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<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a little awkward,\u201d concurred Calgary\u2019s quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. \u201cWe could have helped ourselves out earlier in the year. You can\u2019t go back on it. It is what it is. We\u2019re just going to sit back and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Elks (13-4) secured first in the West Division with Friday\u2019s win over the Blue Bombers, which also allowed the Lions (10-7) to clinch second.<\/p>\n
The Elks will host the division final Nov. 7 with the victor advancing to the Grey Cup game in Calgary on Nov. 15. <\/p>\n
The Lions host the division semifinal Oct. 31 with their opponent still to be determined. <\/p>\n
The defending Grey Cup champion Roughriders (9-8) can finish no worse than fourth in the West after beating the Montreal Alouettes 16-12 earlier Saturday. <\/p>\n
Saskatchewan\u2019s win meant Calgary had to beat the Lions to avoid elimination.<\/p>\n
The fourth seed will cross over to meet the Toronto Argonauts in the East Division semifinal. The third seed heads to Vancouver to face the Lions in the West semifinal.<\/p>\n
Calgary could conceivably finish third, fourth, or out-of-the-playoffs fifth in the division, but the Lions prevailing Friday is the key to the Stampeders continuing to play this season.<\/p>\n
The Blue Bombers went 2-1 against the Stampeders this season, and would thus finish higher in the event of a tie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the West, it\u2019s always tight and it\u2019s a really good division man, really good teams,\u201d Adams said. \u201cIt just sucks that so many close games we lost early on in the season that could have gone a different way, a play here and play there. Just can\u2019t do anything about the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully some things shake our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nine wins was enough to make the CFL\u2019s playoff cutline for almost three decades until 2025, when 10-8 was the cutoff. The Stampeders in 2023 were a playoff team at 6-12.<\/p>\n
Head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson says the bye week will resemble most, with a few days off before reconvening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep working,\u201d Dickenson stated. \u201cWe\u2019ll just do a lot of individual stuff, drill work, compete periods, situational football.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we\u2019re going to play, I believe, B.C. or Toronto, so we know it. We\u2019ll keep working and lock in those two opponents. If we get our opportunity, let\u2019s take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Lions began resting more of their starters in Saturday\u2019s game \u2014 quarterback Nathan Rourke played just the first half \u2014 Calgary took over the game with Adams throwing his first touchdown pass of the game in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
The game was interrupted for a couple minutes early in the fourth quarter when a pair of rabbits ran amok on the McMahon Stadium turf.<\/p>\n
Kicker Rene Paredes intends to retire after a 15-year career, all with the Stampeders, and didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d played his last game in the red and white in a new scenario for the veteran.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen it in 15 years,\u201d Paredes said. \u201cWe took care of our job. We got to nine and nine and all we can do is just wait until next week. Hopefully we have a shot at playoffs. This team could make a push. If it is my last game, I\u2019m good with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old kicked field goals from 24, 22, 29 and 32 yards, but missed a 57-yard attempt Saturday.<\/p>\n
Quincy Vaughn scored a pair of short-yardage touchdowns and Ajou Ajou caught a touchdown pass for Calgary. Adams threw for 324 yards and was intercepted once.<\/p>\n
Rourke went 8-for-11 in passing for 149 yards and one touchdown pass in the first half. His backup Kaidon Salter went 6-for-14 in passing for 113 yards and one interception in the second half<\/p>\n
Justin McInnis caught a touchdown pass for B.C. Sean Whyte kicked field goals from 48 and 26, but missed from 46.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s kickoff was held under sun and a temperature of 16 C, but winds gusted to 53 kilometres per hour out of the west before diminishing during the game.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s a little awkward,\u201d concurred Calgary\u2019s quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. \u201cWe could have helped ourselves out earlier in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-937424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937424","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=937424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}