CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 21

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week Twenty-one 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 Hamilton Tiger-Cats hosting the Ottawa RedBlacks. It was Hamilton who came away with a comfortable 35-15 win that had a knock on effect in that it saw Hamilton confirm they would host the East Final, saw Ottawa fire coach Bob Dyce and would lead to Montreal deciding not to start Davis Alexander in their final game of the season in Winnipeg.

Last week I wrote, “At this point I think I could have saved myself a lot of time this season if I had the following phrase copied ready to paste in on a weekly basis – ‘Stop me if you’ve heard this before RedBlacks fans but Ottawa found themselves down by double digits early in this one once again’”. Well guess what R Nation? Ottawa were down 13-0 after a quarter and 26-7 by halftime.

It is no surprise that a coach who had a record of 18-39-1 with the team finally got sacked. But there was so much more for Ottawa fans to bemoan too. This was also a team with the dubious honour of ranking dead last in offensive points at 22.6 per game and for the 16th time in 18 games, the Redblacks scored less than three points in the first quarter. Slow starts have been killing the RedBlacks ability to compete for some time now and that must be on the coaching staff.

But hey enough about what went wrong for Ottawa. There were two teams in this game and Hamilton did exactly what they set out to do in getting the win and earning a bye as well as the right to host the East Division Final, as an 11-7 team. Putting them one game away from the Grey Cup. They had success on both sides of the ball too, but one stat that really stood out was the number six, as Hamilton’s secondary grabbed an incredible six interceptions in this one.

For Hamilton, MOP candidate Bo Levi Mitchell, who will likely be the East Division MOP finalist, finished the game 21 of 31 for 264 yards and 2 touchdowns. Both touchdowns went to Tim White who had 4 catches for 69 yards and 2 touchdowns. We should also give some kudos to Greg Bell as as the second year running back passed a 1,000-yards on the season with 15 carries for 94 yards. He’s been an excellent addition for the tabbies as both a straight up running back and as a receiving back.  At the same time kicker Marc Liegghio more than did his part hitting on all nine of his kicks and going seven for seven on field goals, notching 23 of Hamilton’s 35 points in this game.

The second game of the weekend had the Calgary Stampeders visiting the Edmonton Elks. It was the visitors who took home a 20-10 win to finish the year on a high with their third straight win to finish the season 11-7.  

The Stamps, who had already clinched a playoff berth, gave themselves a chance to finish second in the West Division with this win. But after this they were reliant on the result of BC’s game in Saskatchewan.

One thing that has stood out in the last couple of games is the play of Stamps QB Vernon Adams Jr. ‘Big Play VA’ seems to have transitioned from a big pay, big risk QB to an uber efficient passer. Last week he finished 12 of 14 for 213 yards and 3 touchdowns. This week he finished 17 of 24 for 285 yards. No touchdowns, but crucially zero of the interceptions that were becoming a problem amid the season. In his first full season leading the Calgary attack Adams Jr finished with 4,247 yards through the air with 21 touchdowns as well as rushing for 332 yards and another two majors. It feels a lot like this is his time right now.

One of the major keys to the win for Calgary came in shutting down Justin Rankin. The Elks’ leading rusher was held to 1 yard on 9 carries and Edmonton were held to 27 yards on the ground in total. Edmonton have their most success when their ground game is in good order, but Calgary’s front well and truly shut that down here.

The third game of the weekend was in Winnipeg where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were playing host to the Montreal Alouettes. With Hamilton wrapping up the East Division and a bye, Montreal opted to sit starting QB Davis Alexander and give McLeod Bethel-Thompson the start. It was the home team that won 19-10 to finish with their eighth consecutive double digit winning season (10-8) whilst Montreal, who already knew they would be hosting the Eastern Semi, finished 10-8 also. With the final game of the weekend finishing as it did then, these two will face each other next week in the East semi-final.

Winnipeg were up 13-4 by the half and kept the Als at bay in the second half, especially the fourth quarter, where Montreal had five consecutive possessions that netted nothing to see out the game.

The main story coming out of this game though was probably the injury to Blue Bombers’ backup QB Chris Streveler. He is a great short yardage and running option for Winnipeg but here his knee appeared to go from under him and it was horrible to see him leave the field in obvious pain. It would be a sad way to see his CFL career come to an end.

Terry Wilson stepped in for him and finished the game 12 of 21 for 79 yards with an interception as well as having 8 carries for 30 yards and a touchdown. Matthew Peterson spelling Brady Oliveira here had 17 carries for 80 yards. 

The Final game of the weekend was in Saskatchewan as the Saskatchewan Roughriders played host to the BC Lions.  This was the best game of the weekend and saw the Lions book a home playoff date, hosting Calgary in the West Semi-final thanks to a 27-21 victory.

Both starting quarterbacks looked sharp in this one. Trevor Harris played a half for Saskatchewan and finished the game 10 of 11 for 112 yards and had a very uncharacteristic run for 13 yards. Meanwhile for BC Nathan Rourke threw for over 350 yards and 3 touchdowns. With this performance Rourke finished the season with 5,290 yards passing, making him the fist BC Lions QB over 5,000 yards since 2016 and the first Canadian QB ever to do this.

Keon Hatcher had 7 catches for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns, as he finished the season with 1,688 yards receiving which was best in the league. However, he was also involved in the biggest talking point of this game. A point that probably flipped the game BC’s way and wasn’t a great look for the officials.

During the third quarter, Hatcher appeared to have fumbled infinitesimally close to the goal line. The ball was recovered by Saskatchewan defensive back Tevaughn Campbell, who took off for a seeming 107-yard touchdown. As with all potential scoring plays, the play was automatically reviewed. A fair call given how close Hatcher looked to the goal line. The ruling on the field was that Hatcher did not break the plane, but the whistle was blown early, so the Riders were awarded the ball on the three-yard line. You can imagine how well this sat with the home fans as it wiped out the 107-yard touchdown return. This was the correct call for the sequence of events, but oh boy did they ever blow that whistle early!

The Riders did still have time and opportunity but didn’t look like they had the same cutting edge with Jake Maier under centre. Ultimately, they have lost their last two games by small margins whilst resting players to finish the season 12-6. BC winning meant the Lions finished 11-7 and second in the West, meaning they can host the Stamps, whilst Winnipeg must travel to Montreal as the crossover team.

The 2025 CFL regular season is in the books. It had according to a TSN graphic the most points per game (53.6) in two decades, the most touchdowns per game (5.41) in two decades, the highest red zone touchdown percentage ever (61.6%) and 50% of the games were decided in the last 3 minutes. Remind me again why the new commissioner wants to shorten the field? Surely, he can’t have meant it when he said to increase scoring.

The Playoffs Are Set!

In the East: Hamilton will host the East Division Final.

East Semi Final: Montreal Alouettes host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In the West: Saskatchewan will host the West Division Final.

West Semi Final: BC Lions host the Calgary Stampeders.

MOP's of Week 21:

O – Nathan Rourke QB, BC Lions: 23 of 28 for 368 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception.

D – Jacob Roberts LB, Calgary Stampeders: 9 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 tackle for loss.

ST – Marc Liegghio K, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 7 for 7 on field goals. 9 for 9 on all kicks, scoring 23 points. 3 kickoffs for 193 yards, 64.3 yards per kick average.

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

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 13 West Division 24

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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