With December coming to an end, now is that time of year where we all become more reflective where we think back to the seminal moments from the past 12 months. These sorts of memory exercises have plenty of range from serious thoughts on family to the lighter side, say which was the craziest win of the year for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
I already have gone through so many of the top moments in last week’s column reviewing the year that was for the West Division, however that only scratched the surface of what 2024 gave us. I would argue this season has been the most entertaining in a while and the fact that I limited my list to “only” eight of my favourite moments speaks to what a ride this year was for football fans.
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8. MONTREAL BEATING WINNIPEG 27-12 TO START THE YEAR
I love a proper title defence and the Alouettes did just that strolling into a hostile Princess Auto Stadium and dominating the home team. This was supposed to be a revenge game for the Blue Bombers after losing as the clear favourite in the 110th Grey Cup to Montreal. Instead, Jason Maas’ crew got it done with a smothering defence that forced three turnovers and didn’t allow a touchdown until the final moments.
This game also featured the always fun flea flicker with Cody Fajardo hitting star in the making receiver Tyson Philpot for a 76-yard touchdown. When you watch the replay, you will see it is All-CFL defensive backs Tyrell Ford and Evan Holm chasing Philpot, that is a lot of high-end talent on one play.
7. SASKATCHEWAN ICING THE GAME LATE IN A 29-21 WEEK 1 OVER EDMONTON
Like any good football fan, I always appreciate aggressive, go for the win plays especially in late game situations. Thanks to Bryan Cox Jr. completing the rare defensive hat trick on McLeod Bethel-Thompson of recovering the fumble he forced after sacking the quarterback the Roughriders had the ball at the Edmonton 33-yard line with just over a minute left.
On second-and-eight Corey Mace easily could have called for a running play or Trevor Harris could have thrown something safe and short. Instead, Harris goes deep for Shawn Bane Jr. for the game sealing touchdown. Speaking of hat tricks that would be the third touchdown of the day for Bane Jr..
6. THE ROUGHRIDERS ARE BACK FOR ANOTHER CRAZY WIN, 33-30 OVER HAMILTON IN WEEK 2
There were so many “how did they win that game” moments in 2024, especially in the first half of the year.
As sports fans we focus so much on what happened last, so I wanted to go back to the earlier days of the season. Hamilton was up by 10, 30-20 with less than five minutes remaining. Next thing you know Harris found Kian Schaffer-Baker for a game tying touchdown and suddenly it’s all square at 30. Then in heart breaking fashion for the home fans the game’s top receiver in 2023, Tim White lets a simple Bo Levi Mitchell pass bounce off his helmet right to C.J. Avery. The game ends with a walk off Brett Lauther 37-yad field goal as Tiger-Cats fans walk out wondering how did they lose that one.
Quick shoutout to veterans Harris and Mitchell putting up 770 passing yards and five touchdowns.
5. YET ANOTHER WALK-OFF FIELD GOAL AFFAIR, TORONTO OVER EDMONTON 39-36
This contest felt like a heavy weight battle between two very different fighters.
With no Chad Kelly, Toronto relied on their bruising running attack to carry the day running the ball 29 times for 186 well earned yards. Edmonton went a different route with their quarterback finding four different targets in the end zone for scores and finishing the day with 342 aerial yards.
The classic “haunting his former team” trope doesn’t end just with the Elks quarterback. Former Argonaut Kurleigh Gittens Jr. ties the game at 29 with his first touchdown of the season while the man he was traded for Jake Ceresna sacked noted former Argo quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson and picked up three tackles as well. Oddly enough this game also ended with a 37-yard field goal as time expired courtesy of Lirim Hajrullahu.
4. THE RISE OF DRU BROWN
There were several moments to pick from for Ottawa’s quarterback.
His 349-yard, one touchdown day in a 41-27 win over the Toronto Argonauts certainly stands out. Could flash forward to the end of the season with his back-to-back 400+ yard days but how can you not go with Brown’s clutch, last second 29-yard completion through multiple Elks defenders to Kalil Pimpleton to set up Lewis Ward’s 38-yard walk off field goal for the 37-34 win? That throw was the definition of threading the needle and it signalled that for the first time since the Henry Burris days Ottawa may have found a long-term solution at quarterback.
Brown’s development is such a massive story for all things East Division football as we could get years of Brown vs. Kelly, Mitchell and possibly (fingers crossed) Davis Alexander.
3. BO LEVI MITCHELL BEATING UP ON TORONTO
Three games, three wins all by a margin of three or fewer points!
While the final scores were by slim totals the passing numbers were anything but small. Mitchell threw for 979 and four touchdowns against just one interception versus the eventual Grey Cup champions. Not bad for a quarterback benched at one point in the summer for Taylor Powell. (Note: There were legitimate football reasons for Hamilton to shake things up in the summer). One of the strangest developments of the season was Toronto’s inability to defeat the lone team in the East to miss the playoffs.
Bigger picture, 2024 will be remembered for the return to form of Mitchell, the former MOP had more touchdowns this season (32) than he had in total the past three seasons combined (25).
1/2. TWO ARGONAUTS PLAYOFF MOMENTS THAT DO NOT INVOLVE THE GREY CUP
Wyton McManis was all over the field in Toronto’s 58-38 Eastern Semi-Final win over Ottawa with 10 tackles. Of course, the lasting image of the Argonaut middle linebacker was his fourth quarter interception of Dru Brown and quick-thinking lateral to Tarvarus McFadden who went the distance for the game clinching touchdown.
Nick Arbuckle coming in late in the Eastern Final against the Montreal Alouettes. Arbuckle has started many games in his CFL career, has been a part of several high stakes playoff games and he started the final game of the Argonauts 2024 season. That’s all and good but imagine having to come in late into a one score playoff game, on the road against that defence. Arbuckle had two critical throws on the team’s final drive to the end of the game. The first was a deep 20-yard completion to David Ungerer III and the other to Dejon Brissett drew an obvious pass interference penalty on All-CFL Tyrice Beverette. Arbuckle kept his cool at the most pressure filled moments and help get the Argonauts to the 111th Grey Cup.