The #RoadToTheGreyCup is paved.
— CFL (@CFL) November 20, 2021
Here.
We.
Go.
🏆
🗞 https://t.co/IS0oDqUJxO#GCPlayoffs | #CFL pic.twitter.com/FTD9X75dCT
We poked fun at the CFL schedule for scheduling all 3 of the Calgary-Saskatchewan games in a 4-week period. The Stampeders traveled to Vancouver in the middle while the Roughriders had a bye week.
Calgary won the first 2 games before Saskatchewan won the final game. The Stampeders had the tiebreaker but the Roughriders were undefeated against the league minus Winnipeg and Calgary.
Calgary is a surprising 5-2 on the road, including 1-0 in Regina. Saskatchewan is 5-2 at home. The winner travels to Winnipeg for the West final.
Hamilton and Montréal had to wait until the last week to know which team would host the East semifinal. Montréal's collapse at the end of the game Friday meant the Tiger-Cats got home field advantage.
The Tiger-Cats are 5-2 at home while the Alouettes are 4-3 on the road. The winner travels to Toronto for the East final.
This may be a confusing phenomenon for our U.S. readers but the CFL playoff games are on cable television, not your computer. ESPN2 will have the East semifinal while ESPNews had the West semifinal with the TSN feed.
ESPN2
Sunday
Montréal @ Hamilton, 1p
ESPNews
Sunday
Calgary @ Saskatchewan, 4:30p
TSN
Sunday
Montréal @ Hamilton, 1p
Calgary @ Saskatchewan, 4:30p
The Tiger-Cats and Alouettes split the season series. Hamilton earned its first win of the season in Montréal with a 27-10 win. The Alouettes needed overtime to edge out the Tiger-Cats in a rare home loss in Hamilton 23-20 on October 2.
Hamilton would have had the tiebreaker over Montréal on point differential in the games against each other.
Calgary won the first 2 of 3 games in 4 weeks over Saskatchewan. The Stampeders won 23-17 in Calgary on October 2. The same result came with a closer score October 9 in Regina.
The Roughriders finally got some respect with a 20-17 win in Calgary on October 23.
Year | Team | Result |
2019 | Edmonton (8-10) | beat Montréal (10-8), lost to Hamilton (15-3) |
2018 | BC (9-9) | lost to Hamilton (8-10) |
2017 | Saskatchewan (10-8) | beat Ottawa (8-9-1), lost to Toronto (9-9) |
2016 | Edmonton (10-8) | beat Hamilton (7-11), lost to Ottawa (8-9-1) |
2014 | BC (9-9) | lost to Montréal (9-9) |
2012 | Edmonton (7-11) | lost to Toronto (9-9) |
2009 | BC (8-10) | beat Hamilton (9-9), lost to Montréal (15-3) |
2008 | Edmonton (10-8) | beat Winnipeg (8-10), lost to Montréal (11-7) |
2005 | Saskatchewan (9-9) | lost to Montréal (10-8) |
2003 | BC (11-7) | lost to Toronto (9-9) |
2002 | Saskatchewan (8-10) | lost to Toronto (8-10) |
1997 | BC (8-10) | lost to Montréal (13-5) |
We feel vulnerable in not listing the CFL crossover history even if this is the first season since 2015 with (gasp) 3 East teams in the playoffs. 2015 and 2021 are the only seasons since Ottawa returned to the CFL where there has not been a crossover.
The East Division has been an embarrassment in recent seasons.
Hamilton has made the playoffs 5 of these 6 seasons but twice at below .500 and once at .500. Ottawa has made the playoffs 4 of these 6 seasons but twice at below .500.
Toronto and Montréal made the playoffs 2 of these 6 seasons: once at .500.
2019 Hamilton Montréal
2018 Ottawa Hamilton (8-10)
2017 Toronto (9-9) Ottawa (8-9-1)
2016 Ottawa (8-9-1) Hamilton (7-11)
2015 Ottawa Hamilton Toronto
2014 Hamilton (9-9) Montréal (9-9)
We noted earlier that Calgary has now made the playoffs 16 seasons in a row, the Winnipeg streak is at 6, and the Saskatchewan streak is at 5. Hamilton has a 3-season playoffs streak and Montréal has a 2-season playoffs streak.
Team | Total | Home | Road |
Winnipeg | 5 | 2 | 3 |
Saskatchewan | 4 | 3 | 1 |
BC | 3 | 3 | 0 |
Edmonton | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Hamilton | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Calgary | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Toronto | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Montréal | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Ottawa | 1 | 0 | 1 |
There were 12 ESPN telecasts in a shortened season, compared to 17 telecasts each in 2018 and 2019. There were 3 post Labour Day telecasts and none past October 1.
Winnipeg led the way with 5 games followed by Saskatchewan with 4 games. The 2019 Roughriders didn't make U.S. TV until the playoffs. The West dominated the TV time with 17 of the 24 appearances.
Tim Hortons Field, home of the 2021 Grey Cup, and TD Place were the only stadiums not on TV. BC and Montréal were not shown on the road.
August 5 Hamilton @ Winnipeg, 8:30p ESPN2
August 7 Ottawa @ Edmonton, 10p ESPN2
August 14 Hamilton @ Saskatchewan, 10p ESPNews
August 19 Edmonton @ BC, 10p ESPN2
August 21 Winnipeg @ Toronto, 4p ESPN2
August 27 Hamilton @ Montréal, 7:30p ESPNews
August 29 Calgary @ Winnipeg, 7p ESPN2
September 5 Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan, 6p ESPNews
September 6 Edmonton @ Calgary, 4:30p ESPNews
September 17 Toronto @ Saskatchewan, 9:45p ESPNews
September 24 Saskatchewan @ BC, 10:30p ESPN2
October 1 Winnipeg @ BC, 10p ESPNews
2021 CFL Week 16 preview
The 3 teams missing the playoffs had steep second-half collapses but found an upturn at the end. Edmonton won the middle game of the 3-game road trip in 7 calendar days and lost to the BC Lions on Friday.
These teams went winless in October. As a contrast, Montréal won all but 1 game in October.
Team | Previous win | Loss streak | Last win |
Edmonton | September 6 | 8 | November 16 |
BC | September 18 | 7 | November 19 |
Ottawa | September 28 | 6 | November 19 |
The CFL is a league where the teams are relatively close together in quality but these teams had injuries and not so great luck along the way.
Winnipeg finished 11-3 on the other end of the scale with a 2-game losing streak. The Blue Bombers won the 2019 Grey Cup as the 3rd place team in the West. This year, Winnipeg finished 7-0 at home and hosting the West final.
With @elks cleaning house, former @calstampeders and @BCLions head coach/GM Wally Buono will serve in a transitional role until new GM is in place by start of new year. #CFL #Elks
— Dave Naylor (@TSNDaveNaylor) November 22, 2021
The Edmonton Elks sent a not-so-subtle message, firing president and CEO Chris Presson, general manager Brock Sunderland, and head coach Jaime Elizondo on Monday.
Cries of "Chris Jones" will have to wait until Toronto is done with the CFL playoffs.
The decision to acquire Nick Arbuckle and not have him play spoke to problems in leadership on several levels. Arbuckle signed an extension through 2022 and will be playing for all new people.
The team had recent success in the playoffs, making the East final in 2019 and the West final in 2017. The 2018 squad finished at 9-9, losing a tiebreaker with BC to crossover.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
All-time passing yards quarterback Anthony Calvillo visited the TSN booth in Montréal. Calvillo, originally from the Los Angeles area, is now a Canadian citizen.
Calvillo spent 2015-2017 in various roles with the Alouettes coaching staff. He spent a hectic 2015 as receivers coach, then quarterbacks coach, and finally the co-offensive coordinator. Calvillo was the offensive coordinator with help in 2016 and the quarterbacks coach in 2017.
Calvillo spent 2018 as the quarterback coach for the Toronto Argonauts, working with his former bosses Jim Popp and Marc Trestman. Since 2019, he has been working with the Montréal Carabins football team in U Sports.
Short-term solutions for TSN to replace Chris Cuthbert on CFL telecasts
Rod Smith and Duane Forde stayed out east with stops in Montréal on Friday and Hamilton on Saturday. Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor were in Vancouver on Friday and Calgary on Saturday.
We expect those same crews for the division semifinals and finals with Matthew Scianitti/John Lu in the East with Sara Orlesky/Farhan Lalji in the West.
Twitter captures: @CFL; @TSNDaveNaylor
photo credit: CFL
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