Weekly Predictor: Who will win the 113th Grey Cup?

Welcome to Calgary!

The 2026 season will end with the two best teams from start to finish facing off for the 113th Grey Cup.

Adversity?

For the Elks and Alouettes, there hasn’t been a lot of it.

The Alouettes never lost consecutive games, while the Elks had a two-game slide that spun into winning seven of their next eight contests.

And does this game have any storylines? Oh there’s a few, as we get set for the 113th Grey Cup.

113TH GREY CUP MONTREAL VS. EDMONTON

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15 6:00 P.M. ET TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, CTV, CRAVE, RDS, CFL+

The first thing I want to know is who has the edge along the offensive and defensive lines when I look at a football game.

The Alouettes might have the best interior in the Canadian Football League, but the Elks aren’t too far off.

Montreal allowed a league-low 19 sacks in the regular season. The Elks were third-best, albeit with nearly double the amount of sacks. Now, I’ll break that down as Cody Fajardo traditionally is more prone to taking sacks than Davis Alexander.

When you look at running the ball, these are two of the best run games in the league.

But let’s flip things over the defensive lines.

Edmonton has the advantage here. Malik Carney and Noah Taylor were at the top of the league in sacks, while Montreal’s pressure was coming from linebackers Tyrice Beverette and Geoffrey Cantin-Arku. The Elks were also a slightly better run defence over the course of the season.

What the Alouettes may lack in pure defensive linemen getting to the quarterback, defensive coordinator Noel Thorpe makes up for with his scheme.

I think both the Alouettes and the Elks have studs in the secondary and the linebacking corps.

As for the offensive playmakers, you can’t ignore Tyson Philpot and Tyler Snead. You’ll take them all day over anyone else in the league in 2026. Justin Rankin would be able to counter that, but it doesn’t appear the dynamic running back has been close to 100 per cent for much of the back portion of the season.

And then there are the quarterbacks: Cody Fajardo of Edmonton against his protege from a few years ago, Davis Alexander.

If there is anything Alexander learned from Fajardo during their time together in Montreal, it is toughness. These two quarterbacks bounce back with a limp or a tweak better than any other quarterbacks in the CFL, and they are all very tough. But I think these two are as tough as they come.

We saw Alexander limp his way through the playoffs last year, and thankfully, he’s much healthier this season.

For Fajardo, it’s a shot at redemption for a team who chose to move off a Grey Cup MVP just a year removed from his championship campaign.

You also have Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia and head coach Jason Maas against a team they grew up with winning championships together. But they also must hold a bit of resentment for how things in Edmonton ended for both of them as dispatched head coaches.

But when you really break it down, you have a team of All-CFLers and top player award nominees and winners in Montreal against a group of players who didn’t get anywhere near the amount of accolades but finished the season with a similar record.

I believe Montreal has something to prove after last year’s disappointment, but over in Edmonton, there is a different level of nasty and attitude coming from the Mark Kilam-led Elks that I can’t quite put my finger on but also can’t ignore.

The 113th Grey Cup is going to be an all-out battle, and I think I like the scrappiness of the Elks just a little bit more.

PICK: EDMONTON