CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2026: Division Semi-Finals

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to the Division Semi-Finals edition of our weekly review of each week of the 2026 CFL season.  From the CFL wing of Touchdown Towers, ‘Quick Kicks’ brings you week-to-week news of how the games went, scores, surprises and what we learned. This week we learned that a crossover team can still win on the road, that one strip-sack can end a season and one fumble on a punt return can end a game, and that playing your playoff openers on Halloween is only really frightening if you are the person counting the gate.

Two games, four teams, and two of them are now on their holidays. Special teams had a say in both, from a punt return that will haunt Toronto all winter to a Lions onside-kick escape that deserves its own plaque, so I will be saying quite a lot about them. North America put its clocks back this morning, which means we are now five hours ahead rather than four, and everything kicks off an hour later for us. So, get the kettle on and the biscuits out, there’s a lot to get through.

The first game was at BMO Field in Toronto, where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Argonauts 25-22 in front of 21,786 and kept their crossover dream alive in a game Toronto led until the final minute.

Toronto started brightly. Chad Kelly, fresh from becoming the CFL’s first $1 million player of the salary cap era, completed his first seven passes, including a 20-yard touchdown to Tyler Kahmann, the league’s Most Outstanding Rookie, and went into the break 12-of-19 for 127 yards. Winnipeg’s answer came from Dru Brown, starting because Zach Collaros was nursing the rib injury he picked up against the Lions. A week after going 11-for-11 against a resting Lions side, Brown finished 18-of-30 for 206 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, and as John Hodge points out, the stat line does not tell the whole story. His first touchdown, a 32-yard drag to Ontaria Wilson, only counted because Wilson caught a pass that was nearly out of reach with one hand. The first interception came when Dorian Singer slipped on a deep curl. The second, thrown into double coverage in field goal range just before half-time, was entirely Brown’s, and is the sort of throw that gives offensive coordinators grey hair.

The game turned in the third quarter. Michael Fletcher knocked the ball out of Kelly’s hand, David Reese picked it up and ran 58 yards for a touchdown, and the play wrenched Kelly’s throwing shoulder. He stayed in for parts of two more series, shaking out the arm, before taking himself out midway through the fourth quarter with Toronto still ahead 22-17, and that was his season. It is the second time he has been hurt in a playoff game, after the leg injury in the 2024 East Final at Montreal that cost him the whole of 2025, and there is a knee problem to rehab too, which he has said could take four to six weeks. Kelly, who threw for 5,067 yards and 33 touchdowns this year and led the league with 24 interceptions, blamed himself for the loss afterwards, and Nick Arbuckle took over for the last nine minutes and went 2-of-5 for 25 yards. Behind him the running game never turned up: Kevin Mital, a receiver, led the Argonauts in rushing at half-time with six yards, and Cam Porter and Isaiah Smith finished with 41 between them on 13 carries. Winnipeg’s defence, the best against the pass in the league this year, allowed just one explosive play and 257 net yards. Toronto converted only nine of 22 second downs and scored nine points off four turnovers, which is a lot of gifts to leave unopened.

Then came the decision Toronto will be replaying all winter. Up five with under three minutes left, the Argonauts faced third-and-one near midfield and Mike Miller chose to punt, explaining afterwards that the spot had been moved back a yard and a half or so from where he had expected to go for it. After the way Toronto’s clock management against Ottawa in Week 20 had people shaking their heads, it is the second time this month that late-game choices have been the story. Last time they were accused of being too bold. This time, too timid. Somewhere out there is a Goldilocks version of Mike Miller.

Special teams, naturally, settled it. With just under two minutes to go, Janarion Grant fielded a punt and Nick Hallett punched the ball loose, Thiadric Hansen fell on it, and a Winnipeg offence that had not scored on its previous nine possessions was suddenly in Toronto territory. Brown found Nic Demski for a 23-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left, and that was that. Lirim Hajrullahu had kicked five field goals to account for 15 of Toronto’s 22 points and had no more to kick. The rest of Winnipeg’s special teams day was shaky: Sergio Castillo missed a 47-yarder and Jamieson Sheahan sent a late punt out of bounds, but Trey Vaval, newly crowned Most Outstanding Special Teams Player for the second year running, had the sense to be on the winning side of it

The Grant story is the one that stays with you. The returner, who has 12 career punt return touchdowns, second only to Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams in league history, spent a long time inconsolable in the dressing room afterwards, and Adam Laskaris reports that general manager Pinball Clemons sat beside him for around twenty minutes. Clemons says he told Grant the team loves him, that mistakes happen, and that he would absolutely like him back next year. He knows something about this: he has said that a fumble on his first punt return in a preseason game with Tampa Bay may have cost him a roster spot in the NFL. Mike O’Shea, who coached Grant in Winnipeg, called him a Hall of Fame returner and said these things happen to Hall of Fame returners. They do. It is not much comfort on the night.

Player of the Game: Nic Demski, WR, Winnipeg. Four targets, four catches, 72 yards and the touchdown that won it, in a game where Winnipeg gave the ball away four times. Honourable mentions to Michael Fletcher for the strip-sack and Nick Hallett for the punch-out that changed the day. 4 catches, 72 yards, 1 TD.

The second game was at BC Place in Vancouver, where the Lions beat the defending Grey Cup champion Roughriders 33-26 and finally got past Saskatchewan in the playoffs at the third time of asking. It was the third straight year these two have met in the post-season, and the Riders had taken the previous two. For about 25 minutes it looked like we were in for a third.

The Lions fumbled on their first play and managed only 65 net yards through the opening 25 minutes. Meanwhile Saskatchewan’s defence had Nathan Rourke bottled up. The Riders took a 17-3 lead in the second quarter after a Lions short-yardage unit was stopped on third-and-short at their own 49, Tommy Stevens ran one in and Samuel Emilus converted the two-pointer, the footballing equivalent of being 3-0 up away in the cup and starting to check the train times home. J.C. Abbott makes a decent case that Devin Adams was offside on that stop, if you want something to argue about in the pub.

Then Rourke happened. He escaped a free rusher in James Vaughters, dodged his former teammate Josh Woods and threw a 69-yard touchdown to Stanley Berryhill III, who had been left on his own by a busted coverage. After half-time the Lions punished a blitz by getting the ball to Jevon Cottoy, who ran 70 yards for another. Rourke finished 21-of-32 for 366 yards and three touchdowns without an interception and added 30 yards on two carries. Cottoy had eight catches from a game-high 12 targets for 131 yards and two scores, and the Lions had five big plays to Saskatchewan’s one, with those five accounting for more than half of their net offence. Saskatchewan kicked six field goals and won the time of possession battle, but six field goals is a lot of effort for a team that scored one touchdown.

The Lions’ defence was a reason to look twice at the team sheet. Most Outstanding Rookie finalist Parker McKenna was out with a head injury, cornerback Stantley Thomas-Oliver missed the game, five members of the defensive line rotation were unavailable, and the replacements included 34-year-old Garry Peters, who had played only two games all year. They held on anyway. Robert Carter Jr. made a diving interception, six different defenders had a sack or a tackle for loss, and 35-year-old T.J. Lee made 12 tackles, including a run stuff on Stevens on second-and-two in the fourth quarter.

And so to special teams, where the Lions were both the problem and the answer. Matthew Sexton gave the Riders trouble every time he touched the ball, including a 47-yard return, and Saskatchewan started four drives in plus territory against one for the Lions, who were without the injured Seven McGee in the return game and had one of their worst nights in kick coverage in a while. But when it mattered, they got it right. Sean Whyte missed a 49-yard field goal that would have iced the game, and Maxime Rouyer got downfield to limit the damage on the return. Corey Mace then chose to spike the ball on second down and kick a field goal to set up an onside kick, a decision Abbott found baffling, and Jackson Findlay, showing the kind of patience I only ever see in supermarket queues, waited until the Brett Lauther dribbler was legally recoverable before falling on it. That was the ball game.

A word on the gate. The CFL tried to soften the blow of a Halloween playoff date by moving the kick-off into the early afternoon and the Lions did what they could with a tailgate and mock trick-or-treating, but 23,283 turned up, against 30,833 for a meaningless regular-season finale played by backups the week before. That is around 7,500 fewer people for a playoff game than for a game nobody needed, and the Canucks and Maple Leafs were playing across the street. With the new playoff format and an earlier season start coming, the league will want to look at its calendar. Trevor Harris, meanwhile, went 29-of-40 for 309 yards, finished the year as the league’s passing leader with a career-best 5,370 yards, and at 40 is a pending free agent. He says he doesn’t take long over decisions like this, but he will talk it over with his family and settle it in the next few weeks.

Player of the Game: Nathan Rourke, QB, B.C. He spent the first half hunting for the starter cord and the second half burning the place down. 21-of-32, 366 yards, 3 TD, no interceptions, 30 rushing yards. Honourable mentions to Jevon Cottoy, T.J. Lee and the very patient Jackson Findlay.

The Division Finals

Four teams left, two tickets to Calgary, and both games on Saturday 7th November. With North America back on standard time, the East Final kicks off at 8 PM UK and the West Final is a late one, so make a flask and some sandwiches.

East Final: Winnipeg Blue Bombers (9-9) at Montreal Alouettes (14-4), Saturday 7th November, 3 PM ET (8 PM UK). Bookmakers have made Montreal heavy favourites, whilst the regular-season series could not be more of a split decision. Winnipeg won 44-28 in August, with Zach Collaros throwing for 324 yards and two touchdowns and Brady Oliveira running for 106, and Montreal answered with a 37-10 win at Percival Molson, with Davis Alexander throwing for 440 yards and Tyson Philpot catching 11 passes for 207. Winnipeg managed only six first downs in that one. Collaros did not play in it, and he is the story again this week: he did not dress against Toronto, and Mike O’Shea says the 38-year-old’s ribs are improving daily but that a decision will have to be made. If it is Dru Brown again, the Bombers will need an offence a lot cleaner than the one that went nine possessions without scoring in Toronto. Oliveira admitted afterwards that the offence did not play nearly well enough, but said this group has been through too much together not to relish another crack at Montreal.

Montreal has a different problem, which is rust. Alexander, Philpot and Tyler Snead will have gone 26 days between games, a gamble Jason Maas will hope was genius rather than a very expensive lottery ticket. The prize for Winnipeg is bigger than a Grey Cup berth for one season: no crossover team in the CFL’s history has reached the Grey Cup, and Winnipeg are the last team who will ever get the chance, with the format changing for 2027. All they have to do is beat the best team in the league on its own field. Easy.

West Final: B.C. Lions (10-8) at Edmonton Elks (13-5), Saturday 7th November, 6:30 PM ET (11:30 PM UK). This is the one that looks like a coin flip, with the Lions installed as one-point road favourites. Edmonton went from 7-11 to 13-5 under head coach Mark Kilam, allowed the fewest points in the league at 24.3 a game, won their first division title since 2015 and host their first home playoff game since that same year, the one in which they went on to win the Grey Cup. The Lions, who started 1-5 and then went 9-1, are heading on the road for the West Final for the fourth time in five seasons.

They split the series. The Lions won 36-24 at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna in Week 5, with Rourke throwing for 320 yards, and the Elks won 19-17 in Edmonton after Rourke left on the second offensive play with a left shoulder injury and Chase Brice, in his place, was intercepted four times. Cody Fajardo threw for 395 yards and three touchdowns in the loss and 282 in the win. The new variable is Jevon Cottoy, who was injured for both meetings and who has become, in Abbott’s words, the most important man on the Lions’ offence. Edmonton have yet to see him. Special teams may matter again: the Lions’ kick coverage had its worst night in a while against Saskatchewan, and Sean Whyte, who missed a chance to ice that game from 49 yards, will want to put it right.

My head says Montreal should be too good for a Winnipeg side that needed a defensive touchdown and a punt-return fumble to scrape past Toronto, and that the Lions have the quarterback to win it in Edmonton, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to be wrong on either count. That’s the great thing about the Division Finals.

The 113th Grey Cup, Sunday 15th November, McMahon Stadium, Calgary, 5 PM MT (midnight UK). The Stampeders, who led the league in scoring and missed the playoffs, will watch the final from their own house as guests, and we could end up with any of four matchups: Montreal and the Lions, Montreal and the Elks, Winnipeg and the Lions or Winnipeg and the Elks. Montreal and Winnipeg would be a rerun of the 2023 final; a Lions or Elks appearance would end a long wait for either, with the Lions not having played in a Grey Cup since winning it in 2011 and the Elks last lifting it in 2015.

The 55-yard line, incidentally, now has one game left to live: its last outing comes at McMahon Stadium on the 15th. I’ll be watching special teams closely to the end.

Until the Division Finals, CFL friends!

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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