CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2025: Week 9

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week nine 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 welcome the Calgary Stampeders for Thursday night football. It was the home team that came out on top with a only their second win of the season thanks to a convincing 31-11 display.

Ottawa’s only other win this season also came against Calgary in what was a heavily rain affected game, while this time Calgary were without their starting QB Vernon Adams Jr. Which meant that PJ Walker was making his first career CFL start. He finished 20 of 37 for 273 yards and a touchdown. However, he was also picked off three times, including a pick six.

Calgary’s usually strong ground game was held to 35 yards in total from 17 carries. That included the Ottawa D restricting Dedrick Mills to 11 yards from 7 carries, when he had come into the matchup averaging 77.7 yards per game with three 90+ yard games to his name.

Along with registering the 3 interceptions, and stopping the Stamps ground game, the Ottawa D also forced a fumble and late on in the game forced a turnover on downs.

For Ottawa Dru Brown finished 19 of 27 for 225 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception, whilst Eugene Lewis had 5 catches for 110 yards and Justin Hardy had 4 catches for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns.

This result marked Calgary’s first road loss of the season dropping them to 5-3, whilst it was also                                                          Ottawa’s first home win of the season as they moved to 2-6. Ottawa fans would surely like to see Calgary on their schedule more often, as despite their struggles of late, the RedBlacks have now won their last five games against the Stampeders!

The second game of the weekend had the Winnipeg Blue Bombers facing the Toronto Argonauts.  This one was in Winnipeg for the reverse match of a home-and-home matchup. This time the Blue Bombers avenged their defeat from last week and delivered a 40-31 win in front of their ninth consecutive home sellout crowd.

The Blue Bombers took a big lead then hung on at the end to deliver the win and end a three-game losing slide. They scored on offence, defence and special teams here and it was the latter that perhaps had the biggest impact. Take the first special teams’ touchdown, from Trey Vaval (who would deliver 2 kick return touchdowns, one on a kickoff, and one on a punt return). Just before that the Argos had scored on pick six return touchdown from linebacker Cam Judge jumping in front of a Chris Streveler pass and taking it home. The sell-out home crowd was silenced, the atmosphere soured, and fans of a team on a three-game skid were already worrying early as the visitors scored first.

Then Laval took the ensuing kickoff straight back and completely flipped the momentum and atmosphere in the stadium. Later, his punt return touchdown came close to the end of the first half. Guaranteeing momentum for the home team and deflating the visitors once again, who found themselves behind 31-13 at the intermission.

The Argos Defence had a pretty good game, holding Streveler to 17 of 21 for 173 yards with zero touchdowns and three interceptions including the pick-six. Although he did manage to run in a touchdown, and Brady Oliveira was held to 50 yards on the ground. However, it appeared Winnipeg had taken a cue from Ottawa on shutting down the ground game. They were even more impressive in that respect, holding Toronto to 8 total yards on 5 carries. That meant the Boatmen had to try and get it done through the air, and they came close. Nick Arbuckle was 22 of 39 for 327 yards with 2 touchdowns but 1 crucial pick late on. Last week, Damonte Coxie posted a career-high 145 receiving yards and extended his TD streak to three games. This week he went one better as Coxie was the go-to receiver with 9 catches for 187 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-3) will visit the Calgary Stampeders (5-3) next week on what will be a crucial matchup for the ongoing pecking order in the West Division. After falling to 2-6 the Argos will be in a battle of the basement dwellers in the East next week as they host Ottawa.

The third game of the weekend was between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Edmonton Elks at Commonwealth stadium in Edmonton. It was the visiting Ticats who came away with a 28-24 win. Along the way Ticats QB Bo Levi Mitchell surpassed Doug Flutie for ninth on the CFL all-time passing yardage list. He did that off the back of a performance that saw him finish the day 30 of 42 for 350 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. He spread the ball to nine receivers, but the main recipients of his targets were Kiondre Smith, who had 7 receptions for 138 yards and a touchdown, and Tim White who had 7 receptions for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Isiah Wooden got the visitors off to a great start with a 75-yard return on the opening kickoff. One play later Mitchell had thrown his first touchdown of the game and the Ticats had made the perfect start. The Elks may only have won one game this season but last week and this week they have looked more competitive and stayed in this one all the way into the fourth quarter as the teams were tied at 21-21 after three.

Cody Fajardo started out connecting on his first 16 pass attempts and finished the game 20 of 25 for 257 yards with 1 touchdown, but crucially 1 interception in the final frame. Helping him along Justin Rankin had 133 combined yards from scrimmage (69 rushing, 64 receiving), as well as one touchdown on the ground and one through the air.

A quick shout out should go to Joel Dublanko, the Elks’ top pick in the 2024 Draft who made his first full start and registered 9 tackles. The Elks will be hoping he can do a job in the absence of 2024 Most Outstanding Rookie Nick Anderson who was moved to the six-game injured list.

Having started the season 0-2 Hamilton have now reeled off six straight wins to move to 6-2. The Elks, meanwhile, whilst being competitive, have fallen to 1-6. How close was this one? Hamilton left 2 minutes on the clock when they went ahead 28-24 and Edmonton came close, but Kaion Julien-Grant couldn’t hold onto a Cody Fajardo pass in the End Zone, so the ball was turned over on downs to give the Ticats the win.

The final game of the weekend was in Montreal, where the Montreal Alouettes took on the Saskatchewan Roughriders in an intriguing matchup between two teams who have had good starts to the season. Whilst Montreal had been keeping it close of late, with their last three games being decided by four points in total, this one wasn’t remotely close as the visiting Roughriders dominated in a 34-6 win. Not too shabby, even better for Roughriders fans they didn’t have to worry as they have of late when their team has been protecting a lead late in a close game, and this was Saskatchewan’s first win in Montreal since 2021.

The Roughriders dominance was reflected in overall yardage, 418 net yards of offence to Montreal’s 169, and time of possession as the green and white had the ball for 36:52 of game time.

For Saskatchewan Trevor Harris often shows savvy leadership and poise when he is in the lineup and that was no different here as he went 19 of 27 for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns. He completed at least 70 per cent of his passes for his 11th straight game, extending his ongoing league record. Dohnte Meyers led the receivers with 5 catches for 136 yards. Worth mentioning is short yardage specialist Tommy Stevens. His 5 carries for 13 yards don’t look all that spectacular, but helped the visitors set a tone early with 2 key first downs in short yardage calls on third down, as well as running in the opening score.

Special mention to Alouettes kicker Jose Maltos who has been hitting from deep lately and it was no different here as he had field goals from 56 and 54-yards out.

This moves Saskatchewan to 7-1, a feat they have only ever achieved twice in their long history. In 1970 that was as part of a 14-2 season that saw them eventually fall in a two game West Final to the Stampeders. Whilst in 2013 they finished 11-7 and went on to hoist the Grey Cup at home.

Meanwhile the Alouettes drop to 5-3 one game behind Hamilton in the East. They won’t get a chance to avenge this loss until the Roughriders host them in Week 15, by when they will be hoping starting QB Davis Alexander is back in the fold.

Week 10 starts out with the BC Lions returning to action as they visit Hamilton. The best game of the weekend time wise for UK fans to watch is probably the game between the RedBlacks and Argos 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 9:

O – Bo Levi Mitchell QB, Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 30 of 42 for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns, 1 carry for 5 yards.

D – Cameron Judge LB, Toronto Argonauts: 8 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception returned for a touchdown.

ST – Trey Vaval DB/KR, Winnipeg Blue Bombers: 1 kick return, 93 yards, touchdown, 6 punt returns for 138 yards and a touchdown, 2 defensive tackles, 1 special teams’ tackle.

Interdivisional Standings 2025 This Week: East Division 2 West Division 2

Interdivisional Standings 2025 season: East Division 7 West Division 9

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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