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CFL.ca Game Notes: A look at Week 14

TORONTO — Teams across the league are starting to fight for playoff position in their respective divisions as Week 14 of the 2017 season gets under way.

The week starts in Winnipeg when the Blue Bombers host the REDBLACKS in the first of Friday’s doubleheader. It’ll be Ryan Lindley under centre for the REDBLACKS after both Trevor Harris and Drew Tate suffered injuries over the past few weeks. Lindley will have a tough Winnipeg defence to face as Ottawa looks to keep a hold on the top of the East Division. The Bombers, on the other hand, are coming off a Week 13 bye and will be refreshed and ready to hit the field. With just five points separating them from the first-place Stampeders, every win matters to move up the standings.

The second half of Friday’s doubleheader is in BC where the Tiger-Cats visit the Lions. Hamilton will still roll with Jeremiah Masoli under centre but an injury to C.J. Gable will see Alex Green get a the start at running back. Shamawd Chambers will also slot into the lineup at receiver after being traded from Edmonton earlier this week. The Lions are fighting for position in the bottom of the West Division and will hope Jonathon Jennings can get his offence to come alive after not scoring a single touchdown last week’s loss against Calgary.

Things then move to Toronto on Saturday for another CFL doubleheader as the Alouettes visit the Argonauts. Montreal will start Darian Durant at quarterback this week, despite replacing him with Drew Willy last week. Durant will hope to shake off his last outing against the REDBLACKS and help his team find the win column. The Argos, meanwhile, are just a single point back from Ottawa for first in the East. It was James Wilder Jr. who was the star of the show last week, collecting over 200 all-purpose yards in Toronto’s win over Edmonton. Can he do it again or will Ricky Ray go back to his pass-heavy offence?

And finally, the Calgary Stampeders visit the Saskatchewan Roughriders for a battle of two heavy weight West Division teams. The Stampeders are the ones to beat this year with a 10-1-1 record but if anyone has a chance to stop their winning streak, it’s Saskatchewan. Kevin Glenn will be ready to return after missing last week with a hand injury and will be looking to build on the chemistry he’s found with his receivers. The Stamps have been the epitome of consistency this year, despite having injuries scattered throughout their lineup, they still manage to win games. Can they continue to roll or will the Riders stop them in their tracks?


Buy Week 14 Tickets

» Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET: Ottawa at Winnipeg
» Friday, 11:00 p.m. ET: Hamilton at BC
» Saturday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Montreal at Toronto
» Sunday, 4:00 p.m. ET: Calgary at Saskatchewan


THIS WEEK IN THE CFL

BRIDGE’S HISTORIC NIGHT

  • Toronto native Brandon Bridge started for Saskatchewan and passed for 231 yards including three touchdowns in the Roughriders’ 27-19 victory over the Tiger-Cats.

  • Since 1970, seven Canadian quarterbacks have started a game: Eric Guthrie, Gerry Dattilio, Luc Tousignant, Greg Vavra, Bob Torrance, Giulio Caravatta and Brandon Bridge.

  • It marked the first time since 1987 (Greg Vavra) that a Canadian quarterback started and won a game. It also marked the first time since 1984 (Greg Vavra) that a Canadian quarterback has passed for three touchdowns in a game.

  • Russ Jackson has won the most games as a Canadian quarterback with a career record of 85-47-5 (.620).

  • The single-game passing record for a Canadian quarterback is 427 yards set by Gerry Dattilio on September 6, 1981. Dattilio also owns the Canadian passing records for passing TDs in a game (5) and completions in a game (31).

  • Bridge has passed for 879 yards while completing 68.3% of his passes (including eight touchdown passes) thus far in his career.

TACKLING MACHINES

  • Entering Week 14, Calgary’s Alex Singleton and BC’s Solomon Elimimian are tied for the league lead in tackles with 91 each. The next closest player is Montreal’s Kyries Hebert with 83.

  • Singleton has been all over field the past three games. Singleton set a CFL benchmark by recording 35 tackles in the last three games (one more than Elimimian did in August 2016). Singleton has notched 10+ tackles three games in a row (13, 11, 11).

  • Singleton has four games with 10+ tackles while Elimimian has three and owns the season-high with 15 tackles in a game.

  • Both Singleton and Elimimian are on pace for 136 tackles which would be the second-most in a season in CFL history. Elimimian set the record in 2014 with 143 tackles.

  • In 30 CFL games in his career, Singleton has recorded 156 tackles. In Elimimian’s first 30 games he had 159. Bear Woods in his first 30 CFL games totalled 164 tackles. Singleton is closing in on his first 100-tackle season, while Elimimian is looking for his third.

  • In their careers: Elimimian has averaged 6.2 tackles per game, Woods 5.7 tackles and Singleton 5.7. However, since Singleton was named a starter (Labour Day 2016) Singleton has averaged 6.6 tackles per game.

  • In the last 55 games, Elimimian has wrapped up 406 defensive tackles. He will be making his 100th start of his career on Friday night.

Can Jonathon Jennings and the Lions get back to their winning ways this week? (The Canadian Press)

WEEK 14 GAME NOTES

West Division Streak: Calgary has won 15 games in a row versus West Division teams. If they were to beat Saskatchewan, it would be the longest divisional win streak. Toronto won 15 consecutive games in 1996-1997.

Running Wild: Shaw CFL Top Performer James Wilder Jr. had 190 rushing yards for the Argonauts last week, which was the fourth-most in a game in franchise history. The 190 yards is the highest since John White rushed for 192 in 2014. It’s the sixth-highest rushing total in the last 10 years. His first CFL touchdown, a 76-yard rush, is the longest running play of the season and the longest run since 2014 when Jon Cornish had a 79-yard rushing touchdown versus Toronto.

Go Long: The longest pass play this season was from Mike Reilly to Vidal Hazelton for a 108-yard touchdown versus BC in Week 6.

Ball Hawk: Saskatchewan’s Ed Gainey leads the league with eight interceptions. This season he has three games with multiple interceptions, one shy of the league record held by Larry Crawford in 1983 with BC. The last player to record three multiple interception games was Byron Barker in 2006.

Almost at 1,000: Three players are under 100 yards away from 1,000 receiving yards: Brandon Zylstra 982, Brad Sinopoli 908 and Naaman Roosevelt 906. Greg Ellingson (1,123) and SJ Green (1,010) have already surpassed the benchmark.

100th Game: Toronto’s J’Micheal Deane will be playing in his 100th CFL game this week.

Close to 1,200: Rene Paredes is 13 points away from reaching 1,200 points in his career. Only 18 players have reached that mark.

100th Win: Saskatchewan’s Kevin Glenn is looking for his 100th win as a starter this week versus Calgary.

Almost: Edmonton’s Adarius Bowman is six receptions shy for 600 in his career. He is also 18 yards short from surpassing Paul Masotti for 29th on the all-time receiving yards list. Nik Lewis (13,740) is seven yards shy of surpassing Terry Vaughn (13,746) for fifth on the all-time receiving yards list.

Bye Weeks: Teams coming off a bye this year are 7-4. The Blue Bombers are coming off a Week 13 bye to host the REDBLACKS.

Three Games: In the three games that Jeremiah Masoli has been named a starter, he has passed for 778 yards and rushed for 146 yards.

Winning to Losing Streak: Edmonton is now the second team in CFL history to win seven games in a row and follow that with a five-game losing streak. The other team was Montreal in 2006 where they started 7-0 and followed it up with a six-game losing streak.

Road Warriors?: Montreal travels to Toronto and is looking for their first victory on the road this season.

Action Jackson: RB/KR Martese Jackson returned a missed field goal 125 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter of last week’s game. Jackson’s missed field goal returned marked the Argos’ first since Chad Owens’ 118-yard missed field goal return on August 8, 2013 in Montreal.

Chase for 1000/1000: Andrew Harris is on pace for 1,073 rushing yards and 962 receiving yards. No player has ever had 1,000 yards in both rushing and receiving in a single season.

Close Games: The REDBLACKS have had 10 games decided by seven points or fewer this season. They only need one more to set the club record and two to match the CFL record.

Tiger-Cat Killer: BC’s Jonathon Jennings has a 3-0 career record versus Hamilton.

First to 1,000: Roy Finch now has 1,009 punt return yards to become the first Stampeder in history to accumulate more than 1,000 punt return yards. The CFL record is 1,440 by Edmonton’s Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams in 1991.

2nd down: Brad Sinopoli leads the CFL with 36 second down conversion receptions. He is on pace for 50, which would break the CFL record set by Ben Cahoon at 45 in 2004.

Sack Attack: Calgary’s Micah Johnson leads the league with eight sacks.

Run the Ball: Winnipeg is the only team this season to average more than 100 rushing yards a game (104.9).

Touchdown Machine: Jeremiah Johnson leads the league with 11 majors this year.

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