• QB Chad Kelly basically perfect for Argonauts: Kelly was incredible, completing 18-of-20 passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns. His only two misses were on a miscommunication and a play where he was hit while throwing.
• SSK DI Micah Johnson turns in impressive pass rush performance: Johnson finished with one quarterback hit and six quarterback hurries. His seven total pressures led the league this past weekend.
• Incredible season of HB Rolan Milligan continues for Saskatchewan: Milligan allowed one catch for nine yards, broke up one of his other targets and intercepted the final one in his own end zone to ice the game for Saskatchewan.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
The first weekend of the CFL playoffs saw both home teams advance, with the Toronto Argonauts hammering the Ottawa Redblacks, 58-38, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders outlasting the B.C. Lions, 28-19. As always, we’ll be highlighting all the top individual performers in this week’s “Team of the Week.”
With their massive win, it’s no surprise that the Toronto Argonauts led the way with 11 players selected to this week’s Team. The other winning team, Saskatchewan, ranked second with seven. Despite losing, the B.C Lions still had six players make it, while the Ottawa Redblacks trailed everyone with just three players named.
OFFENSE
QB: Chad Kelly, Toronto
RB: A.J. Ouellette, Saskatchewan
Receiver: Makai Polk, Toronto
Receiver: DaVaris Daniels, Toronto
Receiver: Samuel Emilus, Saskatchewan
Receiver: Kalil Pimpleton, Ottawa
Receiver: KeeSean Johnson, Saskatchewan
LT: Jarell Broxton, B.C.
LG: Dylan Giffen, Toronto
C: Peter Godber, Saskatchewan
RG: Jacob Brammer, Saskatchewan
RT: Dejon Allen, Toronto
DEFENSE
DI: Ralph Holley, Toronto
DI: Jordan Williams, Toronto
Edge: Lorenzo Mauldin IV, Ottawa
Edge: Mathieu Betts, B.C.
LB: Wynton McManis, Toronto
LB: Ben Hladik, B.C.
Cover LB: T.J. Lee, B.C.
CB: Benjie Franklin, Toronto
CB: Alijah McGhee, Ottawa
HB: Rolan Milligan, Saskatchewan
HB: Emmanuel Rugamba, B.C.
S: Nelson Lokombo, Saskatchewan
SPECIAL TEAMS
K: Lirim Hajrullahu, Toronto
P: Stefan Flintoft, B.C.
Returner: Janarion Grant, Toronto
QUARTERBACK OF THE WEEK: QB CHAD KELLY, TORONTO
A year ago, in Toronto’s opening game of the postseason, Chad Kelly played his worst game as a CFL quarterback. He had no such issues in Toronto’s playoff opener this year. Kelly was incredible, completing 18-of-20 passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns. His only two misses were on a miscommunication and a play where he was hit while throwing.
Kelly made three big-time throws, and his only real mistake was a fumble on a sack. Kelly also added two rushes for 29 yards and a touchdown. It’s no surprise that Kelly led all players this week with a 91.1 overall grade. Kelly has graded above 90.0 overall in his last three games and appears to be heating up at the perfect time for Toronto.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: WR MAKAI POLK, TORONTO
With Kelly having such a massive day, it makes sense that an Argos receiver would have put forth a terrific performance on the other end of those throws. Polk only caught four passes, but turned those four receptions into a league-leading 158 yards and a touchdown. Three of them were explosive plays, including a 70-yard touchdown catch that opened the floodgates for Toronto’s offence. Polk averaged a ridiculous 6.32 yards per route run, which led the league this weekend.
It’s been a very impressive rookie season for Polk. When including the postseason, his average of 2.02 yards per route run is the second-highest in the CFL.
OFFENSIVE LINE OF THE WEEK: SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS
It was an impressive win for the Roughriders this week, who did what they needed to do and controlled the pace of the game. A huge part of that was how well Saskatchewan’s offensive line played.
In the run game, the group anchored an attack that gained a league-leading 102 yards rushing. In the pass game, the Roughriders allowed just seven total pressures on 36 dropbacks. As a unit, the group finished with a 90.3 pass-blocking efficiency score and only lost 6.7% of their pass-blocking reps. They were led by C Peter Godber, who didn’t allow a single pressure and also had the highest run-blocking grade of the week among interior linemen.
PASS RUSHER OF THE WEEK: DI MICAH JOHNSON, SASKATCHEWAN
While Johnson didn’t record a sack for the Roughriders defence this past weekend, his impact as a pass rusher was felt throughout the game. Johnson finished with one quarterback hit and six quarterback hurries. His seven total pressures led the league this past weekend. Johnson accrued a 17.6% pass-rush win rate, a 20.6% pressure percentage and a 10.3 pass-rushing productivity score. All of those marks ranked inside the top three this past weekend.
RUN DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: EDGE LORENZO MAULDIN IV, OTTAWA
While Ottawa’s defence didn’t have a lot of success when Toronto dropped back to pass, the group did fare better when stopping the run. Mauldin was impressive in those limited plays, recording two solo stops. He didn’t have a single negatively-graded play against the run and finished the day with a league-leading 80.1 run defence grade. Not that it will be much consolation to Mauldin and Ottawa, but he finished the year leading all edge rushers with 23 solo run stops and paced the entire CFL with 84 total pressures.
COVERAGE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: HB ROLAN MILLIGAN, SASKATCHEWAN
Ask any Roughriders fan, and they’ll tell you that Milligan was snubbed by not being named one of this year’s Most Outstanding Player finalists. If Milligan feels the same, perhaps he used that as motivation this week, as he finished with the highest defensive grade of the week at 89.9 overall.
Milligan was targeted three times in coverage. He allowed one catch for nine yards, broke up one of his other targets and intercepted the final one in his own end zone to ice the game for Saskatchewan. Milligan also made five total tackles. The halfback should be the favourite for the Most Outstanding Defensive Player award, and he’s continuing his incredible play into the postseason.
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.