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Game Notes October 19, 2017

CFL.ca Game Notes: A look at Week 18

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

TORONTO — Just three weeks remain in the 2017 regular season as teams are still looking to solidify their position in their respective divisions.

The weeks starts out in Calgary where the Stampeders are hosting the Sasaktchewan Roughriders. Duron Carter will play both defensive back and receiver in the contest, which started a bit of Twitter beef between him and Stamps pivot Bo Levi Mitchell earlier in the week. Calgary will look to extend their winning streak to 12 games with a win on Friday night while the Riders need a win to clinch a playoff berth.

Things then move to Toronto on Saturday afternoon where the Argonauts welcome the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to BMO Field. The Bombers can clinch a home playoff date with a win over the Argos for the first time since 2011. Toronto had their two-game winning streak snapped last week against Edmonton while the Bombers are coming off a victory over the BC Lions.

The second half of Saturday’s doubleheader heads to BC where the Lions take on the Edmonton Eskimos. The Lions need a win (coupled with a Saskatchewan loss) to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Eskimos, on the other hand, have clinched a playoff berth and are just two points ahead of Saskatchewan for third in the division.

Week 18 ends in Montreal where the Alouettes take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Both teams have been eliminated from playoff contention but don’t expect either teams to give up. Darian Durant took first team reps this week at practice and looks to be the starting quarterback as the Als hope they can end their season on a winning note. Hamilton, meanwhile, is coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Stampeders last week and will use that as motivation this week at Percival-Molson Stadium.

Buy Week 18 Tickets

» Friday, 9:00 p.m. ET: Saskatchewan at Calgary
» Saturday, 4:00 p.m. ET: Winnipeg at Toronto
» Saturday, 10:00 p.m. ET: Edmonton at BC
» Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET: Hamilton at Montreal

THIS WEEK IN THE CFL

Week 18 Playoff Scenarios

MILESTONES

  • Ricky Ray (59,665) needs 335 passing yards to reach 60,000 for his career and become the fourth player to do so. Ray would join the likes of Anthony Calvillo (79,816), Damon Allen (72,381) and Henry Burris (63,639).
  • Ray and Reilly 5K in sight: Ray needs 218 yards to reach 5,000 for the fourth time in his career (2005, 2006 and 2008), while Reilly needs 145 yards to reach 5,000 for the second time in his career (2016). In CFL history the feat has been done 38 times by 19 different players.
  • Reilly (21,088) needs 141 passing yards to pass Warren Moon (21,228) as #31 all-time.
  • Reilly has 11 300+ games this season – with 300+ yards in all tgree remaining games, he can tie the CFL record (Doug Flutie 14, 1991).
  • Solomon Elimimian (120) needs 24 defensive tackles to break his own all-time CFL record of 143 (2014).
  • Alex Singleton (108) needs six tackles to set a new single-season record for most tackles by a Canadian player (Kevin Eiben, 113, 2005).
  • Montreal linebacker Kyries Hebert needs four defensive tackles to reach 100 for the first time in his career.
  • Three more GP: John Bowman can reach 200 games played by season’s end if he dresses for the final three weeks.
  • Jake Thomas and Rory Kohlert can reach 100 games played by season’s end if they dress for the final three weeks.
  • Justin Medlock (184) and Rene Paredes (182) are both within reach of the 200-point mark.
  • Rene Paredes (48) needs 12 field goals to tie Medlock’s single-season record of 60 set last year.
  • Andrew Harris (6,104) needs 22 rushing yards to pass Willie Fleming (6,125) for #24 all-time.
  • Harris is within 130 yards of the next six players on the all-time list, including Willie Burden (6,234) at #19.
  • Andrew Harris needs to average 43.0 rushing yards and 61.3 receiving yards per game for the rest of the season to become the first to record a 1k/1k season.
  • Andrew Harris needs six receptions to reach 100 and nine to set a single-season record for running backs (Craig Ellis, 102, 1985).
  • Brandon Zylstra’s 114.0 receiving yards per game is #3 behind Hal Patterson (147.2, 1956) and Terry Greer (125.2, 1983). Zylstra needs 120 yards this week to record a 1,000 yard season in a span of just seven games: 127, 187, 66, 152, 201 and 147. He is within 330 yards of the Edmonton club record of 1,812 yards set by Brian Kelly in 1983.
  • Emmanuel Arceneaux needs 49 yards to reach 1,000 for the fourth time in his career; he is 70 short of 7,500 career yards.
  • Bakari Grant needs 84 yards to reach 1,000 for the first time in his career.
  • Marquay McDaniel needs 140 yards to reach 1,000 for the fourth time in his career.
  • C.J. Gable can become the first player to rush for 100+ yards in four straight games with two different clubs.
  • Keelan Johnson is two ST Tackles away from 30. No player has reached 30 in one year since 2009 (Dylan Barker 37).
  • Roy Finch has tied Leon Bright’s 1980 single-season punt return average record of 16.8 yards (each at 16.811 yards).
  • Boris Bede is averaging 68.8 yards on kickoffs, almost a full yard ahead of the record of 67.9 set by Jamie Boreham in 2010.
  • Jeremiah Johnson (854) needs to average 48.7 rushing yards per game to reach 1,000 for the first time.

WEEK 18 GAME NOTES

Week #17 Margins: Last week’s four games were decided by an average margin of just 3.2 points with differences of only 3, 1, 6 & 3 points. For the year, the average margin between winning and losing clubs at 11.4 points is the lowest since 2001 (10.7). All four games were settled in the final 3:00, pushing that to 42 times in 69 games this year (61% of CFL games, an all-time high).

Bye Weeks: Teams coming off a bye this year are 9-6 (.600). The Montreal Alouettes are coming off a Week 17 bye when they play the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday.

Strong Stampeders: Calgary has won their last 10 games vs the Riders dating back to their last loss to Saskatchewan on Jul 5/13 at Regina. Calgary has also won the last 10 times Saskatchewan has come to McMahon Stadium, dating back to a 44-44 tie on Oct 17/09. The Riders’ last win in Calgary (other than playoffs) came back on Aug 1/09.

200-yards+: Duron Carter set a 2017 season-high with 231 receiving yards last week. That was the fourth 200+ receiving game this year, the same amount as in the previous five years (2012-2016) put together. The CFL record is seven 200+ games in one season. It was also the fifth-most receiving yards in a game in Riders franchise history.

Setting the Standard: In 65 career starts in the CFL, Bo Levi Mitchell is 56-8-2 (.864). The next closest quarterbacks are Doug Flutie with a win percentage of .746 (94-32) and Mitchell’s head coach Dave Dickenson with .717 (54-21-1).

1,000 Yards: Five players are under 100 yards away from reaching 1,000 receiving yards: Jalen Saunders, Emmanuel Arceneaux (951), Bryan Burnham (935), Bakari Grant (916) and BJ Cunningham (900).

Nichols Record: In 48 career starts, Winnipeg’s Matt Nichols is 29-19.