TIGER-CAT WIN OVER ALS WAS AN ALL-TIME RECORD SHOOTOUT
More passes were caught in last Saturday’s game than in any other CFL game in history
TORONTO — No air show in CFL history has had as many happy landings.
Hamilton’s 44-38 win over the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday featured the most completions in one game in the entire pass happy existence of the Canadian Football League.
Tiger-Cat quarterback Quinton Porter completed 27 of 32 attempts (84 per cent) for 429 yards. Alouette Anthony Calvillo completed 44 of 53 attempts (83 per cent) for 472 yards.
Lost in the news that Calvillo had set a record for most completions by a quarterback in a CFL game was the fact that the two quarterbacks combined set a new record for most completions by both teams in a regular season game.
Their combined mark of 71 completions eclipses the previous regular season standard of 70, set on October 23, 1993 by Calgary (37) and Saskatchewan (33). The record for most pass completions in a playoff game is 58, in a game featuring Toronto (38) at Montreal (20) in 1998. And the record for most pass completions in a Grey Cup game is 64, set in the 2005 Edmonton-Montreal double overtime classic, that also featured the prolific Calvillo.
So the devoted Hamilton fans who ventured to Ivor Wynne Stadium on Saturday afternoon were treated to more than a hard fought Tiger-Cat win; they witnessed the most caught passes ever in a CFL contest.
Combined, Calvillo and Porter completed 71 of 85 pass attempts for an amazing 83.5 per cent completion percentage. (The CFL does not keep completion percentage records for both teams in a game.)
Of course, individual quarterbacks have had higher pass completion percentages (90.9 per cent, Casey Printers playing for B.C. against Hamilton on Aug 13, 2004). And individual quarterbacks have passed for more yards (713, Matt Dunigan, Edmonton at Winnipeg on July 14, 1994).
But it could be argued — and it certainly would be a fun debate for long time CFL fans to have — that this past weekend saw the greatest combined passing performance in the league’s history.
Of course, in a league as aerial as our league, they’d have lots to argue about. After all, Calvillo and Porter fell short of the mark for most passing yards, both teams, in a regular season game: 1,093, set by Calgary (547) and Saskatchewan (546) on October 23, 1993.
What is likely beyond dispute is that fans are looking forward to Porter and Calvillo, and the Cats and the Als, meeting again this Thanksgiving Monday in Montreal.
