THIS WEEK IN THE CFL, WEEK 17

Edmonton opens Week 17 by making its way to Tim Hortons Field for Friday Night Football. The Tiger-Cats are returning home following a month-long absence where they went 2-1 on the road. At a perfect 6-0, Hamilton is the only CFL club that has yet to fall when defending home field. 

Saturday’s tripleheader begins with the Stampeders in Montreal. The visitors have won four straight, coinciding with the return of Bo Levi Mitchell, and have not lost since a Week 10 40-34 overtime setback at the hands of these same Alouettes. 

The primetime contest features Winnipeg taking on division rival Saskatchewan at Mosaic Stadium with a potential tie-breaker on the line. The two teams and Calgary are knotted atop the crowded West Division with 18 points (though the Stampeders and Roughriders both have a game in hand). 

The week wraps up with the Argonauts heading west to Vancouver. Each team will be playing its final interdivision game of the season – Toronto is 1-8 when facing the West, while BC has claimed each of its four wins on the year against East opponents.

This week’s Live Mic game will be Toronto at BC.
Friday’s contest can be seen on ESPN2, while the Saturday tripleheader will be broadcast on ESPN+.

TACKLING THE RECORD BOOK

• Last week, Simoni Lawrence set a new CFL record with 17 defensive tackles against Winnipeg.
• Breakdown by quarter:
  • First: 3 (All on Winnipeg’s first drive)
  • Second: 2
  • Third: 3
  • Fourth: 9 (In the final nine minutes, Lawrence had nine tackles in a stretch of 14 plays in which a tackle was made.
• Reggie Hunt owns the record for TOTAL tackles in a game which includes special teams tackles on return plays. In 2003, Hunt had 16 defensive tackles and two special teams tackles.
• Four players have had 15-or-more defensive tackles in a game in CFL history: Solomon Elimimian, Calvin Tiggle, Hunt and Lawrence.

QUICK SLANTS

• On Friday in Hamilton, Calvin McCarty is slated to appear in his 200^th CFL game. He will become the fourth running back to reach the milestone, joining George Reed, Chris Szarka and Jeff Johnson.
• Last week, three-of-the-four games were tied after the first quarter and Ottawa led the fourth by a score of 3-0. In all four cases, the team that won the second quarter went on to win the game. The Week 16 winners outscored their opponents 40-3 in the second period. In 2019, the team that has won the second quarter is 41-19.
• Shaw CFL Top Performer of the Month, Bralon Addison, has played in 17 career CFL games and has recorded 90 receptions for 1,183 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
• Addison and teammate Brandon Banks are tied for the league-lead in 100+ receiving yard games this season (six).
• Banks has recorded 11-or-more TDs for three straight years. Dating back to 1936, only 16 other players have accomplished the feat with the most-recent being Jon Cornish from 2011-13.
• Vernon Adams and Cody Fajardo lead the league with three 4^th quarter game-winning drives this season.
• Since 2014, Montreal has defeated Calgary five times, including this year’s victory in Calgary in Week 10 – more than any other East Division team. The Stampeders have one win in their past five visits to Montreal. 
• 1K Club: Five receivers are within 100 yards of reaching the 1,000 mark:
  • Derel Walker needs five yards to hit the mark for a third time.
  • With 75 yards, Ricky Collins Jr. will reach the milestone for the first time.
  • Greg Ellingson is 79 yards shy of his fifth consecutive season with 1,000+ yards.
  • Shaq Evans needs 97 yards for his first-career 1,000-yard season.
  • Dominique Rhymes is 50 yards away from reaching the benchmark for the first time. Ottawa is on the bye.
• CJ Gable needs 50 rushing yards to reach his second-straight 1,000-yard season and William Stanback needs 105 yards on the ground to reach the milestone of the first time.
• Stanback leads the league with 12 20+ yard rushes this season.
• Last week against Hamilton, Winnipeg’s Kenny Lawler was the league’s leading receiver, setting new single-game highs in receptions (10) and yards (144).
• Entering Week 17, Sean Whyte has a streak of 18 consecutive made fields goals.
• At 11-3, a Hamilton win this week would give the team a winning percentage of .800. The club record is .792 set in 1952.
• The Tiger-Cats are currently No. 1 in points-for and points-against – the last time they managed the feat in the same season was in 1964.
• Rushing touchdowns leaders this season:
  • Chris Streveler – 12
  • Vernon Adams – 11
  • William Powell and Cody Fajardo – 10
• Charleston Hughes needs three sacks in Saskatchewan’s remaining five games to tie his career-high of 18 set in 2013.
• With a victory against Toronto on Saturday, BC will have its first four-game winning streak since 2017.
• Edmonton has allowed 16 sacks this season in 13 matches – an average of 1.1 per game.

(Lucas Barrett/CFL PR)