CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2026: Week 5

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week five of our weekly review of each week of the 2026 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 kicked off the Canada Day Weekend with the Calgary Stampeders hosting the Toronto Argonauts in the second annual Stampede Bowl. It was the Stamps who came away with the win 58-36 in a high scoring affair. 

This one belonged to Vernon Adams Jr., and his play ensured it wasn’t especially close. He completed 20 of 25 passes for 405 yards and six touchdowns, adding a seventh score on a 22-yard scramble. He finished the night with a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Big Play VA indeed! That stat line made him only the fifth player in CFL history to throw for 400-plus yards and six-plus touchdowns without an interception in the same game, and it tied him for the Stampeders’ single-game passing touchdown record, a mark that had stood since Jeff Garcia matched it back in 1995, with Doug Flutie and Peter Liske also part of that club. Head coach Dave Dickenson didn’t hold back afterwards, calling it “one of the better games I’ve probably ever seen,” before adding that his quarterback was “playing winning football.”

The game went big early and never really slowed down. Adams found Jalen Philpot for a six-yard score on Calgary’s opening drive, before Toronto hit back through a three-yard Chad Kelly touchdown pass to Makai Polk. A kickoff rouge nudged the Stamps 8-7 up after the first quarter, and from there Calgary simply kept pulling away. Adams connected with a former Argos favourite, Dejon Brissett to open the second quarter scoring. Philpot reeled in his second touchdown of the night, and then came the play of the half. With seconds left before the break, Adams found Tevin Jones deep down the field, and Jones did the rest, turning it into a 73-yard touchdown after Toronto defensive back Benjie Franklin mistimed a jump on the route. That score sent Calgary into the locker room 29-18 up, having also seen Kelly scramble in from seven yards out in between.

The third quarter was more of the same story. Adams stretched the lead to 36-18 five minutes in with a 45-yard strike to Clark Barnes, Toronto responded through a second Polk touchdown, and Quincy Vaughn plunged in from a yard out to make it 44-24 heading into the fourth. Even at that point, with a 20-point lead in the bank, the Stampeders kept their foot on the accelerator. Adams found Brissett for his sixth and record-tying touchdown pass, then added the exclamation point himself with a 22-yard scrambling touchdown, his only carry of the entire game. Toronto did manage some late respectability through a Nick Arbuckle touchdown pass to Damonte Coxie, but by then the outcome had long been decided.

If you’re after a snapshot of just how well the Calgary offence performed here, this is the one to remember. Their net offence for the night was 496 yards, with five different receivers hauling in multiple catches and four of them finding the end zone, this from a team that had come into the week ranked last in the league in both passing yards and net offence per game. Rookie defensive back Zy Alexander also deserves a mention, picking off two passes, including an impressive one-handed grab, to help Calgary win the turnover battle. He now has three interceptions through just two starts this season.

Adams was keen to spread the credit around afterwards. “It’s just all glory to God, man,” he said. “I thought the coaches put together a great game plan. I thought we played as a team tonight. We played together as one fist, as Dave would say.” He also revealed he had no idea a franchise record was even on the line, insisting he was simply trying to outscore Chad Kelly on the other side: “I was just trying to score more points, because I know I’ve got a great quarterback over there. I just kept telling the offence, hey guys, we gotta go score, we just gotta go score every time.” Tevin Jones, who caught four passes for a team-leading 139 yards and a score, put it rather more succinctly. “It’s in his name, Big Play VA. What do you expect?”

It wasn’t all doom for Toronto’s offence individually. Kelly threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns while also running for another, though two interceptions crept into his night, taking his season total to eight. For the Argos to succeed he really needs to stop giving the ball away. Toronto also had to shuffle their offensive line after losing Dakoda Shepley to a six-game injured list stint with a back issue, with rookie Domenico Piazza making his first career start at centre. He held up reasonably well, with the unit conceding only a single sack all night, but no amount of resilience up front was going to be enough against an Adams JR inspired Calgary attack playing at this level. Argos head coach Mike Miller was gracious enough in defeat, admitting of Adams: “He’s an explosive player. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to contain him enough tonight. Give him the credit.”

The win keeps the Stampede Bowl trophy in Calgary for a second straight year, with Adams collecting MVP honours in both instalments of the fixture so far. Calgary improve to 2-2 and now head east to take on the Alouettes in Montreal next Saturday, while Toronto will look to regroup with an eight-day break before travelling to Winnipeg.

MOP of the game

O – Vernon Adams Jr. QB, Calgary Stampeders: 20/25, 405 yards, 6 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD, 158.3 passer rating.

The second game of the weekend was between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa REDBLACKS at TD Place Stadium. Only a spectacular special teams score and some second-half composure saw the Riders escape the capital with a 27-22 win, one that stretched Ottawa’s losing start to an unwanted 0-4. After starting last year 1-6, and with a new regime in place for this season, this is exactly where Ottawa fans did not want to be right now.

Ottawa were the better side for long spells of the first half, and deserved the early lead they built. On just the second play from scrimmage Trevor Harris had a bouncing pass picked off by his former teammate A.J. Allen, and things quickly got worse for the visitors as Cade McDonald hauled in a short catch-and-run score for his first CFL score. Special teams did the Riders no favours either. Brian Cole blocked an Oscar Chapman punt straight off his own helmet. An unusual way to make the highlight reel, but I’m sure the coaches will be showing it in the week! Ottawa cashed in the resulting field position with a Brett Lauther field goal to move 10-0 up before the game was even twenty minutes old.

If you have read these columns before, you will know I go on relentlessly about winning the turnover battle, and this game was no exception. Saskatchewan slowly clawed their way level. Harris finished a 75-yard drive with a touchdown pass to Dhel Duncan-Busby, and although Kalil Pimpleton’s fumbled kickoff return handed the Riders a short field for an Alex Hale field goal to tie it at 10-10, Ottawa nudged back in front through another Brett Lauther kick before Hale’s second three-pointer, right on the stroke of half-time, squared it up again at 13-13.

Then came the moment that swung the entire contest. Playing in his first CFL game of all nights, having been released by Ottawa themselves after this year’s rookie camp, Mathew Sexton fielded Noah Gettman’s punt, hugged the sideline and sprinted 101 yards for the score, the sixth-longest punt return in Roughriders history. There is something rather poetic about a player being let go by one club in the spring, only to torch them for the winning touchdown that same summer, and Sexton probably loved every yard of it. The former San Antonio Brahma has form from his UFL time here, having returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in Week 4 of the 2025 UFL season.

Harris moved past Tom Clements and into 12th on the CFL’s all-time passing yardage list with a 23-yard completion to Johnny Johnson III, and two plays later a matching 23-yard strike found KeeSean Johnson in the end zone to cap the quarter at 27-16. Ottawa mounted one last rally in the fourth, with short-yardage quarterback Bryson Barnes barrelling in from a yard out to make it a five-point game, but Saskatchewan’s defence held its nerve when it mattered most, stuffing Barnes on a third-down sneak with under three minutes to go to turn the ball over on downs and effectively end the contest.

None of that stopped Ryan Dinwiddie venting afterwards about his team’s continued self-inflicted wounds. “It’s just beyond me, some of the stuff we’ve done,” the REDBLACKS head coach said, before adding separately that “our FBI, football intelligence, ain’t there yet.” Given Ottawa dropped to 0-4 to open the season, the frustration is understandable, even if that punt block off the facemask probably deserves an inquest all of its own.

Harris finished 18 of 31 for 243 yards, two touchdowns and that one early interception, while KeeSean Johnson continued his sensational start to the year with 137 yards, his third century mark in four games. Jake Maier was sharp in defeat too, going 23 of 30 for 259 yards, with Justin Hardy his top target on 92 yards. Saskatchewan head to Hamilton next week, while Ottawa’s search for a first win continues in Edmonton.

MOP of the game

ST – Mathew Sexton PR, Saskatchewan Roughriders: 4 returns, 140 yards, 1 touchdown (101-yard punt return).

The third game of the weekend saw the BC Lions welcome the previously unbeaten Edmonton Elks to the Apple Bowl in Kelowna for the second and final instalment of Touchdown Kelowna. It was the home side pulling off the upset, running out 36-24 winners to claim their first victory of the season.

This had the makings of a statement afternoon for Edmonton’s Justin Rankin, the CFL’s leading rusher coming in, but the Lions’ front seven had other ideas, holding him to just 19 yards on seven carries and negative yardage at the half. (Of course this was the first time I had picked him for my CFL Fantasy team all year so this was almost inevitable. Sorry Elks fans!). Instead, it was BC’s own ball carriers who stole the show. James Butler, who had managed only 39 yards a game across the season’s opening month, exploded for 135 yards and two touchdowns on just 15 carries, while backup Zander Horvath chipped in with two scores of his own, one on the ground and one through the air.

The game opened at a frantic pace. Horvath punched in from a yard out to give BC an early lead, only for Edmonton to hit straight back through a Cody Fajardo touchdown pass to Kaion Julien-Grant, set up by a Nathan Rourke interception that Dariel Djabome returned deep into Lions territory. Sean Whyte’s field goal edged BC back in front after one, before Fajardo found Julien-Grant again, this time with a two-point convert attached, to give the Elks their only lead of the afternoon early in the second.

BC responded in emphatic fashion. Butler scored twice in the space of five minutes and Whyte slotted a 33-yard field goal to make it 26-14, and although Fajardo squeezed in a third touchdown pass, this one to Austin Mack, to get Edmonton back within five, Whyte answered again with a 40-yard field goal on the final play of the half to send the Lions into the break up 29-21. The third quarter passed without so much as a single point troubling the scoreboard, a rare moment of calm in an otherwise frenetic contest, before Rourke found Horvath for a fourth-quarter score that put the result beyond doubt. A late Vincent Blanchard field goal was scant consolation for Edmonton.

I have said it here plenty of times before, and I will keep saying it: win the turnover battle and you generally win the game, and this was as clear an example as you will see all season. BC came into the weekend without a single defensive takeaway to their name, then collected four of them in one afternoon, with Jackson Findlay, Ronald Kent Jr. and Darnell Sankey all intercepting Fajardo, plus a Casey Sayles fumble recovery for good measure. Edmonton, by contrast, coughed the ball up four times themselves. It rather summed up whose day it was.

There was extra context behind BC’s turnaround too. The Lions had parted ways with special teams coordinator Cory McDiarmid earlier in the week and handed the role to committee for this one, so there was a certain symmetry in it being the defence, rather than that beleaguered unit, who delivered the difference. Head coach Buck Pierce was suitably delighted afterwards. “Damn, that feels f***ing good,” he reportedly screamed, bouncing around a raucous locker room, while a rather more measured Elks counterpart Mark Kilam offered a franker assessment on 880 CHED: “We were never really in this game… every time we had a little bit of momentum or started to get things going, we had a negative play and that’s what set us back.” Fajardo, who threw for 395 yards and three touchdowns but also three interceptions, pointed to the running game he never had: “Our brand of football is running the football, and they had a good plan for us and they stopped us.”

Rourke, for his part, did not need to be spectacular, going 27 of 36 for 320 yards and a touchdown, though he also threw two interceptions of his own, neither of them really his fault, with both coming off deflections. Austin Mack was the game’s leading receiver with 141 yards for the Elks, while linebacker Joel Dublanko was a rare bright spot on the losing side, picking off one pass himself and forcing the deflection that gave Edmonton their other interception. The result snaps Edmonton’s unbeaten start at 3-1 and lifts BC off the bottom of the West to 1-3. Edmonton are straight back in action at home to Ottawa this week, while BC now get a bye before the rematch in Edmonton on July 17.

MOP of the game

O – James Butler RB, BC Lions: 15 carries, 135 yards, 2 rushing TDs, 3 catches, 27 yards.

The Final game of Week 5 brought the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to the Hammer to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Going in this was billed as a heavyweight quarterback duel between Zach Collaros and Bo Levi Mitchell, and ended up costing both teams their starter. It was rookie Taylor Elgersma who was left to steer the Bombers to a stirring 14-13 comeback win in front of 20,189 in Steeltown.

Hamilton could not have wished for a better start. Destin Talbert intercepted Collaros on the very first play of the game, and three plays later Mitchell found Kenny Lawler for a 19-yard touchdown, the receiver pulling the ball away from Jonathan Moxey in tight coverage for one of the catches of the season. Sergio Castillo answered with a 46-yard field goal to make it 7-3, but the TiCats controlled most of what followed. Facing third-and-goal from the Winnipeg three, Hamilton opted for the safe three points through Marc Liegghio rather than push for the clinching score, a decision that will have divided opinion given how the game turned out, and Winnipeg’s defence forced a second red-zone stop of the half before Liegghio added another field goal to make it 13-3.

Collaros would not be around to see how that gamble played out. He was sacked by Reggie Stubblefield on the first play of the second quarter and did not return, finishing with just five completions from seven attempts for 41 yards and that opening interception. Elgersma, making his first career appearance, took the controls from there. Right on the stroke of half-time, Castillo somehow contrived to miss a 56-yard field goal attempt, slipping as he struck it, and Isaiah Wooden Sr. was forced into a knee for the single that made it 13-4 to Hamilton at the break.

If you have read these columns before, or indeed any game reports here, you will know how much stock I put in special teams, and this game delivered on that front for both the wrong and right reasons. Early in the third quarter Mitchell was sacked by Jake Ceresna and left the field in an ambulance with a lower-body injury, handing Hamilton’s offence to Tre Ford and Jake Dolegala for the rest of the night. Winnipeg needed only moments to make the Tiger-Cats pay. Trey Vaval, the CFL’s reigning Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, pulled off a 46-yard punt return to set up prime field position, and Elgersma promptly found Ontaria Wilson on a 31-yard shovel-pass touchdown, the first CFL passing touchdown of Elgersma’s career, to cut the deficit to 13-11.

That was as good as it got for the TiCats’ offence. Hamilton were shut out in the second half, with Ford and Dolegala combining to complete just three of nine passes for 12 yards, and Winnipeg’s defence made the closing stages far more comfortable than the scoreline suggested. Ford’s final act of the night summed up Hamilton’s evening: with just over three minutes to go and Hamilton deep in Winnipeg territory, cornerback Major Williams stepped in front of a pass for the interception that swung the game for good.

From there it was, in Brady Oliveira’s own words, “vintage” Bomber football. Offensive coordinator Tommy Condell turned to his workhorse running back seven straight times, Oliveira grinding out 44 yards to march Winnipeg into range, and Castillo made no mistake on his second attempt of the night, drilling a 23-yard field goal with 22 seconds left for a 14-13 lead that held up.

There is a neat historical footnote buried in all this. With both Elgersma and Ford under centre, it marked the first time two U Sports graduates had thrown passes in the same CFL regular-season game since 1969. The pair even faced off twice at university, with Ford’s Waterloo getting the better of Elgersma’s Laurier both times back in 2021. On Sunday, in far less enviable circumstances for both sides, it was Elgersma who came out on top.

Mitchell finished 18 of 29 for 228 yards and a touchdown before his injury, while Elgersma was tidy in relief with 11 completions from 15 attempts for 86 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. Winnipeg move to 2-2, avenging their 37-27 Week 2 defeat to Hamilton in the process, while the TiCats slip to the same record and now face a daunting trip to the defending Grey Cup champion Roughriders next week. Winnipeg, on a short week, host Toronto on Friday.

MOP of the game

D – Major Williams DB, Winnipeg Blue Bombers: game-sealing interception with just over three minutes to go, plus three pass breakups.

Just when you think you have a handle on who and what the teams are this season they go and surprise you. I guess that’s why they play the games. I will say too, the amount of high scoring games this season does sort of make me question the reasoning for the coming rue changes if they are supposed to increase scoring.

Next week there is once again a full slate of four games. Whilst none of them are prior to midnight UK time, you can catch up with them for free on CFL+

Standings:

Interdivisional Standings This Week: East Division 0, West Division 3

Interdivisional Standings 2026 season: East Division 3, West Division 5

Home Field Advantage?

This Week: Home 2 Away 2

The Season so Far: Home 8 Away 10*

(*Toronto are playing some ‘home’ designated games in away stadiums and the Lions are playing some home games in Vancouver but away from BC Place, both because of the World Cup).

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

Rated 5 out of 5