CFL 'QUICK KICKS' 2025: WEEK 15

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week fifteen 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 Winnipeg Blue Bombers. This game was dubbed the Team Ted Game and reminded us that some things are much bigger than the game being played.

As for the game itself, it was the home team who took the honours with a 32-21 victory. A key to that win was balance as the offence blended the run and pass well, whilst an aggressive d-line was the highlight of an excellent defensive performance.

The Team Ted game was tinged with sadness as the CFL family mourned the loss of Ticats’ general manager Ted Goveia on Friday after he lost his battle with cancer at just fifty-five before the game. But Hamilton made sure he was honoured in fine fashion. Jamal Peters got things going when he snatched an early screen pass and took it to the Winnipeg seven-yard line. The Offence quickly turned that into 7 points as Bo Levi Mitchell hit Greg Bell in the end zone.

Although the Blue Bombers were competitive early, Hamilton were able to pull away during the second quarter and never looked back. About that balance. They ran the ball 27 times and threw it 28 times to keep Winnipeg honest on D.

For Hamilton Bo Levi Mitchell went 21 of 28 for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns, Kenny Lawler caught 7 passes for 97 yards and Greg Bell had another great outing with 22 carries for 137 yards and a touchdown.

Backup QB Chris Streveler playing in place of the injured Zach Collaros has long looked like a great option in scrambling situations but not a true starter in the CFL. We saw more of that here as he finished the game 18 of 29 for 241 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions, as well as 11 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown.

Brady Oliveira was often involved too with 15 carries for 116 yards and 4 catches for 35 more. That rushing total makes Oliveira the seventh Blue Bomber to reach 5,000 career rushing yards. There is a strong chance he will be in the top five all-time by the end of the season. You may think that all sounds positive, but you must wonder what choices were made at halftime. Before intermission Oliveira had thirteen carries for 110 yards and two receptions for twenty-four yards. After the break however he had just two rushes for six yards and two catches for eleven yards in the final 30 minutes.

Hamilton solidified their position atop the East by moving to 8-5 whilst Winnipeg dropped below .500 at 6-7 (2-5 on the road has really contributed to that losing mark so far this season). Winnipeg has now dropped three straight and gone 3-7 in its last 10 games.

The second game of the weekend had the Ottawa RedBlacks face the BC Lions in Vancouver. This was the second part of the home-and-home between these two teams. After losing in the nation’s capital, the Leos exacted their revenge here with a convincing 38-27 win.

That meant the Lions have score thirty or more points in six consecutive games now. The first time that has happened since Doug Flutie was at the helm of their 1991 season. But that is not the QB comparison people are keeping an eye on with Lions pivot Nathan Rourke just now. The Canadian QB went 21 of 26 for 308 yards and a score here. All of which leaves him less than 40 yards away now from setting the Canadian single-season passing record and surpassing certified Canadian legend Russ Jackson. It is testament to Jackson that it will have taken 56 years for this to happen.

It felt like BC were scoring at will early in the game here and they were up 28-13 at the halfway point in the game. In fact, once they took the lead, they never relinquished it. If you have read any of the Quick Kicks columns mentioning Ottawa this season you will have encountered a recurring theme of the RedBlacks putting themselves in a hole early and having to make comebacks. Sometimes that works, but often it does not. To give that some context, in the last seven games, they have now been outscored 65-4 in the first quarter. If anyone is looking for a key to their league worst 4-9 record that is surely it.

One area BC had wanted to improve on was getting to the quarterback and upping the pressure on passing plays. They certainly managed that as Matthieu Betts recorded 4 sacks and the d-line notched 7 sacks overall. Bradlee Anae, a former fifth-round NFL Draft pick, recorded two tackles and one of those sacks on a bull rush after debuting on just two days of practice. Deontai Williams and Josh Woods contributed sacks, with Williams grabbing a fumble after the sack for a scoop and score play.

Last week RedBlack’s’ stand-in QB Dustin Crum recorded his first 300+ passing yard game (301), and he followed that with another here. Finishing the game 30 of 305 for 307 yards and a touchdown as well as having nine carries for 58 yards and 2 further touchdowns. He was ably assisted by Bralon Addison who had eleven catches for 132 yards and Justin Hardy who had 9 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown.

In their loss to Ottawa last week, two areas that really undermined the Lions were penalties and not making the most of red zone visits. This week they halved the penalty yardage and went four of five in the red zone on their way to victory. No wonder coaches always preach the importance of these things.

The third game of the weekend was in Toronto where the Toronto Argonauts welcomed the Edmonton Elks to BMO Field. In this game the visitors won the turnover battle by an astonishing margin of six to one. Edmonton gained 27 points off those turnovers but somehow it was the home team that escaped with a walk off 31-30 win. This may feel familiar to Elks fans as the Argos beat them with a walk off field goal in this fixture last year too.

Lirim Hajrullahu’s greatest kick as an Argo is surely the one that provided the winning points in the 2017 Grey Cup for the double blue. But that does not preclude him from having other important ones to point to as well. Last week, in the On Labour Day Classic, he hit a short 11-yard field goal to defeat the Tiger-Cats. This week it was a walk-off 48-yard field goal to defeat the Elks and move to 5-8 with Toronto’s third straight win.

Edmonton led this one 14-0 near the end of the first half and by 10 points later on but were held to field goals at the end of the game and that came back to bite them as the home side overturned a 10-point deficit and stole the win.

Cody Fajardo had an impressive stat line for the Elks finishing 25 of 28 for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns. While he was accurate however there was a lot of short-yardage passing in that and one big play could maybe have killed this game off if it came at the right time for the visitors.

Last week Justin Ranking went for over 200 yards but here the Argos D bottled him up and held him to 27 yards on 12 carries.

For Toronto Nick Arbuckle had a tough afternoon going 21 of 31 for 261 yards with 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions as well as limping off the field late on. He was ably assisted however by Jake Herslow who can’t stop scoring touchdowns at the moment and had 4 receptions for 81 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Argos fans will feel like they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat here and Elks fans that they took defeat from the jaws of victory to fall to 5-8. Either way it would prove the closest game of the weekend.

The final game of the weekend was in Saskatchewan as the Montreal Alouettes travelled to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Montreal was coming to town on a five-game losing skid and the home team had won two in a row and six of their last seven games and had a chance to go 11-2 for only the second time in franchise history. It was something of a surprise therefore to see the Alouettes post a 48-31 win.

So, what happened here? Well pre-game the Riders announced some players would be missing from the line up due to injury. Amongst them were starting defensive backs Tevaughn Campbell and Marcus Sayles. Two lynchpins of the Saskatchewan d this season. As McLeod Bethel-Thompson returned to the lineup for the Alouettes he must have thought Christmas had come early. Kerfalla Exume and Benny Sapp filled in for the Riders, but Exume is a career special teamer who has never started in this position, and it showed.

The Als matches Tyson Philpot on Exume wherever they could, and the results were devastating as Philpot had nine receptions for 238 yards, and 2 touchdowns. Thompson had quite the return too as he went 20 of 26 for 379 yards and 3 touchdowns. But it wasn’t just about the DBs as Montreal also had success on the ground with Stevie Scott III taking 19 carries for 125 yards. Add to that that the d-line was getting no pressure, and it becomes apparent how the Alouettes broke their losing streak and put up 48 points in this one.

There were some notable moments for the players in green and white here too. Starting QB Trevor Harris who went 23 of 32 for 252 yards with 1 score and 1 pick threw his 200th career CFL touchdown and passed 3,000 career completions in this game. Running back AJ Oullette continued his good form this season with carries for 90 yards and a touchdown too. One area that didn’t get a lot of attention but is worthy of note was kicker Brett Lauther. He kicked a 46-yard field goal and converted all four touchdowns. He has now connected on seven consecutive field-goal attempts. It may not sound like much, but his form has been so erratic this season that Saskatchewan fans will be relieved to see any form of normality returning to their kicking game.

The other great news for the Roughriders is that they are still a league best 10-3 and that other results from this weekend have guaranteed them a spot in the 2025 Grey Cup playoffs.

Looking ahead: Week 16 starts with the Argonauts hosting the Alouettes in the early hours of Saturday morning. The best game for UK based fans to watch timewise though will be the Blue Bombers visit to Ottawa to face the Redblacks at 8:00PM UK time on Saturday. That said, all the games are available free on CFL+. The league’s free streaming service is a terrific 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 15

O – Tyson Philpot WR, Montreal Alouettes: 9 receptions on 9 targets, 238 yards, 26.4 yards per catch, 2 touchdowns. 1 carry for 5 yards.

D – Deontai Williams LB, BC Lions: 4 tackles, 1 sack, 1 strip and scoop fumble recovery touchdown.

ST – Lirim Hajrullahu 3 for 3 on field goals including a walk off winner from 48 yards. 5 for 5 on all kicks. 4 kickoffs for 251 yards.

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 3 West Division 1

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 11 West Division 17

Playoff Scenarios:

In: Saskatchewan Roughriders.

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

5/5