One team has clinched a playoff spot (Calgary) and one franchise knows its post-season aspirations are done (Saskatchewan). That leaves seven CFL clubs playing musical chairs for five seats.
This weekend, Winnipeg and BC meet at Investors Group Field with important playoff positioning on the line and Edmonton visits Quebec for an affair that has crucial crossover implications.
Those two games feature the tightest lines in Week 16.
Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-10) @ Ottawa Redblacks (6-6-1)
Chris Jones is known for scheming and turning up the pressure on opposing quarterbacks. However, Saskatchewan has a league-worst 16 sacks through 13 games. That’s why the Riders put the full press on defensive lineman Willie Jefferson to sign on the dotted line in Regina. After a tour of the new Mosaic Stadium the deal was sealed for the 25-year-old. Jefferson registered 40 tackles and 10 sacks in two seasons with Edmonton under Jones.
Jefferson upgrades Saskatchewan’s defensive line and teams up with Jonathan Newsome as pass-rushing threats off the edge. On each snap one of those two single-digit-wearing athletes will line up across from rookie Canadian offensive lineman Jason Lauzon-Seguin, who is making his second career start at left tackle. That’s a match-up that could favour the green and white and possibly tilt the game in their way.
Line: Redblacks -6.5
Pick: Saskatchewan
BC Lions (9-4) @ Winnipeg Blue Bombers (8-6)
The front end of a home-and-home set that could go a long way in determining the second seed and home field in the West Semi-final goes down in The Peg.
Canadian running back Andrew Harris appears ready to return for the Bombers after missing three games by injury—Winnipeg has lost the last two. The well-rounded back has already accounted for more than 1,000 yards from scrimmage. He’s a real leader on a re-energized Bombers team. Harris’s skills and influence have been vital in Winnipeg’s rise.
Solomon Elimimian and Adam Bighill are two main reasons why teams don’t try to run the ball against BC. The Lions have had to defend only 198 rushing plays, the lowest total league-wide.
If Winnipeg can jump out to an early lead and stay balanced on offence that could be the combo for a victory in what is essentially a pick-’em game.
Line: Bombers -1.5
Pick: Winnipeg
Edmonton Eskimos (7-7) @ Montreal Alouettes (4-9)
One game as a head coach, and one win for Jacques Chapdelaine—Montreal played with a fresh energy in a blowout over Toronto.
Edmonton presents a much more dynamic challenge offensively with the CFL’s leading passer, Mike Reilly, and two top receiving yardage producers in Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker. No team has been able to shut down both targets in the same game for going on two seasons. Jason Maas moves the two dangerous pass catchers around the field, which makes it even more difficult for defences to keep tabs on them.
Noel Thorpe, who wanted to leave Montreal in the off-season to join Maas and be Edmonton’s defensive coordinator until the commissioner kiboshed it, gets the chance to show he can scheme up calls to hold Reilly and Co. from seemingly regularly scheduled aerial assaults. Montreal’s the only team to allow fewer than 4,000 passing yards to date and has yielded just 306 points—the lowest total in the three-down league.
Maas against Thorpe might be a fascinating high-level chess game.
Line: Eskimos -3
Pick: Montreal
Calgary Stampeders (12-1-1) @ Toronto Argonauts (5-9)
Calgary’s traveling stampede act goes on the road to T.O.
Bo Levi Mitchell could match two of the all-time great quarterbacks in CFL history with a victory. The Stampeders franchise pivot has put together 11 straight wins and 12 consecutive unbeaten. Ken Ploen won 12 games in a row back in 1961 and Warren Moon recorded a 13-match unbeaten run across two seasons in 1981–82.
Quarterbacks are measured by lots of statistics, especially in the modern era, but none are more important than the win-loss category. Mitchell has gone 40-7-1 through the first 48 games of his CFL career—that’s the best winning percentage in league history after that many starts.
With the way Bo knows how to win and the way the rest of the Stampeders are playing, it would be a surprise if Toronto can even stay close with Calgary.
Line: Stampeders -9
Pick: Calgary
Overall record against the spread: 34-26-1