Ottawa hosts Hamilton in the early game in the Friday Night Football doubleheader while the Montréal Alouettes travel to Regina in the nightcap. The start time of the late game will be delayed.
The BC Lions have a somewhat long trip to Winnipeg in the late Saturday afternoon contest. The Battle of Alberta is the nightcap game in the provincial capital.
Toronto sits and waits to see what happens to Ottawa.
TSN
Friday
Hamilton @ Ottawa, 7p
Montréal @ Saskatchewan, 9:30p
Saturday
BC @ Winnipeg, 4p
Calgary @ Edmonton, 7p
Bye week: Toronto
Duron Carter offence star and now defence star.
Carter had a very busy week but the strongest highlight was his 37-yard Pick 6 where he ran close to 60 yards to get that return. You can watch that here.
The Roughriders will also remember this game for clinching a playoff spot, beating Calgary for the first time in 4 years, and ended the Stampeders 17-game home winning streak.
The last Calgary loss at home was 15-11 against Edmonton on October 10, 2015.
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Justin Medlock is usually money. Unfortunately for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Medlock missed the winning field goal slightly to his right.
Toronto had 3 players in the end zone, including kicker/punter Lirim Hajrullahu. Hajrullahu fielded the ball and kicked the ball back into play and out of bounds, giving the Argonauts the win. You can watch that play here.
Normally, a kick out of bounds inside the 20s would be a penalty. The Hajrullahu kick was an open kick, a kick after the ball has been scrimmaged, Open kicks do not apply to the out of bounds rule.
Marc Trestman coached for Montréal when Damon Duval tried a winning field goal. Noel Prefontaine, the Toronto kicker/punter, was knocked out of the end zone by a teammate so another player kicked the ball out of the end zone. Unfortunately for the Argos, Duval fielded the ball and kicked the ball back into the end zone.
On Saturday, we saw the right way to save the victory. The Toronto coach: Marc Trestman.
2017 CFL Week 18 preview
Calgary lost but still clinched the West title.
Toronto has a 1-point lead. If Ottawa ties or loses to Hamilton, Toronto is the East winner. Even with an Ottawa win, Toronto needs a tie or win in Vancouver next weekend.
Winnipeg still needs a win or an Edmonton loss to host a home playoff game.
The Blue Bombers will not be the crossover team since Winnipeg would have the tiebreaker over Saskatchewan. The Roughriders control their destiny to not crossover. If Saskatchewan wins the last 2 games, the Roughriders finish 3rd.
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The BC Lions may not like to hear this, but most of us outside Vancouver weren't surprised the Lions blew a 16-point lead to Edmonton. Mike Reilly has a deserved reputation for comebacks. The Lions looked tired, even in OT.
BC has lost 5 in a row and 8 of the last 9. The only win in that stretch was a 41-18 trouncing of Montréal on September 8.
Speaking of losing streaks and Montréal, the Alouettes losing streak is up to 9. This means that the 0-8 start for Hamilton is no longer the longest losing streak in the East in 2017. The last Montréal win came on August 11 with a 21-9 win over Toronto.
The Alouettes honoured the 1977 Grey Cup champs at halftime. The 1977 squad might be able to play better than the current team.
Montréal will miss the playoffs 3 years in a row, the first such streak since 1967-1969.
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There are now 4 passers with 60,000 career passing yards. Anthony Calvillo (79,816), Damon Allen (72,381) and Henry Burris (63,227) now welcome Ricky Ray to the heralded group.
Ray also went past 5,000 yards for the first time since 2008 and the fourth time in his career. He turns 38 on Sunday.
CFL kicks up Diversity Is Strength campaign
Henry Burris devoted his halftime segment Sunday to the idea of a Canadian starting QB. We saw an anomaly on Friday night with 2 Canadian quarterbacks in the game at the same time. This was the first time since 1984 when Gerry Dattilio (Montréal) and Greg Vavra (Calgary) played in the same game.
Brandon Bridge came in early for Kevin Glenn for Saskatchewan. Andrew Buckley finished up for Bo Levi Mitchell in Calgary.
Bridge has been effective in relief for Glenn and might be, for now, better as a reliever than a starter.
Still, soon, there will be a starting Canadian quarterback. Huge steps for a league where Diversity Is Strength.
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Brandon Banks snapped a long 25-game streak without a TD return. Banks has shifted more to wide receiver since June Jones became the coach. The 65-yard TD punt return was the first for the Tiger-Cats this season. Banks added a 65-yard TD reception as part of 240 all-purpose yards for the game.
Gord Miller and Duane Forde called the game seen on ESPN2. Was nice to see a day game from Montréal where the power didn't go out.
Forde made an intriguing observation that Montréal hasn't really developed a quarterback since returning to the CFL in 1995. He noted that Anthony Calvillo got the starter job when Tracy Ham retired.
Miller added some personal thoughts to being a kid in Edmonton who remembered the outcome of the 1977 Grey Cup as someone rooting for the Esks. He also had a great observation as to why the birds circling overhead don't show up until the 4th quarter.
photos credit: TSN
"most of us outside Vancouver weren't surprised the lions blew a 16-point lead to Edmonton" -- I think the folks inside Van City find that unsurprising also!!
Posted by: Tyler | October 26, 2017 at 10:36 AM
I thought the people of Vancouver would have more faith, however blind that might be. The Lions fell pretty fast this year.
Posted by: Chad | November 11, 2017 at 08:25 PM