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Game Notes July 12, 2017

CFL.ca Game Notes: A look at Week 4

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

TORONTO — The fourth week of the CFL’s 2017 season is sure to bring just as many fireworks and excitement as the first three have already shown us.

The week kicks off in Winnipeg on Thursday night as the Blue Bombers play host to the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos will head west fresh off a win over divisional rivals the Ottawa REDBLACKS in Week 3. Ricky Ray has found magic with receiver SJ Green early in the season and will be looking to his favourite wideout often in this week’s contest. After a loss to the Stampeders in Week 3, Matt Nichols and his Bombers will be looking for a bounce-back performance at home and will have to figure out how to solve Toronto’s stellar defence.

Things then head East for the first half of Friday night’s doubleheader as the Calgary Stampeders head to Montreal for a tussle with the Alouettes. Calgary is still unbeaten this season, continuing their dominance in the West. Bo Levi Mitchell helped his team to a comeback victory last week, making key second half adjustments for the win. Darian Durant and his offence, on the other hand, have yet to gel together and will be looking to find the magic this week.

The second half of the doubleheader takes place in Edmonton as the Eskimos play host to the Ottawa REDBLACKS. Fresh off a bye, the Esks will be looking to keep their team undefeated while the REDBLACKS will be looking for their first win of the season. Something has to give for either team.

Week 4 wraps up in Hamilton as the BC Lions visit the Tiger-Cats. After starting the season 0-2, Hamilton will be looking to spark their team with a win in their home opener. The Lions, on the other hand, are hoping to head back to BC from their eastern swing with a perfect 3-0 record. The Lions have a chance to keep their stellar offence rolling as they will try to expose a struggling Hamilton secondary. Hamilton, on the other hand, will hope Zach Collaros can get their offence back to true form.

Buy Week 4 Tickets

» Thursday, 8:30 p.m. ET: Toronto at Winnipeg
» Friday, 7:00 p.m. ET: Calgary at Montreal
» Friday, 10:00 p.m. ET: Ottawa at Edmonton
» Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET: BC at Hamilton

THIS WEEK IN THE CFL

AFTER THREE

  • Through 12 games the average points per game is 52.9. That is the exact same average from the 2016 season, a 16 per cent increase compared to the 2015 campaign.
  • Penalties continue to decline – through three weeks the average per game is under 17 – a 5 per cent decline.
  • 67 per cent of games this season have been decided in the last three minutes and 58 per cent of games have been decided by four points or fewer.
  • Following last season where road teams won more games than the home side since 1981, the trend has continued into the early portion of the 2017 season. 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 season averaging 150 yards per game. Running has accounted for 19 per cent of the total yards gained (rushing and Passing) this season. That is the lowest proportion of the total in the entire history of the CFL.

 

TACKLE MASTER

  • In the Lions’ 23-16 win over the Montreal Alouettes, linebacker Solomon Elimimian recorded 15 defensive tackles in a single game to break his own club record that 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+ tackles.
  • Elimimian who leads the league with 29 tackles in 2017, now has 634 tackles in his career, placing him 17th on the all-time tackles list.

 

300 TOUCHDOWNS

  • Ricky Ray joined the 300-touchdown club following his 10-yard touchdown pass to DeVier Posey on Saturday Night.
  • The 300 TD club currently includes Anthony Calvillo (455), Damon Allen (394), Henry Burris (373), Ron Lancaster (333), Matt Dunigan (303) and 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 include Jason Tucker (42), Fred Stamps (26), Jason Barnes (24), Ed Hervey (18) and Chad Owens (14).

 

BUTLER’S HOT START

  • In his first three CFL games, Victor Butler has notched 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 with seven.
  • His pace through three games hasn’t been touched since 2005 when BC’s Brent Johnson recorded six in his first three showings. Johnson finished that season with 17 sacks – the most ever by a Canadian.
  • During the 1999 season, Montreal’s Elfrid Payton recorded eight sacks through three games and Joe Montford had seven for Hamilton. Montford finished that season with the second most sacks in a season with 26.
  • 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).
  • No team has scored a touchdown this season on a drive where they allowed a quarterback sack.

SJ Green will look to continue his success this week as he and the Argos pay a visit to Winnipeg (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

WEEK 4 GAME NOTES

Bo Knows: Bo Levi Mitchell continues to set the bar high for quarterbacks. He is now undefeated in 19 regular season games in a row (17-0-2 during that span). 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).

200 Yards: 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 join the Top-50 receiving yard list.

Impressive Kicking: Sean Whyte and Justin Medlock are each riding a 24-consecutive successful field goal attempts. That puts them tied for the sixth-longest streak of all-time.

Lewis Chasing Records: 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.

QUAR Ratings: 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.

No Wins, High Points: Ottawa, despite not yet registering a victory in 2017, averages the second-most points in the league with an average of 31.7 points per game.

No Wins, No Problem: The most recent team to win the Grey Cup and not have a win through three games the following season was the 2003 Edmonton Eskimos, who started the season 0-3.