CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 11

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week eleven 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 Ottawa RedBlacks take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Manitoba. It was the hometown team that came away with the win thanks to a walkoff field goal holding at bay a hard charging Ottawa comeback to give Winnipeg the win 30-27. A win that extends the streak of Winnipeg not losing to Ottawa at home that dates to August the 17th, 2018!

For ‘Wear white night’ the Blue Bombers had their 10th straight sellout with 32,343 fans in attendance. Their next home game is the 2025 edition of the Banjo Bowl and that will be a sellout too! It now seems likely that Winnipeg will sell out the entire 2025 season, including the Grey Cup. Those fans saw Winnipeg get off to a dominant start before Ottawa pegged them back and even tied the game up in remarkable circumstances close to the end of the game.

Winnipeg had leads of 17-0 and 27-10 in this one before letting Ottawa claw their way back to parity. In fact, they were 27-10 up going into the fourth quarter and were up 27-20 near the end of the game when Sergio Castillo lined up a 57-yard field goal attempt, only to push it slightly left and see Kalil Pimpleton return it 117 yards for a touchdown for the RedBlacks and tie up the game. There was a collective intake of breath from the sellout crowd after that one. Especially as Ottawa had won thanks to a big comeback against Toronto last week.

Some teams may have folded then, but Zach Collaros went to his go to in this game Nic Demski and put Castillo in position to redeem himself and win the game, which he did by hitting a 47-yard game winner with zeroes on the clock.

Nic Demski finished with six catches for 128 yards and always seemed to be making the big play just when the Blue Bombers offence needed it. Winnipeg linebacker Tony Jones was all over the field too registering 11 tackles with 2 for a loss. Castillo showed nerves of steel having seen his 57-yard attempt returned all the way for a score, to step up and hit from 47-yards for the game winner. He was 3 for 4 in this one with a longest of 53 yards. You can’t blame the Blue Bombers for going for a kick from 57 yards with Castillo when you consider he has tied the league longest from 63 yards out and has three of the five longest field goals in CFL history to his name.

The win moves Winnipeg to 5-4 at the halfway point of the season, whilst Ottawa, who had started to look like they might go on a run coming into this game, fall back to 3-7.

The second game of the weekend had the Toronto Argonauts facing the Edmonton Elks. Here again it was the home team that won out, this time by a score of 28-20. The win pushes Edmonton to 3-6 and drops the defending champion Argos to 2-8 in what is proving to be a forgettable season for the boatmen.

Toronto started the final quarter ahead 17-16 in what had been a back-and-forth encounter up to that point. But the fourth quarter was all about Edmonton as Justin Rankin ran in a touchdown and the Elks kept Toronto out of the end zone.

Rankin was a star of the show for the Elks, having 13 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown, as well as 5 catches on 5 passes thrown his way for a further 87 yards. Cody Fajardo who is the presumptive starter in Edmonton now finished the game 25 of 31 for 273 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. His opposite number for Toronto Nick Arbuckle has been on the losing side often but is having one of his best seasons in the CFL and had another good game here finishing 30 of 42 for 382 yards and a touchdown. A career high in passing for Arbuckle.

Edmonton have now won two in a row by a combined total of nine points, where earlier in the season they were competitive but coming up short taking three of their losses by a touchdown or less. Head Coach Mark Kilam, and Fajardo are putting it down to developing belief and things finally coming together in the middle of the season.

The third game of the weekend was between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium. It was the home team who won, moving their league best record to 8-1 on the year with a 29-9 win.

Saskatchewan had some struggles early on as Trevor Harris was nearly picked off on one possession and was picked off on the next. Whilst the Ticats got some yards from their chances however they were restricted to two field goals and a 6-0 lead by the home team’s bend but don’t break defence. Things still looked off for the Roughriders as a drive ended with a single as Brett Lauther who has struggled of late, missed a kick to the right as the quarter finished with Hamilton ahead 6-1.

From the second quarter though the Roughriders took over. After an 18-point burst the home team went in 19-6 ahead at the half and never looked back.

Harris, who had the shaky start got in rhythm and finished 21 of 27 for 307 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Going into the game Bo Levi Harris might have been a favourite in the MOP race but here he was sacked six times, under pressure often, and went 16 of 31 for 201 yards with 2 interceptions. Arguably Harris is now the leading candidate for that award – but there’s a lot of season’s play left before thinking about that.

They say defence wins championships, well the Roughriders kept Hamilton out of the end zone here and have now not allowed a touchdown in eight straight quarters of play.

This is only second time in franchise history that Saskatchewan has opened a season with an 8-1 record. Last time it happened was in 2013 when they finished 11-7 and went on to win the 101st Grey Cup on their home field. Hamilton falls to 6-4 but still sit atop the East Division.

The final game of the weekend was in Vancouver, where the BC Lions hosted the Montreal Alouettes. It was the Lions who completed a whitewash for the West Division over their Eastern opponents with a convincing 36-18 win.

Just like Trevor Harris in the previous game, Nathan Rourke had a pass picked off early on then got clinical the rest of the way. He finished the day 26 of 34 for 382 yards with 4 touchdowns and that 1 interception. The main recipient of that passing was Keon Hatcher who had 11 catches for 156 yards and 2 majors. BC really got into their stride in the second half and ended up racking up 491 net yards of offence.

Whilst Lions fans will be happy as their team moves from 1-3 and 3-5 to 5-5, Alouettes fans will be dismayed by their team’s slide from 3-0 and 5-2 to 5-5. They have serious problems under centre too. Davis Alexander is still out, McLeod Bethel-Thompson who stepped in was put on the six-game injured list, and Caleb Evans who started for the Als here was injured in game to be replaced by James Morgan, making his CFL debut, who finished 20 of 33 for 211 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 pick.

This was the final game of the week and the fourth time a West team beat an Eastern opponent so that the West finished 4-0 in Week 11 by a margin of 123 points to 74 (an average score of 31-19). This week really highlighted a growing disparity between the two divisions. It really seems too that a crossover team in the East Semi-Final will be coming from the West Division once the playoffs come around unless one of the lower Eastern teams goes on an unlikely run.

That said, there is an adage that the season really gets going from Labour Day onwards, so the East teams and their fans will be hoping there can be some element of truth to that. We have not had a crossover team since 2019, but if we do get one you can bet the well-rehearsed argument over whether the geographical divisions should exist, or a single league table will reappear once more.

Looking ahead: Week 12 starts out with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the Montreal Alouettes in the early hours of Friday morning UK time. The best game of the weekend time wise for UK fans to watch is probably the game between the BC Lions and Toronto Argonauts in Toronto being played at 8PM UK time on Saturday. That said, all the games are available free on CFL+. The league’s free streaming service is a great 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 11:

O – Keon Hatcher WR, BC Lions: 11 catches on 11 targets for 156 yards and 2 touchdowns.

D – Tyrice Beverette LB, Montreal Alouettes: 3 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception.

ST – Kalil Pimpleton WR/KR, Ottawa RedBlacks: 5 punt returns for 34 yards, 4 kick returns for 95 yards, 1 missed field goal return for 117 yards and a touchdown. 10 kick returns totalling 246 yards and a score. 4 catches for 39 yards.

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 0 West Division 4

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 7 West Division 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

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