The final week of the Canadian Football League regular season is here!
This week, we’re going to look at one game that features a team looking to get right heading into the playoffs and another that includes a team trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
We’re 9-2 over the last three weeks, so let’s keep the good times rolling heading into the postseason.
Friday, Oct. 25: Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Ottawa Redblacks — 7:00 p.m. EDT
The week begins with one team trying to stay hot to close out the year while the other tries to stop the bleeding before the playoffs as Hamilton heads to Ottawa to play the Redblacks.
It’s been a rough ride for Ottawa as of late (get it?) as the Redblacks have lost five in a row — not exactly peaking at the right time. Following last week’s loss to Toronto, the Redblacks will finish the season at 3-7-1 against playoff teams.
Hamilton isn’t a playoff team this year but they’ve looked like one lately. The Tabbies have won five of their last six games after a thorough butt-kicking of the Stampeders last week.
Bo Levi Mitchell went off in that game, throwing for 450 yards and five touchdowns in the 42-20. The two-time M.O.P. has now thrown for 299-plus yards in five of his last six games, helping him eclipse the 5,000-yard mark for the third time in his career.
That’s not the type of production Ottawa wants to be dealing with after allowing Chad Kelly to be PFF’s highest-graded QB of the week. Kelly threw for 331 yards and three scores in the game, marking the fifth time in the last seven games that Ottawa has allowed 299-plus yards passing, including once to Mitchell.
On the offensive side of things, the Redblacks continue to beat themselves. They got the penalty situation we addressed last week under control but turnovers are still a problem.
Ottawa turned the ball over three more times last week, putting them at 20 in their last seven games. They’ve committed multiple turnovers in each of their last six outings and three or more turnovers in four of their last five. So, not great.
Hamilton’s defence contributed five takeaways to those tallies when these teams met back in Week 15. As it turns out, giving the ball away makes it very difficult to score points.
The Redblacks were a quarter away from their fifth straight game under 22 points scored when they put up 25 in the fourth quarter last week. Given how one-sided the game was, however, it’s a little hard to take seriously.
Things didn’t start well for Hamilton and the middle wasn’t great either, but they’re finishing with a flourish and I think they’ll end the season on a high note.
The Riders are facing an interesting scenario when they wrap up the season in Regina against the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday night.
If Winnipeg loses their game against Montreal that afternoon, the Riders will have a chance at wrapping up first in the West Division. A Winnipeg win — they’re seven-point favourites as of the publication of this article — would give Saskatchewan nothing to play for, but that may not matter.
Nothing to play for has been the theme for the Stampeders for much of their post-Labour schedule. Even while they were still mathematically alive, the team put up disappointing performance after disappointing performance.
Last week, free from the burden of hope and expectations, the Stamps were handed one of the biggest beatdowns of the year by their former QB. Calgary has now given up 30-plus points 11 times on the year and seven times during a nine-game winless skid.
When these teams played back in Week 16, Saskatchewan ran all over Calgary with Ryquell Armstead going off for 207 yards. The Stampeders are last in the league in run defence, so I’d expect the Riders to try to do the same against Calgary this time around.
I’ve gotten a little stat-heavy at times this season and goodness knows we could do that again given Calgary’s struggles in almost every aspect of the sport. However, that would just be piling on at this point.
Calgary hasn’t won on the road this year and they haven’t won at all since the Olympics were on back in August. I know there could be a natural letdown for the Riders if the Bombers win earlier in the day but Corey Mace doesn’t strike me as the type who will let the Stampeders off the canvas in Regina to close out the season.
If Winnipeg loses, this line could skyrocket to Riders -1,000,000. But for now, I’m fine with needing them to win by just more than a field goal.
