THIS WEEK IN THE CFL - WEEK 15

Week 15 begins with a big West Division tilt on Friday Night Football between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the travelling Edmonton Eskimos. An Edmonton victory would move the Eskimos two points behind the Bombers with four weeks left to play.

On Saturday, Calgary and their 11-game unbeaten streak visit the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Hamilton will be looking to extend their home winning streak to four games and bounce back from their Week 14 loss to Saskatchewan.

Later on Saturday evening it’s a cross-country clash between the Ottawa REDBLACKS and the BC Lions. West Division teams have been victorious against East Teams in eight-straight games, but the REDBLACKS will look to buck the trend when they play in BC.

Week 15 concludes in Montreal when the Alouettes play host to the Toronto Argonauts. This will be Jacques Chapdelaine’s first game as head coach for the Alouettes – and with the crossover very much in play, both teams could use the win to keep pace in a tight East Division.

2016 ESKIMOS VS. 1995 STAMPEDERS

• With his six catches for 121 yards in Week 14, Adarius Bowman is continuing his torrid pace towards 2,000-yards this season. He’ll need to average 120 yards per game to reach the mark.
• Bowman continues to lead the league in receiving yards with a total of 1,400 in 13 games and is five receptions short of 100 catches.
• Not far behind is Derel Walker, the second-leading receiver and Bowman’s teammate. Walker has notched 1,248 yards on 84 receptions.
• Bowman is on pace for 132 receptions, which would be the second-highest of all-time behind Derrell Mitchell (160). Walker is projected to reach 116 receptions.
• The only time two players on the same team recorded 100 receptions in the same year was in 1995 when Dave Sapunjis (111) and Allen Pitts (100) did so for the Stampeders.
• That season Sapunjis finished with 1,655 yards and Pitts recorded 1,492 yards.
• Calgary Stampeders quarterbacks Doug Flutie and Jeff Garcia teamed up to pass for a combined 6,146 yards and 41 touchdown passes in the same season.
• Following last week’s game versus BC, Mike Reilly is on pace for 6,027 passing yards.
• After his 300-yard passing game last week Reilly has now passed for 300 or more yards 10 times this season with five games to go.
• The record for most 300-yard passing games in a season is 14, set by Doug Flutie during the 1991 season with BC.

18 STARTS FOR JENNINGS

• BC Lions quarterback Jonathon Jennings completed his 18^th career start last week against the Edmonton Eskimos.
• 18 career starts is equivalent to a full season in the CFL.
• During that time, Jennings has compiled a record of 11-7, 371 for 563 (65.8%) on pass attempts, 5,060 yards, 30 touchdown passes, 14 interceptions and a passer rating of 101.7.
• This season, Jennings is third in the league in passing yards with 3,308 and fourth in touchdown passes with 15. He is completing 64.7% of his passes.
• Jennings is on pace for just under 5,000 passing yards for the 2016 season. In BC Lions history, only Doug Flutie, Dave Dickenson and Casey Printers have reached the 5,000 yardmark.

WALK OFF WINS AND GAME-WINNING DRIVES

• During Week 14, Rene Paredes kicked a 52-yard field goal to win the game for the Stampeders; Tyler Crapigna did the same for the Roughriders with a 29-yard field goal. Each game-winning field goal was the final play of the game.
• This season there have been six games won on the final play of the game, including four in the last two weeks:

Date                        Team      Oppt       Scoring Play        Player                  

Aug 30/16                 BC 16       TOR 13      30-yd FG               Richie Leone                          

Sep 04/16                 WPG 28    SSK 25       43-yd FG               Justin Medlock                       

Sep 16/16                 HAM 20    MTL 17      10-yd FG               Brett Maher                           

Sep 18/16 (OT)         SSK 26     EDM 23      6-yd run                Darian Durant

Sep 24/16                 CGY 36    WPG 34      52-yd FG               Rene Paredes

Sep 24/16                 SSK 20     HAM 18      29-yd FG               Tyler Crapigna
 

• Three of the four winning teams last week produced fourth quarter game-winning drives, increasing the total to 21 this season.
• Mike Reilly, Bo Levi Mitchell and Mitchell Gale led their respective teams to late drives to pull out wins in Week 14.
• The BC Lions lead the league with four late-game winning drives. They’re followed by a four-way tie for second: Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg have each produced three. Toronto has one, and Montreal has zero.

THREE MINUTE DRILL

• Dave Dickenson is two wins shy of tying the record for most wins by a first-year head coach. Three other coaches achieved 13 wins: Adam Rita (1991, Toronto), John Hufnagel (2008, Calgary), and Mike Benevides (2012, Edmonton).
• Jacques Chapdelaine’s appointment to head coach of the Alouettes was the 59^th in-season head coaching change in the CFL since 1950. The 58 prior coaches have gone 27-31 (.466) in their first games.
• Home teams coming on strong: home teams have won nine games in a row and have levelled the record to 28-28-1 against road teams.
• Good times rolling in the west: West Division teams have now won eight consecutive games against East Division opponents. West teams are 17-8 versus the East for the season.
• Feel the momentum: In the last 15 games, the league-wide attendance has averaged 27,256, up almost 13% compared to the first 42 games of 2016.
• Edmonton defensive back Pat Watkins has 63 tackles, leading all non-linebackers. He is on pace for 87 defensive tackles this season, the most by any DB since Joey Boese set the CFL record with 92 in 2004.
• Bo Levi Mitchell continues to increase his win percentage. He is now 39-7-1 (.840%) as a starter in the CFL.
• The game between Ottawa and BC this week features the #1 run defence in the CFL (Ottawa) against the #1 rushing offence (BC, at 106.9 yards per game).
• Rene Paredes, Justin Medlock and Chris Milo are on pace to record 200+ points.
• Jamill Smith returned a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown, the longest return by an Ottawa player since Jason Armstead’s 115-yard return in 2004 for the Renegades.
• All three of Saskatchewan’s wins this season have been by 3 points or fewer (margins of 1, 3, and 2 points).
• Weston Dressler has moved up to #30 all-time in receiving at 8,487 yards. He has 25 catches in his last 4 games.
• The last two Winnipeg games have been wild, high-scoring ones with 145 total points and 16 combined touchdowns.
• Lions on the loose: Adam Bighill and Solomon Elimimian are still on pace for 100+ tackles each this season. No team in CFL history has ever had two players reach 100+ tackles in the same season.
• Emmanuel Arceneaux (956), Marquay McDaniel (947) and Greg Ellingson (892) are next in line to reach the 1,000-yard mark.
• There is a four-way tie for sacks leader in the CFL: John Chick, Charleston Hughes, Shawn Lemon and Alex Bazzie each have 10 sacks to their name.
• If the playoffs started today, the road team in the East Semi-Final would be Edmonton.
• In the crossover era (1996-present) the poorest record to make the playoffs was 7-10-1 in 2000 (Winnipeg).
• Eight teams have crossed over since 1996. All crossovers have been made by West Division clubs.