Labour Day weekend means the major CFL rivalries are on centre stage.
BC at Montréal is not part of the rivalry on Saturday night. The CFL hasn't figured out that the Alouettes and RedBlacks belong together on this weekend. The teams do play on Thanksgiving. Someday BC will play the Atlantic Schooners on Labour Day weekend.
Usually, the "other" game runs on Friday on the long weekend but the CFL has this game on Saturday night in 2023.
The prairie teams play in Regina Sunday night. Winnipeg already has a win over Saskatchewan this season.
Labour Day means the battle of southern Ontario in Hamilton and the Battle of Alberta in Calgary. The games start in late afternoon in the east.
Toronto is 2-0 against Hamilton so far this season. Edmonton and Calgary have not played each other.
CBS Sports Network carries the Sunday game and the Monday doubleheader.
Ottawa gets to relax and enjoy this holiday weekend.
CBS Sports Network
Sunday
Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan, 7p
Monday
Toronto @ Hamilton, 3:30p
Edmonton @ Calgary, 7p
TSN
Saturday
BC @ Montréal, 7p
Sunday
Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan, 7p
Monday
Toronto @ Hamilton, 3:30p
Edmonton @ Calgary, 7p
Bye week: Ottawa
Edmonton Elks end long home CFL losing streak at 22
We wrote extensively on the Edmonton Elks winning a home game for the first time since 2019. The Ottawa RedBlacks suffered their 5th loss in a row in the 30-20 Elks win. Edmonton has a 2-game winning streak going into the Labour Day classic in Calgary. The Stampeders are a game ahead of the Elks.
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The running joke at halftime was that Zach Collaros had thrown 4 touchdown passes. 2 of them went to Montréal. Collaros finished the night with 4 TD passes for the Blue Bombers and 2 for the Alouettes. Easy to laugh when your team scored the final 33 points of the game.
Montréal and Winnipeg came into the game with 4-game winning streaks and had veteran quarterbacks coming back from injury.
Brady Oliveria was fantastic on the ground for Winnipeg. William Stanback wasn't much of a running force for the Alouettes.
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Toronto had its best CFL crowd (17, 906) of the season with the CNE in town. That crowd saw an exciting 39-31 Argos win over the Calgary Stampeders.
Toronto had struggled against Calgary, especially at home. The Argos had been 1-15 in the last decade against Calgary and the only win was on the road.
Javon Leake now has 4 punt return touchdowns, a new franchise record for Toronto. The latest was an 84-yard return. The league record is 5.
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Hamilton running back James Butler got some revenge over his former club with 21 carries for 118 yards and 2 majors. The 30-13 win over the BC Lions was a bit of a shock. The Tiger-Cats snapped BC's 6-game home winning streak.
Taylor Powell finally won a start with the Tiger-Cats, going 18-23 for 222 yards and a touchdown. Vernon Adams Jr. threw for 311 yards, one touchdown, and one interception for the BC Lions.
This was the first Hamilton win over a .500 + team this season: the previous 3 wins had come against Ottawa (x2) and Edmonton.
Edmonton went 0-8 with Taylor Cornelius and Jarrett Doege at quarterback. Chris Jones was adamant about not giving Tre Ford a chance, even at the end of a game. The Elks switch offensive coordinators. Jarious Jackson goes with Tre Ford. The Elks are 2-1 since then, and the one loss featured an amazing Winnipeg comeback.
The bias against Canadian quarterbacks is very powerful, especially if that Canadian quarterback went to USports (Ford did, Nathan Rourke did not).
The Elks have been running the ball more. Ford has shown some immaturity with a limited number of starts. Jackson deserves a lot of credit. Edmonton looks a lot better with Ford in charge.
With all the quarterbacks who have gone down, Canadian QB Michael O'Connor is still a free agent.
We aren't saying Canadian quarterbacks are the answer, just part of the equation. If Ford starts both of the games against Calgary, he jumps up to third on this list.
We love that the CFL is colour blind to quarterbacks but wish Canadian QBs get more love from the league.
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Toronto has used up its 3 byes. Montréal and Hamilton have had 2 byes already with the 3rd bye for both teams in Week 20. Ottawa had had a bye so far, a bye this week, with the final bye on Week 20.
Having 9 CFL teams means each team gets 3 byes. They should be spread out more, especially for the East teams.
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Defensive guru Rich Stubler passed away this week at 74. Stubler coached with 6 different CFL teams, starting in 1983 as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive coordinator.
He also spent time with Toronto, Edmonton, BC, Calgary, and Montréal. Stubler finished his CFL career in 2021 in Toronto as a defensive assistant.
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Rod Smith and Glen Suitor stayed out west for the Thursday game in Winnipeg with John Lu and the Saturday game in Vancouver with Farhan Lalji. We thought by now that Lalji would do play by play on a BC Lions game. Maybe when the tripleheaders start later in the season.
Marshall Ferguson made a return along with Duane Forde outside the CNE in Toronto with Matthew Scianitti on Friday night.
Dustin Nielson and Matt Dunigan formed a nice combo with Brit Dort to watch history with the first Elks home win in the 2020s on Sunday night.
Dave Naylor and Jim Barker filled in on the CFL on TSN panel. Scianitti filled in on another Sunday night for Kate Beirness.
logo credit: CFL
photos credit: TSN/CFL
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