CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 19

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week nineteen 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. We were back to a full slate of four games this weekend, including the Thanksgiving Classic.

Let’s dive right in. The first game of the weekend saw the Toronto Argonauts facing the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium. It was the Roughriders who thrilled the home crowd with a 27-19 victory that ensures their first-place seed status and means they will wait to host the West Division Final in the Grey Cup playoffs this year. This is the first time since 2019 that anybody outside of Winnipeg have found themselves in that position.

So, a home playoff date booked. A win to move to a league leading 12 with two to play. And yet perhaps the biggest comfort from this game was the form of their kicker. Brett Lauther has not had a good season with the boot. He has looked like his aim was off at times. But for this one he was five-for-five on his field goals. Critical points in this game and a critical return to form as the team readies for the playoffs. The lack of wind certainly helped, and tougher tests will surely come, but this was a step, or should that be kick, in the right direction.

For Saskatchewan Trevor Harris took some deep shots and looked clinical and in synch on a lot of the over the middle, timing passes he often favours finishing the game 23 of 29 for 340 yards with 2 touchdowns. At receiver Samuel Emilus made some great catches and led the way with 6 grabs for 142 yards. The touchdowns went to Joe Robustelli and former Argo Tommy Nield (once again proving that age-old adage that someone will so often score against their old team).

AJ Allen had 7 tackles with a sack and an interception to lead a defence that mostly kept the Boatmen in check.

With Nick Arbuckle out for the season now and Chad Kelly not returning this year the Argos have a very different looking QB room. So far it has fallen to Jarret Doege to lead the way. Here he was 20 of 31 for 221 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Defensively linebacker Isaak Darkangelo had 11 tackles with 1 sack.

Saskatchewan scored early and held leads after every quarter (6-4, 15-7 & 21-16) before finishing the job. This is in keeping with their year so far as they are now 10-1 when leading at halftime and 11-0 when ahead after three quarters in 2025.

The Roughriders now sit at 12-4 clear atop the West with a home playoff date in the West Final tied up, whilst Toronto fall to 5-12 and will be battling Ottawa to who see ends up propping up the East Division.

The second game of the weekend had the Hamilton Tiger-Cats welcoming the Calgary Stampeders to play against their former star quarterback. This time it was the visitors picking up the win with a convincing 37-20 win over the tabbies. This may have Hamilton fans thinking will the real Hamilton Tiger-Cats please stand up as their recent results have been win, lose, win lose. On the other hand, Calgary fans will be delighted as this snaps a four-game losing slide for them.

It is clear to see what set up the win too as Calgary controlled the ball with a ground game that outperformed Hamilton by 211 yards to 34 and won the turnover battle with 2 key interceptions.

For Calgary Dedrick Mills had 17 carries for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns, whilst Ludovick Choquette contributed 7 carries for 73 yards and a score to do the bulk of the groundwork between them. Vernon Adams Jr added 3 carries for 29 yards from his QB position and finished the game 16 of 23 for 257 yards. He may not have thrown for any touchdowns, but fans and coaches will appreciate the lack of picks which have been a problem of late. Erik Brooks led the Calgary receiving corps with 2 catches for 94 yards.

Defensively Adrian Greene had 4 tackles, and a pick and Derrick Moncrief had 3 tackles and a pick, whilst Anthony Johnson Jr had 8 tackles. On special teams Rene Paredes was 5 of 6 on field goals missing only from 54 yards out. That moves him to fifth place all-time for successful field goal kicks, passing Troy Westwood, as he finished the game with 622 career field goals made.

For Bo Levi Mitchell it was a mixed night as he moved into eighth on the CFL all-time passing yardage list, but spent most of the game running for his life. He finished 25 of 39 for 306 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The abiding memory however will be of being sacked four times, hit a handful more and looking pressured on at least half of his drop backs.

Kenny Lawler led Ticats receivers with 8 receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown. That major means he now has 14 on the season. The record for any Hamilton player is 15. Lawler now has three games left to equal or surpass the record and it looks a good bet that he may do just that.

The result dropped Hamilton to 10-7 and meant they couldn’t replicate what Saskatchewan had done and wrap up their division. Meanwhile Calgary moves to 9-7 and with the result of the following game find themselves currently sat in third place in very congested West Division.

The third game of the weekend was in Alberta where the Edmonton Elks were playing host to their West Division rivals the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. It was the home team here that took home a prized win to keep their outside chances of a playoff berth alive thanks to hanging on to a 25-20 scoreline.

Newly extended running back Justin Rankin was a key piece in the win here, finishing with 18 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown. Winnipeg’s defence had held the Edmonton runner in check before he burst out for a 62-yard touchdown when the Elks went for it on third down in the third quarter. Cody Fajardo had a pedestrian outing finishing 13 of 24 for 142 yards as well as having 4 carries for 25 yards and a touchdown, but not throwing a pick was key as for Winnipeg Zach Collaros ended the game 22 of 23 for 202 yards and a score but with 2 interceptions.

Brady Oliveira once again brought balance to the Blue Bombers turning 12 carries into 117 yards on the ground, meaning that both he and Nic Demski (receiver) have now had 1,000-yard seasons. This is Oliveira’s fourth straight 1,000-yard season and Demski’s third.

The greatest play of the game, perhaps the season though didn’t come from Rankin or Oliveira it was on a touchdown pass from Collaros to Ontaria Wilson. Wilson had 4 catches for 65-yards and that touchdown, which was a 35-yard touchdown catch near the midway point of the fourth quarter. The second year wideout was sandwiched by two Elks defenders in the endzone and Collaros underthrew the ball. Wilson came back to it and a game of aerial ball batting ensued before Wilson dove over one defender laid out in the end zone, stretched his right arm to tip the ball twice, then somehow latched onto it as a third defender arrived to try and pry it loose. It was tough to see if he made the catch in real time but slowed down it was a thing of beauty.

Also in this game, unofficially, Trey Vaval set a new Blue Bombers team record for Missed field goal return yards in a season – now at 329 yards thanks to a 58-yard return that gave Winnipeg great field position.  The previous record was 277 yards set by Albert Johnson in 2000. With the new rules changes coming we may never see the like again. Which is a shame as it has been truly exciting to see Vaval break some of these plays open this season.

Edmonton have come a remarkably long way back from being 1-6 to start the season. They are rounding into form at the sharp end of the season. At 7-9 they are still outside the playoff spots whilst Winnipeg now falls to 8-8 and sit in the crossover spot for now. Both teams will watch the others results very carefully from here on in!

The Final game of the weekend was played on the Monday for the Thanksgiving Day Classic as for the fourth year in a row the Montreal Alouettes played host to the Ottawa RedBlacks for the turkey game. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, (repeatedly), RedBlacks fans, but their opponents got out to a double figure lead and consolidated that into a 30-10 victory. A victory that keeps the Alouettes in the chase for the East Division now standing at 9-7 behind the Ticats.

It all started with Marc-Antoine Dequoy blocking a punt and running it in early to give Montreal the lead. After that they held leads of 11-0 after on period of play, 20-9 at halftime and restricted Ottawa to just a single point in the entire second half.

The Als have now won ten straight games against the RedBlacks whilst Davis Alexander has extended his CFL record perfect winning career start to 10-0, including going 3-0 against Ottawa. He was clinical here finishing 23 of 30 for 240 yards and a touchdown which went to Austin Mack (5 catches for 87 yards and a touchdown). Jose Maltos Diaz going five-for-five on field goals added in a constant flow of points that meant once the Als were ahead they never really let it slip.

For Ottawa William Stanback finished with 11 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown as well as 4 catches for 41 yards against his old team. While QB Dustin Crum went 19 of 29 for 162 yards and had 7 carries for 36 yards. It must be said it never for one moment felt like the Als would let this slip once they were ahead.

Montreal have gone from 5-7 to 9-7 and appear to be hitting form at precisely the right time whilst Ottawa slips to 4-12 and are in danger of finishing 4-14 for the third time in four years. It takes some real fortitude to be an Ottawa football fan right now! The two teams will look to do this all again next week in Ottawa.

Looking ahead: Week 20 starts with the Blue Bombers hosting the Roughriders for the final prairie rivalry game of the regular season in the early hours of Saturday morning UK time. The best game for UK fans to watch timewise though will be the RedBlacks hosting the Alouettes in the return of the home-and-home matches from the Thanksgiving game. That will be played at 8PM on Saturday UK time. That said all the games are available for 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 19:

O – Dedrick Mills RB Calgary Stampeders: 17 carries 105 yards and 2 touchdowns.

D – AJ Allen LB Saskatchewan Roughriders: 7 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception.

ST – Trey Vaval KR/DB Winnipeg Blue Bombers: 3 punt returns for 23 yards, 3 kickoff returns for 65 yards, and one missed field goal return for 58 yards.

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 0 West Division 2

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 13 West Division 23

Playoff Scenarios:

West Final: Saskatchewan Roughriders v ????

In: Saskatchewan Roughriders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes, 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

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