CFL Quick Kicks: Week 13

By Chris Lawton

Welcome to week thirteen of 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.

Let’s dive right in. The first game of the Labour Day weekend saw the BC Lions host the Ottawa RedBlacks for the first ever ‘Touchdown Pacific’ game. This marks the first time the Lions have hosted a game at Royal Athletic Park in Vancouver, the furthest west a CFL game has ever been played. And it was the Lions who came away with a convincing 38-12 win, moving them to an impressive 11-2 in Labour Day games against Ottawa clubs. In fact, the last time they lost to an Ottawa club in a Labour Day game was way back in 1983.

When Nathan Rourke re-signed with the BC Lions, the performance he put in here is just what management would have been envisaging. Rourke led the way going 21 of 30 for 325 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception, as well has having 3 carries for 29 yards and a touchdown.

Rourke’s rushing touchdown capped an eight play 75-yard touchdown drive that the Lions mounted to open the game. They then proceeded to dominate the first half, scoring the first 17 points of the game, and holding leads of 17-0 and 24-3 before finishing the half up 31-6.

Going into the game William Stanback needed 67 yards to pass 4,500 on his career. He got more than that as he had 20 carries for 93 yards and a score, as well as 6 catches on 6 targets for 78 yards. Meanwhile Justin McInnis, who had 72 yards receiving on 3 catches surpassed 1,000 yards in season for the first time in his career.

The Lions snapped a 5-game losing skid here to get to 6-6, while Ottawa fell to 7-3-1. Their best play of the game came when punter Richie Leone passed the ball for a 27-yard gain on a fake punt to give them a spark and set up their first points on the drive with a Field Goal from Lewis Ward. Whilst they did tighten things up in the second half the damage was already done.

The second game of the weekend featured the prairie rivalry as the Saskatchewan Roughriders hosted the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Unlike the previous game, this one went down to the final play as Saskatchewan kicker Brett Lauther fell just short on a 60-yard field goal attempt and the Blue Bombers left with a 35-33 win.

The Blue Bombers, now on a four-game winning streak, have turned their season around. After starting out 0-4 they are now 6-6 and top of the West Division. Conversely, the Roughriders have fallen from 4-0 to now be 5-6-1 and are on a six-game winless run.

As a result of this win, Winnipeg coach Mike O’Shea now has 102 regular season wins, tying him with Winnipeg legend Bud Grant and Calgary’s John Hufnagel. Making him one of the top ten winningest coaches in CFL history.

If you looked at the game stat line you would see Saskatchewan with almost 100 yards more net offence than Winnipeg and holding the ball for almost five minutes longer. In fact, over the second half the Roughriders outgained the Blue Bombers 274 yards to 73. But Winnipeg took their chances and the men in green fell just short in a wild finish.

That finish? With 14 seconds on the clock Trevor Harris ran in a one-yard TD, but the 2-point conversion that would have tied it failed. Then Saskatchewan recovered an onside kick. The ball moved upfield thanks to a pass interference call only for that final 60-yard field goal attempt to fall short.

For Saskatchewan Trevor Harris finished 30 of 49 for 368 yards with 3 touchdowns. He also had 4 carries for 27 yards and a score. Whilst for Winnipeg Zach Collaros was 12 of 18 for 218 yards with 1 TD and 1 pick before he was ruled out of the game at halftime and Chris Streveler came in, finishing 4 of 6 for 46 yards. He also had 7 carries for just 12 yards, but critically ran in 2 touchdowns earlier in the game.  

There have been a few games where we have said this year it was a game of two halves, and this was another example of that with Winnipeg taking a 29-14 advantage into the locker room before Saskatchewan fought back and fell just short.

Saskatchewan have now gone 0-3-1 over 4 games whilst being outscored by only 6 points in total and taking every game to the final play. This is highly reminiscent of how Edmonton started out this season. The support for games like this is still there though as 33,861 fans were on hand for this one – the largest crowd Mosaic Stadium has seen since opening in 2017.

The third game of the weekend was in Hamilton where the Tiger-Cats welcomed the Toronto Argonauts. This one saw Hamilton take the season series 2-1 with a 31-28 win. In fact, two thirds of Hamilton’s wins this season have come at the expense of the Argonauts as they moved to 3-9 and dropped Toronto to 6-5 with this victory.

Bo Levi Mitchell moved to 7-0 in Labour Day Classics with this win. Although most of those came helming Calgary against Edmonton, he enjoyed himself here going 20 of 30 for 347 yards and 2 touchdowns as well as having 2 carries for 25 yards. Backing him up was former Maryland QB Taulia Tagovaiola who completed 1 pass for 6 yards and had 2 carries for 10 yards, including his first CFL touchdown.

This was a case of the Ticats opening a big lead, Toronto chipping away until they led late on and then Hamilton seeing out the win. Indeed, Hamilton started fast as Richard Leonard picked off Chad Kelly on the game’s opening drive and Hamilton capitalised with a 57-yard touchdown strike to Tim White just two plays later. Which was just the start for White who had 6 catches for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns, averaging a ridiculously good 30 yards a catch, aided mightily by 57 and 70-yard touchdown catches. On the ground Greg Bell had nine carries for 78 yards and added another 40 yards receiving.

After Hamilton took a 17-0 lead last time these two played, this time around they got another hot start, taking a 21-3 lead, which despite the Toronto comeback was enough for the tabbies to build a win from.

If you give a QB with the experience of Bo Levi Mitchell time in the pocket, he will exploit it. Which definitely happened here as Toronto who had only given up two passing plays of 48 yard or more in their previous games gave up bombs of 48, 57 and 70 yards here – two of which were scores.

The final game of the weekend saw the ‘Battle of Alberta’ play out in Calgary as the Stampeders hosted the Edmonton Elks. It was Edmonton who came away with an impressive 35-20 win. Which means this Labour Day rivalry is all tied up at 31-31-1 all-time.

The Edmonton Offence had run for 120+ yards in four consecutive contests coming into this one, and whilst Calgary held them to 102 yards on the ground here, the passing game really came to life as McLeod Bethel-Thompson went 25 of 36 for 486 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tevin Jones led all receivers with 5 catches on 5 targets for 208 yards, at 41.6 yards per catch even better than White for Hamilton, and 2 touchdowns. The well-travelled former Memphis Tiger had his best game as a pro.

Edmonton were dominant here putting up 586 yards of net offence and holding the ball for nearly 35 minutes of game time. But this was also about the phases of the game working together. Edmonton won the turnover battle 4-0 with four interceptions of Calgary QB Jake Maier leading to the offence putting up points. Loucheiz Purifoy and Devodric Bynum grabbed 2 picks apiece.

As well as Jones going over 200 yards receiving, the Elks had 100+ yard games from receivers Kurleigh Gittens Jr, (7 catches 115 yards), and Eugene Lewis (6 catches 112 yards and 1 touchdown). On the other side of the field Reggie Begelton had 7 catches for 118 yards.

Edmonton were dominant but still only led 13-6 at halftime. The Stamps even got it back to 27-20 with 3:34 left in the game thanks to a 106-yard kickoff return touchdown from Peyton Logan. But the Elks snuffed that out one play later as Bethel-Thompson hit Tevin Jones for a 74-yard score to all but seal it.

With these results the West has tightened up even more with the top three teams standing at a very even looking 6-6, 6-6 and 5-6-1 respectively. Of those teams, Winnipeg, who are now top, are the ones trending upwards. But after this last game of the weekend Edmonton at 4-8 are 4-1 over their last five games and will look to have something to say about how it all goes from here.

In the East Montreal did not play this weekend and, sitting at 10-1, saw both Ottawa, (now 7-3-1) and Toronto (6-5) slip further back.

MOP's of Week 13:

O – Tevin Jones, WR Edmonton Elks: 5 catches for 208 yards and 2 touchdowns.

D – Devodric Bynum, DN Edmonton Elks: 3 tackles, 2 interceptions.

ST – Lirim Hajrullahu, K Toronto Argonauts: 5 for 5 on Field Goals. 6 for 6 on all kicks.  2 kickoffs for 147 yards.

Interdivisional Standings 2024 This Week: East Division 0 West Division 1

Interdivisional Standings 2024 season: East Division 18 West Division 10 Ties 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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