Landry's 5 takeaways from Week 11

Hello, Jake Herslow. Hurdling defenders is never an easy proposition.

One week, you’re performing the greatest flyover move ever seen on a football field and the next, you’re flagged for 15 for kicking a guy in the mid-section.

Timing is indeed everything.

Here are the Week 11 takeaways.

THE BIG CAT HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

GIVE HIM TWO!

Keon Hatcher Sr. gets in for the score! #CFLGameDay
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— CFL (@CFL) August 17, 2025

At first, it was all about Hamilton’s Kenny Lawler and then, it was all about Toronto’s Damonte Coxie.

And rightfully so.

Those two dominated the first half of this season with big catches and yards all piled up. Lawler and Coxie. Coxie and Lawler.

Never too far away from them, though, was BC’s Keon Hatcher Sr., under the radar with merely a very good season cooking.

But on Saturday in Vancouver, Hatcher vaulted himself right back to the top of the charts, in a dominating, 11-catch performance against the Montreal Alouettes.

11 catches on 11 targets, that is, for 156 yards and two touchdowns.

Now in the league lead with 878 receiving yards — and with he and quarterback Nathan Rourke having entered the pitch and catch harmony zone — you have to wonder if they won’t end up being the season’s most dominating duo after all is said and done.

At the very least, a two-way conversation has now become three.

AH. SO IT *IS* POSSIBLE TO MAKE THAT GUY’S LIFE DIFFICULT AFTER ALL

I have spent almost all of this season marvelling at just how ironclad the pass protection of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats has been.

Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell had been making lots of quick decisions and getting the ball out early, but he had also been afforded plenty of time, whenever necessary, to bounce up and down in the pocket for what seemed an eternity, while going through options and waiting for somebody to get clear.

That Hamilton pocket had been an unbreachable castle in 2025, with Mitchell high up on the ramparts, dumping boiling oil on invaders below.

But on Saturday in Regina, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defence managed what no one else has, really, so far this season.

They made Bo Levi Mitchell super uncomfortable.

With six sacks and a bevy of relentless pressure packs besides — and with tight coverage on early breaking routes from the secondary and linebackers — the Roughriders scaled the walls and stymied the timing of the Ticats’ lethal passing attack, adding two interceptions to the sack total on the way to a 29-9 victory.

And left little doubt as to which defence is the CFL’s best at the moment.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: That Saskatchewan offence ain’t have bad neither. And let me remind you that they’ve been doing it largely without receivers Shawn Bane Jr., Kian Schaffer-Baker and Samuel Emilus in the lineup.

THAT SOUND OF THUNDERING HOOVES IS GETTING A LITTLE BIT LOUDER

Four straight games, now, the Edmonton Elks have been in tight games that could have gone either way. And the last two? They’ve gone to Edmonton, in wins over Montreal and Toronto. These were games where the Elks faced adversity and they answered by lowering their antlers and charging hard.

“Guys are believing,” said head coach Mark Kilam after his team’s 28-20 win over the Toronto Argonauts on Friday night, one where the defence created a timely turnover on a deep Toronto drive and held the Argos at bay on another, late in the game, with the result in the balance.

“I think they’re really believing,” Kilam continued. “We know when it comes down to it we can make the plays at the end of the game to win.”

The timing? Pretty good, what with back-to-backers against Calgary on the horizon following a Week 12 clash with the REDBLACKS in Ottawa.

That thunder. Can it get louder still?

YOUR SHOT AT REDEMPTION CAN COME VERY QUICKLY

Both Sergio Castillo and Zach Collaros did a pretty nice job of quickly bouncing back from disappointment in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ 30-27 win over the Ottawa REDBLACKS.

For Castillo, it was watching is 57-yard field goal attempt sail wide and then seeing Ottawa returner Kalil Pimpleton sail past him on the way to the touchdown that put the REDBLACKS within a point of tying things up. Which they did.

And for Collaros, it was his subsequent long bomb shot to receiver Nic Demski coming up a tad short, snatched away by Ottawa defender King Ambers at the Ottawa 21.

But hey, a two-and-out later and a few seconds on the clock are enough to turn things right around as Collaros scooted for 17 yards and then completed a beauty to Demski on the sideline for 11 yards more, and Castillo was back out there, putting the boot to a successful 47-yarder for the win.

Just like that.

It sure is nice when you don’t have to wait ’til next week to get a bad taste out of your mouth.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: I’m sure the REDBLACKS are buoyed by the fact that they never seem to be out of a game, even when they are far behind. But not digging such deep holes is likely to be on this week’s To-Do list.

SOMETIMES MAGIC COMES AT A COST

Ottawa’s Dru Brown treated us to one of the most spectacular plays we’ve seen from any quarterback this season, but it ended up being his last play of the night.

Brown’s escape from the backfield clutches of Winnipeg’s Kyrie Wilson and Willie Jefferson was spectacular enough. That he then fired a backhand shovel pass to running back William Stanback, who rumbled a few extra yards for a first down, made the play absolutely magnificent.

But magic sometimes comes at a cost. After the QB was taken down by defensive lineman James Vaughters at the end of the play, Brown came up limping and was done for the night.

It’s been so tantalizing to watch Brown progress as a starter over the last two seasons. And frustrating as well because we just haven’t gotten to see him get out there for long stretches of action.

Here’s hoping he’s not out for long this time because what football fan doesn’t want to see what kind of magic Brown can provide over the long haul?

AND FINALLY: The Elks sure did lean on Justin Rankin. Trustin’ Rankin, more like it.

Landry’s 5 takeaways from Week 11

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