November 6, 2017

Week 20 Fantasy Recap: Reilly worth the price of admission

Mark Taylor/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The final weekend of the regular season saw a host of impressive performances, yet Mike Reilly used his running ability to stand out ahead of the pack for Fantasy owners who spent $14,000 on the Eskimos’ Most Outstanding Player candidate.

Reilly recorded 32.7 Fantasy points in Week 20 as his three touchdown runs helped him edge Hamilton pivot Jeremiah Masoli’s 31.5 Fantasy points to take top honours. Reilly rushed 10 times for 29 yards and completed 21 of 27 passes for 294 yards in Edmonton’s 28-13 win over Saskatchewan, to finish the regular season as the league’s leader with 12 touchdown runs, the only player in the league with double-digit rushing majors.

Masoli’s 2017 finale was impressive, as he closed out the season with 318 yards and a touchdown on 28-for-37 passing along with 88 yards rushing, including a 59-yard touchdown run during the Ticats’ 33-0 win over the Alouettes. He closed out the season with five straight games of 300 yards passing and threw 13 of his 15 touchdown passes after Week 13.

Jeremiah Masoli continued his late-season dominance at QB for the Ticats (The Canadian Press)

Reilly and Masoli were joined by Toronto’s Ricky Ray among the quarterbacks who tallied at least 20 Fantasy points, as the Argonauts’ veteran completed 26 of 34 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns during their East Division-clinching 40-13 win over the Lions. Ray finished with 25.6 Fantasy points, the seventh time this season he tallied at least 20 FP.

Argos running back James Wilder bolstered his Most Outstanding Rookie chances with a 26.1 Fantasy point outing in the win over the Lions, rushing for 136 yards and a touchdown along with seven catches for 91 yards. He closed out the season with four 20-plus FP games in his last six games while becoming one of five backs to amass double-digit production for Fantasy owners.

Marcus Thigpen made the most of his first start of the season, putting up 18.3 Fantasy points for the Roughriders in their loss to the Eskimos. Thigpen accounted for both of Saskatchewan’s touchdowns with a reception and a run. Hamilton’s Alex Green scored 14.8 Fantasy points in his final game of the season, while BC’s Jeremiah Johnson closed out his season with 12.7 FP in the defeat to Toronto.

Rounding out the gang of five was Edmonton’s C.J. Gable, who was able to produce 12.5 Fantasy points, as he was the only one of the running backs who failed to score a touchdown in putting up his numbers.

C.J. Gable continues to produce at a steady rate for the red-hot Eskimos (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

Only three receivers cracked double-digits in the season’s final weekend, with Hamilton’s Luke Tasker and Brandon Banks accounting for two of them. Tasker topped the position with 16.2 Fantasy points on the strength of seven catches for 102 yards and a touchdown in the victory over Montreal. Tasker set a new franchise record with 104 receptions, while Banks (15.5 FP) had seven catches for 76 yards and scored on a lateral from Masoli. Banks crossed the 1,000-yard mark as he, Tasker and Jalen Saunders gave the Tiger-Cats their first trio of 1,000-yard receivers for the first time in team history.

Toronto’s S.J. Green had 14.3 Fantasy points in the win over BC, pulling in five catches for 83 yards and a touchdown. Green recorded the first 100-catch season of his prolific career, finishing the regular season with 104 receptions for 1,462 yards and 10 touchdowns.