CFL Week 18 Review and Week 19 Preview

Article by Duncan Gray

 

Despite some decisive wins in the Week 18 games the play-off picture hasn't become much clearer. There's still almost everything to play for over the last two weeks of the season.

Next Sunday night's double header starting at 6pm on BT Sport/ESPN is going to be compulsive viewing.

 

The Week 18 games

Montreal Alouettes 34 – 2 Toronto Argonauts

Playing another home game in Hamilton because of the baseball, Toronto lost their second straight in embarrassing fashion and failed to score an offensive point. Running back Tyrell Sutton led the Als with two touchdowns while Kevin Glenn was solid at QB. John Bowman recorded three sacks and moved into the all-time top ten. Trevor Harris had another poor game as the Argos quarterback and was finally replaced by Ricky Ray in the second half, the first time that the veteran star has played this season.

 

Hamilton Tiger-Cats 13 – 40 BC Lions
The long trip west for the TiCats didn't bring any success as the Lions run of form continues. Jonathon Jennings threw three touchdowns and Andrew Harris got back on track for the rushing title with 119 yards and two TDs.

 

Ottawa Redblacks 27 – 20 Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Henry Burris reached a career total of 60,000 yards passing with his first throw as the Redblacks completed back to back wins over the Bombers. This was a close but scrappy game which Ottawa came through to win late on. Their defence is still firing though, they recorded six sacks and two interceptions on Matt Nichols.

Edmonton Eskimos 35 – 24 Saskatchewan Roughriders

The Riders looked like causing an upset in their last home game of the season when they took a 21-3 lead over the Eskimos early in the second quarter. The third TD was scored on a pass by try-out quarterback Keith Price on his first ever CFL play. However, the Eskimos came back to lead by half time, thanks largely to over 200 yards of passing from Mike Reilly to Adarius Bowman.

 

Highlights of all the games are available through our results page.

The Play-off situation

A quick reminder of how it works, the first place teams in each division get a bye straight to the Divisional Final. The second and third place teams meet in a semi-final, the winner goes to the final. If a fourth place team in one division has a better win/loss record than the third team in the other division then the team with the better record crosses over to take the other's third place play-off place.

The winners of the East and West finals will meet in the Grey Cup game in Winnipeg on November 29^th.

East Division: Toronto have qualified for a top three finish but they cannot now finish first in the Division. The next two weeks has Hamilton and Ottawa meeting in back to back games which will decide who finishes first and goes straight to the final.

West Division: Edmonton play their last regular season game on Sunday and a win will secure first in the division. If they do win they'll go three weeks between games as they have the Week 20 bye and then the first round play-off bye. That's not necessarily a good thing. If the Eskimos slip up then Calgary can steal the division by winning their last two games.
BC Lions now lead the race for the third spot with six wins. Montreal also have six but need to finish with one more than BC to achieve the crossover. Winnipeg have fallen a game behind and with only one left to play they'll be eliminated without playing this week if either of the others wins. In fact BC can clinch the play-off place this week if they win and and Montreal loses.

 

 

This week's TV Schedule Ottawa Redblacks at Hamilton Tiger-Cats – LIVE Sunday evening November 1, 18:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN Montreal Alouettes at Edmonton Eskimos – LIVE Sunday evening November 1, 21:00 hrs –  BT Sport ESPN BC Lions at Toronto Argonauts – recorded Monday morning November 2,  00:30hrs BT Sport ESPN Saskatchewan Roughriders at Calgary Stampeders – recorded Monday morning November 2,  09:00hrs BT Sport ESPN

 

Week 19 Game Previews

 

Toronto Argonauts should finally get to play a proper home game at the Rogers Centre on Friday as the Blue Jays MLB season came to an end last week. Their form has collapsed in the last two games (playing four games in 17 days doesn't help) while the visiting BC Lions are having a late surge behind rookie Jonathon Jennings at quarterback and must fancy their chances. The Toronto QB situation is more of a problem. A couple of weeks ago rumours started to emerge that Trevor Harris, who's been covering for an injured Ricky Ray all year and will be a free agent after the season, is looking for a new contract to make him the CFL's highest paid player. Since then he's played terribly and was finally benched last week with Ray being brought back into action. This game will see Ricky Ray restored to the starting role.

 

 

Calgary Stampeders return after their bye week to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders at McMahon Stadium. Calgary need to win to keep up their chances of winning the division. They'll have running back Jerome Messam in the line up ready to face the team he was traded from just a couple of weeks ago.

 

In the first game of the live on UK TV Sunday night double header, Hamilton Tiger-Cats have home advantage for the first of two decisive games against Ottawa Redblacks. To the winner will go the East Division title. Hamilton have struggled since losing quarterback Zach Calleros a month ago but will be improved as running back CJ Gable has returned to the line up. Ottawa had a scare last week as their QB Henry Burris took a knock in the game at Winnipeg but their stand-in running back William Powell looked good as he ran for over 100 yards in the game.

 

Finally on Sunday night Montreal Alouettes will be away to Edmonton Eskimos. The game between these two earlier in the year was a fascinating defensive battle of field position which Edmonton won 15-12. With so much at stake this game might just be similar.