Welcome to Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. The States get Monday off for Indigenous Peoples Day (aka Columbus Day) but in Canada, thoughts are of turkey and football and family and friends.
Toronto is coming off a bye to travel its shortest road trip into the other division in Winnipeg. The Blue Bombers need a win to get home field in the West while the Argos get a playoff spot with a win.
No Friday doubleheader because of the holiday so get all your snacks in as the teams fight for playoff position.
CBC and sometimes Citytv (in western markets) get the Battle of Alberta in hockey and now CTV carries its first Battle of Alberta in decades. CTV had the week off last week yet will have exclusive Saturday afternoon contests through the end of the regular season.
The Elks already have the season series. Calgary's slight advantage is playing this contest at home where the record is a lot better. The teams aren't playing for the CFL playoffs.
The BC Lions have a rough road trip into the sometimes loud confines of Mosaic Stadium in Regina. The Roughriders clinch second place with a win. The Vancouver Canucks have the night off for the first Hockey Night in Canada of the season and Saskatchewan doesn't have a NHL franchise.
The Lions have won 5 of the past 7 meetings between the two teams.
The Canadian Thanksgiving will have East playoff teams with Ottawa at Montréal. The Alouettes clinched the division yet the RedBlacks want a home playoff game. Tune in for Rod Smith and Duane Forde and lots of talk about turkey.
CBS Sports Network is required to carry the Canadian Thanksgiving game, easily done on a Monday afternoon on a U.S. holiday.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats get to enjoy a nice autumn weekend with turkey and the trimmings before jumping back into practice on Tuesday. They are hoping to have another week with slim playoff hopes.
CBS Sports Network
Monday
Ottawa @ Montréal, 1p
CTV
Saturday
Edmonton @ Calgary, 3p
TSN
Friday
Toronto @ Winnipeg, 8:30p
Saturday
BC @ Saskatchewan, 7p
Monday
Ottawa @ Montréal, 1p
Bye week: Hamilton
MATHIEU BETTS PICK-6 🚨🤯
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) October 5, 2024
The Lions defensive lineman comes up CLUTCH to extend the lead 🔥#CFL pic.twitter.com/AlDzoroevR
The BC Lions had a narrow 9-8 lead through 3 quarters with Calgary in town. The Stampeders have been terrible on the road and the Lions were scared to play in Vancouver.
Somehow, the Lions defence asked if they could fix this problem. The Mathieu Betts Pick-6 and TJ Lee deflecting a backward pass and running that back for a touchdown in a small time frame gave the Lions that momentum to finally win in Vancouver, home of the 2024 Grey Cup.
The Stampeders produced over 100 more offensive yards than the BC yet the Lions defence was the difference.
We get that the Calgary fan base is livid because the team didn't make the playoffs. Let's look at how rare this is:
Before 2024, Calgary had a 3-year block (2002-2004) without the playoffs. Outside of that timeframe, the Stampeders have been in the CFL playoffs since 1989. From 2005-2023, the Stampeders had double digit wins every year except 2007 (7-10-1), 2021 (8-6 with 14 game schedule), and 2023 (6-12).
Then again, the last Calgary playoff win was the 2018 Grey Cup over Ottawa.
Dave Dickenson had his slim playoff hopes disappear in the stadium where he had success as a player for the Lions. Give the team a chance to rebound.
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Winnipeg came into Hamilton with a 7-game winning streak while Hamilton had a 4-game winning streak. Even then, the Tiger-Cats rough start was difficult to overcome.
The Boveralls, Bo Levi Mitchell wearing overalls for luck, may have given the Ticats a glimmer of hope. The Blue Bombers also had a rough start to their season at 2-6 but Mike O'Shea had faith in his players.
Montréal has the better record but Winnipeg is the hottest team in the CFL.
Milt Stegall won't have to wear the overalls anymore since the streak is snapped.
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Edmonton 1, Saskatchewan 0 after first quarter. Second quarter had 32 points: 18 for Saskatchewan and 14 for Edmonton.
Samuel Emilus scored an 88-yard touchdown for the Roughriders' first major of the game. Defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr. had his 8th interception, tops in the league.
The Edmonton running attack had averaged 124.9 yards per game yet the Saskatchewan defence held the Elks to only 30 yards on 15 carries.
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Winnipeg (10-6) has a 8-game winning streak and a home playoff game. The Blue Bombers have the tiebreaker with BC and Saskatchewan, both the other West playoffs teams.
Saskatchewan (8-7-1) has a 3-game winning streak. The Roughriders maintain a ½ game lead on the Lions (8-8) for second place. Saskatchewan hasn't hosted a playoff game since 2021.
If the Roughriders win, Saskatchewan clinches second place. If BC wins, the Lions take over second place, needing a BC win or tie versus Montréal in Week 20 or a Saskatchewan loss to Calgary in Week 21 to get a home playoff game.
The only way Winnipeg won't win the division is if Saskatchewan wins out and Winnipeg loses out. The BC Lions can't catch Winnipeg for the top spot, thanks to the tiebreaker.
The 2 Alberta teams — Edmonton (5-11) and Calgary (4-10-1) — will miss the CFL playoffs, the first time in modern league history (1954-) that Alberta will not have a team in the playoffs. Calgary had made 18 straight trips to the playoffs, the longest active streak and 4th-longest in CFL history.
The only thing that changed in the top 3 teams in the East was that Ottawa (8-6-1) clinched a playoff spot, even with a 3-game losing streak. Montréal (11-3-1) is destined for a home playoff game at Stade Molson for the East final. The RedBlacks have a ½ game lead for second place over Toronto (8-7).
Hamilton (6-10) can tie the Argos and has the tiebreaker. Any Toronto win or Hamilton loss give the Argos a playoff spot. There will be no crossover since the Tiger-Cats max is 16 points, which wouldn't be enough points to cross.
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We finally get my dream, of sorts. We finally get 2 Canadian quarterbacks starting for CFL teams in the same week. The Edmonton Elks start Tre Ford in Calgary on Saturday. BC starts Nathan Rourke in the Lions' key encounter in Regina later that night.
Ford and Rourke have started games, just not in the same week, much less the same day.
The Ottawa Senators' last playoff game ended in double overtime in the spring of 2017, losing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. The Ottawa RedBlacks' last playoff game was the 2018 Grey Cup, losing 27-16 to the Calgary Stampeders.
The federal capital has other sports teams (such as the Ottawa 67s) but to have such droughts on a major league level, especially with expanded playoffs in the NHL in 2020 and the CFL schedule wiped out that same year.
Ottawa fans deserve far better than this from major sports teams. Hopefully, an Ottawa RedBlacks postseason game will help the healing.
Since goalie Linus Ullmark signed a 4-year extension to stay in the federal capital, maybe the Senators can also make the playoffs.
Alberta will not be represented in the CFL playoffs for the first time in 78 YEARS 😳 pic.twitter.com/n3rUga1MKm
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) October 6, 2024
TSN reported that 1945 was the last time a team from Alberta didn't compete for the Grey Cup. 3 Down Nation reported the same fact. My friend Guy from Regina, who goes to a lot of Saskatchewan games, told me that isn't true.
Turns out that while the teams didn't play a regular season, the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Regina Roughriders in the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) semifinals. Winnipeg downed Calgary 9-6 in the WIFU final to go to the Grey Cup.
From what I can tell, there was no football/rugby in Alberta (professionally) from 1941-1944. The Calgary Bronks did compete for the Grey Cup playoffs from 1935-1940 as well as University of Alberta (1934), Calgary Altomahs (1932-1933), Calgary Altomahs-Tigers (1931), and Calgary Tigers (1929-1930). By my count, 1928 was the last time there wasn't a team from Alberta in the playoffs leading to the Grey Cup, not counting World War II.
The CFL modern era started in 1954 so we know very little of life before then. We would be curious why 1945 is being reported when that doesn't click with information we have. If you have a solid answer, let us know in the comments.
The 111th Grey Cup will have a new home this November! 🇺🇸
— CFL (@CFL) October 10, 2024
On November 17th, the #GreyCup will be exclusively televised within the U.S. on @CBSSports at 6PM ET!
💻: https://t.co/q9ThaGFqQk pic.twitter.com/YjjzBGJGHH
The Jonas Brothers may have played a part in this scenario. Not a sentence I normally type.
The U.S. not having the playoffs on television is a sore spot in the CFL TV deal. Getting the Grey Cup on CBS Sports Network makes so much sense. Even ESPN pulled that off with its TV deal with the CFL.
CFL+ is available for the first 2 rounds in the United States and outside of Canada and the United States through all the playoffs, including the Grey Cup.
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Winnipeg @ Hamilton: Rod Smith/Duane Forde/Matthew Scianitti
Calgary @ BC: Farhan Lalji/Glen Suitor/Shantelle Chand
Saskatchewan @ Edmonton: Dustin Nielson/Glen Suitor/Ryan Rishaug
Dustin Nielson returned to the CFL this week and didn't have to board a plane. Well, maybe the light rail to the Stadium stop on the Blue Line. Farhan Lalji called his second game, second week in a row, both in Vancouver.
The CFL on TSN panel was intact except for Jim Barker in for Davis Sanchez on Saturday along with regulars Kate Beirness, Matt Dunigan, and Milt Stegall.
The Straight Fire segment is a great chance to get in university football highlights as well as younger players. There are tons of small hockey leagues in Canada and you feel like hardly anyone pays attention to university football in Canada.
Someone will need to go west for Saturday unless Rod Smith and Duane Forde will do their version of the Amazing Race Canada (a CTV/Bell Media show). The idea of Gord Miller and Matt Dunigan in Alberta for the Battle of Alberta on CTV would make me a bit happy.
logo credit: CFL
Twitter captures: @TSN_Sports (x2); @CFL
photo credits: TSN/CFL; CFL