THIS WEEK IN THE CFL - WEEK 20

Winnipeg travels to the nation’s capital to complete the home-and-home series with the REDBLACKS. The Blue Bombers are looking to bounce back from last week’s 23-10 loss against Ottawa, and in doing so could host their first playoff game since 2011. Ottawa has wrapped up first place in the East Division and will host the Eastern Final.

To close out the 2016 regular season, Saturday features a massive CFL triple header beginning at Tim Hortons Field when the Tiger-Cats play host to the Montreal Alouettes. Following the 1pm ET kickoff in Hamilton, the Toronto Argonauts head to Edmonton for 2016’s final Live Mic Broadcast at 4pm ET. The regular season finale game takes place at BC Place when the Lions, who hold their own fate with a win or a tie to host the Western Semi-Final, tangle with the Saskatchewan Roughriders at 7pm ET.

Week 20 Playoff Scenarios.

RECEPTION HALL

• Following his eight catches for 94-yards in last week’s game, Nik Lewis recorded his 10^th career 1,000+ yard season in the CFL.
• Lewis is now tied with Allen Pitts and Milt Stegall for the second-most 1,000 receiving yard seasons. Terry Vaughn leads the way with 11 seasons of 1,000+ yards.
• In his 13-season CFL career Nik Lewis has now recorded 973 receptions for 13,062 yards, 70 touchdowns and 30 100-yard games. Lewis is only 136 yards away behind Ray Elgaard (13,198) who is 7^th on the all-time receiving yard list.
• Entering the final week, 13 receivers have notched 1,000+ yards this season.
• Toronto’s Kenny Shaw (960) and Winnipeg’s Weston Dressler (921) are under 100 yards away from breaking the 1,000-yard mark with one game each to play.
• The most 1,000 yard receivers in a CFL season is 18, set in 1993.
• Adarius Bowman (120), Derel Walker (109) and Andy Fantuz (101) have each recorded 100+ receptions this season. Emmanuel Arceneaux (95) and Nik Lewis (98) are nearing the same benchmark. If both Arceneaux and Lewis reach 100 receptions, it would set a new standard of five receivers with 100+ receptions in the same season.
• The last time a BC Lions player caught over 100 passes was in 2006 (Geroy Simon).
• Bowman needs six receptions to tie Allen Pitts (126) for the second-most receptions in a single season.
• The Edmonton tandem of Bowman and Walker have become the pair of receivers to eclipse 100 receptions each and hold the tandem record with 3,350 receiving yards which surpassed the old record held by Ben Cahoon and Jermain Copeland (3,318) in 2003 with Montreal.
• The Edmonton duo have combined for 229 receptions, the second-most only behind Toronto’s Michael Clemons and Derrell Mitchell who combined for 253.
• The 2016 Ottawa REDBLACKS are now the second team in CFL history to have four receivers make 1,000+ receiving yards in back-to-back seasons. They are also the first ever team in CFL history to meet that mark with the same set of four receivers two years in a row: Chris Williams, Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson and Brad Sinopoli now have over 1,000+ yards each in 2016.

WELCOME BACK, PAUL

• On Tuesday the BC Lions announced that kicker Paul McCallum has come out of retirement to join the team.
• McCallum is the CFL’s second leading scorer all-time with 3,131 points behind only BC Lions legend Lui Passaglia (3,991).
• If Paul were to play on Saturday versus Saskatchewan, he would be the second-oldest player ever (at 46 years and 10 months) to play a game in the CFL behind Bob Cameron who was 48 years old and four months. It would be his 341^st career CFL game.
• A game in 2016 would also make this his 24^th season in the CFL moving him out of a tie with Damon Allen and Cameron and into second place behind Passaglia (who played in 25 seasons).

Player                     Pos         Teams    First        Last        Yrs          GP          Last Game*  Birthdate               Age Last Game

Bob Cameron         P             Wpg         1980        2002        23           394          Nov 2/02                 Jul 18/54                       48 years, 4 mos

Paul McCallum       K-P          3 Tms      1993        2016        24           340*        Nov 5/16                 Jan 07/70                       46 years, 10 mos

Lui Passaglia          K-P          BC           1976        2000        25           408          Nov 4/00                 Jun 07/54                       46 years, 5 mos

Damon Allen          QB           6 Tms      1985        2007        23           370          Nov 3/07                 Jul 29/63                       44 years, 3 mos

Troy Westwood      K-P          Wpg         1991        2009        18           293          Nov 8/09                 Mar 21/67        42 years, 8 mos

Hank Ilesic             K-P          4 Tms      1977        2001        20           261          Nov 4/01                 Sep 07/59        42 years, 2 mos

Henry Burris           QB           4 Tms      1997        2016        18           278*        Nov 4/16                 May 04/75        41 years, 5 mos

Danny McManus    QB           4 Tms      1990        2006        17           298          Oct 21/06                Jun 17/65                       41 years, 4 mos

Anthony Calvillo    QB           3 Tms      1994        2013        20           329          Nov 1/13 (IL)          Aug 23/72        41 years, 2 mos

* Last game note:  Most recent game as a member of a CFL roster (Active or on Injured List); includes 2016 CFL Week #20.

BOOTING RECORDS

• Winnipeg’s Justin Medlock is only three field goals away from tying David Ridgway’s record of 59 field goals, set in 1990 with Saskatchewan.
• Medlock has gone 56 for 64 (87.5%) on field goal attempts this season.
• Medlock has connected on his last 14 attempts as he approaches the record. One more field goal to make it 57 in a season and Medlock would move into a tie for second with Carlos Huerta (1995).
• Calgary’s Rene Paredes finished his 2016 season with 56 field goals which is tied for the third-most in CFL history with Medlock, Sandro DeAngelis (2006) and Roman Anderson (1995).
• Edmonton’s kicker Sean Whyte has hit 43 of 46 attempts this season for a rate of 93.5%. If Whyte does not miss another field goal attempt this season, he will post the third-highest field goal percentage in league history. He would trail only Rene Paredes (94.7% in 2013) and Paul McCallum (94.3% in 2011).
• Whyte has made 46 field goals in a row from inside 40 yards.
• With four games to go in the CFL season, 378 successful FGs is the most ever recorded in any season in CFL history (except for the non-standard 12-team and 13-team 1994 & 1995 years).

THREE MINUTE DRILL

• Declining Penalties: Through Week #10, the average CFL game had 22.30 total penalty calls per game (including declined calls). Over the last nine weeks, that average has been just 19.35 per game, a drop of 13% or three flags per game. For accepted penalties (those with the most profound effect on our games), they have declined 15% from 19.25 to just 16.38 per game over the last nine weeks.
• Road teams clinched the season series with four games to go. Road teams have gone 41-35-1 or .539. That’s the most victories by road teams in a single season.
• 100 yards rushing:  In the first 10 weeks of 2016 an individual 100-yard rushing game was recorded just six times. Over the last nine weeks, there have been 16 games where an individual rushed for 100+ yards. Calgary’s Jerome Messam led the way with five games of 100+.
• Calgary finished their season with only 26 turnovers, setting a new club record.
• Winnipeg leads the CFL with a +28 ratio. In 2016, teams that have turned the ball over fewer times are 55-9, winning 86% of 2016’s 64 games where one team had more turnovers than the other.
• BC’s Solomon Elimimian has 128 tackles with one game to go and an outside chance at his CFL record of 143. Bear Woods is right behind him at 123 with one game left. Adam Bighill is the third CFL player with 100+ at 105 in total.
• Jonathon Jennings needs only 81 passing yards to surpass 5,000 passing yards and join Mike Reilly (5,554) and Bo Levi Mitchell (5,385). The last time the league saw three 5,000-yard passers was in 2008 with Anthony Calvillo (5,633), Ricky Ray (5,633) and Henry Burris (5,094).