CFL playoff picture coming into focus

HAMILTON — It was fun while it lasted, but the fairy tale that was brewing in Edmonton is no more.

The Elks were the talk of the CFL in recent weeks after a stretch that saw them win five of six games, rebounding from an 0-7 start to get back into the thick of a highly contested West Division playoff race.

Following back-to-back losses to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, including a 55-27 beatdown last Friday, the hope of Edmonton becoming the first team in league history to make the post-season after starting the year with seven losses has been all but extinguished.

While the team will focus on winning its remaining three games, keeping what little chance it has of making the playoffs alive, new owner Larry Thompson has some serious thinking to do. Thompson, whose purchase of the club was made official on Aug. 15, must decide the future of the Elks, and, most importantly, who he sees as the best fit to lead them into better days.

The Elks fired general manager and head coach Chris Jones a month before Thompson was officially announced as the club’s new owner, although it’s been reported prospective buyers had signed off on the overdue move. Edmonton proved to be a disaster under Jones, who was fired after going 8-28 over parts of three seasons.

Geroy Simon was promoted from assistant GM to GM and Jarious Jackson from offensive co-ordinator to head coach. Few would have predicted a resurgence under Simon and Jackson, even if it was brief and could ultimately amount to nothing more than a notable run.

While there might be a temptation to try and bottle some of that recent success, it says here Thompson and the Elks are better off cleaning house. It’s nothing personal against Simon and Jackson, the latter of which has done a tremendous job navigating a difficult situation and has proven he can be a head coach in the CFL.

But if this team wants to move on from its past and present, it starts with ridding yourself of everything Chris Jones. That includes Simon and Jackson, both of whom were handpicked by Jones.

The search for a new GM and coaching staff should already be underway. There will be no shortage of experienced options, and interest will only ramp up as we inch closer to Grey Cup.

With that, let’s dig into the rest of the top stories from across the three-down loop in the latest edition of CFL Rundown.

1) While the back-to-back losses have all but killed the Elks season, the pair of victories pushed the Bombers further into first place in the West, with the real likelihood they finish there for a third consecutive season. The Blue and Gold are three points up on the Saskatchewan Roughriders and have four points on the B.C. Lions in third. With the Bombers clinching the season series — the first tiebreaker in the standings — against the four other Western teams, a Winnipeg victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Friday, along with a Roughriders tie or loss to the Elks, would clinch first place for the Bombers.

2) That leaves a two-horse race for second in the West between the Riders and Lions. While the Riders haven’t had much success after Labour Day weekend in recent years, they appear to be bucking that trend in 2024, with victories in their last two games. Running back A.J. Ouellette is back practising and QB Trevor Harris has played well since returning from a knee injury. The same can’t be said for the Lions, who have now lost two in a row and three of their last five games. Nathan Rourke looks like he’s fighting to fit into a team that hasn’t fully embraced him since his return and head coach Rick Campbell hasn’t helped with the way he’s handled the QB room. The Lions desperately need the home playoff game, as we’ve seen the difference in their performance playing in the comfy confines of a roofed BC Place versus the cold climate of the prairies in November. Simply doing enough to make the playoffs seems like a more reasonable goal right now.

3) It’s a similar story in the East, as the Montreal Alouettes have already wrapped up first, leaving the Toronto Argonauts and Ottawa Redblacks in a battle for second. The Redblacks could have clinched a playoff spot the last two weeks but have failed to do so after losing to the Riders and Alouettes. Meanwhile, the Argos have won two of their last three games, including a massive 37-31 victory over the Alouettes to bring them to within one point of the Redblacks. The Argos just seem destined for second, if only for having the easier schedule to close out the year. Toronto returns from the bye week to play on the road against Winnipeg, before wrapping up the regular season with a pivotal home game versus Ottawa followed by a road game in Edmonton. The Redblacks play Montreal and Toronto on the road before welcoming the Ticats to town. Clearly, the game between the two will go a long way, but unless QB Dru Brown is healthy and playing like he was earlier in the year, the Redblacks, who are also without their best defensive player in Adarius Pickett for the rest of the season, will be lucky to hold onto second place.

4) The Ticats were left for dead a month ago, their playoff hopes seemingly dashed following a loss to the Bombers on a last-minute comeback in Week 12 that dropped them to 2-9. Since then, the Ticats have won four games in a row and somehow find themselves in the playoff mix in both divisions. With home games against the Bombers and Calgary Stampeders and a road match versus Ottawa remaining, it’s reasonable to think Hamilton could carve out at least two wins. They’ll be in tough this week, but Winnipeg hasn’t beaten the Ticats on the road in the regular season since Aug. 12, 2017. In the East, the Ticats would need to make up two games in the final three to catch the Argos (8-7), who would need to finish the year no better than 1-2. Ottawa (8-6-1) would essentially have to lose its last three games and the Ticats would have to go 3-0. To earn a crossover to the West, which has yet to occur in CFL history, the Ticats would need to have a better record than the third-place team, as tiebreakers do not come into effect with a crossover. The Lions are 7-8, meaning if the Ticats win out and B.C. losses two of its final three games, Hamilton gets in. Ditto when it comes to the Riders (7-7-1), who would also have to drop two of their final three games and Hamilton would have to win out. There are still a lot of dominoes left to fall, but the final month promises to bring a heck of a lot of excitement.

5) Another week and another Riders player is expected to be penalized for an illegal play. This time it’s defensive back Deontai Williams, who inexplicably picked up Redblacks receiver Kahlil Pimpleton before slamming him head first to the ground. There hasn’t been an announcement for any supplemental discipline yet, but Williams did meet with the league to discuss the play and the expectation is he’ll at least be fined. Williams reached out to Pimpleton to apologize for his actions, which Pimpleton accepted, even sending Williams a bible verse as an additional show of respect. Williams maintains it was not his intent to injure despite video evidence to the contrary.

6) While I understand the game is fast and the angle in which Pimpleton was first grabbed by Williams made it somewhat more difficult to change the course in which he slammed him to the turf, none of that matters here. There were six seconds remaining in the game and the Riders were up by multiple scores, making the play completely inexcusable no matter whether Williams offered a genuine mea culpa or not. It’s also becoming a pattern in Riderville, with Williams being the fourth player this year to be further penalized for an illegal hit. I don’t think this year’s edition of the Riders is dirty, but I do think the lack of discipline reflects badly on head coach Corey Mace. That said, the finger should be pointed directly at GM Jeremy O’Day, who has been at the helm for several years and is the one directly responsible for bringing in the likes of Garrett Marino and others who have given the club a bad reputation.

7) The race for Most Outstanding Player is heating up and, for me, it’s between Bombers RB Brady Oliveira and Ticats QB Bo Levi Mitchell. The knock against Oliveira was a lack of TDs this year, but with three in his last two games, that’s no longer an issue. The Winnipeg native is leading the CFL in rushing, with 1,107 yards, and his 409 receiving yards in a new career high for a single season. As for Mitchell, he was marred by some ugly play early on, but has since turned it on, especially during this current four-game winning streak. Mitchell leads the CFL in passing yards (4,359) and TDs (26), but the feeling is he’ll need to will his club to the playoffs to get some serious consideration. I don’t think that should be the case, even if I kind of do get the reasoning behind it. What does seem clear, though, is these remaining few games will ultimately determine who wins, with Oliveira and Mitchell both playing at the top of their respective games.

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Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

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