Adam Gagnon
THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Ricky Ray will finish the 2013 regular season on the sidelines but in the CFL record book.
With Toronto having clinched first in the East, Ray won’t dress Friday night when the Argonauts host the Montreal Alouettes in the regular-season finale for both teams. So he will end the campaign with a CFL-record 77.2 per cent completion average.
Ray was a 39-of-45 passing for 505 yards and three TDs in Toronto’s division-clinching 36-21 home win over Winnipeg on Thursday night. Ray completed a club-record 21 straight passes in that contest, one short of the league record.
That left Ray 234-of-303 passing this season, breaking the mark of 73.98 per cent set in 2005 by current Calgary offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson. Ray also had just two interceptions (0.67 per cent), becoming the first CFL quarterback to end the year under 1.0.
Dickenson still has bragging rights as the most accurate passer in CFL history, at least for now. Dickenson boasts a career completion average of 67.534 per cent (1,635 completions in 2,421 attempts) but Ray is a very close second at 67.524 per cent (3,780 completions in 5,598 passes).
So if Ray played Friday night and completed his first two passes, that would boost his career mark to 67.536 per cent, moving him past Dickenson. With Ray not dressing against Montreal, that talk will have to wait until next season.
Calgary kicker Rene Paredes is also on a record pace. Paredes has 52 field goals, seven shy of former Saskatchewan Roughrider Dave Ridgway’s league record.
But if Parades doesn’t attempt a kick in Calgary’s regular-season finale Friday night in B.C., he’ll still land in the CFL record book. He has converted 52-of-55 field goals, a 94.5 per cent success ratio. That would break the league mark of 94.34 per cent held by Lions’ veteran Paul McCallum.
Barring something unforeseen, teammate Jon Cornish will capture his second straight CFL rushing title. The native of New Westminster, B.C., has 1,799 yards, 201 more than Saskatchewan’s Kory Sheets.
Cornish’s total is already a CFL record for most rushing yards in a season by a Canadian. He needs just 98 yards to break Willie Burden’s club mark.
Hall of Famer Mike Pringle holds the CFL single-season rushing record of 2,065 yards.
Meanwhile, Argos head coach Scott Milanovich is trying to maintain his team’s focus heading into the regular season’s final week.
With playoff pairings set in both divisions, the four games this weekend have no impact on the final standings. So it’s a chance for the head coaches of the six playoff teams – Calgary, Saskatchewan and B.C. in the West, Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal in the East – to give backups extended playing time.
“Some of these guys are maybe competing for playoff roster spots,” Toronto Argonauts head coach Scott Milanovich said. “Other guys are trying to show what they can do so they can put their best foot forward next year when training camp starts.
“There’s a lot of different things that come into play on a week like this.”
The playoffs begin Nov. 10 with the division semfinals as the Saskatchewan Roughriders host the B.C. Lions while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats entertain the Montreal Alouettes in Guelph, Ont.
The defending champion Argos and Calgary Stampeders host the division finals Nov. 17. The winners meet in the Grey Cup game Nov. 24 in Regina.
