THIS WEEK IN THE CFL
Stats, Storylines and Trends Heading Into Week 15
Quarterback carousel not just for kids
- All eyes will on Friday Night Football when 24-year-old Tiger-Cat quarterback Jeff Mathews makes his first start in relief of Zach Collaros
- Mathews will be the 21st quarterback to start a CFL game this year – that equals last year’s total for the entire season
- Seven of the CFL’s nine clubs have lost their number one quarterback at some point this year
- But that doesn’t mean a total lack of experience at the position: last week’s eight starters averaged 30.3 years of age with a collective total of 504 career starts, led by Kevin Glenn and Henry Burris, who have 393 between them
Playoff picture
- The Calgary Stampeders can clinch a playoff spot with either a win of their own or a BC Lions loss to Saskatchewan this week
- If the Stamps win in Hamilton, they are also assured of a home playoff date
- Edmonton can clinch a playoff spot with a win of their own AND a BC loss
- That would ensure a 10-win season for the Eskimos, and BC and Winnipeg could each do no better than 9-9
- Riders will need to go at least 4-1 in their remaining games to stay in the playoff chase as they do not hold the tie-breaker against either BC or Winnipeg
- Still, they play BC this week and end their season against crossover threat Montreal so they still have a chance
- Things are more open in the East, where only six points separate first place Hamilton (8-4) and last place Montreal (5-7), compared to the West where first place Calgary (10-3) is 16 points up on last place Saskatchewan (2-11)
It’s good! And so are they.
- Calgary’s Rene Paredes has made his last 21 field goal attempts, after going 3 for 3 last weekend
- Paredes is now tied with Montreal’s Boris Bede with a 90.9% success rate
- Each of them has made an identical 30 of 33 attempts
- Hamilton’s Justin Medlock (29 for 32) has a 90.6% success rate
- This is the first time the CFL has ever had three kickers at 90% or better in the same reason
Exclusive club
- Only Saskatchewan’s Jerome Messam and BC’s Andrew Harris are on pace to reach 1,000 rushing yards this season
- Only Calgary receiver Eric Rogers has reached 1,000 receiving yards already but another nine receivers are on pace to reach the milestone this season
Big week for scoring
- Last weekend’s games averaged 53.8 points per game, the fourth highest of the season
- It was the third week in a row that scoring was up over the previous week
- None of the games had fewer than 48 points – a first for the 2015 season
- Net offence averaged 334 yards per team, the highest in six weeks
- All eight clubs scored at least 20 points last week for the first time this season
- Overall, we are averaging 49.5 points per game, up from 45.4 a year ago (a 9% increase)
Penalties Trending Downward
- Last week we saw 23.5 penalties per game
- We are now averaging 24.4 penalties per game, the lowest so far this season
- We are still up two flags per game from a year ago, when we averaged 21.6
- Teams that have taken more flags than their opponent have a record of 17-32 this year, for a winning percentage of just .346
- Teams still manage to score a TD on a drive that included an offensive penalty only one time in ten
- Defences that give up a penalty allow a TD 36% of the time, compared to only 9% on drives that do not include a defensive penalty
Comeback kids
- Edmonton came back from a 16-point deficit to beat BC 29-23
- Edmonton scored the final 22 points of the game
- It was the 11th comeback from at least 10 points down in the CFL this year
- It was the second week in a row they came back from more than 10 points down, after overcoming a 12-0 start in Hamilton last week
Macho man
- Victor “Macho” Harris had three interceptions in the Riders’ 33-21 victory over Montreal
- It was the first time a CFL player achieved that feat since August 22, 2014, when Winnipeg’s Maurice Leggett had three picks in one game
- They were Harris’ first three picks of the season
- He had made just one interception in his first 40 games in the CFL
Lucas Barrett
Coordinator, Communications, Canadian Football League
Paulo Senra
Director, Communications, Canadian Football League