Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca
TORONTO — It’s the final week of the CFL’s regular season and not only does this weekend feature the first triple-header of the season, it will also determine who finishes where in the West.
It all starts in Ottawa where the REDBLACKS host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The two clubs met just last week with the REDBLACKS defeating the Bombers 23-10. Matt Nichols tossed three interceptions in the loss and will look to keep that number down this week. Brock Jensen will get the nod under centre for Ottawa, as Head Coach Rick Campbell has decided to rest many of his starters, including Henry Burris.
The Bombers’ opportunistic defence will be looking to expose the young pivot hoping to add to their league-leading 29 interceptions. While it is an arguably meaningless game for Ottawa, it’s a different story for Winnipeg. A Winnipeg win, combined with a Lions loss on Saturday, means the Bombers clinch second place and host the Western Semi-Final. A loss? BC will clinch second. A loss combined with an Edmonton win? Winnipeg crosses over into the East.
The action then moves to Hamilton for the first of three games on Saturday. The Tiger-Cats will host the Alouettes on Saturday afternoon as their star special teamer, Brandon Banks, returns to the lineup. The ‘Cats are coming off a loss last week to the Eskimos and will hope to end the regular season with a victory before hosting the Eastern Semi-Final. The Als, however, defeated the Calgary Stampeders last week and will be riding that momentum into the contest at Tim Hortons Field. Rakeem Cato stepped in for Vernon Adams Jr., who left with an injury, and led his team to snap the Stamps’ winning streak. While the Als have been eliminated from the playoffs, fans should still look on the bright side heading into next season.
In the second contest of Saturday’s triple-header, the Toronto Argonauts pay a visit to Edmonton to take on the Eskimos. If Winnipeg loses on Friday night, and the Esks take down Ricky Ray and his Argos, Edmonton will move up into third in the West. If the Esks lose, or tie, they will cross over to play Hamilton in the East. You can bet the Eskimos will be watching the Bombers’ game on Friday night to see how important their game against Toronto will be. The Argos. meanwhile, have been eliminated from the playoffs and will be looking to end their 2016 season with a victory.
And finally, the Lions host the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the final game of the CFL’s regular season. If the Lions win or tie the game they will clinch second in the West and host the Western Semi-Final. Jon Jennings and co. will be looking for a repeat of last week, where the Lions defeated the Riders 24-6. The Leos’ defence held Darian Durant and his offence to just two field goals in the contest. Durant will be hoping his offence finds the end zone while also looking to nab his team’s sixth win of the season at BC Place.
BUY WEEK 20 TICKETS
» Friday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Winnipeg at Ottawa
» Saturday, 1:00 p.m. ET: Montreal at Hamilton
» Saturday, 4:00 p.m. ET: Toronto at Edmonton
» Saturday, 7 p.m. ET: Saskatchewan at BC
THIS WEEK IN THE CFL
Reception hall: Following his eight catches for 94-yards in last week’s game, Nik Lewis recorded his 10th career 1,000+ yard season in the CFL. Lewis is now tied with Allen Pitts and Milt Stegall for the second-most 1,000 receiving yard seasons. Terry Vaughn leads the way with 11 seasons of 1,000+ yards.
In his 13-season CFL career Nik Lewis has now recorded 973 receptions for 13,062 yards, 70 touchdowns and 30 100-yard games. Lewis is only 136 yards away behind Ray Elgaard (13,198) who is 7th on the all-time receiving yard list.
100: Entering the final week, 13 receivers have notched 1,000+ yards this season. Toronto’s Kenny Shaw (960) and Winnipeg’s Weston Dressler (921) are under 100 yards away from breaking the 1,000-yard mark with one game each to play. The most 1,000 yard receivers in a CFL season is 18, set in 1993.
Adarius Bowman (120), Derel Walker (109) and Andy Fantuz (101) have each recorded 100+ receptions this season. Emmanuel Arceneaux (95) and Nik Lewis (98) are nearing the same benchmark. If both Arceneaux and Lewis reach 100 receptions, it would set a new standard of five receivers with 100+ receptions in the same season. The last time a BC Lions caught over 100 passes was in 2006 (Geroy Simon). Bowman needs six receptions to tie Allen Pitts (126) for the second-most receptions in a single season.
Double trouble: The Edmonton tandem of Bowman and Walker have become the pair of receivers to eclipse 100 receptions each and hold the tandem record with 3,350 receiving yards which surpassed the old record held by Ben Cahoon and Jermain Copeland (3,318) in 2003 with Montreal. The Edmonton duo have combined for 229 receptions, the second-most only behind Toronto’s Michael Clemons and Derrell Mitchell who combined for 253.
1000 x4: The 2016 Ottawa REDBLACKS are now the second team in CFL history to have four receivers make 1,000+ receiving yards in back-to-back seasons. They are also the first ever team in CFL history to meet that mark with the same set of four receivers two years in a row: Chris Williams, Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson and Brad Sinopoli now have over 1,000+ yards each in 2016.
Welcome back Paul: On Tuesday the BC Lions announced that kicker Paul McCallum has come out of retirement to join the team. McCallum is the CFL’s second leading scorer all-time with 3,131 points behind only BC Lions legend Lui Passaglia (3,991). If Paul were to play on Saturday versus Saskatchewan, he would be the second-oldest player ever (at 46 years and 10 months) to play a game in the CFL behind Bob Cameron who was 48 years old and four months. It would be his 341st career CFL game. A game in 2016 would also make this his 24th season in the CFL moving him out of a tie with Damon Allen and Cameron and into second place behind Passaglia (who played in 25 seasons).
Booting records: Winnipeg’s Justin Medlock is only three field goals away from tying David Ridgway’s record of 59 field goals, set in 1990 with Saskatchewan. Medlock has gone 56 for 64 (87.5%) on field goal attempts this season. Medlock has connected on his last 14 attempts as he approaches the record. One more field goal to make it 57 in a season and Medlock would move into a tie for second with Carlos Huerta (1995).
Calgary’s Rene Paredes finished his 2016 season with 56 field goals which is tied for the third-most in CFL history with Medlock, Sandro DeAngelis (2006) and Roman Anderson (1995).
Edmonton’s kicker Sean Whyte has hit 43 of 46 attempts this season for a rate of 93.5%. If Whyte does not miss another field goal attempt this season, he will post the third-highest field goal percentage in league history. He would trail only Rene Paredes (94.7% in 2013) and Paul McCallum (94.3% in 2011). Whyte has made 46 field goals in a row from inside 40 yards.
With four games to go in the CFL season, 378 successful FGs is the most ever recorded in any season in CFL history (except for the non-standard 12-team and 13-team 1994 & 1995 years).
» PHOTOS OF THE WEEK: THE BEST PHOTOS FROM WEEK 19
WEEK 20 GAME NOTES
Declining penalties: Through Week 10, the average CFL game had 22.30 total penalty calls per game (including declined calls). Over the last nine weeks, that average has been just 19.35 per game, a drop of 13% or three flags per game. For accepted penalties (those with the most profound effect on our games), they have declined 15% from 19.25 to just 16.38 per game over the last nine weeks.
On the road again: Road teams clinched the season series with four games to go. Road teams have gone 41-35-1 or .539. That’s the most victories by road teams in a single season.
100 yards rushing: In the first 10 weeks of 2016 an individual 100-yard rushing game was recorded just six times. Over the last nine weeks, there have been 16 games where an individual rushed for 100+ yards. Calgary’s Jerome Messam led the way with five games of 100+.
Calgary holding onto that ball: Calgary finished their season with only 26 turnovers, setting a new club record.
Bombers also holding onto the ball: Winnipeg leads the CFL with a +28 ratio. In 2016, teams that have turned the ball over fewer times are 55-9, winning 86% of 2016’s 64 games where one team had more turnovers than the other.
Tackles on tackles: BC’s Solomon Elimimian has 128 tackles with one game to go and an outside chance at his CFL record of 143. Bear Woods is right behind him at 123 with one game left. Adam Bighill is the third CFL player with 100+ at 105 in total.
Pivots tossing yards: Jonathon Jennings needs only 81 passing yards to surpass 5,000 passing yards and join Mike Reilly (5,554) and Bo Levi Mitchell (5,385). The last time the league saw three 5,000-yard passers was in 2008 with Anthony Calvillo (5,633), Ricky Ray (5,633) and Henry Burris (5,094).
