THIS WEEK IN THE CFL – WEEK 10
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Ottawa at Toronto will be on TSN, RDS2, ESPN+, BT Sport 2 and Yare.
Edmonton at Winnipeg will be on TSN, RDS2, ESPN+, BT Sport 3 and Yare.
Calgary at Saskatchewan will be on TSN, ESPN+ and Yare.
Ottawa at Montreal will be on TSN, RDS, ESPN+, BT Sport ESPN and Yare.
Toronto at Hamilton will be on TSN, ESPN+, BT Sport ESPN and Yare
RETURN TO SENDER
- Ottawa return man Devonte Dedmon has scored four kick return touchdowns in his first 11 games in the CFL:
- Aug. 2, 2019 | 3rd CFL game vs. MTL | 111-yard kickoff return
- Aug. 2, 2019 | 3rd CFL game vs. MTL | 95-yard punt return
- Sept. 22, 2021 |10th CFL game vs. HAM | 63-yard punt return
- Sept 28, 2021 | 11th CFL game vs. EDM | 73-yard punt return
- In that Aug. 2, 2019 game, Dedmon had 382 combined kick return yards – the second-highest single-game total in league history.
- In the 1990 season, Derrick Crawford recorded four kick return touchdowns in his first 10 games.
- The CFL team record for games-in-a-row with a punt-return touchdown is three, done by Hamilton in 2012.
- Of the five kick return touchdowns this year, four have been made by the winning team.
- There have been 17 return touchdowns (including defensive); 14 have been made by the winning team.
STARTING IN STYLE
- Ottawa’s Caleb Evans made his first career start last week and threw three touchdowns in front of the home fans at TD Place.
- Evans is the first Ottawa quarterback in team history (dating back to their Rough Rider days) to throw three TD passes en route to a win in his first career start.
- From 1981 to 2019, 23 different quarterbacks, have made their first start in Ottawa for a combined record 1-22. Only Kerry Joseph (2003) led them to a win in his debut start.
- Since 2014, Evans is the fourth quarterback to throw three majors in his first start, following in the footsteps of Rakeem Cato (2015), Chris Streveler (2018) and McLeod Bethel-Thompson (2018).
- Hamilton’s Joe Zuger holds the record with eight touchdown passes in his first start back in 1962.
- Evans joins Calgary’s Jake Maier, Hamilton’s David Watford, Edmonton’s Taylor Cornelius and BC’s Nathan Rourke as the quarterbacks this season to start their first career game. Their combined record in those starts is 3-2.
WELCOME BACK, DUKE
- On Monday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders signed the former CFL All-Star receiver after a stint in the NFL.
- Williams played in the CFL with Edmonton during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
- In two seasons, he appeared in 31 games, accumulating 134 receptions, 15 touchdowns, 12 100+ yard games and 2,294 receiving yards.
- During his time in the CFL, Williams scored a touchdown once in every nine receptions.
- In his final season with Edmonton, he was named a CFL All-Star after recording 88 receptions, a league-leading 1,579 yards (17.9 yards per catch) and sitting tied for first with 11 receiving touchdowns.
Quick Slants
- Simoni Lawrence recorded five tackles to move into 20th on the all-time tackles list. With nine more, he will become the 20th player to reach 600 in his career.
- Last week in Hamilton, Montreal became just the second team this season to overcome a double-digit deficit to win. Calgary was the first, coming back from 14-3 to win 28-22.
- Toronto’s great starts: Toronto is 3-0 at home this season and has not given up a point in the first quarter at BMO Field. They have led 13-0, 7-0 and 7-0 after the opening 15 minutes. The Argonauts are 4-0 when leading after the first quarter and are 0-3 when trailing in the opening quarter.
- Last week against BC, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers once again did not allow any points in the fourth quarter. They have only allowed six points in the final 15 minutes in their first eight games. They average 0.75 points per game in the fourth. The record is 1.75 points, set by Calgary in 1969.
- Hamilton and Montreal played in the league’s first overtime game of the year. In 2019, there were two overtimes games. There have been 110 overtime games in league history (since 1986 when OT was established).
- Prior to the overtime game last week, the average game length was 2:44 minutes for the previous 10 games. The season-average is 2:49.
- The Stampeders won their first game of their back-to-back series with Saskatchewan last week. The last time they played back-to-back was in 2016, with Calgary emerging with a sweep.
- Brett Lauther and Rene Paredes are tied for the league-lead in points (83).
- Saskatchewan recovered the first onside kick of the season; it was the ninth try league-wide.
- Saskatchewan’s Micah Johnson leads the league with seven tackles for a loss. Jackson Jeffcoat sits second with five.
- Toronto is coming off a bye week. Teams coming off a bye this season are 3-5.
- Montreal ranks first in the league in second down conversion percentage – 53.5 per cent. They are the only team above 50 per cent.
- Defensively, Hamilton leads the league in opposing teams’ second down conversion percentage – 39.2%
- Teams with the better average field position have won the previous 13 games and 28-of-34 games this season.
- Home teams are 17-17 this season.
- This season, first half passing efficiency is 100.9 with 46 TDs to 21 INTs. In the second half, passing efficiency is 82.9 with 37 TDs to 41 INTs.
- Week 9 games had the lowest average penalties – 14.5 per game.
- Zach Collaros recorded his third career 400+ passing yard game. It was the 33rd time in Blue Bombers history and the first since Joey Elliot (406) did so in 2012.
- Doug Flutie and Anthony Calvillo own the record for most 400+ yard games (29). Flutie managed the feat in 129 games (23 per cent), while Calvillo did so in 277.
- Teams who score first are 23-11 on the season. However, Edmonton is 0-3 when they score first.
- Each of Calgary’s games this season has been decided in the final three minutes.
- Winnipeg leads the league with 21 offensive touchdowns, while only allowing eight offensive touchdowns.
Lucas Barrett
Associate Vice-President, Communications & Public Affairs, Canadian Football League