#WEEK19

On Saturday Ottawa travels to Winnipeg for the first game of a home-and-home series. On the line for Winnipeg is a home playoff date – which would be their first since 2011 – while Ottawa pushes for their second consecutive East Division title.

Saturday night is the final time the Saskatchewan Roughriders will play a game at Mosaic Stadium after 712 games (since 1910 – 610 pro games since 1936). With the BC Lions in town looking to keep pace with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and aiming for a home playoff date, the atmosphere in Regina will be special as fans say goodbye to their beloved stadium.

On Sunday afternoon Calgary will be looking to make history versus the Montreal Alouettes. With a victory, the Stampeders will tie the record for most wins by a CFL team in the regular season with 16 (Edmonton did so in 1989). On the other side, Montreal will be trying to make it two in a row with Vernon Adams Jr looking to build off his first start of his career last week.

2016’s CFL Pink campaign concludes this week:

October 30^th: OTT @ WPG

Week 19 Playoff Scenarios

END OF AN ERA: MOSAIC FIELD

• This game will be the final one ever played at the Park de Young/Taylor Field/Mosaic Stadium site. There have been 610 regular season Riders home games (since 1936 as part of the WIFU-CFL) and 661 home games total with the addition of games from the club’s amateur days with the Western Canada Rugby Football Union (1910-1935).
• Week 19’s game against the BC Lions will be regular season game #611 as part of the WIFU-CFL.
• The Riders have also played 50 home playoff games at the site since 1936, as well as the 2013 Grey Cup.
• Including the games from the amateur era, there have been 712 games at this site.
• With a sellout in their final home game, the total attendance for all Rider home games since the start of the 1958 season (the extent of the CFL’s verifiable attendance figures) will exceed 11.6 million fans.
• Mosaic crowds have led the CFL in average home attendance in 2013 (37,503) and 2016 (31,065) and have averaged 30,000+ fans in each of the last eight years.
• Since the professional football era began for the Riders in 1936 (610 games played), their home record at Mosaic is 329-268-13.
• In that time they have scored 1,557 touchdowns at Mosaic.
• The first professional home game in the WIFU-CFL was played on September 12, 1936 against Winnipeg. Attendance was 4000 (as reported by the Regina Leader-Post), and Regina won the game 8-7 with starting quarterback Jim Lander.
• The first Riders touchdown came in the second quarter of that game from Fritz Falgren on the recovery of a Louis Chumich blocked punt.
• The longest home winning streak was 13 games (October 1967-September 1969).
• In 1968 the Roughriders achieved a perfect season at home: 8-0.
• Their biggest wins at the site came on September 3, 1995 (56-4) and on September 2, 2012 (52-0) – both against Winnipeg.
• The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have been the most frequent guests, visiting 129 times. In Saskatchewan-Winnipeg contests at Mosaic, Saskatchewan owns the record 62-54-3.
• Gene Makowsky has played the most games at Taylor Field/Mosaic Stadium with 142 (1995-2011). Ron Lancaster has played the fourth-highest amount of games (127), and the most games started at QB (122, for a record of 81-35-6).
• Current QB Darian Durant has started the second-most amount of games at QB with 59 (35-24-0).

SEASON OF THE RECEIVERS

• Through 18 weeks, a trio of receivers have reached the 100-reception mark: Adarius Bowman (116), Derel Walker (102) and Andy Fantuz (101).
• Three receivers have reached 100 receptions twice in CFL history: in 1994 (Allen Pitts with 126, Darren Flutie with 111 and Gerald Wilcox with 111) and 1995 (Don Narcisse with 123, Dave Sapunjis with 111 and Allen Pitts with 100).
• There have never been FOUR receivers in the same season with 100+ receptions. However, with two games left in each of their seasons, Emmanuel Arceneaux (91), Nik Lewis (90) and Brad Sinopoli (85) each have a chance to reach the century mark.
• Calgary’s DaVaris Daniels has 47 receptions for 849 yards and nine touchdowns in only ten games this season.
• If Daniels accumulates 151 yards in his final game of the season, he would set a new record for the fewest games needed to reach 1,000 receiving yards in a season at 11.
• The all-time CFL record for fewest games played by a 1,000-yard receiver is 12, held by four players: Derel Walker (2015), Morris Bailey (1950), Red O’Quinn (1995) and Al Pfeifer (1995).
• There are now 10 1,000 yard receivers this year in the CFL, with four more players knocking on the door: Nik Lewis (975), Terrence Toliver (965), Brad Sinopoli (963) and Kenny Shaw (960).
• Bowman and Walker became the second pair of receivers to each have 100 receptions in the same year. Allen Pitts and Dave Supunjis first accomplished the feat for Calgary in 1995.
• Bowman has 40 second down conversion catches this season, one off the record held by Jamel Richardson (41) set in 2011.

400+ PASSING YARDS

• REDBLACKS QB and 2015 Most Outstanding Player Henry Burris threw for a Week 18 high of 418 yards last week in the 39-36 OT loss to Hamilton. The effort gave Burris 17 career games of 400+ yards and the #5 all-time ranking:

Player                                  400+

Anthony Calviilo                     29 in 277 starts

Doug Flutie                            29 in 126 starts

Kent Austin                           19 in 125 starts

Danny McManus                    18 in 191 starts

Henry Burris                          17 in 228 starts

Matt Dunigan                        16 in 166 starts

• Calvillo and Flutie are tied for the league lead with 29 games of 400+ passing yards – however, Flutie accomplished it with 151 fewer starts.
• In Flutie’s 126 starts he passed for 400+ yards 23% of the time.

THREE MINUTE DRILL

• Last week’s Ottawa-Hamilton bout was the eighth overtime game of the 2016 season. That matched the CFL record for most in one year set in 1992 and tied in 2002.
• Tackle Race: Montreal’s Bear Woods (119) and BC’s Solomon Elimimian (118) will contend to see who ends up with the season tackle crown.
• Adam Bighill joined the 100 tackle club for the third time in his career and helped the BC Lions become the first team in CFL history to have two players in the same season each reach 100+ tackles.
• Calgary now owns the second-longest unbeaten streak in the CFL at 16 games (15-0-1). They trail only the 1948-1949 Calgary team, who had 22 games between losses.
• Calgary can tie the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos (16-2) for most wins by a CFL team in a single season with a win on Sunday.
• A Stampeder win on Sunday would also establish a new CFL record for most consecutive games won to end a season at 15.
• Nik Lewis has 90 catches this year and 965 for his career. He is now only one back of Allen Pitts at #5 all-time with 966 and seven back of #4 Darren Flutie at 972.
• Justin Medlock is four field goals short of tying Dave Ridgeway’s record of 59 in a single season.
• Medlock has made 55 of 63 field goals (87.3%) with his longest being 58. He went a perfect 7/7 versus BC in Week 17.
• Calgary has only turned the ball over 22 times this season. If they don’t turn over the ball on Sunday in their final game, they would set a new record, currently held by the 2012 BC Lions squad with 23 total turnovers.
• Winnipeg’s +31 turnover ratio is the sixth-best in CFL history.