THIS WEEK IN THE CFL – WEEK 14

Week 14 begins in Winnipeg at 8 p.m. ET when the Ottawa REDBLACKS visit Investors Group Field in the first game of a Friday double-header. The Blue Bombers will try to extend their home winning streak to five games while the REDBLACKS are looking to split the season series. Winnipeg won the first game in Week 7 33-30 in Ottawa.

In the late game, BC Lions host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at 11 p.m. ET. BC is looking to keep pace in the race for playoffs while the Tiger-Cats are hope to knock off a West Division foe for the first time this season.

Saturday night features the Montreal Alouettes taking on the Toronto Argonauts at 7 p.m. ET at BMO Field. Toronto continues to keep pace with Ottawa for first-place in the East Division while a Montreal victory would give the Alouettes the season series and bring them two points away from Toronto for second in the East Division.

Sunday afternoon features the Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders at 4 p.m. ET at Mosaic Stadium. The red-hot Stampeders look to make it nine consecutive wins, while the Roughriders with a win can tie Edmonton with 14 points in the West Division.

BRIDGE’S HISTORIC NIGHT

• Toronto native Brandon Bridge started for Saskatchewan and passed for 231 yards including three touchdowns in the Roughriders’ 27-19 victory over the Tiger-Cats.
• Since 1970, seven Canadian quarterbacks have started a game: Eric Guthrie, Gerry Dattilio, Luc Tousignant, Greg Vavra, Bob Torrance, Giulio Caravatta and Brandon Bridge.
• It marked the first time since 1987 (Greg Vavra) that a Canadian quarterback started and won a game. It also marked the first time since 1984 (Greg Vavra) that a Canadian quarterback has passed for three touchdowns in a game.
• Russ Jackson has won the most games as a Canadian quarterback with a career record of 85-47-5 (.620).
• The single-game passing record for a Canadian quarterback is 427 yards set by Gerry Dattilio on September 6, 1981. Dattilio also owns the Canadian passing records for passing TDs in a game (5) and completions in a game (31).
• Bridge has passed for 879 yards while completing 68.3% of his passes (including eight touchdown passes) thus far in his career.

TACKLING MACHINES

• Entering Week 14, Calgary’s Alex Singleton and BC’s Solomon Elimimian are tied for the league lead in tackles with 91 each. The next closest player is Montreal’s Kyries Hebert with 83.
• Singleton has been all over field the past three games. Singleton set a CFL benchmark by recording 35 tackles in the last three games (one more than Elimimian did in August 2016). Singleton has notched 10+ tackles three games in a row (13, 11, 11).
• Singleton has four games with 10+ tackles while Elimimian has three and owns the season-high with 15 tackles in a game.
• Both Singleton and Elimimian are on pace for 136 tackles which would be the second-most in a season in CFL history. Elimimian set the record in 2014 with 143 tackles.
• In 30 CFL games in his career, Singleton has recorded 156 tackles. In Elimimian’s first 30 games he had 159. Bear Woods in his first 30 CFL games totalled 164 tackles. Singleton is closing in on his first 100-tackle season, while Elimimian is looking for his third.
• In their careers: Elimimian has averaged 6.2 tackles per game, Woods 5.7 tackles and Singleton 5.7. However, since Singleton was named a starter (Labour Day 2016) Singleton has averaged 6.6 tackles per game.
• In the last 55 games, Elimimian has wrapped up 406 defensive tackles. He will be making his 100^th start of his career on Friday night.

QUICK SLANTS

• Calgary has won 15 games in a row versus West Division teams. If they were to beat Saskatchewan, it would be the longest divisional win streak. Toronto won 15 consecutive games in 1996-1997.
• Shaw CFL Top Performer James Wilder Jr. had 190 rushing yards for the Argonauts last week, which was the fourth-most in a game in franchise history. The 190 yards is the highest since John White rushed for 192 in 2014. It’s the sixth-highest rushing total in the last 10 years.
• His first CFL touchdown, a 76-yard rush, is the longest running play of the season and the longest run since 2014 when Jon Cornish had a 79-yard rushing touchdown versus Toronto.
• The longest pass play this season was from Mike Reilly to Vidal Hazelton for a 108-yard touchdown versus BC in Week 6.
• Saskatchewan’s Ed Gainey leads the league with eight interceptions. This season he has three games with multiple interceptions, one shy of the league record held by Larry Crawford in 1983 with BC. The last player to record three multiple interception games was Byron Barker in 2006.
• Three players are under 100 yards away from 1,000 receiving yards: Brandon Zylstra 982, Brad Sinopoli 908 and Naaman Roosevelt 906. Greg Ellingson (1,123) and SJ Green (1,010) have already surpassed the benchmark.
• Toronto’s J’Micheal Deane will be playing in his 100^th CFL game this week.
• Rene Paredes is 13 points away from reaching 1,200 points in his career. Only 18 players have reached that mark.
• Saskatchewan’s Kevin Glenn is looking for his 100^th win as a starter this week versus Calgary.
• Edmonton’s Adarius Bowman is six receptions shy for 600 in his career. He is also 18 yards short from surpassing Paul Masotti for 29^th on the all-time receiving yards list.
• Nik Lewis (13,740) is seven yards shy of surpassing Terry Vaughn (13,746) for fifth on the all-time receiving yards list.
• Bye Weeks: Teams coming off a bye this year are 7-4. The Blue Bombers are coming off a Week 13 bye to host the REDBLACKS.
• In the three games that Jeremiah Masoli has been named a starter, he has passed for 778 yards and rushed for 146 yards.
• Edmonton is now the second team in CFL history to win seven games in a row and follow that with a five-game losing streak. The other team was Montreal in 2006 where they started 7-0 and followed it up with a six-game losing streak.
• Montreal travels to Toronto and is looking for their first victory on the road this season.
• RB/KR Martese Jackson returned a missed field goal 125 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter of last week’s game. Jackson’s missed field goal returned marked the Argos’ first since Chad Owens’ 118-yard missed field goal return on August 8, 2013 in Montreal.
• Chase for 1000/1000: Andrew Harris is on pace for 1,073 rushing yards and 962 receiving yards. No player has ever had 1,000 yards in both rushing and receiving in a single season.
• The REDBLACKS have had 10 games decided by seven points or fewer this season. They only need one more to set the club record and two to match the CFL record.
• BC’s Jonathon Jennings has a 3-0 career record versus Hamilton.
• Roy Finch now has 1,009 punt return yards to become the first Stampeder in history to accumulate more than 1,000 punt return yards. The CFL record is 1,440 by Edmonton’s Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams in 1991.
• Brad Sinopoli leads the CFL with 36 second down conversion receptions. He is on pace for 50, which would break the CFL record set by Ben Cahoon at 45 in 2004.
• Calgary’s Micah Johnson leads the league with eight sacks.
• Winnipeg is the only team this season to average more than 100 rushing yards a game (104.9).
• Jeremiah Johnson leads the league with 11 majors this year.