Sunday Snap: Fajardo Ends the BC Lions' Run as Edmonton Returns to the Grey Cup vs. Montreal
The BC Lions' season ended Saturday night in Edmonton. Down 9-6 at halftime, the Elks scored 22 second-half points to win the West Final 28-16 in front of more than 40,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. Cody Fajardo, the former Alouettes quarterback, will now face his old team on Sunday, Nov. 15, at McMahon Stadium in Calgary in the 113th Grey Cup. Earlier in the day, Montreal beat Winnipeg 33-23 in the East Final, a game that carried on after the whistle through its quarterback's accusations.
The Lions control the first half, but without a touchdown
For 30 minutes, the script seemed to favour the visitors. Nathan Rourke, the Lions' Canadian quarterback, already had 181 passing yards at halftime, and his offence moved the ball between the 20s with little trouble. But every drive stalled before the end zone. The result: three field goals from Sean Whyte, from 13, 29 and 42 yards, all in the second quarter, for a 9-6 lead at the break.
Edmonton, for its part, played it safe. Fajardo had completed 11 of 13 passes for just 102 yards, and kicker Vincent Blanchard answered with field goals from 21 and 48 yards. Nothing hinted at the final margin: the Lions were dictating the tempo but not turning their territorial edge into touchdowns. In the playoffs, that kind of imbalance usually comes due.
Fajardo flips the second half
The game changed after the break. Blanchard first tied it 9-9, then Cody Fajardo scored the night's first touchdown on a 5-yard run with 1:16 left in the third quarter. Edmonton's quarterback finished 25 of 30 for 274 yards and a touchdown, plus a game-high 84 rushing yards.
The Lions answered right away. Rourke slipped into the end zone himself 37 seconds into the fourth quarter, and Whyte's convert tied it 16-16. From there, discipline cost British Columbia: several Fajardo runs were extended by rough-play penalties, and Blanchard took advantage to put Edmonton back in front 19-16 with a 46-yard field goal.
Fajardo then found Austin Mack for a 23-yard touchdown with about seven minutes left (25-16 after a missed convert). Shortly after, receiver Justin McInnis lost the ball after a catch and JJ Ross recovered for Edmonton. Blanchard sealed it with his fifth field goal of the night with a little over three minutes to play. Rourke finished 23 of 39 for 328 yards, but without a touchdown pass.
"We just weren't able to get over that hump," Lions head coach Buck Pierce said, according to The Canadian Press. His counterpart, Mark Kilam, embraced his team's identity: "We're a second-half team, this is what we do." The numbers back him up: 22-7 after halftime.
For the Lions, a comeback season that ends one step short
The loss stings all the more because the Lions had revived their season from a long way back. According to The Canadian Press, they opened 1-5 before winning nine of their next 10 games. On Oct. 31 at BC Place, they erased a 14-point deficit against defending champion Saskatchewan to win the West Semi-Final 33-26, with Rourke throwing for 366 yards and three touchdowns.
For Rourke, a Victoria native and a Canadian starting quarterback, a rare profile in a league where the position is largely held by Americans, the wait goes on. The Lions have not played in a Grey Cup since 2011. The off-season work will likely focus on red-zone efficiency: three first-half field goals, while the game was still within reach, proved costly.
Edmonton, meanwhile, completes a full turnaround. Last in the West in 2025, the team finished first in the division this season, after several years without playoff football and a 22-game home losing streak between 2021 and 2023. The Elks will play in their first Grey Cup since their 2015 title. The city showed up: according to The Canadian Press, Saturday's crowd was the CFL's largest of the season, for a team that averaged about 22,400 fans at home this year, per Culture Alberta.
In the East, Montreal heads to Calgary, where Fajardo awaits
At Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, the Alouettes beat the Blue Bombers 33-23. Davis Alexander threw for 373 yards and two touchdowns, including a 21-yard strike to Tyler Snead in the closing minutes that ended Winnipeg's comeback. Montreal will play in a second straight Grey Cup, its third in four years.
After the game, Alexander said Bombers rookie defensive lineman David Reese had brought up his late father several times. "I was ready to for sure fight, we were all ready to fight," he said, according to The Canadian Press, before praising his teammates' composure. At the time of writing, no response from the player or the Blue Bombers had been reported by the outlets we reviewed.
The final brings together two teams linked by the same quarterback. Fajardo led Montreal to the title in 2023 before moving on to Edmonton. "What a hell of a story, eh? That's the CFL," he said Saturday night. Across the field will be Alexander, whom Fajardo himself described as the league's most outstanding player this season.
See you next Sunday in Calgary. Fajardo, who according to The Canadian Press is chasing a third career Grey Cup, will try to win it against the team that let him go. Northsideline will publish its full preview, with kickoff times in France and Canada, later this week.
