Arthur Ward/CFL.ca
Every CFL season has a theme, sometimes multiple threads that can be found across the country in each of the nine markets who are lucky enough to host great Canadian Football action.
While I sometimes get annoyed by us in the media force feeding a storyline that deserves the right to organically grow into something wonderful, this year one major web that wove through my mind was this.
What a weird year.
Now, ‘weird’ can be taken in many directions so let me specify. Weird can mean off-putting, it certainly wasn’t that. Weird can mean eerie, thankfully we didn’t get a historic landslide of injuries that made the CFL – especially at quarterback – seem cursed, so that doesn’t qualify either.
This use of weird is to say the 2024 season was different, unique, more unpredictable, unexpected and often mysterious.
2024 CFL PLAYOFFS
» Matchups Set: Division Finals head to Montreal and Winnipeg
» Costabile: 3 storylines to watch in the Western Final
» O’Leary: 3 storylines to watch in the Eastern Final
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More than anything this season was segmented. Every single team went through eras in their 21-week journey between preseason and playoffs. BC went from Vernon Adams Jr. to Nathan Rourke, back to Adams Jr. Saskatchewan started hot, went cold without Trevor Harris and found their health and game down the stretch. Montreal blew the doors off June and much of July securing their division title first despite a significant helping hand from backup quarterback Davis Alexander. Toronto didn’t have their number one quarterback for half the year, nullifying much of the possible analysis on their season long metrics.
These are just the four remaining teams, but they tell the story of 2024 in which trying to look at anything other than specific games or chunks of the season doesn’t really help understand this season’s final four contenders.
Even looking at the three respective head-to-head matchups between Toronto and Montreal, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg tells you just how different every game and each part of the CFL calendar has been in-season.
For the Argos and Alouettes it was a pair of early season matchups to kick things off in Week 4 and Week 6. In the first game Cody Fajardo led Montreal to a 30-20 road victory to remain undefeated. In that game Als running back Walter Fletcher had ten touches for just 25-yards total.
Two weeks later Cameron Dukes and the Argos came to Montreal and ended the Alouettes’ 13-game winning streak of any kind due in part to Fajardo injuring his hamstring and Toronto’s defence and special teams making the difference with a score for each non-offence unit.
Then it was an eleven week wait for the third and final game where Toronto would take the season series not thanks to returns or pick sixes, not even thanks to a big passing performance, but instead a 234 yard rushing day where they earned 7.8 yards per carry.
Three games, three different stories, three unique outcomes.
In the West Saskatchewan and Winnipeg would meet in a low scoring affair Week 7 where the still struggling Bombers lost 19-9 amidst their strangely slow start to 2024. Shea Patterson led the Riders to victory over Zach Collaros. Strange.
OK Tire Labour Day Weekend saw a more prototypical prairie rivalry game where Winnipeg spoiled the annual Regina party with a 35-33 win despite Collaros completing just twelve passes and Harris having 49 attempts with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Weird.
A week later in the rematch, Winnipeg won again despite running the ball for just 3.1 yards per carry on a whopping twenty attempts. Unusual.
This has been the 2024 season in a nutshell. Every game is different and the numbers rarely point to the result as the formulaic recent years would. Adding to this is major league trends like sacks being down which has affected the Bombers more than anyone as Winnipeg ranks last in the CFL with just 26 takedowns in 2024. That is less than half of their 53 sacks in 2023. It is the first time since 2003 that Winnipeg ranked last in sacks.
All of this leads us to the Eastern and Western Finals where home teams have won 12 of the 14 playoff games since 2021. A weekend where Winnipeg is close to reaching a streak of five consecutive Grey Cup appearances for the first time in franchise history and Toronto aims to win the ultimate revenge game.
Throw the metrics out, forget about the previous matchups, tuck away your box score arguments. None of it matters. The only thing that will decide who goes to the 111th Grey Cup is four quarters of uniquely Canadian football between teams who know each other all too well.
