THIS WEEK IN THE CFL – WEEK 11
Stats and storylines headed into this week’s action
MAKING THE TURN
Entering the second half of the season, comparing 2022 to 2021 through 39 games:
- Scoring: 50.5 vs. 43.5 – Increase of 16 per cent
- Decided in the final 3 mins: 26 vs. 20 – increase of 30 per cent
- Kickoff return TDs: 6 vs. 0 – only two total in 2021
- TD drives: 172 vs. 138 – 34 more (or 25 per cent)
- Two and Outs: 369 vs. 408 – 11 per cent fewer drives
- TD passes: 104 vs. 93
- Second down conversions: 47% vs. 44% – 55 more conversions
- QB starters: 15 vs. 17
- 100+ receiving yard games: 33 vs. 26: increase of 27 per cent; eight players have multiples
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
- Hamilton’s Lawrence Woods III leads the league in punt return yards (662) and kickoff return yards (689)
- He is on pace for 1,324 punt return yards (15.4 per return) – the second best in a single season, trailing only Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams’s 1,440 set in 1991.
- Chris Williams holds the team record with 1,117 punt return yards with a 13.0 yard average per return
- Woods is on pace for 1,378 kickoff return yards (24.6 per return). Brandon Banks holds the team record of 1,245 set in 2016.
- Woods is on pace for 2,798 total kick return yards, which would be the second best all-time, trailing only Eric Blount’s 2,878 in 1998.
THE LION’S SHARE
- In his past two games, Nathan Rourke has passed for 488 yards against Calgary and 477 against Edmonton
- Trevor Harris was the last QB to record 400+ yards in consecutive games (420 vs. Toronto on August 16 and 430 against Winnipeg on August 23 in 2019)
- Only one QB eclipsed 400 passing yards in 2021 (Zach Collaros’s 417 on October 1); four have done so in 2022 (Rourke three times and Dane Evans once)
- No QB has reached 400+ in three consecutive games since Doug Flutie went for five-in-a-row in 1993.
- Flutie and Anthony Calvillo hold the record with 29 career 400+ yard games.
- Flutie took 17 starts to notch his third 400-yard game; Rourke needed ten.
PUSHING THE PACE
- Nathan Rourke
- Passing Yards: 6,539 – On pace for the second-best in league history
- Completions: 509 | All-time record of 481 set by Henry Burris in 2015
- Passing TDs: 52 | All-time record of 48 set by Doug Flutie in 1994
- Rushing TDs: 16 | All-time QB record of 14 held by Doug Flutie (1991) and James Franklin (2018)
- Dalton Schoen
- Receiving yards: 1,256 | Winnipeg first-year record held by Perry Tuttle (1,373 yards)
- TD receptions: 14 | Most by a Bomber since Milt Stegall’s 17 in 2005
- Zach Collaros
- Passing Yards: 4,419 | Career-high of 3,376 set in 2015
- Passing TDs: 32 | Career-best of 25 set in 2015
- Eugene Lewis
- Receiving yards: 1,500 | Career-best of 1,133 set in 2019. No Alouettes has hit 1,500 yards since Jamel Richardson (1,777) in 2011
- Receptions: 94 | Career-high of 72 set in 2019
- Jaelon Acklin
- Receiving yards: 1,609 | Team record of 1,459 set by Greg Ellingson in 2017
- Receptions: 90 | Personal best of 58 set in 2019
- Dominique Rhymes
- Receiving TDs: 20 | Milt Stegall holds the record with 23 set 2002; Allen Pitts (21) and Darrel Smith (20) are the only other players to reach 20+
- Wynton McManis
- Defensive tackles: 119 | Team record of 121 set by Calvin Tiggles in 1994
- Darnell Sankey
- Defensive tackles: 114 | Team record of 118 set by David Albright in 1987
- Ciante Evans
- Knockdowns: 22 | Team record of 18 set by Malcolm Frank (1994) and Adrion Smith (1996)
- Dominique Davis
- Rushing TDs: 18 | Mike Pringle holds the all-time record of 19 in a season; Doug Flutie and James Franklin hold the QB record of 14. Nathan Rourke is on pace for 16.
QUICK SLANTS
- Three players enter Week 11 with 99 career games played: Ottawa WR Darvin Adams, BC OL Sukh Chungh and Montreal OL Landon Rice
- Edmonton’s Manny Arceneaux sits at 149 career games. With four more receiving yards, he’ll move past Ray Alexander (8,842) into the Top-30. With six catches, he’ll reach 24th all-time past Tony Gabriel (614).
- Ottawa is coming off a bye; teams are 7-4 on a week’s rest in 2022.
- BC’s Bryan Burnham needs 71 receiving yards (6,929) to reach 7,000 yards in his career.
- Nathan Rourke is 736 passing yards back of Russ Jackson (3,641) for the Canadian single-season record set in 1969.
- Last week, BC’s Sean Whyte (1,647) moved passed Noel Prefontaine (1,634) for 13th on the all-time scoring list
- Saskatchewan is on pace to have two players with 100+ tackles in a season (Sankey and Dean); the only other team to accomplish the feat was BC in 2016 with Adam Bighill and Solomon Elimimian.
- Saskatchewan’s Charleston Hughes needs one more sack to pass Joe Montford (135) for fifth on the all-time list.
- Calgary’s Rene Paredes (1,839) needs two points to move past Trevor Kennerd (1,840) into the Top-10 in CFL scoring
- Calgary rookie Jalen Philpot is averaging 32.8 yards per kickoff return; tied for 6th-most in CFL history
- Dave Dickenson is 8-1 as a head coach against the Argonauts
- Toronto’s Brandon Banks (5,944) needs 56 receiving yards to reach 6,000 in his career.
Lucas Barrett
Associate Vice-President, Communications & Public Affairs, Canadian Football League