CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: week 18

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week eighteen 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. A shorter week this week as only three games were played. If there was a theme to these games, it was that the team that took the lead early went on to win.

Let’s dive right in. The first game of the weekend saw the Ottawa RedBlacks hosting the Saskatchewan Roughriders. It was the visitors who came away with the win 20-13. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before Ottawa fans but the RedBlacks fell behind early 14-3 at halftime and were down 20-3 in the fourth quarter before mounting a comeback that didn’t quite make it. That really has been a story of their season. Especially the bit where they fall behind by double digits early on.

The win elevates Saskatchewan to 11-4, their best record at this stage of a season since the 1970 season when they were 13-2 at this point. Head Coach Corey Mace will lead his team to the playoffs for the second season in a row since taking the helm and this time it looks likely they will take the West Division regular season title for the first time since 2019. For Ottawa this means they drop to a league worst 4-11 and have recorded double digit defeats for the fourth time in five seasons. Head Coach Bob Dyce is now 18-36-1 leading the RedBlacks and is surely on borrowed time. The win elevates the Roughriders to 6-2 on the road and 4-0 against East Division teams.

Trevor Harris finished the game 27 of 33 for 341 yards and a touchdown for Saskatchewan and Dohnte Meyers was his leading receiver with 6 catches for 158 yards and a touchdown. AJ Ouellette had 18 carries for 53 yards and a touchdown. The Riders had three interceptions – all from the linebacking corps with one each for AJ Allen, Jameer Thurman and Antoine Brooks Jr.

For Ottawa Dru Brown had an instantly forgettable game going 11 of 20 for 141 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions. Ottawa’s best spark came when Dustin Crum stepped in and went 12 of 16 for 99 yards and a touchdown. Justin Hardy had 5 catches for 57 yards and a touchdown and Eugene Lewis had 5 catches for 56 yards.

During this game Saskatchewan QB Trevor Harris moved past Matt Dunigan and into ninth place on the CFL’s career completions list. Dunigan had 3,057 completions. Harris now has 3,064.

The second game of the weekend had the Toronto Argonauts welcoming the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the conclusion to their rivalry series for this year. It was the visitors who came out on top with a dominant 47-29 win. For the defending champions this will be the first season since Ryan Dinwiddie became Head Coach that they have not made the playoffs. Not exactly the way they would have wanted to sign off from their home stadium for the next 10 months or so as the football world cup comes to town and takes over their ground until at least July next year. With this result a Western crossover team is now guaranteed to fill the third playoff spot in the East Division.

The teams had split the previous contests with a 35-33 win for the Boatmen and a 51-38 win for the tabbies. This time it was the Ticats who dominated, in the theme of the weekend’s games taking the lead early and then holding off any semblance of a rally from the home side. You probably won’t hear a lot about it but this gives the Ticats the Ballard Cup for the season.

Bo Levi Mitchell led the Hamilton attack finishing 18 of 25 for 320 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. It feels like there is a very compelling case to be made for him to be the East Division MOP finalist for the second year in a row. Brendan O’Leary-Orange led the Receivers with 111 yards and 2 touchdowns from just 2 catches! Kiondre Smith had 6 catches for 98 yards and on the ground, Greg Bell had 12 carries for 76 yards and a score.

The Hamilton pass rush was relentless on this one and after dispatching starter Nick Arbuckle with an upper body injury they took down Jarret Doege on multiple occasions. Leading the way were defensive linemen Julian Houseware and Philip Ossai with 4 and 3 sacks each respectively. From all that pressure came interceptions and Stavros Katsantonis really led the way with 3 picks.

For Toronto Jarret Doege finished 34 of 49 for 323 yards with 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Dejon Brissett had 8 catches for 97 yards and Makai Polk had 8 for 88 yards. The touchdowns went to David Ungerer III and Kevin Mital.

Hamilton now sits at 10-6, four points clear at the top of the East Division. The first time they have had double digit wins in a season since 2019 when they went 15-3 but lost in the Grey Cup. The Argos meanwhile have double digits in the loss column for the first time since their own 2019 season. They will hope for a return to form under Dinwiddie next year, who despite a down year is still 51-33 as coach putting him fourth all-time for wins in the storied history of the franchise.

The third game of the weekend was in Vancouver where the BC Lions were playing host to their West Division rivals the Calgary Stampeders. It was the hosts who took the win 38-24 and put themselves into the playoffs.

These two teams are going in opposite directions. Not that long ago the Stamps were 8-3 and sitting near the top of lots of league power rankings. Their fourth straight defeat sees them fall to 8-7 whilst by contrast the Lions were 5-7 four games ago and have won four straight games to leapfrog over Calgary with a 9-7 record. The Leos and Stamps have gone head-to-head twice over that span and BC have won both games by a combined score of 90-47.

In keeping with the theme of the weekend the Lions got off to a great start, got ahead early and then held off a Calgary rally near the end of the game. In fact, the Lions were up 31-9 early in the fourth quarter. There was some nervousness towards the end as they threw a pair of picks which Calgary converted into touchdowns to get within seven before Robert Carter recorded a couple of interceptions to settle the nerves and help BC see it out.

Nathan Rourke led the Lions going 25 of 32 for 414 yards and 4 touchdowns with 2 picks, as well as having 2 carries for 22 yards. Three receivers had 97 yards or more and Keon Hatcher led the way with 7 catches for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns. Running back James Butler had plenty of work in the offence too with 15 carries for 42 yards and 6 receptions for 97 more.

Defensively the Lions recorded six sacks and had three interceptions whilst TJ Lee had 8 tackles taking him to 604 and sole second place in the Lions all-time list.

For Calgary Vernon Adams Jr. went 21 of 38 for 303 yards, with 2 TDs, & 3 INTs. He was supported by Erik Brooks with 5 catches for 92 yards and Jalen Philpot who had 7 grabs for 71 yards. The touchdowns went to Clark Barnes and Dominique Rhymes.

You have to think that Rourke is currently a leading candidate for league MOP. After all, this is an award that usually favours quarterbacks and overall, the Canadian is having a great season. His biggest rival for the honour is probably last year’s East Division MOP Bo Levi Mitchell of the Ticats who currently leads the league in passing yardage and touchdowns. Rourke sits second in both categories having played two games less than Mitchell. He also is third in the league for rushing touchdowns and eighth in yardage which outstrips Mitchell by some distance. We will see how it plays out but right now the award is his to lose.  

After this the Lions have a bye which may have come at the wrong time given the form they are currently showing, whilst Calgary faces another difficult task with a trip to Hamilton.

We now know that there will be a West Division team crossing over in the playoffs, so the remaining two spots need to be settled between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-7), Calgary Stampeders (8-7) and Edmonton Elks (6-9). Obviously, the Elks will need the other teams to slip up at this point and must be hoping their Alberta rivals Calgary’s four game losing streak becomes something of a freefall.

MOP's of Week 18

O – Dohnte Meyers WR, Saskatchewan Roughriders: 6 catches on 6 targets for 158 yards and a touchdown.

D – Stavros Katsantonis DB, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 8 tackles, 3 interceptions.

ST – Lirim Hajrullahu K, Toronto Argonauts.  5 for 5 on field goal kicks. 7 for 7 on all kicks. 4 kickoffs for 248 yards (62-yard average).

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 0 West Division 1

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 13 West Division 21

Playoff Scenarios:

In: Saskatchewan Roughriders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, BC Lions.

Out: Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa RedBlacks.

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

5/5