THIS WEEK IN THE CFL - WEEK 4

(TORONTO) July 12, 2017 –  Week 4’s match-ups could continue this season’s trend of down-to-the-wire games.

The Toronto Argonauts, fresh off their win over the Ottawa REDBLACKS, are in Winnipeg Thursday to take on the Blue Bombers, looking for their first home win, at 8:30pm.

The unbeaten Stampeders visit Montreal and the Alouettes Friday at 7:00pm ET. Friday Night Football continues at 10:00pm ET as the REDBLACKS look to notch their first win in Edmonton.

Week 4 wraps up in Hamilton with the Tiger-Cats’ home opener Saturday at 7:30pm. The Cats face a BC Lions squad hoping to complete a sweep of its three-game eastern road trip.

300 TOUCHDOWN PASSES: RAY JOINS ELITE COMPANY

• Ricky Ray joined the 300-touchdown pass club following his 10-yard touchdown pass to DeVier Posey last Saturday night.
• It is an elite group that includes only Anthony Calvillo (455), Damon Allen (394), Henry Burris (373), Ron Lancaster (333), Matt Dunigan (303) and now Ricky Ray (300).
• Ray accomplished the feat in 219 games, the third-fastest in history: Matt Dunigan did it in 191 games and Henry Burris did it in 209 games.
• 66 different players have caught a touchdown pass from Ricky Ray. The top five are Jason Tucker (42), Fred Stamps (26), Jason Barnes (24), Ed Hervey (18) and Chad Owens (14).

TACKLE KING SOLOMON

• In the Lions’ 23-16 win over the Montreal Alouettes, linebacker Solomon Elimimian recorded 15 defensive tackles in a single game, breaking the club record he set last season.
• The feat of 15 tackles (Defensive and Special Teams combined) by a player has now occurred in a single game just five times in CFL history:

Reggie Hunt – 18 tackles (16 DT, 2 STT) July 10/03
Calvin Tiggle – 15 tackles (15 DT, 0 STT) August 19/99
Willie Fells – 15 tackles (11 DT, 4 STT) June 28/02
Ian Wild – 15 tackles (14 DT, 1 STT) August 22/14
Solomon Elimimian – 15 tackles (15 DT, 0 STT) July 6/17

• Since joining the league in 2010, Elimimian has recorded 15 games with 10 or more tackles.
• Elimimian. who leads the league with 29 tackles in 2017, now has 634 tackles in his career, placing him 17^th on the all-time list.

BO KNOWS WINNING

• Bo Levi Mitchell is now undefeated in 19 consecutive regular season games (17-0-2).

• Only five quarterbacks have gone unbeaten for 11 or more starts in a row: Warren Moon (13), Kenny Ploen (12, on two different occasions), Ron Lancaster (11) and Doug Flutie (11).
• Mitchell’s career record as a starter is 45-7-2 (.852), far ahead of number two Doug Flutie at 94-32 (.746).

BUTLER’S HOT START

• In his first three CFL games, Victor Butler has seven sacks.
• To put his pace in perspective, Butler has as many sacks as the Calgary Stampeders, who have the second-most sacks for a team this season.
• The Argonauts lead the league with 14 sacks and have four players with multiple sacks: Butler (7), Shawn Lemon (2), Cleyon Laing (2) and Jeffrey Finley (2).
• Butler’s pace through three games is the best since 2005 when BC’s Brent Johnson recorded six sacks in his first three showings. Johnson finished that season with 17 sacks – the most ever by a Canadian.
• During the 1999 season, through three games Montreal’s Elfrid Payton recorded eight sacks and Hamilton’s Joe Montford had seven. Montford finished that season with the second-most sacks in a season with 26.
• No team has scored a touchdown this season on a drive where they allowed a quarterback sack.

AFTER THREE WEEKS, PENALTIES DOWN

• Penalties continue to decline – through three weeks the average per game is under 17, a 5% decline from a year ago.
• The average points per game is 52.9, identical to 2016 and a 16% increase compared to 2015 .
• 67% of games this season have been decided in the last three minutes and 58% of games have been decided by four points or fewer.
• Following last season, when road teams won more games than the home side for the first time since 1981, away teams are 6-5-1.
• Game duration is currently at 2:49, the shortest average game time in the last five years.

• The running attack has slowed down this to an average of 150 yards per game. Running has accounted for 19% of the total yards gained (rushing and passing) this season. That is the lowest proportion in the entire history of the CFL.

STAR POWER

• SJ Green’s 10 catches for 210 yards in Week 3 was a personal best. He became the eighth Argonaut to go over 200 yards in a game, joining Terry Greer, Pernell Moore, Paul Masotti, Manny Hazard, Derrell Mitchell, Darrell K. Smith and David Williams.
• Green needs seven yards for 7,000 in his career and 53 more yards to crack the Top 50 receiving yard list.
• Sean Whyte and Justin Medlock are each riding a streak of 24 made field goals. That ties them for the sixth-longest streak of all time. 
• Montreal’s Nik Lewis needs eight more receptions for 1,000 receptions in his career and is also 21 yards away from surpassing Ben Cahoon for sixth on the all-time receiving yards list.
• Roughriders quarterback Kevin Glenn recorded the highest QUAR rating this week with a rating of 97.6. Edmonton’s Mike Reilly has the highest rating this season at 92.9.

QUICK SLANTS

• The REDBLACKS (0-2-1) average the second-most points per game (31.7) even though they’re still looking for their first win.
• The last team to win a Grey Cup after going winless in their first three games was the 2003 Edmonton Eskimos, who started 0-3.