THIS WEEK IN THE CFL – WEEK 17

The first week of October is upon us and we begin in the Nation’s Capital where the East-leading Ottawa REDBLACKS take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for Friday Night Football. Ottawa comes off a bye week looking to secure their fourth consecutive playoff berth. Winnipeg enters the game in the thick of the playoff race out West, holding the third spot in West Division following their victory over Edmonton last week. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

Saturday night has the Toronto Argonauts visiting the BC Lions beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET. BC Place has been friendly spot for the Argonauts, who have won their last four visits; they could use a road victory here, as they have not yet won on the road this season. BC split a home-and-home series with Hamilton the last two weeks and are in the thick of the West Division playoff race, with two points separating the Lions and the third place Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Thanksgiving Monday features a double-header. Beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET the Calgary Stampeders head east to play the Montreal Alouettes. Calgary clinched their 14^th consecutive playoff appearance last week and with a win could clinch a home playoff date for the sixth straight season. Montreal is looking to keep their playoff hopes alive as Johnny Manziel makes his fifth career CFL start.

Week 17 finishes in Regina where the Edmonton Eskimos take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders at 4:00 p.m. ET. Edmonton comes into the game following a 30-3 loss to Winnipeg at home; however, with a victory on Monday they would sweep the season series with the Roughriders which could be a key tie-breaker in a case of a tie between the two teams. Saskatchewan continues to roll, winning six of their last seven games and holding second place in West Division.

**Edmonton Eskimos vs Saskatchewan Roughriders will be the live mic game this week**

PLAYOFF SCENARIOS FOR WEEK 17

SCHEDULE FROM HERE ON OUT

JUST KICKIN’ IT: LEWIS WARD

• Kingston, Ontario native and REDBLACKS kicker Lewis Ward has not missed a field goal attempt since the season opener and is now a remarkable 40-for-41 (97%) as a CFL rookie.
• He has made his last 37 field goal attempts in a row, the second-longest streak ever made and the longest within a single season.
• He is two away from Rene Paredes’ 39 consecutive kicks across 2012-13.
• His current rate of 97.6% is ahead of the CFL record also set by Paredes in 2013 (94.7%).
• Ward is 12-for-12 from 40+ yards this year.

CFL RULEBOOK CLARIFICATION:

After reaching 29 in a row in 2013, Rene Paredes had one BLOCKED on July 20, 2013 by Montreal's John Bowman. By the rules of the day (rules that had been in place since 1967), no FG attempt was charged to Calgary since the ball did not cross the line of scrimmage. Paredes went on to extend his streak to 39 straight.

QUICK SLANTS

• Blue Bombers: Drew Wolitarsky has 501 yards this season. The last Winnipeg rookie receiver to go over 500 yards was Chris Matthews in 2012. Weston Dressler’s reception streak is now at 122 games and last week he moved up to 704 catches. He needs three more to pass Rocky DiPietro (706) for 12^th all-time. 
• After securing sacks in nine of his first 10 games, Charleston Hughes cooled down from his torrid start, not recording a sack in three consecutive games. He recorded his first sack since Week 12 on Sunday versus Montreal.
• Johnny Manziel last week threw the ball just 16 times, the fewest by any CFL QB to play a complete game in 2018. Of his 16 passes, 10 were thrown deep downfield including his first two TD passes (20 yards to Ernest Jackson and 47 yards to Adarius Bowman).
• Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros passed for 394 yards against Montreal. It marked the first time Collaros has passed for over 300 yards in Rider green and the first time he reached the benchmark since Week 4 last season.
• Winnipeg won a big game in Edmonton last week. Mike Reilly passed for only 164 yards in the game, marking the first time Reilly did not reach 200 yards since Week 10 last season versus Saskatchewan.
• Reilly was held without a touchdown (passing or rushing) last week and has a total of 39 (27 passing, 12 Rushing). Reilly is still on pace for 50 touchdowns and is seven rushing TDs short of tying the record for the most in a season with Mike Pringle (19). Reilly is four touchdowns short of surpassing his career-high (30) in a season.
• Argonauts quarterback James Franklin has rushed for 12 TDs this season and is currently tied with Reilly.
• New Brunswick native Mike Miller leads the league with 16 special teams tackles and now has 154 in his career (No. 12 all-time). He has at least one special teams tackle in 88 of his 136 games (65% of his appearances).
• In his last four games Alouettes veteran linebacker Chip Cox has 34 tackles, which moves him up to number four all-time with 961 tackles. Note: CFL tackles were counted officially starting in 1987.
• Ottawa’s William Powell has six games where he has rushed for 100+ yards this season, the most by any player since Jon Cornish had six in 2014 and nine in 2013.
• Justin Medlock has now made 53 converts in a row from 32 yards out. He has also made 135 of 136 convert attempts.
• Brad Sinopoli reached 1,000 yards for a fourth straight year, tying Ottawa’s record set by Tony Gabriel from 1975-1978.
• In their last three games SJ Green and Armanti Edwards have 38 catches for 482 yards and two TDs combined. In the three games before that they had just 14 receptions for 268 yards and 1 TD collectively.