Landry's 5 takeaways from Week 21

Hello, Calgary Stampeders.

My, aren’t you feeling good now. I counted the “hip, hip, hoorays” from your post-game locker room video and it was eleven! Eleven “hip, hip hoorays.”

Eleven “hip, hip hoorays” for eleven wins. But my understanding is that those traditionally come in threes, so, really, technically, it ought to have been 33 total “hip, hip hoorays,” three for each win.

I feel I may be getting into the weeds a bit, here, so… three cheers for moving on to the Week 21 takeaways.

HUSTLE AND HEADS-UP CAN TURN “INEVITABLE” ON ITS EAR

It looked, for all the world to see, like a virtuoso touchdown romp for Edmonton’s Justin Rankin during the first half of Friday night’s loss to Calgary. But he finished his symphony with a clanger of a note when the ball Rankin was lugging popped loose just prior to him getting to the goal line.

“That’s just me not finishing,” Rankin told TSN at halftime and his relaxing on the play was part of the equation.

But just part.

Hip, hip hooray to Calgary defensive back Bailey Devine-Scott, who sprinted after Rankin, getting to a point where he could pull off a diving punch-out of the ball just prior to the goal line.

Hip, hip, hooray to fellow DB Dolani Robinson, who decided to scoop the ball up even though the officials on the scene had mistakenly signalled a touchdown.

Had Rankin scored that major, the Elks would have cut into a 13-nothing Stamps’ lead. Instead, Calgary got the ball and marched down the field for a field goal that would make the score 16-nothing in a game they would ultimately win, 20-10.

Always be closing, I guess, is the moral of the story. Rankin didn’t. Devine-Scott and Robinson did.

And so hustle and heads up turned “inevitable” on its ear.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: “Hustle and Heads Up” is the name of Bailey Devine-Scott and Dolani Robinson’s new buddy-cop show.

ACHIEVEMENT: UNLOCKED. LIKE, REALLY UNLOCKED

When Brent Monson was hired as the DC for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last off-season, he had something on his mind as he looked ahead to his new job.

“In Calgary, we didn’t create enough turnovers the last couple of years,” Monson told Ticats.ca, last December. “That is something that needs to happen here. You’ve got to have game-changing plays.”

On Friday night, Monson’s defence shook up the Ottawa offence with six interceptions, placing a giant, bold exclamation mark on a season where the Ticat defence led the league in points off turnovers (134 after collecting nine against Ottawa).

The night of picks also resulted in Hamilton finishing atop the total takeaways tote board, with 44.

HE SEEMS READY FOR THE PLAYOFFS

Julian Howsare comes up big with the sack! 💪#CFLGameday
📅: REDBLACKS vs @Ticats LIVE NOW
🇨🇦: TSN, RDS
🌎: CFL+ pic.twitter.com/dNauSQBwBw

— CFL (@CFL) October 25, 2025

Sticking with the Ticats’ defence for a sec, defensive end Julian Howsare, fresh off being named his team’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player, turned in a rather gaudy performance in the Ticats’ win over Ottawa.

Six tackles, two sacks and a knockdown.

He seemed to be rather ornery throughout the game but with numbers like that, we can say the end justified the mean.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: Advantage, Hamilton. Kicker Marc Liegghio went 7-for-7 on field goal attempts and 2-for-2 on converts on yet another windy night at Hamilton Stadium. Whatever tricks the gales off the Niagara Escarpment hand him, he’s used to it. A visiting kicker? Perhaps not so much.

NEXT WAVE IS LOOKING PRETTY GOOD

In resting veteran defensive ends Willie Jefferson and James Vaughters for their regular season finale against the Montreal Alouettes, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers got a chance to look at a trio of young pass rushers in game action for the first time.

And they looked pretty, pretty, pretty good, you’d have to say.

“Our young pass rushers got after it pretty damn good,” said head coach Mike O’Shea during his post-game media conference.

22-year-old Matt Jaworski and 23-year-old Kydran Jenkins — both of them signed just a couple weeks ago on October 6 — each tallied a sack and a tackle, and 24-year-old Kemari Munier-Bailey, a Global draft pick last May, chipped in with a defensive tackle as well as one on specials.

Could there possibly be room for any of them to see action in the Eastern Semi-Final?

“I don’t know,” said O’Shea, notoriously protective of his roster decisions during the week leading up to a game.

“We’ll deal with that on Day Three-and-a-Half, whenever that is.”

DEPTH, DEPTH, DEPTH

It’s possible for two teams to be happy with the outcome of a game and that’s mostly true for the BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders, who ended the season with a pretty decent tilt on Saturday night.

With the win, the Lions avoid a 3,700 kilometre trip and three-hour time zone switch in visiting the Alouettes in Montreal, instead playing host to Calgary in the Western Semi at BC Place.

The Riders lost, yes, but gave the Lions and their full complement of starters all they could handle in a 27-21 decision, even though their own roster was laced with non-starters, especially after QB1 Trevor Harris was lifted mid-way through the second quarter.

“These guys, they’re down to fight,” said a satisfied head coach Corey Mace afterward.

“We’ve got a ton of really good football players in our locker room, who I believe have the skillset to play winning football.”

Against a team with serious motivation on their side, the Roughriders displayed just how deep that roster of theirs is.

AND FINALLY: “There’s somethin’ brewing here.” — Edmonton quarterback Cody Fajardo after his team’s season-ending loss to Calgary.

Landry’s 5 takeaways from Week 21

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