BY THE NUMBERS, ROUGHRIDER STYLE
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| Matt Smith/CFL.ca |
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are currently in a bye week following Saturday’s 37-20 home victory over Hamilton which moved them out of the league basement at 1-2. Here are some numbers from CFL Statistics after three weeks of the 2017 campaign.
1 – PASSING #23: 38-year old quarterback Kevin Glenn is 3rd in CFL passing with 1,055 yards and he’s now only 681 yards behind Ron Lancaster for #6 all-time. We figured in training camp that it would take until mid-to-late August for Glenn to reach that milestone however with the way he’s going, he’ll pass the Little General by August Long Weekend. The bad news is K.G. leads the CFL in interceptions with 4.
2 – CAN’T THROW THE DEEP PASS?: Kevin Glenn is 44.8% on passes 16+ yards, which is 4th-best. Ricky Ray is by far #1 at 60.0% on passes in that range while Zach Collaros is a league-worst 33.3%.
3 – DROPS: After careful consideration, the CFL has elected not to track or publicize dropped passes in 2017 after initially declaring their attention to do so last month. Why? Because “this statistic brings such high potential for criticism to the players” as it was explained to me this morning by the CFL office.
However we’ve been informed that Calgary leads the league in drops, followed by Edmonton and Saskatchewan!
4 – BIG MAC ATTACK: Roughriders Offensive Coordinator Stephen McAdoo oversees an offense which is #1 in offensive points scored (90) and #1 in Time of Possession (33:20).
5 – WHERE’S THE LOVE?: Unheralded free agent signing Glenn Love leads the CFL in Special Teams Tackles through three weeks with 8.
6 – TANDEMS: The most popular Quarterback-Receiver tandem in the CFL this year resides in Ottawa between Trevor Harris and Brad Ellingson. The second-most common hook up is here in Saskatchewan with Kevin Glenn and Naaman Roosevelt.
7 – PRESIDENT JEFFERSON: CKRM’s Defensive Game Star in the win over Hamilton, DE Willie Jefferson (4 tackles, 1 sack) leads the CFL in Quarterback Pressures with 9.
8 – ANOTHER LEAGUE LEADER: 3rd-year kicker returner Greg Morris leads the CFL in kick return yards. He fumbled a kickoff on Canada Day which led to a Winnipeg touchdown, but Chris Jones stuck with the kid and his stats show why … Meanwhile running back Cameron Marshall is 4th in CFL rushing (166 yards) but he’s the only running back in the Top 5 without a touchdown.
9 – TURNOVER RATIO: Saturday’s win over Hamilton was the first time the Riders didn’t lose the turnover battle in a game and, not surprisingly, they won. They’ve moved out of the basement in the takeaway-giveaway department and are now 7th at -2. Calgary is #1 (+6) while Ottawa is 9th (-4).
10 – GIVING CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE: CKRM football analyst Mike Abou-Mechrek rated CFL officiating at 10/10 on Monday’s SportsCage through the opening three weeks. How about a round of applause for CFL V.P. of Football Glen Johnson and his officials, along with the fact this has been the most entertaining stretch of CFL games in years?
HAVE A GREAT TUESDAY,
RP
@rodpedersen
