CFL Week 19 Recap: Giving Thanks All Around

I've been watching the Canadian Football League since 2013, which seems like yesterday but is actually 13 years ago. I've seen a lot in the CFL, but there's two things I haven't seen. I haven't seen the Hamilton Tiger-Cats win the Grey Cup, and I haven't seen the BC Lions win the Grey Cup. In fact, the Lions are the only team I haven't even seen in the big game. What is it with football teams named Lions? The NFL's Detroit Lions have never been to a Super Bowl, and I haven't seen the BC Lions in the Grey Cup game since I started watching (their last appearance was in 2011.

I won't see Hamilton win this year because they were eliminated weeks ago. There is, however, still some hope for the Lions. Week 19, the CFL's Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend, saw BC with a chance to get into the big dance. All they had to do was win. Even better, they were facing the Ottawa Redblacks. My goodness. That game served as the back half of the Friday doubleheader, and the Lions won, 41-20, over the hapless Redblacks. The Redblacks are now 0-16, two losses away from futility, but as for the Lions, they are playoff bound and have a chance to get a home game in the playoffs.

The front half of the Friday doubleheader featured the aforementioned Tiger-Cats at home against the Edmonton Elks, who won 27-12 to move one step closer to finishing first in the West Division. A very important West Division battle took place in Winnipeg between the Blue Bombers and the Calgary Stampeders, with the Bombers surviving and winning, 33-28, to keep their playoff hopes alive. Finally, Thanksgiving Monday featured the Grey Cup rematch: Roughriders @ Alouettes. Montréal had payback on their minds, and boy, did they dish it out! A 44-24 drubbing over the defending champs in what was CBS Sports Network's last televised game of the regular season.

So how does the playoff picture look?

We are down the final two weeks of the season, and things are shaping up big time. Two spots remain, and it's down to the Blue Bombers, Roughriders, and Stampeders. One of them will be out; one of the two who gets in could be in the Crossover position. At the moment, it's the defending champs, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in the Crossover position, which would see them in the Eastern Semifinal against the Toronto Argonauts if the standings hold up the rest of the way. In the West, the tentative Western Semifinal is between the BC Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, though it's not known who will host the Western Semifinal as of yet. A lot of interesting things can happen in the final two weeks of the season.

Week 20 kicks off in Ontario on Friday, October 16, with the Toronto Argonauts facing the Ottawa Redblacks, followed by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Edmonton Elks in a very important West Division battle. On Saturday, October 17, it's the rematch of the Grey Cup rematch between the Montréal Alouettes and the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and after that, the Calgary Stampeders host the BC Lions to round out the penultimate week of the season. I can't believe that we are almost at the end of the regular season, and I am excited to see what develops, especially with the Grey Cup Playoffs closing in!

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