{"id":534005,"date":"2026-03-13T16:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534005\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:10:09","slug":"10-lists-in-10-days-single-game-passing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534005\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Lists in 10 Days | Single Game Passing"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the greatest single-game individual performances in Canadian Football League history \u2014 and the greatest amongst quarterbacks in this grand ol\u2019 loop \u2014 opened with Matt Dunigan handing the ball off twice to Blaise Bryant.<\/p>\n

And then Bob Cameron was trotted out to punt.<\/p>\n

What then followed that night on July 14, 1994, at Winnipeg Stadium was the most prolific passing performance in both the history of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the CFL.<\/p>\n

Dunigan would finish the night \u2014 the Blue Bombers 1994 home opener \u2014 completing 33-of-52 passes for five touchdowns against two interceptions and an astonishing 713 yards passing.<\/p>\n

That ain\u2019t no misprint: 7-1-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a crazy night,\u201d Dunigan told yours truly for a Winnipeg Free Press<\/a> story on the 20-year anniversary of the feat in July of 2014. \u201cIt just felt like a basketball player who sees the hoop and it looks like it\u2019s 10 feet wide or a baseball player who is seeing the ball coming out of the pitcher\u2019s hand and it looks like a softball coming at you. When you\u2019re in that zone it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh yeah\u2026 this is good.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat night we all felt like, \u2018Do we have to stop? Can we play a couple more quarters?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His incredible accomplishment seemed like a good place to start our \u201810 Lists in 10 Days\u2019 series, highlighting some of the best performances in Blue Bombers history over the next week and a bit.<\/p>\n

Dunigan\u2019s record-setting night came in a rematch of the 1993 Grey Cup \u2014 a 33-23 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos \u2014 as the Blue Bombers exacted a bit of revenge in a 50-35 win. His 713-yard effort eclipsed the CFL record of 601, set by Danny Barrett of the B.C. Lions just 11 months earlier which, in turn, had bested Sam Etcheverry\u2019s mark of 586 which had stood since 1954.<\/p>\n

He also smashed his own team mark for passing yards in a game of 467, set in 1992.<\/p>\n

That same night two Blue Bombers receivers would break the club record for receiving yards in a game, with Alfred Jackson finishing with 308 yards and David Williams with 240.<\/p>\n

Dunigan had just 88 yards passing at the end of the first quarter but was up to 322 by halftime. And with Edmonton keeping the game close right to the final moments, the veteran pivot was kept in the game and kept filling the air with passes.<\/p>\n

In the final minute, he went from 699 yards passing to 713 on a 14-yard completion to Allan Boyko.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cLate in the game when we were up by a couple of touchdowns Cal (Murphy, GM and head coach) told me to come out of the booth and come down to the sidelines,\u201d said Mike Kelly, then the Blue Bombers offensive coordinator and later the head coach in an interview with me in 2014. \u201cI came down and (former media-relations director) Kevin O\u2019Donovan got word down to the field that Matt was sitting at 699 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cA first down would have ended the game. I said to Cal, \u2018He\u2019s at 699.\u2019 He said, \u2018Do you want to throw it?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Let\u2019s let him go one more time with it.\u2019 I mean, I thought 601 was impossible, so to be that close to 700\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

We talked to current Blue Bombers starter Zach Collaros about Dunigan\u2019s effort for a story<\/a> last summer. Collaros\u2019 best total as a Blue Bomber is 432, set in a win over Edmonton in late September of 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never got to 500,\u201d said Collaros. \u201cThere\u2019s been times when you might be on pace for that but then you come out because of the score. And I\u2019ve seen games where the two guys are both throwing for 450. You can get to it, to 500.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the game has changed a bit since then, too, in that it\u2019s almost more possession based, and coaches put more value in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, like I said, 713 is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

One more on this before we get to the list: Dunigan\u2019s mark of 713 has really been threatened in the years since, with the highest total after that a 551-yard game by Anthony Calvillo, then with the Las Vegas Posse, later in 1994.<\/p>\n

As well, the last CFL pivot to even eclipse the 500-yard passing mark was Ricky Ray in 2017 when he threw for 506.<\/p>\n

Top 10 single game Blue Bombers passing performances:<\/p>\n

1. Matt Dunigan \u2013\u2013 713 (33-of-52, 5 TDs\/2 INTs) vs. Edmonton, July 14, 1994 \u2014 50-35 W<\/p>\n

2. Matt Dunigan \u2014 467 (25-37, 2\/0) vs. B.C., July 30, 1992 \u2014 41-15 W<\/p>\n

3. Tom Burgess \u2014 464 (29-52, 5\/1) vs Saskatchewan, September 8, 1991 \u2014 49-41 W (OT)<\/p>\n

4. Khari Jones \u2014 462 (29-43, 5\/2) vs Calgary, August 23, 2002 \u2014 51-48 W (OT)<\/p>\n

T-5. Sean Salisbury \u2014 454 (24-47, 6\/3) vs B.C., September 10, 1989 \u2014 53-34 W<\/p>\n

Kerwin Bell \u2014 454 (19-28, 1\/1) vs B.C., July 29, 1999 \u2014 30-18 W<\/p>\n

7. Kevin Glenn \u2014 453 (30-54, 2\/2) at Toronto, September 23, 2007 \u2014 31-23 L<\/p>\n

T- 8. Don Jonas \u2013 450 (23-36, 3\/2), vs. B.C., September 19, 1971 \u2014 20-7 L<\/p>\n

Dieter Brock \u2014 450 (26-44, 1\/2) at Edmonton, July 9, 1980 \u2014 36-13 L<\/p>\n

Ryan Dinwiddie \u2014 450 (24-39, 1\/0) vs. Calgary, July 24, 2008 \u2014 32-28 W<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the greatest single-game individual performances in Canadian Football League history \u2014 and the greatest amongst quarterbacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-534005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534005","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=534005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}