Ticats-Roughriders clash headlines Week 11 CFL action on TSN
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The best in the East meets the best in the West as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats travel to Saskatchewan to take on the Roughriders to headline Week 11 action in the CFL on TSN.
The action gets underway on Thursday night when the Ottawa Redblacks battle the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with the Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Elks seeking to build momentum in a Friday Night Football meeting.
Saturday's doubleheader features the Ticats and Roughriders in the early slot followed by the Montreal Alouettes and BC Lions battling to cap off the week of action.
Redblacks visit Blue Bombers seeking third consecutive win
The Redblacks (3-6) have climbed out of the basement of the East Division with back-to-back wins, and they can continue their push back into the playoff picture with a third straight win on Thursday.
It was the defence that throttled the Calgary Stampeders two weeks ago in a 31-11 victory for Ottawa, but the offence led the way in a come-from-behind 46-42 win over the Argos last week.
Quarterback Dru Brown set a new career high with five touchdown passes in the win over Toronto, but he was more focused on the mood in the locker room after consecutive wins than his own performance.
"When you lose there's so much time spent trying to win," Brown said. "When you're losing, it can take its toll on you but you just have to stay together and we stayed together.
"We had a rough stretch there but it really is awesome to see everyone's faces in there after a win."
The Blue Bombers (4-4) are recovering from a walk-off loss to the Stampeders last week, when Rene Paredes' 40-yard field goal as time expired propelled them to a 28-27 victory.
Winnipeg now holds just a half-game advantage over the BC Lions with a potential crossover situation brewing. A win for the Redblacks on Thursday would place them a half-game behind Winnipeg to muddy the playoff picture even further.
Elks, Argonauts meet to salvage crumbling seasons
The 2025 season hasn't gone the way either the Argonauts (2-7) or Elks (2-6) had imagined, entering Week 11.
Both sides enter action at the bottom of their divisions, after promising campaigns a year ago - one of which ended with a Grey Cup title for the Argonauts.
With quarterback Chad Kelly on the six-game injured list as he continues to recover from a gruesome leg injury suffered in last year's East Division final, Nick Arbuckle has filled in admirably but the defence has continued to struggle to perform for Toronto.
The Argonauts' 28.4 points allowed per game are second-worst in the league this season, and the team has conceded more than 40 points in three of their seven losses.
"We're not playing winning football, it's frustrating for everybody," said Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie after last week's loss to Ottawa. "I didn't think the defence and special teams were what (they) needed to be to put them away early.
Dinwiddie said his post-game message Saturday was very familiar to ones he has delivered this season.
"I just told them I'm not going to quit on them and I don't think those guys quit on us but I think we have some pretenders in the building who like to talk a big game and don't show up on game day."
The Elks have an even 2-2 record against East Division opponents this season, including a last-second win over the Alouettes last week. The victory was important to quarterback Cody Fajardo, who was traded from Montreal to Edmonton in the offseason.
"This one meant a little bit more. I wasn’t afraid to say it all week,” Fajardo said after the win. Fajardo spent his first two CFL seasons in Toronto, from 2016-17.
MOP frontrunner Bo Levi Mitchell seeks to slow juggernaut Roughriders
With wins in six straight and quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell looking like a lock for the CFL's Most Outstanding Player, the Tiger-Cats were on a roll heading into last week's battle against the Lions.
A dramatic 41-38 overtime loss grounded Hamilton somewhat, and now a tougher task awaits in a road matchup against the CFL-leading Roughriders (7-1).
The 35-year-old Mitchell was brilliant again in last week's loss, throwing for 305 yards and three touchdowns. He leads the CFL in passing yards (2,856) and passing touchdowns (21), and has thrown the fewest interceptions (3) of any quarterback to attempt more than 150 passes this season - Mitchell has attempted a league-high 335 passes.
Tiger-Cats head coach Scott Milanovich was disappointed with the result against BC, but not with his team.
"I'm not disappointed with the locker room," Milanovich said. "They played hard, they played their guts out. Each phase of this football team had opportunities to win it and each phase of this football team, coaches included, has to take ownership of the fact that we didn't win. We'll come back from this … the next couple of days they'll get rested up and we'll get ready for a big game [against Saskatchewan]."
Saskatchewan has been strong in all three phases to surge to the top of the CFL standings.
The Roughriders are coming off a bye week, and prior to that they stomped the Alouettes 34-6 in Montreal, looking every bit like an unstoppable force.
Saskatchewan's defence held the Alouettes to 169 yards, forced three turnovers and did not allow Montreal to pass their 46 yard-line.
“Through and through that was our best game as a defence,” said Saskatchewan head coach and defensive coordinator Corey Mace. “I told them, that being said, we dropped so many potential interceptions and turnovers. Really, really proud of those guys.”
Red-hot Rourke leads Lions against Alouettes
Canadian quarterback and former MOP Nathan Rourke had his best game of the season in BC's victory over Hamilton a week ago, throwing for a season-high 408 yards and two touchdowns.
The Lions (4-5) look to stay hot and climb into a stronger playoff spot when they take on the Alouettes (5-4), who are stuck in a slump after a strong start to the season.
Rourke has exceeded 330 yards passing in four of his last five games since returning from an oblique injury suffered in Week 2. His 329.1 yards per game are tops in the CFL.
The 27-year-old Victoria, B.C. native tried to keep the season's goals in focus despite coming off a win over the league's hottest team against Hamilton.
"It's going to take a lot more wins like that at that quality against those type of teams for the rest of the season," Rourke said. "It's a good confidence-builder knowing we can play below our standard of football, make some mistakes and gut out a victory, no matter how pretty it looks.
"A win is a win, that's a great football team we just beat."
After a 3-1 start, the Alouettes have dropped three of their last five - including a 21-20 final against the Lions in Week 5 - and two straight heading into Saturday's matchup.
The Alouettes benched quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson in their loss to the Elks last week, and the state of the offence is still in flux as Montreal looks to get their season turned around.
“Obviously, it wasn’t good enough in the first half and that’s why we made the move with Caleb in the second half,” said head coach Jason Maas after their game against the Elks. “There’s some good notion that Caleb is going to start our next game, just based on those two performances.
"From the first half to the second half, we moved the ball better and scored more points with Caleb in there. We’ll evaluate the film. I think Bethel knows and everybody knows after that performance, it just wasn’t good enough.”