CFL Week 14 Recap: The Real Labour Begins

I've watched the Canadian Football League since 2013, and I quickly learned that year that the most prestigious week of the season is Labour Day Weekend. Labour Day was once an important day in all of pro football, because I'm old enough to remember when Labor Day Weekend served as the beginning of the NFL season, with the actual Labor Day holiday serving as the first Monday Night Football game of the season. Of course, now, the NFL season starts after the weekend, but Labour Day Weekend still holds importance in the CFL.

And you'll notice the different spellings of Labo(u)r. That's by design. I've said this before; I take the Canadian spellings seriously. So when I did mention the NFL, it's Labor Day. But for the CFL, it's Labour Day. And that weekend not only featured the certain rivalries, it was also Week 14, the end of the season's heart.

The Lions/Alouettes game kicked off the week, and it was a high scoring battle that saw the Als win it, 37-30. With the win, the Alouettes improved to 10-2, an more importantly, the Alouettes became the first to clinch a spot in the 113th Grey Cup Playoffs, coming a season after reaching the final game. Next up was the Sunday meeting between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders, which ended up going to overtime tied at 26. The Riders got the touchdown, but missed the two-pointer, and they stopped the Bombers on defence. Riders won 32-26 to improve to 8-4, while the Bombers fell to 6-6, the same record as the Lions.

On the Labour Day Holiday, the Argonauts and Tiger-Cats faced off per usual, with this meeting being the third and final one of the regular season. This meeting would determine the season series, which was split at one win each. The TiCats struggled recently, and it showed no this one. The Boatmen dominated Hamilton from beginning to end, and it resulted in a 37-22 victory for the Argos! We improved to 6-6, already surpassing our win total from our disappointing campaign last year, while the TiCats continued to fade, dropping to 4-9 and further behind the playoff line. The weekend concluded with the Battle of Alberta between the Elks and Stampeders, and in that battle, Edmonton took it to Calgary on their own turf, resulting in a 38-28 victory to improve the Elks to 9-3, still leading the West. As for the Stamps, they dropped to 5-7, still last in the West, but not far out of a playoff position.

And here is our first look at the tentative playoff picture, now that we are down to the home stretch. If the season ended right now, the Toronto Argonauts would host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Eastern Semifinal, with Winnipeg getting in via crossover, while the Saskatchewan Roughriders would host the BC Lions in the Western Semifinal. The Edmonton Elks and the Montréal Alouettes would have byes straight to the Division Finals. BC and Winnipeg have identical 6-6 records, but it's BC's 35-19 victory in Winnipeg in Week 7 that puts them in the third position in the West. Also, thanks to Toronto's win, the Als will start the playoffs at home.

Week 15 kicks off the home stretch, the final seven weeks of the season. First off, the Toronto Argonauts will host the Ottawa Redblacks. After that, the three Labour Day matchups switch venues; Roughriders/Blue Bombers in Winnipeg, Battle of Alberta in Edmonton, and Alouettes/Lions in Vancouver. And get this: all four games will happen on Saturday, September 12! It's the big Quadruple Header Saturday!

If you like this story, click the heart and the subscribe button, and feel free to comment below! Tips and pledges would be greatly appreciated, but only if you want to do so!