THIS WEEK IN THE CFL - WEEK 7

Flipping the calendar into the month of August, Week 7 in the Canadian Football League begins on a rare Wednesday night with a game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. 

Coming off a bye, the Tiger-Cats look to keep their road record (3-0) perfect at Investors Group Field, where the Bombers seek a second straight win with Matt Nichols as their starting quarterback.

Tomorrow, the Montreal Alouettes hope to build off a win while their visitors, the BC Lions, look to bounce back from an overtime loss. In the second half of the double header, the Calgary Stampeders host the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Saturday promises to be a high-scoring affair as the Ottawa REDBLACKS and Edmonton Eskimos, featuring two leading offenses, square off at TD Place.

BO KNOWS WINNING  

• With Calgary’s comeback overtime victory over the BC Lions last Friday, Bo Levi Mitchell improved his CFL career record to 31-7-1.
• Mitchell’s winning percentage in those 39 games is .808, the highest on record in CFL history.
• Calgary’s win placed the Stampeders in sole possession of first place in the West Division.
• In the second quarter, Mitchell found Greg Wilson for a 75-yard major, extending his streak of consecutive games with at least one TD pass to 20 games.
• The streak is a Stampeders club record and the sixth-longest streak in CFL History:

Sam Etcheverry 1954-56  (34)

Travis Lulay 2011-12  (26)

Anthony Calvillo 2012-13  (23)

Doug Flutie 1996-97  (21)

Anthony Calvillo 2012-13  (21)

Bo Levi Mitchell 2015-16  (20)

• Mitchell finished the game with three TD passes and is currently tied with Mike Reilly for first in the league with 11 TD passes this year.

300 PASSING YARDS: THE NEW NORMAL?

• To this point of the season, games have averaged 639 passing yards.
• No one has done it better than Edmonton Eskimos pivot Mike Reilly.
• Reilly has led this year’s air show: in Edmonton’s 30-23 loss to Winnipeg in Week 6 Reilly passed for 346 yards and extended his personal streak of 300-plus passing yard games to eight.
• Reilly is one game away from tying the record of nine, held by Sam Etcheverry (1956) and Kent Austin (1991).
• Edmonton faces Ottawa, which has allowed an average of 329 passing yards per game this season.
• Overall, QBs have eclipsed the 300 yards passing mark a total of 25 times this season. They’re on pace to double last year’s mark of 40.
• Games in Week 6 averaged 747 passing yards.
• Matt Nichols, Mike Reilly, Logan Kilgore, Bo Levi Mitchell and Jonathon Jennings each passed for more than 300 yards last week, and Kevin Glenn passed for 299.
• The passing bonanza reflects a clear choice among play callers: CFL teams are rushing only 29.3% of the time, an all-time low.

SCORING UP, FLAGS DOWN

• In Week 6, 225 total points were scored for an average 56.3 points per game.
• The average points per game this season has increased to 52.3. That’s more than three points higher than last year’s (a 6% increase) and a difference of more than a touchdown compared to the 2014 season (a 14% increase).
• Penalties were at their lowest level of the 2016 season during Week 6 action at 17.0 per game. That average matched the second-lowest weekly total in the last three years.
• The average CFL game this season has had 19.67 penalties, which is a 25% decrease from last year at this time.

EXTRA POINTS

• The game between the BC Lions and the Calgary Stampeders was the 96^th regular season game to go into overtime in CFL history, and the fourth overtime game this season.
• At this pace, we’ll surpass the all-time record of eight OT games in a single season, set in 1992 and repeated in 2002.
• One third of games this season have been decided by four points or fewer.

• 58% of games this season have been decided in the final three minutes.
• BC’s Chris Rainey opened the scoring in Friday’s game versus Calgary by returning a punt 95 yards, giving him five return TDs in his career and two in 2016.
• In Montreal’s game on July 25^th versus Toronto, Bear Woods was credited with 13 defensive tackles. That’s a season high for any player in 2016 and ties the Alouettes’ club record set by Chip Cox.
• In Week 6, CFL kickers made a combined 92% of field goal attempts (23 of 25).
• Teams who trailed at the end of the third quarter have won seven of 21 games.
• Calgary’s comeback win from 15 points down against BC on Friday was the seventh time this season that a team trailing by 10 or more points ended a game as the victor.
• Winnipeg’s win versus Edmonton last week was the Bombers’ first triumph in Edmonton since July 2006, ending a nine-game winless streak at Commonwealth Stadium.
• Turnovers are nearly at an all-time low – 4.25 turnovers per game in 2016.
• Road teams in Week 6 went .500 (2-2) but road teams still own the season series (they are 16-7-1).
• In cross-divisional games, the East Division teams hold the advantage so far with a record of 6-3-1. The Montreal Alouettes currently allows the fewest points against in the CFL, allowing just 21.2 point per game. They also rank #9 in points scored at 20.0. Only one CFL club has ever finished first in points against and last in points scored in the same season – 1990 Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The feat has never been done in a 9-team league.

• With four special teams tackles this season, the BC Lions’ Jason Arakgi has moved his career total to the all-time Special Teams Tackles list with 180. He is just four tackles short of the all-time career record of 184 held by Wade Miller.
• Alouettes receiver Nik Lewis is 28 receiving yards away from passing Saskatchewan’s Don Narcisse (12,366) for #8 all-time.
• The Montreal Alouettes have allowed opponents to start drives in the Montreal end of the field only seven times this season. That’s the lowest total in the CFL - and they have yet to allow a touchdown on those occasions.