{"id":177021,"date":"2025-09-29T05:55:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177021\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T05:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:55:17","slug":"3downnation-cfl-power-rankings-montreal-alouettes-celebrate-return-of-the-consecutive-starts-won-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177021\/","title":{"rendered":"3DownNation CFL power rankings: Montreal Alouettes celebrate return of the consecutive-starts-won king"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 17 of the 2025 CFL season is officially in the books, and could the real division leaders please stand up?<\/p>\n

The Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats were thought to have their respective division sewn up months ago, but the former has dropped two straight and the latter got blown out. Meanwhile, a dark-horse Calgary team has also fallen out of favour, leaving some teams peaking at the right time to make an argument for front-runner status.<\/p>\n

3DownNation\u2019s power rankings are created by having 10 contributors rank each team from No. 1 to No. 9 independently, then averaging out the scores. The previous week\u2019s rankings are in brackets. As always, please be sure to check back every Monday morning for our updated power rankings following each week of action in the CFL.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the rankings and\u00a0feel free to roast us on social media\u00a0for anything you think we got wrong.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy: Montreal Alouettes<\/p>\n

1) Montreal Alouettes (5)<\/p>\n

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that was certainly the case in the return of Davis Alexander for the Montreal Alouettes<\/a>. The previously hamstrung \u2014 literally \u2014 pivot put up 350 yards en route to setting the CFL record for most consecutive starts won to begin a career<\/a>. Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund also added a pair of sacks to his impressive season totals, as the lovely larks soared to a third straight victory and made the East Division interesting again.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy: Jaclyn McKee\/B.C. Lions<\/p>\n

2) B.C. Lions (3)<\/p>\n

In the midst of a fairly contentious week off the field<\/a>, Nathan Rourke finally stumbled and tossed three bad first-half interceptions against Toronto. However, the rest of the team rallied to support him<\/a>, as the Lions\u2019 defence avenged their implosion against the Argos before Labour Day. Rookie safety Jackson Findlay snagged a key pick in his first career start, while Mathieu Betts amassed three sacks, including a late fourth-quarter forced fumble that essentially ended Nick Arbuckle\u2019s comeback hopes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/p>\n

3) Saskatchewan Roughriders (1)<\/p>\n

The Riders\u2019 first two-game losing streak of 2025 could not have come at a worse time, as they squandered an opportunity to completely lock up the West<\/a>. A slow start from Trevor Harris, including a rare two-interception drive<\/a>, put the team behind the eight-ball, and while A.J. Ouellette attempted to will the team back to victory, they came up just short. At least things continue to look up on the health front, with Sam Emilus amassing 63 yards receiving in his return.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy: Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/p>\n

4) Winnipeg Blue Bombers (6)<\/p>\n

Trey Vaval may have provided an exceptional opening act with his 98-yard return for a touchdown on the first play of the game, but Zach Collaros was the headliner in Winnipeg\u2019s biggest blowout win of the year.<\/a> The veteran uncorked for 367 yards and a spectacular touchdown pass in his return from a head injury, proving forced retirement was never an option. Brady Oliveira was no slouch himself, finishing with 151 yards from scrimmage.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jason Halstead\/CFL<\/p>\n

5) Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2)<\/p>\n

Good news! The Hamilton Tiger-Cats officially clinched a playoff spot on Friday!<\/a> Unfortunately, they didn\u2019t play until Saturday \u2014 if you can even classify what they did as playing<\/a>. The whistle-to-whistle butt-whooping delivered by Winnipeg<\/a> featured a kickoff return touchdown to start the game, 514 yards of offence allowed, just one punt forced, and zero touchdowns from Bo Levi Mitchell and co. Even Kenny Lawler got dog-walked by his old team, finishing with two catches for 34 yards on nine targets.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy: CFL<\/p>\n

6) Calgary Stampeders (4)<\/p>\n

Trips to Montreal have rarely been kind to the Stampeders, but Friday\u2019s loss was the team\u2019s third straight<\/a> and can\u2019t be easily excused. Despite some highlight reel splashes, including a 21-yard touchdown scamper, Vernon Adams Jr. was underwhelming yet again in his return from a back injury. The injury-ravaged Calgary defence was even more suspect, though help is on the way after Dave Dickenson struck a deal to acquire former Most Outstanding Defensive Player Lorenzo Mauldin IV<\/a> ahead of the CFL trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy: Edmonton Elks<\/p>\n

7) Edmonton Elks (8)<\/p>\n

Edmonton responded to the shocking passing of team owner Larry Thompson<\/a> on Thursday with a robust crowd and an entertaining victory on Saturday, fending off a late Rider comeback<\/a>. After early struggles and injury issues, a young defensive unit has hit its stride, and Justin Rankin padded his stats with two more highlight reel TDs. Mark Kilam\u2019s team is still a long shot to make the playoffs, but that is suddenly disappointing for fans of good football.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy: David Friederich\/B.C. Lions<\/p>\n

8) Toronto Argonauts (7)<\/p>\n

The Argos got Nick Arbuckle back under centre against B.C., but it didn\u2019t make much of a difference, as they were forced to settle for five field goals. Toronto\u2019s failure to capitalize on three first-half takeaways turned fatal<\/a>, and another offensive line shuffle led to four sacks surrendered, including a late-game strip that killed the comeback. While still mathematically eligible, the loss all but guaranteed that Ryan Dinwiddie will be watching a crossover team in his playoff spot.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Aru Das\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

9) Ottawa Redblacks (9)<\/p>\n

The only positive that the Redblacks can take from their final bye week is that nobody has been fired\u2026 yet. After returning to the playoffs last year, Ottawa is playing out virtually meaningless games on borrowed time once again. The fact that they began to sell off pieces on Sunday<\/a> proves they know it as much as everyone else watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Week 17 of the 2025 CFL season is officially in the books, and could the real division leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-177021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}