The playoff race is as open as ever in the West Division with the top two teams losing in Week 17.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, BC Lions and Edmonton Elks all came away with wins thanks to stellar performances by Zach Collaros<\/a>, Justin Rankin and Mathieu Betts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Who else was a standout in Week 17? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n RELATED ZACH COLLAROS | QUARTERBACK | WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS | 3 BIG-TIME THROWS<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t look now, but the Bombers are two games back of first place in the West Division with three more games left to play. It seems like a long shot, but the Bombers have been on fire lately, winning their last two, including a 40-3 beatdown of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Week 17.<\/p>\n That includes an outstanding performance by quarterback Zach Collaros<\/a>, who resembled his MOP self last week by leading the league with three big-time throws, according to PFF. A big-time throw, according to PFF\u2019s website, is a \u201chigh-difficulty, high-value pass. They are characterized by excellent ball placement and timing, typically on deeper passes or into tight windows.\u201d<\/p>\n That means Collaros was slicing and dicing through Hamilton\u2019s defence all game, all while not putting the ball at risk, finishing with zero turnover-worthy plays, according to PFF.<\/p>\n MATHIEU BETTS | DEFENSIVE LINEMAN | BC LIONS | 7 PRESSURES<\/p>\n Mathieu Betts<\/a> has an argument for winning yet another Most Outstanding Defensive Player award. The defensive lineman leads the league with 13 sacks and looks as disruptive as ever for the BC Lions.<\/p>\n Betts led the league in pressures in Week 17 with seven, according to PFF. That\u2019s three sacks and four hurries for the defensive lineman, helping the Lions win their third straight game as they gear up for a post-season run.<\/p>\n JUSTIN RANKIN | RUNNING BACK | EDMONTON ELKS | 7 MISSED TACKLES FORCED<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Justin Rankin is once more the top running back in missed tackles forced, leading the league in Week 17 with seven, according to PFF.<\/p>\n Considering that Rankin rushed only 14 times (for 84 yards and two majors), that means he was dodging a would-be tackler at least once every two attempts. That helped the Elks pull off a much-needed win in Week 17, taking down the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Edmonton, 27-25.<\/p>\n If the Elks are to stay in the race for a post-season spot, it\u2019ll surely mean Rankin has added even more missed tackles forced to his count.<\/p>\n BROCK MORGENSEN | LINEBACKER | EDMONTON ELKS | 90.9 COVERAGE GRADE<\/p>\n On the other side of the ball, linebacker Brock Morgensen led the league in coverage grade with 90.9.<\/p>\n The Elks\u2019 linebacker played 38 coverage snaps in Week 17 and was targeted five times, allowing only two first downs and coming down with a pick and a forced incompletion, all according to PFF.<\/p>\n Equally important was the fact that the linebacker didn\u2019t miss a single tackle, helping the Elks keep the Riders from mounting a comeback win.<\/p>\n TYLER SNEAD | RECEIVER | MONTREAL ALOUETTES | 8 RECEIVING FIRST DOWNS<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Davis Alexander<\/a>\u2018s return to the lineup was yet another boost to a now streaking Montreal Alouettes squad. One of the beneficiaries was Tyler Snead<\/a>, who led the league in receiving first downs with eight.<\/p>\n Snead caught eight passes for 115 yards, his first 100-yard outing since Week 11. The receiver\u2019s performance contributed to the Als coming away with a 38-20 win over the Stamps to stay within striking distance of the Tiger-Cats for first place in the East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The playoff race is as open as ever in the West Division with the top two teams losing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-178409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00bb\u00a0Patterson\u2019s hat trick leads Alouettes to win over Stampeders<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Zach Collaros<\/a> cooks up Ticats in his return to action<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Back and forth ends in victory for Elks over Riders<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a03 stats that defined BC\u2019s Week 17 win over Toronto<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n