CFL 'Quick Kicks': Semi-Finals

By Chris Lawton

Welcome back to our weekly review of each CFL game week for the 2024 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. This time it’s the playoffs as we look back at home wins in the East and West Semi-Finals and look forward to the coming Division Finals.

Let’s dive right in. The opening game of the weekend saw the Ottawa RedBlacks visit the Toronto Argonauts and it was the Argos who are moving on to the East Division Final in Montreal after posting a 58-38 win here.

Let’s talk about momentum! The RedBlacks were 10-0 up early on here, and it took until the last play of the first quarter for Toronto to score and make it 10-3. Later, leading 23-17 with 6 seconds in the half Ottawa tried a squib kick but it didn’t work, set Toronto up for a field goal and meant it was now 23-20 at halftime and a ‘free’ 3 points gave the Argos a shot in the arm.

Aside from that, despite taking some big hits, Chad Kelly hit some bombs on his way to a perfect 158.3 QB rating with over 350 yards passing, just 2 incompletions and 4 touchdowns. Benefitting from that were Makai Polk, (4 catches, 158 yards and a touchdown), DaVaris Daniels, (4 catches 88 yards and 2 touchdowns), Kevin Mital, (4 catches for 49 yards), and Jake Herslow, (4 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown), amongst others.

Of course, Toronto didn’t have it all their own way. Dru Brown was the big offseason acquisition for Ottawa, and he has played well against Toronto throwing for 1225 yards and 8 touchdowns against the Argonauts in three games. Here he finished 46 of 61 for 476 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

On the receiving end of Brown’s passes were Kalil Pimpleton, (13 catches for 123 yards), Bralon Addison, (10 catches for 103 yards, 2 touchdowns), Justin Hardy, (7 catches for 83 yards), and Jaelon Acklin, (7 catches for 70 yards and 1 touchdown) amongst others.

Unfortunately for Ottawa, both of those interceptions came back for scores for Toronto in the fourth quarter after the RedBlacks had got back to a 41-32 deficit and then held Toronto to a field goal.

58 points is a record playoff score for the Argonauts, while the 96 combined points matches a league playoff record.

Next Week: The Eastern Division Final

Toronto and Montreal are facing off in the Eastern Final for a third-straight year. Each team has a win to their name over the past two seasons here and each team went on to win the Grey Cup. This is the first time Montreal has hosted in these recent bouts however, and the first time Montreal has hosted an Eastern Final since 2012. (A year the Argos won and went on to win the Grey Cup which fans of the Double Blue will look to as a sign).

Since 1973 the East Final hosts have put up a decent winning margin (33-15), whilst Montreal are a solid 28-10 at home in the playoffs and Toronto are 13-22 as a visiting team – something Alouettes fans will take as their own portent of success.

The second Semi-Final game was in Saskatchewan where the host Saskatchewan Roughriders overcame the BC Lions by a 28-19 margin.

The Roughriders registered their first playoff win since 2021, and they did it with solid running, accurate passing, winning the turnover battle, (not that surprising as they had a stellar +26 turnover differential during the regular season), and not having the special teams’ problems BC brought on themselves.

That’s not to say BC didn’t have opportunities here, they did. However, when opportunity came knocking Saskatchewan responded and BC missed some key chances. Which would ultimately decide the direction of the game.

If Trevor Harris gets in rhythm, then he tends to be accurate and that happened here as he completed 78.8% of his passes (26 of 33 for 279 yards, 1 touchdown and zero picks), and once he is passing well the running game can balance things out.

Here that running game was led by AJ Ouellette who had 14 carries for 70 yards and 2 touchdowns. Overall Saskatchewan outpaced the Lions by 102 yards to 42 on the ground and holding the lions to less than 50 yards rushing put pressure on the Lions passing game. Meanwhile Samuel Emilus caught 9 passes for 106 yards (nine catches puts him in a 5-way tie for second most all-time in a Roughriders playoff game).

For the Lions, Vernon Adamas Jr was 20 of 33 for 317 yards and 2 touchdowns. Unfortunately, he was also picked off three times. Each one came at a key time too.

In the second quarter with the game tied at 6-6, Marcus Sayles picked the ball off, leading to Ouellette’s first TD of the game. With BC trailing by 9 and 4 and a half minutes left in the game, Bo Lokombo picked of Adams Jr just as he was throwing downfield to Keon Hatcher around the five-yard line. Then the game was iced at the end by Western Defensive Player of the Year Rolan Milligan Jr picking off the BC pivot in the End Zone.

Also of note, Sean Whyte, Western special teams player of the year hit the post twice, (on an extra point and Field Goal attempt) dropping four points that could have made things look different at the point in the game where the Riders were leading 20-16.

Next Week: The Western Division Final

Saskatchewan’s win sets up a visit to Winnipeg where the Roughriders and Blue Bombers will fight for a chance to represent the West in the 111th Grey Cup.

Winnipeg will feel very comfortable here as they are hosting the West Division Final for the fourth consecutive year and appearing in their sixth straight Western Final. The past two times the Blue Bombers have won the Grey Cup they defeated Saskatchewan in the West Final in both 2019 & 2021. Their fans will be hoping that is a portent of things to come this year.

Since 1972 the West Final has been won by a 3-2 margin by the home teams (30-20).

MOP's of Semi-Final Week:

O – Chad Kelly, QB, Toronto Argonauts: 18 of 20 for 358 yards, 4 touchdowns, zero interceptions. 2 carries for 29 yards and a touchdown.

D – Ben Hladik, LB, BC Lions: 10 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss/Wynton McManis LB, Toronto Argonauts: 10 tackles and 1 interception.

ST – Lirim Hajrullahu, K, Toronto Argonauts:  3 for 3 on field goals (longest of 53-yards). 7 extra points – 16 points added to team total. 8 kickoffs for 395 yards.

Grey Cup Playoffs:

West Division Final: Saskatchewan Roughriders [10-8-1] at Winnipeg Blue Bombers [11-7].

East Division Final: Toronto Argonauts [11-8] at Montreal Alouettes [12-5-1].

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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