Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
TORONTO — After an excellent Week 10 in the CFL, fans should be excited for Week 11’s matchups.
Things start in the nation’s capital as the Ottawa REDBLACKS host the Edmonton Elks in the first of two games on Friday night. Ottawa’s fresh off their bye week, looking for win number two on the season. Edmonton, on the other hand, is coming off a loss to the Roughriders and will be hoping for a change of fate this week.
The second game on Friday night is a matchup between the BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Lions and Riders met in Week 8 where the Lions took the win 32-17. Can Nathan Rourke and co. defeat the Riders twice at Mosaic Stadium this season? Or will Cody Fajardo and co. get the better of the Leos?
Saturday’s doubleheader begins in Montreal as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats pay a visit to Molson Percival Stadium. These teams have identical records, 3-6, as they both fight for playoff positioning in the East Division. Matthew Shiltz lead the Ticats to victory last week against the Argos and he’ll look to do much of the same against his old team if Dane Evans isn’t ready to go. Trevor Harris and the Als are riding high after being the first team this season to hand the Winnipeg Blue Bombers a loss and should be a confident group on Saturday afternoon.
And finally, the week ends in Toronto as the Argonauts host the Calgary Stampeders. After letting one slip away in Hamilton last week, McLeod Bethel-Thompson and his team will want to make sure that doesn’t happen again as they look to stay atop the East. The Stamps are also coming off a loss, as they were victim to the late-game comeback from the Lions last week. Both groups will want to get in back the win column this weekend at BMO Field.
Buy Week 11 Tickets
» Friday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Edmonton at Ottawa
» Friday, 10:00 p.m. ET: BC at Saskatchewan
» Saturday, 4:00 p.m. ET: Hamilton at Montreal
» Saturday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Calgary at Toronto
MAKING THE TURN
Entering the second half of the season, comparing 2022 to 2021 through 39 games:
- Scoring: 50.5 vs. 43.5 – Increase of 16 per cent
- Decided in the final 3 mins: 26 vs. 20 – increase of 30 per cent
- Kickoff return TDs: 6 vs. 0 – only two total in 2021
- TD drives: 172 vs. 138 – 34 more (or 25 per cent)
- Two and Outs: 369 vs. 408 – 11 per cent fewer drives
- TD passes: 104 vs. 93
- Second down conversions: 47% vs. 44% – 55 more conversions
- QB starters: 15 vs. 17
- 100+ receiving yard games: 33 vs. 26: increase of 27 per cent; eight players have multiples
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
- Hamilton’s Lawrence Woods III leads the league in punt return yards (662) and kickoff return yards (689)
- He is on pace for 1,324 punt return yards (15.4 per return) – the second best in a single season, trailing only Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams’s 1,440 set in 1991.
- Chris Williams holds the team record with 1,117 punt return yards with a 13.0 yard average per return
- Woods is on pace for 1,378 kickoff return yards (24.6 per return). Brandon Banks holds the team record of 1,245 set in 2016.
- Woods is on pace for 2,798 total kick return yards, which would be the second best all-time, trailing only Eric Blount’s 2,878 in 1998.
THE LION’S SHARE
- In his past two games, Nathan Rourke has passed for 488 yards against Calgary and 477 against Edmonton
- Trevor Harris was the last QB to record 400+ yards in consecutive games (420 vs. Toronto on August 16 and 430 against Winnipeg on August 23 in 2019)
- Only one QB eclipsed 400 passing yards in 2021 (Zach Collaros’s 417 on October 1); four have done so in 2022 (Rourke three times and Dane Evans once)
- No QB has reached 400+ in three consecutive games since Doug Flutie went for five-in-a-row in 1993.
- Flutie and Anthony Calvillo hold the record with 29 career 400+ yard games.
- Flutie took 17 starts to notch his third 400-yard game; Rourke needed ten.
PUSHING THE PACE
- Nathan Rourke
- Passing Yards: 6,539 – On pace for the second-best in league history
- Completions: 509 | All-time record of 481 set by Henry Burris in 2015
- Passing TDs: 52 | All-time record of 48 set by Doug Flutie in 1994
- Rushing TDs: 16 | All-time QB record of 14 held by Doug Flutie (1991) and James Franklin (2018)
- Dalton Schoen
- Receiving yards: 1,256 | Winnipeg first-year record held by Perry Tuttle (1,373 yards)
- TD receptions: 14 | Most by a Bomber since Milt Stegall’s 17 in 2005
- Zach Collaros
- Passing Yards: 4,419 | Career-high of 3,376 set in 2015
- Passing TDs: 32 | Career-best of 25 set in 2015
- Eugene Lewis
- Receiving yards: 1,500 | Career-best of 1,133 set in 2019. No Alouettes has hit 1,500 yards since Jamel Richardson (1,777) in 2011
- Receptions: 94 | Career-high of 72 set in 2019
- Jaelon Acklin
- Receiving yards: 1,609 | Team record of 1,459 set by Greg Ellingson in 2017
- Receptions: 90 | Personal best of 58 set in 2019
- Dominique Rhymes
- Receiving TDs: 20 | Milt Stegall holds the record with 23 set 2002; Allen Pitts (21) and Darrel Smith (20) are the only other players to reach 20+
- Wynton McManis
- Defensive tackles: 119 | Team record of 121 set by Calvin Tiggles in 1994
- Darnell Sankey
- Defensive tackles: 114 | Team record of 118 set by David Albright in 1987
- Ciante Evans
- Knockdowns: 22 | Team record of 18 set by Malcolm Frank (1994) and Adrion Smith (1996)
- Dominique Davis
- Rushing TDs: 18 | Mike Pringle holds the all-time record of 19 in a season; Doug Flutie and James Franklin hold the QB record of 14. Nathan Rourke is on pace for 16.
QUICK SLANTS
- Three players enter Week 11 with 99 career games played: Ottawa WR Darvin Adams, BC OL Sukh Chungh and Montreal OL Landon Rice
- Edmonton’s Manny Arceneaux sits at 149 career games. With four more receiving yards, he’ll move past Ray Alexander (8,842) into the Top-30. With six catches, he’ll reach 24th all-time past Tony Gabriel (614).
- Ottawa is coming off a bye; teams are 7-4 on a week’s rest in 2022.
- BC’s Bryan Burnham needs 71 receiving yards (6,929) to reach 7,000 yards in his career.
- Nathan Rourke is 736 passing yards back of Russ Jackson (3,641) for the Canadian single-season record set in 1969.
- Last week, BC’s Sean Whyte (1,647) moved passed Noel Prefontaine (1,634) for 13th on the all-time scoring list
- Saskatchewan is on pace to have two players with 100+ tackles in a season (Sankey and Dean); the only other team to accomplish the feat was BC in 2016 with Adam Bighill and Solomon Elimimian.
- Saskatchewan’s Charleston Hughes needs one more sack to pass Joe Montford (135) for fifth on the all-time list.
- Calgary’s Rene Paredes (1,839) needs two points to move past Trevor Kennerd (1,840) into the Top-10 in CFL scoring
- Calgary rookie Jalen Philpot is averaging 32.8 yards per kickoff return; tied for 6th-most in CFL history
- Dave Dickenson is 8-1 as a head coach against the Argonauts
- Toronto’s Brandon Banks (5,944) needs 56 receiving yards to reach 6,000 in his career.
