CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Division Finals Week

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to our weekly review of each CFL game week for the 2025 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. This time it’s the playoffs as we look back at the East and West Division Finals and see who will be advancing to the 112th Grey Cup game.

Let’s dive right in. The opening game of the weekend saw the Montreal Alouettes travel to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and it was the Alouettes who moved on to the Grey Cup in Manitoba after posting a 19-16 win here.

A capacity crowd of 25,399 were on hand at Hamilton Stadium to see the clash between the two teams that had finished first and second in the East Division slug it out. There had been talk going in of offensive fireworks, but this one was more of a drag down, knock out, last man standing type of contest, and it was the Alouettes who took the win with a 45-yard Jose Maltos game winning field goal on the final play of the game.

Davis Alexander remains undefeated as a starter for the Alouettes, 13-0 overall and 9-0 this season but this game was not without its struggles. He finished up 19 of 26 for 210 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He did however finish as the game leading rusher for Montreal with 7 carries for 64 yards too.

He also led the game winning drive when it mattered most, even if he only hit on two passes for it as with the game tied Montreal went from their 37 to the Hamilton 36 in six plays. The second pass of the drive was huge, Alexander hitting Charleston Rambo for a 19-yard completion that put the Als in field goal range.

The Montreal faithful will have been worried to see their QB as the leading rusher. Especially as he looked to pull his hamstring slightly during the contest and has been out with a hamstring problem earlier in the season. Everyone on the Als sideline will be hoping it was nothing major.

The game felt like it mattered and both teams were looking to land the first big blow without slipping up early on, so it was very much a defensive field position battle early on. Something reflected in the fact Montreal led 6-3 at the half. Hamilton missed their chance too as they were winning the field position battle but could not convert that into success.

I think it is fair to say that Hamilton possibly lost this game more than Montreal won it. Meaning no disrespect to the Als by that. They are a team that do all the little things well and do not beat themselves. Hamilton meanwhile had a bagful of chances and on multiple occasions missed out on points in a game that would in the end be decided by a single field goal.

Hamilton had the momentum in the fourth quarter too. The Ticats scored a touchdown, Alexander was visibly limping, the D was pressuring him well and the crowd was making its presence felt. Then the Ticats opted for the field goal on third and two to tie the game. Sensible play? It’s an open question and easy to second guess with hindsight but the Als had already shown how well they could march downfield to a three pointer with under two minutes on the clock and they left them over a minute and 30 seconds to get it done. Which they did.

Two years ago, Jose Maltos Diaz was a practice squad player, this time around, after a great season, he kicked the game winning field goal to send his team to the Grey Cup.

Great performances abounded as for Montreal Tyler Snead had 3 catches for 57 yards and a touchdown, Darnell Sankey had 10 tackles and Maltos Diaz hit on all of his kicks. For Montreal Bo Levi Mitchell went 29 of 36 for 269 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Kenny Lawler caught 9 passes for 117 yards and Braxton Hill had 12 tackles.

Montreal will look to hoist the Grey Cup for the second time in three years as they won it all last in 2023.

The second Division Final game was in Saskatchewan where the hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders faced off with the BC Lions. It was the home team the walked out with a late, late rally to win 24-21.           

Just as Montreal were given a chance to take it at the end, so were the Roughriders. They were down by four points with just over a minute to play and marched down the field for an unlikely seeming seven play 76-yard touchdown drive, starting with 1:03 on the clock, as Trevor Harris hit Tommy Nield for the winning touchdown with 11 seconds on the clock.

Trevor Harris’ stats looked great on paper. He finished the game going 26 of 38 for 305 yards and two touchdowns, without an interception. Giving him a quarterback-efficiency rating: 110.1. Yet it didn’t feel that way for much of the game. Honestly it wasn’t Harris’ best game and yet he did what was needed when it mattered most. Harris set a CFL record for most passing touchdowns in a playoff game when he tallied six touchdowns in 2018’s Eastern Final against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. But this drive will be equally well remembered as it was as clutch as it gets. That 2018 performance? It was followed by being outplayed by Bo Levi Mitchell and the Calgary Stampeders in the 2018 Grey Cup game – Harris will be hoping this time around he writes a different script.

A sold-out Mosaic Stadium was rocking at the end of the game. But, just like the Ticats in the East Final, BC had their chances and let them slip by. There was a lot of talk in the build up to this one about Lions QB Nathan Rourke. The MOP candidate as a Canadian could be the face of the league. Harris in a moment quite unlike him had said earlier in the week they were “not here to talk about Nathan Rourke.”

Rourke finished this game 20 of 30 for 290 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception as well as having 4 carries that netted 2 touchdowns. But at the most critical moment, with the lead, he was unable to seal the deal. Twice the Saskatchewan D held the Lions to 2 and outs with the score 21-17 in the visitors’ favour.

Plus, Saskatchewan Coach Corey Mace gave the Lions every chance to win opting to kick a field goal at the five-yard line and punt inside of two minutes whilst behind. All about trusting the D from a coach with a defensive background. More often than not though those decisions would have cost the game. All BC needed was to convert one of the chances they were given.

Even a not at his best Trevor Harris is a good Trevor Harris and the Lions really needed to get to him more but recorded zero sacks in this one and that probably increased his comfort and therefore rhythm in the clutch game sealing drive.

The Riders put up over 400 yards of offence in this one and a lot of that keyed around AJ Ouellette who had 17 carries for 113 yards. Samuel Emilus was Harris’ main partner in crime catching 9 balls thrown his way for 100 yards. With all the ups and downs of his season Rider fans will be happy to have seen Brett Lauther go five for five on all of his kicks.

For the Lions Keon Hatcher had 4 catches for 75 yards and a touchdown whilst Jackson Findlay had 7 tackles.

Saskatchewan will look to hoist the Grey Cup for the first time since their last win in 2013.

Next Week: The 112th Grey Cup

Now we know. This year’s Grey Cup will feature the Montreal Alouettes and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Both teams will be looking to improve on their Grey Cup records with the Als being at 8-11 in the title contest since their first appearance in the championship game in 1949. The Roughriders meanwhile will look to grab their fifth ever title as they stand at 4-15 in Grey Cup games since their first appearance in the cup game back in 1923.

The two teams have squared off twice before in the Grey Cup in back-to- back years in 2009 & 2010. The former game haunts Roughrider fans to this day as they looked like they had it won with Montreal having missed a game winning field goal as time expired only to be penalized for having too many men on the field, allowing a second field goal attempt that won the game. Montreal won both contests, but they were both close, 28-27 & 21-18. Montreal fans will hope for a hat-trick of success and Saskatchewan fans will hope it is third time lucky.

In terms of the 2025 season this will act as a decider for the tow teams as Saskatchewan beat Montreal 34-6 in Week nine, whilst Montreal returned the favour with a 48-31 win in Week fifteen.

For neutrals what we will really be hoping for is a closely contested, exciting game.

MOP's of CFL Division Finals Week:

O – AJ Ouellette RB, Saskatchewan Roughriders: 17 carries for 113 yards, 2 catches for 13 yards.

D – Braxton Hill LB, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 12 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 special teams’ tackle.

ST – Jose Maltos Diaz K, Montreal Alouettes: 4 for 4 on field goals, 5 for 5 on all kicks, 2 kickoffs for 126 yards.

Grey Cup Playoffs:

112th Grey Cup: Montreal Alouettes [12-8] v Saskatchewan Roughriders [13-6].

West Division Final: BC Lions 21 at Saskatchewan Roughriders 24

East Division Final: Montreal Alouettes 19 at Hamilton Tiger-Cats 16

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