CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2026: Week 6

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week six 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 week saw the previously unbeaten-in-a-fortnight Edmonton Elks host the winless Ottawa REDBLACKS at Commonwealth Stadium on a Thursday night, and it turned into precisely the sort of get-well game Edmonton needed after having their four-game winning start ended by BC the week before. The Elks ran out 40-17 winners to move to 4-1 and, for a few hours at least, sole possession of top spot in the West.

This one belonged to Justin Rankin, who opened the scoring with a 19-yard touchdown run on Edmonton’s first possession of the night and kept on finding the end zone from there. He turned a short catch into a 33-yard score in the fourth quarter, made a defender miss in the process, and then added a 31-yard rushing touchdown a few minutes later to put the game to bed. Three touchdowns, 150 yards from scrimmage, and another chapter in what is becoming an extraordinary campaign. Cody Fajardo was excellent too, completing 19 of 24 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns, and made a point afterwards of crediting his offensive coordinator, Jordan Maksymic. “I went to give him his flowers, we had (555) yards of offence,” Fajardo told TSN’s Tom Gazzola. “I just wanted to tell him he called a great game. He did a tremendous job on a short week.”

Ottawa were not without their moments. Bryson Barnes punched in a one-yard rushing score to make it 10-7 in the second quarter, and Jake Maier found Ayden Eberhardt for a 21-yard touchdown early in the third to trim the deficit to two points, which is about as close as this one ever threatened to get. Edmonton’s defence made sure of that. Kordell Jackson picked off Maier twice, with Tyrell Ford and Chelen Garnes chipping in an interception apiece, four takeaways in total, and each of the big ones seemed to arrive at precisely the moment Ottawa were building a head of steam. “It’s good to get going, we’ve been struggling as far as DBs getting the ball out of the air, so (Ford) set the tone and everybody else followed,” said Jackson. “Any time one comes, they come in bunches, so it’s good to get it, we just got to keep it going now.”

If you have read these columns before, you will know how much stock I put in the turnover battle, and this was as one-sided an example as you will find all season: four takeaways for Edmonton, none at all for Ottawa, and a final scoreline to match. Vincent Blanchard was perfect again too, landing all four of his field-goal attempts to remain perfect on the year. Elks head coach Mark Kilam was pleased with how his side responded after stalling for large parts of the third quarter. “I’m proud of them for sticking with it, because we stalled out big time in the third,” he said. “They just stayed with it, that’s what good teams do. It’s professional football, [Ottawa are] going to make some plays, you do have to give them credit, but then when we found our footing and we got going, then we could blow it open.”

There is also a rather remarkable subplot developing in Edmonton that deserves its own paragraph. Through five games, Rankin has rushed for 513 yards and six touchdowns while adding 297 receiving yards and another score, 810 yards from scrimmage and seven total touchdowns before we’re even a third of the way through the season. Project that over 18 games and you get numbers that would put him past Mike Pringle’s all-time single-season record of 2,414 yards from scrimmage, a mark that has stood since 1998. Whether he can sustain it is another question entirely, given how brutal an 18-game slate can be on a running back’s body, but it is the sort of start that gets people at CFL.ca reaching for the history books, and rightly so.

Ottawa remains without a win at 0-5, a start that will have alarm bells ringing all the way up the Rideau Canal, particularly with a new coaching regime in place. Maier finished 26 of 39 for 293 yards with one touchdown and four picks, and the honest truth is Ottawa’s defence gave up too much ground for their offence’s slow start to matter either way. Edmonton stays home to face BC next week in a rematch of that Kelowna defeat, while Ottawa’s search for a first win takes them to Winnipeg.

MOP of the game

O – Justin Rankin RB, Edmonton Elks: 14 carries, 107 yards, 2 rushing TDs, 3 catches, 43 yards, 1 receiving TD.

The second game of the week took the Toronto Argonauts to Winnipeg for round two of their extraordinary road trip, and it was the Blue Bombers who came away 30-21 winners at Princess Auto Stadium, in what turned into a rather nervier finish than the first half suggested it would be.

With Zach Collaros unavailable, Dru Brown made his first Bombers start since 2023 and made an immediate impression, throwing for 252 yards in the first half alone. Tim White got the scoring started with a 35-yard catch-and-run just before the end of the first quarter, shedding a tackle at the goal line for good measure, and Sergio Castillo landed four field goals in that opening half, two either side of a Sam Hicks rushing score, to send Winnipeg into the break 19-7 up. The Argos, who had scored at least 30 points in each of their first four games this season, simply couldn’t get their offence going against a Bombers defence that had Chad Kelly under pressure throughout.

Toronto found some rhythm after the interval. Kelly connected with Tyler Kahmann for the receiver’s league-leading fifth touchdown of the season to make it a five-point game midway through the third, and for a spell it looked as though the comeback might be on. Instead, Winnipeg’s special teams intervened in the way they so often seem to for this franchise. Trey Vaval, having fumbled a punt return earlier in the game, atoned for it in spectacular fashion in the fourth quarter, running back a missed Toronto field goal the length of the field to make it 29-14 and effectively end the contest as a serious threat, even though Kelly found Makai Polk to bring it back to an eight-point game with just under three minutes to go.

Brown finished 25 of 31 for 339 yards, a touchdown and an interception in an impressive audition, while Brady Oliveira ground out 69 yards on the ground and Nic Demski caught six passes for 82 yards. Kelly was 24 of 36 for 320 yards in defeat, and Winnipeg’s defensive line had their say too, with Willie Jefferson recording two of the Bombers’ three sacks on the night.

There was late needle to go with it. Argos receiver Damonte Coxie was ejected with just over six minutes to go for slapping Winnipeg defensive back Major Williams across the face, and Williams was in no mood to let it slide when 3DownNation caught up with him afterwards. “It occurred a couple times during the game,” Williams said. “That’s just one of the ones that they called.” According to Williams, the pair had been trading blows off the ball for much of the evening, though he insisted there were no hard feelings. “It’s just football. At the end of the day, we’re just competitors. Best of luck to him. I know sometimes we get emotional playing this game, but it’s about emotional stability.”

Kelly, for his part, was in a reflective mood afterwards about the unique circumstances his team find themselves in this season, five straight road games deep into their enforced exile from BMO Field while World Cup renovation work continues. “This is obviously something unprecedented,” he said. “No professional team has had to do what we’re doing right now with five straight away games, back-to-back-to-back leaving the East to go West, and it’s not easy.” It is hard not to have some sympathy, even for a divisional rival; losing a home stadium for the best part of two months is not something any CFL team has really had to contend with before.

Winnipeg moves to 3-2 and head to Ottawa next, while Toronto, at 2-3, at least get the mercy of a short trip to Hamilton for their sixth away day in a row.

MOP of the game

D – Trey Vaval, Winnipeg Blue Bombers: game-sealing missed field-goal return touchdown, plus a forced fumble recovery on special teams.

The third game of the week brought the Montreal Alouettes back from their bye in some style, as they saw off the Calgary Stampeders 37-30 at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium to move to 4-1 on the season.

Davis Alexander was the man pulling the strings, completing 22 of 30 passes for 301 yards and a touchdown, but this was as balanced a performance as Montreal have produced all year. Tyson Philpot hauled in nine of his ten targets for 132 yards and a score, Tyler Snead added 86 receiving yards to go with a touchdown pass of his own on a lovely first-quarter trick play, and Travis Theis ran for 94 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. Montreal struck quickly after forcing a Vernon Adams Jr. fumble, needing just two plays to get Philpot in for the game’s first touchdown off Snead’s fake bubble-screen pass.

Adams Jr. was in no mood to go quietly, though, and after his Stampede Bowl heroics the week before, he threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns, finding Dejon Brissett twice, the Canadian receiver’s fourth touchdown in as many games for Calgary. Brissett’s second score pulled the Stamps back to within a single score at 27-20, but Montreal had a quick counter through Dustin Crum and then JosĂ© Maltos DĂ­az’s boot to push the cushion back out. Calgary had one last say deep into the fourth, Adams Jr. finding Clark Barnes to make it a seven-point game with under a minute to go, but David Perales broke up a third-down attempt to seal it for the Als.

Montreal’s defence deserves plenty of credit too, holding Adams Jr. below fifty per cent passing through the first half and keeping reigning rushing champion Dedrick Mills under four yards a carry for long spells. It is a fifth win in six for the Alouettes, who now travel to Calgary for an immediate rematch and a chance to complete the season sweep for a second straight year, while the Stampeders slip to 2-3 and will be looking to arrest their long-running skid against Montreal on home turf next week.

MOP of the game

O – Tyson Philpot WR, Montreal Alouettes: 9 catches, 132 yards, 1 receiving TD.

The final game of the week was an entirely one-sided affair in Regina, as the Saskatchewan Roughriders eased to a 38-7 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to move level with Edmonton at 4-1 atop the West.

With Bo Levi Mitchell sidelined by the lower-body injury he suffered in Week 5, Jake Dolegala made his first start since August 2024 for the Ticats, and it was a torrid evening for Hamilton’s offence throughout, managing just 65 yards in the entire first half. It was a quirky start to the scoring too: a missed Alex Hale field goal and an 81-yard Mitch McCarthy punt rouge left it tied 1-1 before either side had managed a proper drive. Hale and Marc Liegghio then traded field goals to level it at 4-4, before Trevor Harris found Samuel Emilus for the game’s first touchdown to put Saskatchewan 11-4 up, with a second Liegghio kick trimming it back to 11-7 at the break. Harris added a second touchdown pass, to Kian Schaffer-Baker, early in the third to push the lead out to 18-7.

Hamilton’s defence at least gave their side a foothold, picking Harris off twice after the interval, but the Riders’ own defence more than matched them stop for stop, killing off one Ticats drive on third down straight after the first interception. It was Saskatchewan’s defence who really settled the contest late on, as Josh Woods returned an interception 107 yards for a touchdown with just over three minutes to go, one of those game-icing pick-sixes that leaves absolutely no way back. Tommy Stevens added two short touchdown runs of his own in the fourth to round out the scoring, finishing with 54 yards on eight carries.

A.J. Ouellette made a solid return from a two-game absence with 83 yards on 18 attempts, and Schaffer-Baker led the Riders’ receivers with 78 yards and a touchdown. Dolegala’s evening summed up Hamilton’s problems, 17 of 30 for just 122 yards and an interception, before Tre Ford was given a look late on and completed five of six for 47 yards. There was a nice human-interest note in the build-up to this one too, with Harris having credited Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich for teaching him how to play the position well at this level in the first place, the pair having come up together at the Toronto Argonauts, where Milanovich was head coach and Harris a young QB, winning a Grey Cup together in 2012. A debt he showed no signs of repaying on the field on Sunday.

Saskatchewan’s defence remains the story of their season so far, and with the bye now arriving in Week 7, they will have plenty of time to enjoy it before returning to face Edmonton, the team they are currently tied with at the top of the West, on July the 23rd. Hamilton, meanwhile, head back home to face Toronto with plenty of questions still to answer at quarterback in the absence of the injured Bo Levi Mitchell.

MOP of the game

D – Josh Woods LB, Saskatchewan Roughriders: 107-yard interception return touchdown.

Standings

It has been a funny old week for the East Division on the whole, with only Montreal’s win over Calgary to show for it against the West, and for Ottawa in particular, whose 0-5 start already has the alarm bells ringing loudly enough that I imagine there are some fairly awkward conversations happening in the front office this week. Meanwhile in the West it’s Edmonton and Saskatchewan setting the pace together at 4-1, with both boasting defences that look capable of winning games on their own if required.

Next week there is once again a full slate of games. Three of them do not kick off before midnight UK time, but as ever you can catch up with all of it for free on CFL+. The best game for UK based fans to catch though is Montreal at Calgary on Saturday the 18th at 9PM.

Standings:

Interdivisional Standings This Week: East Division 1, West Division 3

Interdivisional Standings 2026 season: East Division 4, West Division 8

Home Field Advantage?

This Week: Home 3 Away 1

The Season so Far: Home 11 Away 11*

(*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