CFL 'Quick Kicks' 2026: Week 11

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week eleven of our weekly review of each week of the 2026 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.

If there was one word doing the heavy lifting around the league this weekend, it was skid. Three of our four winners this week were shaking one off, Hamilton ending a three-game slide, Winnipeg snapping a home losing run, and Edmonton putting a stop to back-to-back defeats in the most emphatic way possible. Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Ottawa’s skid just kept on growing, and growing, and growing, to the point where the history books have had to be dusted off, and I imagine somebody in the Redblacks’ media department is running out of positive spin to put on it. Our own article on them being cursed here at Touchdown Towers CFL Wing gets more prescient by the minute! More on that shortly. Let’s dive right in. Kettle on. Brew and a biccy whilst you catch up on the 3 down league’s latest goings on.

The first game of the weekend saw the BC Lions travel to McMahon Stadium for a Thursday night clash with the Calgary Stampeders, and it was BC who left with a 30-26 win to make it three victories on the bounce. Nathan Rourke was at the heart of it, throwing two touchdowns to Keon Hatcher Sr. and adding a rushing score of his own, which happened to be the 100th touchdown of his CFL career. Not bad going for a man who apparently treats milestones the way the rest of us treat Tuesdays.

Calgary made life hard for themselves early on, with Jude McAtamney kicking all nine of the Stamps’ first-quarter points while BC were held scoreless, the sort of start that has home fans reaching for the beer a little quicker than usual. The Lions clawed their way back before the break on an 85-yard strike from Rourke to Jermaine Jackson, and a Zander Horvath touchdown, before Rourke found Hatcher Sr. to trim the gap to two at the half. Calgary still led 18-13 at the interval thanks to a perfect night with the boot from McAtamney.

Rourke put BC in front for the first time early in the third quarter with that milestone rushing score, and although the game swung back and forth into the fourth, with Quincy Vaughn punching one in for the Stamps to retake the lead, it was Hatcher Sr.’s second touchdown catch with just over two minutes left that proved decisive. Calgary had one last chance, driving to BC’s nine-yard line, but T.J. Lee stepped in front of a Josh Love pass to seal it.

To make matters worse for the home side, both Vernon Adams Jr. and Dedrick Mills were forced off with injuries in the second half, leaving Love to finish the game under centre, not the plan Calgary had drawn up on the whiteboard that morning. Calgary dropped their second straight, while BC leapfrogged them in the West Division table and have now won six of their last seven on the road at McMahon, which at this point should probably just be called Lions Home-from-home.

Player of the Game: Nathan Rourke, QB, BC Lions. Two touchdown passes, a rushing score that happened to be the 100th of his CFL career, and the game-winner with 2:13 left. You could not ask for more from your quarterback on the road. 15 of 22 for 301 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 pick and 3 carries for 39 yards and a touchdown.

Special mention also for Justin McInnes, who had 2 catches for 86 yards and passed 4,000 career receiving yards in this one.

Friday night in Winnipeg brought the Blue Bombers back to their own building, looking to put right a run of home form that had become something of a sore subject, the kind of thing local radio phone-ins had started to circle like sharks, and they did just that with a 33-21 win over the Ottawa RedBlacks at Princess Auto Stadium. Brady Oliveira was excellent again, rushing for 74 yards and a score while adding eight catches for 80 yards through the air, and Bryce Perkins chipped in with two short-yardage rushing touchdowns either side of the game. Zach Collaros went 21 of 31 for 222 yards, doing just enough to keep the chains moving on several long, clock-eating drives.

Ottawa actually hung around for large stretches of this one. Jake Maier threw for 314 yards and two touchdowns, including a fourth-quarter score to Ayden Eberhardt that cut the deficit to five with just over four minutes to go, but Winnipeg had an answer ready. A 33-yard grab from Nic Demski through traffic set up Perkins’ second score of the night and shut the door for good. Sergio Castillo was reliable as ever with four field goals, including a 56-yarder right on the halftime buzzer. For Winnipeg, snapping that home skid and moving to 5-4 will feel like a weight off.

For Ottawa, the story is a much bleaker one. The defeat drops them to 0-9 and extends their losing streak, stretching back into last season, to fifteen straight games. That is now the longest losing run in the modern era of the CFL, edging out the 1994 Shreveport Pirates, and only bettered in the entire history of the league by the 1948-49 Hamilton Wildcats and the Ottawa Rough Riders of 1928 to 1932, which is a genuinely wild list of company to keep, two of the three predate colour television. Credit to the Redblacks, though; they keep finding ways to make close games out of what could easily have become blowouts; four of their nine defeats this year have come by a single score. Small mercies, and I suspect somewhere in that locker room somebody has started keeping a very patient tally chart.

Player of the Game: Brady Oliveira, RB, Winnipeg Blue Bombers. 74 yards and a touchdown on the ground, another 80 yards and eight catches through the air. The engine room of every long, clock-draining Winnipeg drive. 11 carries, 74 yards, 1 touchdown. 8 catches for 80 yards.

Special mention also for Tim White, who had 8 receptions for 85 yards and surpassed 6,000 career receiving yards in this one.

Saturday afternoon in Edmonton was where the biggest statement of the week was made, as the Elks put together a dominant second half to see off the Toronto Argonauts 42-12 in front of over 22,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. This was a response the Elks needed after back-to-back losses, and they did not so much deliver it with interest as take out a second mortgage on it, snapping that mini skid and moving into first place in the West at the season’s halfway point.

Cody Fajardo did not have his best half of football to start, but he found something extra after the break, finishing 80.6 per cent on his completions with no interceptions and spreading the ball to seven different receivers as the offence piled up 24 second-half points. He even chipped in a career-long 44-yard scramble that had the sideline buzzing and presumably had his coaches double-checking their fantasy rosters. “First down efficiency killed us,” he admitted afterwards of the earlier struggles, before praising his group for not hitting the panic button, which by halftime would have been an understandable button to hit. Justin Rankin got back involved after a couple of quiet weeks, finishing with four catches for 61 yards to go with 47 on the ground and a rushing touchdown of his own.

It was the Edmonton defence that really stole the show, though. J.J. Ross had himself an afternoon, picking off two passes, including his first career pick-six, while the front four terrorised Toronto’s offensive line, with Malik Carney recording two sacks in what was comfortably his best game of the season. Toronto managed just 43 yards rushing all afternoon, which is the sort of number you would expect from a poor day at the office, not an away trip. That 30-point margin of victory is the largest for the Elks in over a decade, and with two winnable games still to come before their bye weeks, this is a side that suddenly looks like it means business in the West.

Player of the Game: J.J. Ross, DB, Edmonton Elks. Two interceptions, one of them his first career pick-six, in a defensive performance that turned a nervy afternoon into a rout. 4 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, 1 pick-six.

The final game of the weekend was a proper rollercoaster in Hamilton, where the Tiger-Cats came from nine points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 26-19, ending a three-game losing skid of their own. The twist here, because this weekend clearly needed one more, was that Hamilton’s win came with backup quarterback Tre Ford at the controls, after starter Harrison Frost was forced off in the third quarter. Ford came in and led three of his four drives to points, finishing 13 of 17 for 151 yards and a touchdown through the air, adding 38 yards on the ground for good measure. Keric Wheatfall was the main beneficiary, hauling in 108 yards including the go-ahead score, a 41-yard dagger in the fourth quarter that gave the Ticats their first lead since early in the game.

Saskatchewan had led for long stretches, with Trevor Harris finding Johnny Johnson III, deputising well for the injured Kian Schaffer-Baker and Samuel Emilus, for his first career touchdown catch before the half. Alex Hale was money all night with his leg, hitting four field goals including a career-long 52-yarder to push the Riders ahead by nine early in the fourth, at which point Hamilton fans will have started planning their exit from the car park. But Ford’s arrival changed the complexion of the game, and Marc Liegghio closed it out with a trio of field goals down the stretch to secure it. Harris did move up the all-time passing yardage charts, passing Tracy Ham for 11th on the list, but it will be little consolation as Saskatchewan slips to 6-3 and cedes the top spot in the West to Edmonton after this result and the Elks’ win earlier in the day.

Player of the Game: Tre Ford, QB, Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Came off the bench in the third quarter and led three of his four drives to points, finishing 13 of 17 for 151 yards and a touchdown through the air with four carries for 38 more on the ground. The definition of an impact substitution.

Standings

So, there we have it, week eleven in the books. Three teams found a way to snap a losing run, which tells you plenty about the competitiveness in this league right now, while at the other end of the table Ottawa’s situation grows more historic, and not in a good way, by the week, though I am reliably informed the parade route is still on standby just in case. Edmonton now sit top of the West at the halfway mark having played arguably the toughest run of fixtures in the league; Saskatchewan and Winnipeg are right behind them, and BC’s quiet three-game winning run has them back in the mix, quietly enough that you almost missed it happening. In the East, Montreal remain out on their own, with Hamilton’s win at least giving them something to build on heading into a road trip to Toronto next week.

Until next week, CFL friends!

Interdivisional Standings 2026 This Week: East Division 1 West Division 2

Interdivisional Standings 2026 This Season: East Division 9 West Division 14

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