THIS WEEK IN THE CFL - WEEK 13

Week 13 begins with an East Division tilt on Friday Night between the Montreal Alouettes and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field. At halftime Don McDonald, Doug Brown, Rodney Harding, Derrell “Mookie” Mitchell and James West will be honoured as part of the 2016 class being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Saturday features a double-header, beginning with the Toronto Argonauts traveling west to play the red-hot Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Bombers will be looking for their first seven-game winning streak since 2001 while Dan LeFevour and the Argonauts will be looking to string two wins in a row after an exciting home win in Week 12.

In the second game on Saturday, two Division leaders square off when the Calgary Stampeders host the Ottawa REDBLACKS. The last time these two met it resulted in Week 2’s 26-26 contest, the first tie in the CFL since 2009 and the 100^th tie in CFL history.

Week 13’s finale takes place in Saskatchewan when the Edmonton Eskimos come in to town. Chris Jones will be looking to avoid the season sweep at the hands of his former team, while Edmonton looks to make some ground in the West Division following back-to-back losses to the Stampeders.

RECEIVERS NO. 1 + 2

• Through 12 weeks of play, Edmonton’s Adarius Bowman (1,127) and Derel Walker (1,124) are the leading receivers in the CFL.
• Each is averaging more than 102 receiving yards per game this season and both are on pace for over 1,800 yards.
• Bowman and Walker have each had six games with 100+ receiving yards this season.
• The last time a single club had the top two receivers in the same year was Edmonton in 2001 (Terry Vaughn & Ed Hervey).
• Two top receivers on the same team in the same year has happened six previous times dating back to Calgary in 1952. Edmonton achieved it once prior to 2001 with Waddell Smith and Brian Kelly in 1979.
• Bowman and Walker are projected for a combined 3,683 yards. The CFL record for most yards by two receivers on the same team in one year is 3,318 by Montreal’s Copeland and Cahoon in 2003:

YEAR | TEAM | YDS | TEAM LEADER | #2 RECEIVER     

2003  |  MONTREAL |  3,318 |  J.Copeland (1,757)  |   B.Cahoon (1,561)

1983  |  TORONTO  |  3,228  |  T.Greer (2,003)  |   E.Tolbert (1,225)

1995  |  CALGARY  |  3,147 |  D.Sapunjis (1,655)  |  A.Pitts (1,492)

1986  |  WINNIPEG  |  3,119  |  J.Murphy (1,746)  |  P.Tuttle (1,373)

1998  |  TORONTO  | 3,057  |  D.Mitchell (2,000)  |  Nigel Williams (1,057)

1983  |  EDMONTON  | 3,046  |  B.Kelly (1,812)   |  Tom Scott (1,234)

TRADE WINDS

Following Winnipeg’s quarterback trades, here’s a look at the most significant in-season trades involving QBs:

1961 – Joe Kapp traded by Calgary to BC for Jim Walden and four other players
1974 – Hamilton traded Chuck Ealey to Winnipeg for Don Jonas
1974 – Peter Liske was traded by Calgary to BC for Karl Douglas
1983 – Maybe the most significant trade that involved two eventual Hall of Famers: Dieter Brock traded by Winnipeg to Hamilton in exchange for Tom Clements
1983 – John Hufnagel was traded from Saskatchewan to Winnipeg for Nickie Hall

The 2016 CFL Trade Deadline is set for Wednesday, October 12, at 3:59pm ET.

PERFECT AT HOME

• Calgary Stampeders are looking to boost their record at McMahon Stadium this season to 6-0 this week when the Ottawa REDBLACKS make a visit.
• What makes Calgary’s run this year at home so special is the amount of success road teams have seen this season.
• After road teams went 1-3 last week, they are 28-20-1 for the year resulting in a (.582) winning percentage.
• The mark is the highest in league history, just ahead of the 1961 season where away teams finished with a 38-27-3 record (.581).
• The most recent team to finish a season with a perfect home record was the Montreal Alouettes in 2009 when they ended 9-0.
• Six teams in total have gone 9-0 at home in a season: the 2009 Montreal Alouettes, the 1997 Toronto Argonauts, the 1994 Calgary Stampeders, the 1993 Calgary Stampeders, the 1991 Toronto Argonauts and the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos.
• During the 16-game CFL era, seven teams went a perfect 8-0 at home during a season.
• This season only Calgary (5-0) and BC (3-2) are above .500 at home.

6,000 PASSING YARDS X2?

• In CFL history, a quarterback has surpassed the 6,000 passing yards mark in a single season only five times: Doug Flutie in 1991 and 1993, Kent Austin in 1992, David Archer in 1993 and Anthony Calvillo in 2004.
• This season Mike Reilly has passed for 3,747 yards and is on pace for 6,131 yards.
• Not to be outdone, a recent surge from Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell has the potential to see 2016 have two QBs eclipse the 6,000-yard mark for the first time since Flutie and Archer did it in 1993.
• Mitchell’s current pace would have him finish with 5,850 yards, 150 yards shy of the 6,000.
• In order for Mitchell to hit the 6,000 mark he would need to average 347 passing yards per game in Calgary’s final seven games.

THREE-MINUTE DRILL

• The last time that the Blue Bombers had at least a 6-game win streak was a 9-game run across the 2002-03 seasons. 
• With a win this week, they can make it 7 in a row in the same season - the last time that they had a 7-game win streak in one year was in 2001 (12 in a row from Aug 3/01 to Oct 20/01).
• Alouettes linebacker Chip Cox returned a fumble 58 yards for a TD at B.C. Place last week giving him six career fumble return touchdowns.
• Cox was previously tied with two other players with five TDs for a career, but now holds the mark on his own. He extended his CFL record total to 394 fumble return yards, 124 more yards than Greg Battle.
• Since Anthony Calvillo’s last start 58 games ago, the Alouettes have used the following QBs to compile a 24-34 (.414) record: Josh Neiswander, Tanner Marsh, Troy Smith, Jonathan Crompton, Alex Brink, Rakeem Cato, Anthony Boone, Kevin Glenn, Brandon Bridge and Vernon Adams.
• Argonauts defensive lineman Shawn Lemon forced a fumble last week and now has 15 forced fumbles in the last three seasons. He set the CFL record with eight in 2014.
• This season CFL punters are averaging 45.4 yards per kick, the second-highest average of all-time for any year. The all-time record of 45.8 yards per kick was set in 1983.
• Since 2006 the CFL’s three highest-scoring seasons are: 2008 (56.2 points per game), 2010 (52.9) and 2016 (52.6).
• Following last week’s overtime game between Calgary and Edmonton, five games have gone to an extra frame in the 2016 season. The CFL season record for overtime games in a single season is eight, set in 1992 and tied in 2002.
• Bo Levi Mitchell added another victory to his resume in Week 12, boosting his career record when he starts to 37-7-1 (an .833 winning percentage) – the best in league history.
• If the playoffs were to start today, Edmonton would fail to qualify in the West Division and wouldn’t have enough to cross over into the East Division.
• It would be the first-time a Grey Cup Champion would not qualify for the playoffs the following season since Edmonton failed to do so in 2006.
• Since the rule change to coaches’ challenges in Week 10, the average of challenges has dropped to 2.25 per game from 2.46. In the time since the change there has been 27 challenges with nine calls being overturned (33.3%) in 12 games.  
• Week 12 was the second-highest week this season when it came to net offence – 792 yards. Only Week 3 (814 yards) had more.