This weekend was Week 12 of the 21-week CFL season. This means it is time to look at how the top teams are doing in the race for the Grey Cup as the best betting sites in Canada get ready for fans and bettors to make their pick for the winner.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers (10-1)
This is just a fun team to watch play. The Bombers completed a season sweep of the Stampeders this weekend, and their 6-0 away record shows that they are capable of playing – and beating – any opponent, anywhere.
This is a team that just finds a way to win. This week they went for 171 yards on the ground despite using a committee approach where the hot hand is in charge. Brady Oliviera seems to be creating a slight separation from the pack, while options including Nic Demski, Johnny Augustine, and Dakota Prukop provide different strengths for the CFL-leading Jets.
BC Lions (8-2)
The second-best team in the league has a problem. Quarterback Nathan Rourke was injured a week ago, taking his 248 completions for 3,281 yards and 25 touchdowns to the injured list. It doesn’t look like the Lions expect Rourke to play again in 2022, which actually means his 79.2% completion percentage would set a new single-season league record.
Back-up Michael O’Connor is also injured (groin), so third stringer Antonio Pipkin is now their defacto starter. It will be up to the rest of the team to step up.
Saskatchewan Roughriders (6-4)
The third-placed team in the West had a big win over the BC Lions this weekend as they won 23-16 in Vancouver. Quarterback Cody Fajardo was benched in Week 11, but he was able to use that moment to his advantage as he turned in an inspired performance in Vancouver.
This is a team to watch. Kyran Moore made his first appearance of the season at wide receiver during this game, and the Roughriders are also set to welcome back two more top pass catchers in Shaq Evans and Breyden Lenius. This team will go as far as Fajardo can take them.
Calgary Stampeders (6-4)
It is not often that you see a team swept (0-3) by another team in a season with all three wins coming by less than a touchdown. That is precisely what happened to Calgary in 2022 in their trio of games against the league-leading Winnipeg Jets. The irony here is that if the Stampeders had pulled out those games, their 9-1 record would be the best in the CFL.
You can be certain that the Stampeders would love just one more shot at the Jets in the playoffs. Also. Can we spare a thought for the fifth team in the West? The Edmonton Elks are 3-8 on the season, mainly due to their 0-7 record within their division.
Toronto Argonauts (5-5)
It says a lot about the strength of the West Division in 2022 that there isn’t a single Eastern Division team with a winning record after 12 weeks of the season. The closest is Toronto, a team with a -14 points differential across its 10 games.
The Argonauts are a weird team as they seem incapable of putting two solid halves of football together in the same game. If quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson can ever put a full game together, then this is still a team capable of hanging with the best in the West. It just hasn’t happened often this season.
