TORONTO — The weather may be cooling down across the country, but the CFL is just heating up. Week 17 of the CFL’s 2016 season features two doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday as all teams fight for position in the East and West Divisions.

It all starts on Friday afternoon in Hamilton where the REDBLACKS are in town to defend the top spot in the East. The Ticats are coming off a bye week after losing its last two contests and will be hoping for a bounce back performance on home turf. Jeremiah Masoli will be under centre this week filling in for the injured Zach Collaros. The REDBLACKS, meanwhile, will be looking to end a losing skid of its own in the first half of a home-and-home with its East foes. Henry Burris will start for Ottawa, as they look to take down the Tabbies in the rematch of last season’s East Division Final.

The action then moves to BC where the Blue Bombers and Lions meet for the second time in as many weeks. Last week, it was Winnipeg who came out on top, defeating the Leos 37-35 to put the teams back into a tie in the West. Jon Jennings threw over 400 yards and not a single touchdown last week, as his team relied on their league-leading ground game to run them to a victory. Winnipeg’s defence continued their opportunistic ways, picking off Jennings twice in the contest. The Bombers, meanwhile, found their success through the air, as quarterback Matt Nichols, Andrew Harris and Clarence Denmark all caught touchdown passes in the end zone. Who will come out on top and claim sole possession of second place in the West?

In the first half of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Saskatchewan Roughriders take a trip East to visit the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos have had their fair share of struggles lately, losing seven of their last eight contests, but are still in the playoff mix. After shipping out three of their top receievers, finding chemistry between quarterback Drew Willy and the new faces has been somewhat of a challenge for the Boatmen. This week they’ll hope to gel and stop a rolling Riders club. Even though Saskatchewan has won three-straight games, they have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. With their post-season dreams dashed, the club will still be hungry for a victory where they can try and take advantage of a struggling team as they look ahead to their future.

And finally, the Montreal Alouettes pay a visit to Calgary to take on the Stampeders. There’s no question that the Calgary Stampeders are the league’s best team, as they have won 12 games in a row and remain unbeaten since Week 1. DaVaris Daniels has proved he’s a force to be reckoned with this season, most recently catching three touchdowns and 249 yards in his last two games. With Bo Levi Mitchell running the offence and one of the league’s top defences backing them up, it will be hard for any team to hand the Stamps their second loss of the season. Montreal, however, will be looking to be that team. After their dominant 38-11 win over the Argos two weeks ago, the Als were brought back down to earth last week with a loss courtesy of the Edmonton Eskimos. Rakeem Cato and his offence will have to figure out the weaknesses of the Calgary defence if they want a chance to hand the Stamps loss number two.

BUY WEEK 17 TICKETS

» Friday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Ottawa at Hamilton
» Friday, 10:00 p.m. ET: Winnipeg at BC
» Saturday, 4:00 p.m. ET: Saskatchewan at Toronto
» Saturday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Montreal at Calgary

THIS WEEK IN THE CFL

Big four hitting 1000: Last season the Ottawa REDBLACKS became the second team in CFL history to feature four receivers that reached 1,000+ receiving yards in back-to-back seasons. The only other team to do Montreal 2004 and 2005. The only other team to have done so was Montreal in 2004 (Ben Cahoon 1,183; Jermaine Copeland, 1,154; Thyron Anderson, 1,147; and Kwame Cavil, 1,090) and 2005 (Kerry Watkins, 1,364; Terry Vaughn, 1,113; Ben Cahoon, 1,067; and Dave Stala, 1,037).

The four REDBLACK receivers to reach the mark last season were: Chris Williams (1,214 yards, five TDs), Greg Ellingson (1,061 yards, nine TDS), Ernest Jackson (1,036 yards, three TDs) and Brad Sinopoli (1,035 yards, three TDs).

The “Big Four” amassed a collective 4,346 receiving yards and 22 TDS last season. That equated to 74.9% of Ottawa’s receiving yards and 84.6% of their touchdown receptions. The Big Four are on pace to become the first set of receivers to record 1,000+ yards for the same team in consecutive years.

This season Chris Williams (1,246) and Greg Ellingson (1,042) have already eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark. Ernest Jackson is 82 yards away and Brad Sinopoli is 135 yards away from the mark and both are on pace to reach it with four games left to play. This season the Big Four have accounted for 83.6% of Ottawa’s receiving yards and 25-of-26 touchdown receptions.

Rookie coaches: Following Calgary’s 48-20 victory over the Argonauts last week, Dave Dickenson improved his record to 13-1-1 (.900) in his first year as a head coach. The current CFL record for highest winning percentage over a full season by a first-year head coach is .750 (12-4) held by Darrell Royal (EDM 1954), Bud Grant (WPG 1957) and Jerry Williams (CGY 1965).

Dickenson has tied the record for most wins set by a first-year head coach (13) with Adam Rita (TOR 1991), John Hufnagel (CGY 2008) and Mike Benevides (BC 2012). Each of them went 13-5 (.722) in their first season. Rita and Hufnagel each went on to win the Grey Cup in their first season after compiling 13 regular season victories.

High scoring: Last week a total of 262 points were scored, averaging 65.5 points per game. That’s the highest-scoring single week since Week 1 of 2013 (69.3).

High rushing yards: Week 16 saw the second-most rushing yards in a single week (217 rushing yards per game) of 2016. Week 13 saw an average of 219 yards per game. In the three of the past four weeks, teams have averaged over 200 combined rushing yards per game. In the prior 12 weeks there were zero games that averaged 200 rushing yards or more.

Penalties: In the past four weeks, the average amount of penalties is 16.9 per game.

No Challenges: The game between Edmonton and Montreal last week was the first challenge-free game of the season.

» PHOTOS OF THE WEEK: THE BEST PHOTOS FROM WEEK 16

WEEK 16 GAME NOTES

Turnover ratios: Winnipeg leads the league with a +27 turnover ratio (21 giveaways, 48 takeaways). The next best team is the West-leading Stampeders who have a +14 turnover ratio (20 giveaways, 34 takeaways). In total, only three teams have a positive turnover ratio: Winnipeg +27, Calgary +14 and Montreal +2.

1000: In Week 16 Ottawa’s Greg Ellingson and BC’s Ryan Burnham joined the 1,000-yard receiving list on the season. The list now includes seven players: Adarius Bowman (1,609), Derel Walker (1,464), Chris Williams (1,246), Emmanuel Arceneaux (1,170), Bryan Burnham (1,103), Naaman Roosevelt (1,095) and Greg Ellingson (1,042). Marquay McDaniel (993), Duron Carter (938), Andy Fantuz (926) and Ernest Jackson (918) are each under 100 yards away from reaching the feat. Last year 12 receivers cracked the 1,000-yard mark.

Beast mode: After rushing for 133 yards against the Argonauts, Jerome Messam became the league’s first 1000-yard rusher on the season. Messam also leads the league in touchdowns with 12 this year – two more than Chris Williams.

Going through changes: The Saskatchewan Roughriders have set a new CFL record in 2016 with 90 different players recording at least one game played. The previous record was 88 by Hamilton in 2013.

Bowman hauling in catches: Adarius Bowman is on pace for 131 receptions this season, which would be the second-most in CFL history. He is on pace for 1,930 yards.

Reilly, Reilly good: Mike Reilly is on pace to pass for 6,064 passing yards this season.

All he does is win: The record for most consecutive games won by a CFL starting QB was set by Winnipeg’s Ken Ploen in 1961 at 12. Bo Levi Mitchell became the second player to reach 12 straight starts, and in so doing also surpassed the record 13-game unbeaten streak set by Warren Moon in 1981-82.

Extra football: There were only eight total overtime games from 2011 to 2015 across the CFL but in 2016 there have already been seven. This is one OT game short of the CFL record of eight in a single season, reached in 1992 and 2002. Home teams are 3-3-1 in overtime games this season.

High offence: Since 1993 there has been only one season where CFL games have averaged above the 746 yards of net offence per game, the current 2016 average. Only in 2008 (769 net yards) was there a higher per-game average.

Punting record: Richie Leone leads the CFL in punting at 49.9 yards per kick and is trying to repeat his #1 ranking from 2015. The last punter to lead the CFL in punting two years in a row was Burke Dales from 2009 to 2011.

Breaking records?: Reilly leads the league with 12 300+ yard passing games. With three games remaining, he could break the record of 14 games set by Doug Flutie in 1991.

300: Bo Levi Mitchell is right behind Reilly with 11 300+ yard passing games this season.

200: There are two players on pace for 200-point seasons in 2016: leading scorer Justin Medlock (185) and Rene Paredes (182). Edmonton’s Sean Whyte (on pace for 199) and Ottawa’s Chris Milo (on pace for 198) are also close to hitting 200 points.

Medlock locked in: Justin Medlock is now 48-of-56 for the year on field goals, breaking Troy Westwood’s team record of 47 set initially in 1992.

No sack attack: In 15 games this season Calgary has allowed only 14 sacks (0.93 per game).

Ball hawk: Maurice Leggett has seven interceptions to lead the CFL, the most by a Winnipeg player since Jovon Johnson had eight in 2011. Leggett is riding a four-game streak where he has created a turnover. In those four games he also has three fumble recoveries and an interception.

Blue Bombers curse: Jonathon Jennings is 12-8 in his first 20 career starts but 0-2 against Winnipeg despite a 422-yard game last week wherein he did not throw a single touchdown pass.

All the yards, no TDs: A QB has thrown for 400+ yards a total of 356 times in CFL history. Of those 356 games of 400+ yards, there have been only ten games where the QB did NOT throw at least one TD pass. Jennings threw for 422 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns in the 37-35 defeat.