The Canadian Press
TORONTO — Week 15 in the CFL may only have three games but there’s no shortage of excitement across the country.
The week starts on Friday night as the Saskatchewan Roughriders host the Edmonton Elks at Mosaic Stadium. The Riders are coming off back-to-back losses against the Bombers and will be looking to rebound against Edmonton. The Elks have notched their three wins on the road this year and will be hoping to add another one to that column in front of Riderville this week.
Saturday’s doubleheader starts in Hamilton as the Tiger-Cats welcome the 12-1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers to town. Hamilton’s back from their bye hoping to hand the defending champions just their second loss of the campaign. Winnipeg has already clinched a playoff spot but this week will be looking to secure a home date in the post-season with a win against the Ticats combined with a Calgary loss to BC.
And finally, the BC Lions head to McMahon Stadium to take on the Calgary Stampeders to finish off the week. Vernon Adams Jr. will make his first start as a Lion in this battle for second place in the West Division. The Stampeders are coming off two-straight wins against Edmonton, including a 56-point effort last week, and will be hoping to carry that momentum into this matchup.
Buy Tickets
» Friday, 9:30 p.m. ET: Elks at Roughriders
» Saturday, 4:00 p.m. ET: Blue Bombers at Tiger-Cats
» Saturday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Lions at Stampeders
SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS
- Zach Collaros – Winnipeg
- Last week, set a new career-high with 26 touchdown passes in a season, surpassing his previous best of 25 from 2015.
- Sits at 3,236 yards – 141 shy of career-high
- 31 completions from reaching a new personal-best of 280 in a season
- Ka’Deem Carey – Calgary
- Next rushing major will set a career-high with eight in a season
- Jaelon Acklin – Ottawa
- First receiver to reach 1,000 yards this season
- First time reaching the 1,000-yard milestone
- Career-best 61 receptions tops mark of 58 set in 2019
- Dominique Rhymes – BC
- With 58 receptions, sits eight short of a new career-high
- Sits at 925 yards – 132 shy of personal-best
- Tim White – Hamilton
- 56 receiving yards in Week 14, helped the sophomore receiver establish a new career-high (815).
- Kurleigh Gittens Jr. – Toronto
- 161-yard and eight-reception performance last week established new career-highs in receiving yards (759) and catches (57)
- Leads all Canadians in receiving yards this season
- Nic Demski – Winnipeg
- With two touchdowns in Week 14, set a new career-high for touchdowns receptions in a season (six)
READY TO POUNCE
- Vernon Adams Jr. will start for the BC Lions on Saturday
- He will be the fourth QB to start for the Lions this year
- Appeared in six games in 2022 (one with the Lions) with two starts in Montreal
- This will be Adams’s 30th CFL start
- Career spotlight:
- 17-12 record
- 43 TD passes and 20 rushing TDs
- 7,005 passing yards and 978 rushing yards
- 3-2 against Calgary as a starter
QUICK SLANTS
- Edmonton’s Taylor Cornelius in the past two games: 69.2 per cent completion percentage, 549 yards and five total touchdowns (4 pass, 1 rush)
- Last week, the Elks had two receivers reach 100 yards (Dillon Mitchell – 120 and Derel Walker – 100). The last Edmonton duo to record the feat was DaVaris Daniels (207) and Tevaun Smith (114) against Winnipeg in 2019.
- Elks receiver Dillion Mitchell has 11 receptions for 199 yards in his past two games.
- Craig Dickenson owns a career 6-0 record against Edmonton
- Cody Fajardo’s next touchdown pass will be the 50th of his career
- Charleston Hughes recorded his 136th sack last week, moving past Joe Montford into fifth all-time. James Parker sits fourth at 139.5.
- Hughes will be playing in his 200th career CFL contest on Friday.
- Edmonton and Saskatchewan have combined for 16 sacks in their two 2022 meetings.
- Winnipeg is 7-0 on the road this year; last season, they were 4-3.
- This will be Zach Collaros’ second regular season start in Hamilton since his departure following the 2017 season.
- Last week, Collaros notched his sixth career game – and his second this season – with four-or-more TDs and 0 INTs.
- Collaros (23,400) needs 20 passing yards to surpass Danny Barrett (23,419) and move into the Top-25 all-time.
- Winnipeg’s Adam Bighill (796) needs six tackles to surpass Eddie Davis (801) for 7th all-time.
- Teams are 8-7 off the bye this year. The Ticats are 5-1 off a bye since Orlondo Steinauer has been head coach, including 1-0 this year.
- This will be BC and Calgary’s second meeting this season, following the Lions’ narrow 41-40 victory in Week 10.
- BC leads the league in scoring with 31.7 points per contest; Calgary is just behind at 31.6.
- Last week, Shawn Lemon recorded his fourth multi-sack game of 2022 and his third in the past four games. He has six in that span, and sits second in the league with 10. This is his fourth campaign reaching double-digit sacks. His personal best is 14 set in 2016 with Toronto. Lemon has 88 in his career – one shy of tying Brett Williams and Brent Johnson for 15th all-time.
