Sunday’s doubleheader sees one prominent clash of QBs and one prominent clash of RBs

There are plenty of notable elements in Sunday's CFL matchups between the Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Alouettes (1 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3) and the Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders (4 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3). 7-4 Montreal and 6-5 Toronto are vying for control of the East Division, while 7-4 Calgary's trying to make up ground on the B.C. Lions (who improved to 9-3 with a narrow win over Edmonton Saturday) and 5-6 Saskatchewan's trying to stay in playoff position. There will be new faces stepping in (Alouettes' running back Victor Anderson, filling in for the injured Brandon Whitaker) and old ones returning (Riders' quarterback Darian Durant, who missed most of the Banjo Bowl two weeks ago after suffering a hip injury and sat out last week). Still, the most interesting aspects of these games might be the clashes of two of the best in a couple of statistical categories. In the East, that's about top quarterbacks Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray facing off, while out West, we should be for an exciting duel between talented running backs Jon Cornish and Kory Sheets.

The quarterbacks should make the early game an aerial show. Calvillo and Ray entered this week #1 and #3 in total yardage with 3,396 and 3,341 yards respectively. Hamilton's Henry Burris passed both Friday, but only recorded 156 passing yards in that loss, so it's quite likely Calvillo and Ray will be first and second in some combination by the end of the day Sunday. Moreover, both have been remarkably efficient, but in different ways. For Calvillo, it's the points and the decision-making; he's thrown 22 touchdowns against just seven interceptions. For Ray, it's more about the completion percentage; he's completed 68.3 per cent of his passes (against the 62.7 per cent Calvillo and Burris have each notched), but hasn't been able to consistently turn yards into points and has sometimes turned the ball over too easily, throwing 10 interceptions and just 12 touchdowns. Both Ray and Calvillo have been terrific overall, though, and while they're going with somewhat different styles this year (Ray's Toronto offence is doing a lot of the accuracy-based short-passing game we used to see in Montreal, unsurprising considering that new Toronto head coach Scott Milanovich was the offensive coordinator with the Als before this year, while Calvillo's firing long bombs more than he has in the past), both have proven very effective. Their head-to-head clash should be a treat to watch.

It's a similar story out west, but at a different position. Much of the talk heading into this game has been about Saskatchewan coach Corey Chamblin's guarantee that the Riders would hold Cornish under 100 yards or someone would lose their job, and that would seem like a problematic strategy. If Saskatchewan really goes with that philosophy, that might involve shifting too much focus onto Cornish and opening holes for others that the Stampeders could exploit, and the final score matters much more than a player's rushing total. It's easy to see why the Riders are worried, though; Cornish has been remarkable this year, racking up a league-leading 880 rushing yards with seven touchdowns, an impressive 5.7 yards per carry and just three fumbles, and he's also been effective in the passing game, making 24 catches for 171 yards and a touchdown. However, they shouldn't be the only nervous ones: Saskatchewan also has a powerful ground-based weapon in Sheets, who was second in rushing heading into this week with 761 yards (he's since been passed by Andrew Harris, who has 764 following a 103-yard showing against Edmonton Saturday) and has eight touchdowns to a single fumble, plus a 5.2 yards per carry average. This could turn into a ground-and-pound affair, and both sides have stars that can do spectacular things there.

Of course, each of these games is about more than two players. Other key questions include what Toronto's defence can do to get pressure on Calvillo and defuse the Als' attack, if Montreal can contain Argos' running back Chad Kackert, what Chad Owens will do in the return game, how Kevin Glenn and Durant will do under centre in the late game and if the Stampeders' line will look like the dominant run-blocking force it's been lately or the less-than-stellar one Cornish called out publicly earlier this year. Still, there's plenty of high-voltage star power at quarterback early on and at running back in the late game. It's not often you see two of the best in each category face off in a single day of action, so Sunday should be a special treat for CFL fans.