind 14-6 early in the game. Once he found his groove though he was exceptional here and led the Argos to a 46-20 advantage for the rest of the game.

Jake Herslow had 5 catches for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns, Dejon Brissett had 4 catches for 118 yards and Kevin Mital had 7 receptions for 63 yards and a score too. The biggest boon for Toronto was finding a spark for their oft maligned running game in Spencer Brown who had 19 carries for 85 yards and a touchdown, as well as 3 catches for 34 yards.

For the BC Lions Nathan Rourke finished the game 20 of 31 for 326 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 pick, as well as having 1 carry for 47 yards. James Butler once again brought some balance to the attack with 11 carries for 83 yards and 2 touchdowns. One thing Leos fans can celebrate coming out of this game was Keon Hatcher having seven catches for 131 yards, taking him to 1,009 yards and making him the first 1,000-yard receiver this season.

The final game of the weekend was in Calgary, where the Calgary Stampeders welcomed the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a top of the table clash in the West Division. For the second time this season the Stamps beat the Riders in convincing fashion, this time by a score of 32-15. That means Saskatchewan are 8-0 against everybody else and 0-2 versus Calgary by a combined score of 56-25.

The first point scored in this game showed that Bret Lauther still has a bad case of the yips kicking for Saskatchewan. He missed a short field goal to the left and they settled for a single. Not a good look for a kicker who is now 22 of 34 o field goals for the season which is not a sustainable conversion rate in the modern game. Despite that and Calgary leading 7-1 early, the Roughriders went in ahead at the half up 15-14. They would not score again as Calgary shut the door in the second half and outscored the visitors 18-0 across the final two quarters of play.

Vernon Adamas Jr went 14 of 21 for 222 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and was ably assisted by Daylen Baldwin who had three receptions, for 84 yards, and a touchdown. As well as Dedrick Mills who had 16 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown.

For Saskatchewan Trevor Harris went 15 of 23 for 205 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. KeeSean Johnson was responsible over half of that yardage, hauling in 4 catches for 112 yards.

Saskatchewan entered this game allowing the second-fewest sacks (11) in the CFL. They gave up 4 here and Calgary found ways to create plenty of pressure to knock the rhythm out of the Riders passing game.

With Saskatchewan now 8-2 and Calgary 7-3 but with the series win over the Riders both teams will want to come out of their home-and-homes with Winnipeg and Edmonton respectively with more points to shore up their positions in the standings.

Looking ahead: Week 13 is all about the Labour Day Classics with three traditional rivalry games being played out on the Monday. The best of those games to watch for timings would be the Hamilton Tiger-Cats against the Toronto Argonauts at 7:30PM UK time. That said, all the games are available free on CFL+. The league’s free streaming service is a terrific 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 12:

O – Nick Arbuckle QB, Toronto Argonauts: 26 of 33 for 430 yards and 3 touchdowns, 3 carries for 8 yards and a touchdown.

D – Clarence Hicks DL, Calgary Stampeders: 4 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 2 sacks.

ST – Javon Leake KR/RB, Edmonton Elks: 4 pint returns for 106 yards and a touchdown, 4 kickoff returns for 88 yards, 4 carries for 24 yards and 1 reception for 17 yards.

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 1 West Division 2

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 8 West Division 16

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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