In football, they say it’s a good idea to play to your strengths.
That’s always apparent, but never more so than at playoff time. And when you get to the final four, strength-on-strength becomes even more magnified.
Ahead of this Saturday’s Eastern and Western Finals, here are three (of the many) strengths of each of the remaining four teams as they hope to step ahead and into the 112th Grey Cup game.
2025 GREY CUP PLAYOFFS
» 6 stats that may loom large in the Division Finals
» Final four matchups set for Hamilton and Saskatchewan
» 4 under-the-radar players to watch in the Division Finals
» Weekly Predictor: Who wins the Division Finals?
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HAMILTON TIGER-CATS
1. A POWERFUL, BALANCED OFFENCE
HAVE YOURSELF A DAY GREG BELL!
A personal best 146 rushing yards and now a touchdown as well!#CFLGameDay
🗓️: @Ticats vs. Alouettes LIVE NOW
🇨🇦: TSN, RDS
🌎: CFL+ pic.twitter.com/kua532xeXT
— CFL (@CFL) September 6, 2025
Gone are the early days of the 2025 season, when the Ticats threw and threw and threw and threw. And also threw.
Make no mistake, quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell continued to chuck to his deep, talented stable of receivers as the campaign wore on. He finished the season with 626 pass attempts, with a total depth of 6,884 yards. Both those numbers were, by miles, the most in the CFL.
But Hamilton added a forceful ground game to the mixture, with running back Greg Bell finishing fifth in rushing, with 1,038 yards. 675 of those yards came in the final seven games alone. That chunk, prorated over a season, would work out to 1,736.
2. THEY ARE A DISCIPLINED BUNCH
In sizing up his team’s Eastern Final opponent, Montreal head coach Jason Maas pointed out that the Ticats were in a tie for first, with Winnipeg, when it came to average number of penalties taken (5.9) during the season.
“That’s a great compliment to the team and what he’s (head coach Scott Milanovich) done and the influence Scott’s had on them,” said Maas, just after the Eastern Semi-Final.
“They won’t make mistakes.”
3. BUT THEY WILL MAKE YOU PAY
The Ticats were the CFL’s best at forcing turnovers and then converting them into points during the regular season.
Hamilton created 44 turnovers in 2025, including 27 interceptions, making them number one in both those categories.
In parlaying those turnovers into 134 points, the Ticats were by far the league’s best, 34 points ahead of second-ranked Saskatchewan.
MONTREAL ALOUETTES
1. THEY’VE GOT SOME PRETTY GOOD BALANCE THEMSELVES
Just like the Ticats, Montreal has an offence that is diversified, now, with the rise of running back Stevie Scott III.
Getting quarterback Davis Alexander back from injury was the most important thing. The heating up of receiver Austin Mack has been pretty large too.
And now, with Scott coming off a superb performance in the Eastern Semi-Final — he ran for 133 yards and two touchdowns on 18 gives — the Montreal offence has the balance that all teams are looking for, especially at this time of year.
2. AN ORNERY NUMBER 26
LB Tyrice Beverette forced eight turnovers (four fumbles, four interceptions) for the Alouettes in 2025 (Simon Prelle/CFL.ca)
Linebacker Tyrice Beverette stuffed Winnipeg twice in a row on goal-to-go from the one during Saturday’s Eastern Semi-Final. And he nearly did it on their third attempt too.
Montreal’s ‘Mr Everywhere’ on defence finished the day with four tackles and a sack and two more tackles on special teams.
Once again, Beverette finished in the CFL’s top-10 (tied for sixth, actually) in defensive plays in 2025, with 109 during the regular season.
And Saturday’s stellar performance against the Bombers showed him to be in a playoff mood.
3. HE WHO CANNOT BE STOPPED
Montreal defensive end Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund turned in a killer Eastern Semi-Final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The 29-year-old backfield disruptor had four tackles in the Als’ win over Winnipeg, as well as a sack and two forced fumbles, one of which he recovered himself.
Just another day at the office for Montreal’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player, who had 11 sacks, 29 tackles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown during the regular season.
BC LIONS
1. FIRST DOWN PROSPERITY, GENERALLY SPEAKING
The last time the Lions played the Riders this happened, what will happen during the Western Final? 👀
🗓️: Western Final Nov. 8 @ 6:30 PM ET
🇨🇦: TSN, RDS
🌎: CFL+#GCPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/4WmUHEmh8y
— CFL (@CFL) November 6, 2025
What will it take for the Lions’ offence to perform up to its potential against the Roughriders and the CFL’s second-ranked defence on Saturday?
“It starts with winning first down and makin’ sure that we’re being being productive on first down,” said BC head coach Buck Pierce, earlier this week.
Good thing for BC that they led the CFL in first down production in 2025, averaging 8.5 yards per.
On the other side, Saskatchewan’s defence, formidable as it is, was second-worst in the CFL when it came to limiting first down gains (6.8 yards on average) by opponents.
Seems like this might be a rather important metric to keep an eye on.
2. SIZZLING SPECIALS
BC quarterback Nathan Rourke said it after Saturday’s 33-30 win over Calgary: “I think this was our special teams’ best game all year and they stepped up in a huge way.”
Robert Carter Jr.’s 95-yard kick return for a touchdown was the highlight but it should not go unnoticed that teammate Seven McGee — the regular season league leader in kick-off return yardage (1,198) — averaged 30.7 yards per kick return during the game, including a 55-yard effort.
BC’s cover unit added a fumble recovery during the fourth quarter and placekicker Sean Whyte was even more reliable than he had been in the regular season, going four-for-four on field goal attempts and a further three-of-three on converts.
3. THAT RUNNING BACK OF THEIRS
Quarterback Nathan Rourke and BC’s fleet of impressive receivers might be the focus of attention much of the time but running back James Butler has had a stellar 2025, finishing the regular season with 1,652 yards from scrimmage (1,213 rushing, 439 receiving, including 311 Yards After Catch).
Butler can bulldoze, he can break away, he can even toe-tap on the sidelines on occasion.
He is also an essential blitz picker-upper when not being asked to do those other things on any given play.
SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS
1. ALSO THAT RUNNING BACK OF THEIRS
Like Butler in BC, the Roughriders have a pretty good blitz-negater in their backfield in AJ Ouellette.
And like Butler, he has done so much more than just that in 2025.
Coming off an injury-troubled 2024 season, Ouellette trimmed down and load-managed more intently, returning to the form that made him so sought after as a free agent after a stellar 2023 in Toronto.
Ouellette finished second in league rushing (1,222 yards) setting career highs in both yards and carries (248), and catching 35 passes for 250 yards (216 YAC) for a total of 1,472 combined yards from scrimmage.
2. ELITE DEFENCE
89 YARDS ALL THE WAY HOME! 🚨
Canadian Tevaughn Campbell with a pick 6 to close out the half!
Tune into @WestJet Canada Day Weekend.
📅: @sskroughriders vs Lions LIVE NOW
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🇺🇸: CBSSN
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— CFL (@CFL) June 29, 2025
The Saskatchewan defence had been the CFL’s top-ranked crew every week from Week 10 on, until the Montreal Alouettes nipped them in Week 21, pushing the ‘Riders into second spot by a mere three rankings points.
Head coach/defensive coordinator Corey Mace has built a defence that is top three in eight of the 11 categories that the CFL uses to rank defence, including being number one against the rush, giving up an average of 76 yards a game.
The Lions like to use the big play to their advantage, but the Riders gave up only 38 of those during the regular season, ranking them second, just behind Montreal (37).
3. GOOD HEALTH IN THE RECEIVERS GROUP
“We’ve got everybody trending in the right spot,” said Coach Mace when asked about the health of his team heading in to the Western Final.
In looking at the Roughriders receiving corps, in particular, the coach has lots of options to choose from, as the players who jumped in for ailing starters during the regular season performed so very well.
But it looks like the understudies might not be needed so much, with pass-catchers like Kian Schaffer-Baker and Samuel Emilus healthy going in, and Dohnte Meyers (1,056 yards in 2025) looking as though he’ll be ready after missing a few weeks with a bad ankle. KeeSean Johnson (1,159 yards) might be ready to go as well, as he tests out his injured knee this week.
The four of them have only been in the line-up, all together, twice so far this season. Once in Week 1 and then again in Week 18.