RWB podcast #304: The CFL race for playoffs tightens (How?!!?)

Is it November already? Apparently so, as the Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast closes out our season with a wrap of the 112th Grey Cup. As had become tradition on the RWB, co-host Joe Pritchard tells us of his Grey Cup Week experience in his well-visited Winnipeg and specifically the efforts he contributed there for CFL Fans Fight Cancer during the festivities. Joe returned to the ‘States in good time to commiserate with co-host Os Davis on his beloved Montreal Alouettes’ loss to the admittedly unhateable 2025 CFL champion Saskatchewan Roughriders in that final game. In working through the stages of grief, Os is sadly still focused on a nightmarish second quarter, while Joe saliently points out a serious miss by Als HC Jason Maas. But hey, the RWB’s also accentuating the positive, congratulating the Riders on an excellent – if not exactly ultra-dominant – season, giving Trever Harris possibly career-ending props, and remaining bullish on the Alouettes’ future. We’ve also got a bit of speculation on 2026 (RWB’ll be the first to say “Is it June yet?”) including a fairly obvious prediction about predictions. Finally, Joe expresses his enthusiasm regarding the trick-or-treat rumors regarding Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. The RWB caps the podcasting for now, but we’ll likely be back before you realize – say, sometime after the schedule release in December. Nice season, eh? The Rouge, White & Blue CFL Podcast: That’s a wrap (for 2025)!

O boy, o boy, o boy, it’s time for the 2025 Grey Cup championship game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes (one more victory lap: Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast co-host Os Davis’s preseason prediction)! This week, RWB co-host Joe Pritchard is prepping for his annual pilgrimage for the Big Game, this year in his beloved Winnipeg, and so Os is joined by Scout of the Elks Call podcast/fearless leader of the Shotgun Sports Network. Scout and Os run through division final games, both with spread-pushing 3-point differentials, and perform brief moratoria on the BC Lions and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Then it’s on to what we’ve all been awaiting: That 112th Grey Cup thing. We’ve got picks and predictions on that final game and, spoilers, about the only thing the agree on is that we’re destined for a close one. Enjoy, all! The Rouge, White & Blue CFL Podcast: Americans talking Canadian football (most of the time)…

After one heckuva CFL doubleheader (and Canadian sports tripleheader if you count game 7 of the World Series to boot), the Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast is ready to celebrate our bad predictions – um, that is to say, preview the East and West Division Finals games – and yeah, throw in some predictions too. Co-hosts Joe Pritchard and Os Davis also have moratoria on the 2025 Winnipeg Blue Bombers (plus maybe the whole dynastic run as well) and Calgary Stampeders. They’ve got key matchups, recommended bets and, to be honest, they’ll probably miss by a couple kilometres… The Rouge, White & Blue CFL Podcast: That’s right, we’re talking about playoffs again!?!?!!

This time, it’s all about Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders at BC Lions. That’s right: It’s playoff time in the Canadian Football League, so what else should the Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast focus on?   Co-hosts Joe Pritchard and Os Davis concentrate solely on the second RWB Bowl in three years (a.k.a. the East Semifinal) and the West Semifinal, which they reckon could be a classic defensive, ground-and-pound struggle and a high-flying scoreboard-spinning shootout, respectively… RWB’s got picks, predictions and lots of speculation; if this isn’t the greatest time of the year, we don’t know what is. The Rouge, White & Blue CFL Podcast: That’s right, we’re talking about playoffs!?!?!!

This time, it’s all about Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders at BC Lions. That’s right: It’s playoff time in the Canadian Football League, so what else should the Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast focus on?   Co-hosts Joe Pritchard and Os Davis concentrate solely on the second RWB Bowl in three years (a.k.a. the East Semifinal) and the West Semifinal, which they reckon could be a classic defensive, ground-and-pound struggle and a high-flying scoreboard-spinning shootout, respectively… RWB’s got picks, predictions and lots of speculation; if this isn’t the greatest time of the year, we don’t know what is. The Rouge, White & Blue CFL Podcast: That’s right, we’re talking about playoffs!?!?!!

Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast co-host Os Davis is out this week (he must’ve gotten the first-round playoff bye), but co-host Joe Pritchard is here to chair this latest episode, welcoming in Santino Filoso of 3 Down Nation – coming to you live from Brazil! Santino is on the Ottawa Redblacks beat there at 3 Down, and so the team makes for the focus of discussion as he and Joe take on questions like “What happened this season?”, “What can be done about on-field and roster issues?”, “What can be done about off-field, fandom and front office issues?” and really “Can anything be done at all?” The RWB may or may not be back this week with a playoff preview, but look for the podcast at its regular time post playoff openers! The Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast: We love all the teams; well, maybe not the Riders…  

It all went by so fast … the Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast digs in with a look at the penultimate week of the 2025 CFL season; co-hosts Os Davis and Joe Pritchard do the usual rundown of games played and days to come, but with the Edmonton Elks’ elimination, taking stock is also in the cards. The RWB looks back on a seemingly slightly less futile bid by the Elks and the remarkable wire-to-wire run by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, both this show’s and the vogue pick for this year’s Grey Cup back in June. As for picks and predictions for week 21, welllllll, we’re saying don’t even think about betting these games. Every single game potentially leads to subsequent games in which the second string might be waved in early.  However, RWB does believe in the Elks upset this week… Also, what's up with that whole Grey Cup Team Social Pass thing? In short, it ain't pretty. The Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast: Enjoying Canadian football while we can…  

The Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast this week marvels at the way the league’s standings somehow tightened up further after week 19. After the Edmonton Elks and Calgary Stampeders topped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, respectively, RWB co-hosts Joe Prtichard and Os Davis marvel at the possibility of a four way, 9-9 tie bottlenecking the West side of the table. And the RWB also has a requiem of sorts for the Ottawa Redblacks; of course, we’ve been pouring one out for the hapless franchise for years… All this, plus picks and predictions for week 20 with – incredibly enough – all four games still carrying significance for the 2025 playoffs. The Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast: Who do you have?  

All right, so week 18 in the 2025 CFL season was little more than three blowouts resulting in the elimination of the Ottawa Redblacks and defending champion Toronto Argonauts – nevertheless, the Rouge White & Blue CFL podcast is here looking forward to next week because whoa, does the plot thicken… As the 2025 CFL regular season reaches its finale, RWB co-hosts Joe Pritchard and Os Davis put a moratorium on the previously mentioned teams’ seasons and, in picking and predicting for next week’s games, ultimately run through just a few of the many (many!) variations we could see in this year’s playoffs.   Plus, the RWB manages to conjure up a Hollywood movie plotline for each of the seven teams remaining in contention, from Cody Fajardo leading his Edmonton Elks through a couple of his former employers to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats ending the CFL’s longest run of futility as Bo Levi Mitchell reasserts himself as the league’s unquestionable MVP – and MOP. Check out this episode of the RWB for all the plotlines in the CFL… The Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast: The beginning of a beautiful friendship.  

Week 17 of the CFL season was thoroughly enjoyed by Rouge White & Blue podcast co-hosts Joe Pritchard and Os Davis – after all, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes both won, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats lost, and the standings table just ratcheted up with excitement. So what’s not to like? Welllllllllllllllllllllllll… As fans of the Canadian game surely know, CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston this past week announced a half-dozen rule changes to befall the sport over the next two seasons – and some fans aren’t happy. In fact, the RWB wonders whether we’ll be watching an American football thtat’s Canadian in name only by 2030. This may be, concludes the RWB, all about the money. Depressing potential reality aside, the RWB nevertheless plows forward with an increasingly interesting playoff picture (and scenarios!) plus a tiny bit of fantasy football speak plus picks and predictions for week 18. The Rouge White & Blue CFL Podcast: “Rouge” is the name, y’all…