Quaranstats: Part 5 – The Meaning of life

Today is 51 full days without North America having a live, on field sporting event in the big 4 sports…51.  We’ve had the WNBA draft, the NFL draft and just yesterday was of course the CFL Draft.  Granted, these leagues wouldn’t be playing games right now anyways but with nothing else on in the way of current sports, these events have somewhat appeased our appetite for sports.  The NFL has proven that a sports league can operate with basically no off season when it comes to league news and I’ll admit, I watch the first 2 rounds of the draft every year because it is a spectacle, and being a Steelers fan, I have a little bit of a vested interest.  The CFL has noticed this in the past couple years, streaming their combine, hosting a CFL week (when there’s not a CBA dispute), the draft has gotten a lot more coverage over the past few years, and even though it’s not great news for some players, roster bonus day has become a day that gets marked on calendars just to see the big names that will be available.  With that in mind, we figured why can’t we continue to give you content throughout this time, even if it isn’t really current news but I have all these stats and some time off work so it just made sense to pump some stuff out.

                2017 saw a pretty big emergence when it came to fantasy football regarding running backs.  It helps that a certain rookie burst onto the scene with the Argos and lit the world on fire and set 3 of the top 5 scores in the league at the position and 4 of the top 6.  Remember 2016 when John White IV lead the league with a game high 37.8pts?  Well in 2017, that would put him 4^th.  4^th!  Another coincidence is that in 2017, Andrew Harris finished only 5^th on the leader board, which I mean, doesn’t surprise me all that much considering…  James Wilder Jr. was an absolute monster, it was also a career year for him.  872yds, 5TD in 17 games.  He also had his top 3 rushing games in 2017 and has never really seen that same success except for rushing for 120yards against Edmonton in Week 4 of 2018.  It’s been a bit of a downhill slope since his rookie season but alas, he was a big part of getting the Argos to the playoffs and winning the Grey Cup.

                #5 Andrew Harris, WPG, Wk. 6 Vs. Montreal, 34.4pts

                Andrew Harris doing what Andrew Harris does.  Leading his team in rushing and receiving in a game.  It’s not overly surprising considering Matt Nichols was his QB.  Harris would bookend this game with a pair of rushing TDs .  He opened the scoring 2 ½ minutes into the game with a 2yd TD run and then scored the winning TD on a 1yd run with 4 seconds left in the game to put the Bombers up 41-40.  He finished with 41yds on 12 carries with 2TD and added 93yds receiving on 9 catches, 87 of those coming after the catch.

                #4 James Wilder Jr., TOR, Wk. 20 @ BC, 35.7pts

                This game from JWJ was one that you don’t see too often in football, unless it’s Andrew Harris (see above).  A RB leads his team in rushing and receiving, granted, 84 of his 91 rec yards were after the catch but nonetheless, pretty huge.  He ended up with 18/136yds on the ground with a TD, and 7/10 91yds receiving.  In a game that had ZERO 100yd receivers, it was set up for him to have success on the ground.  Toronto jumped out to an 10-0 lead after the 1^st quarter and after 3 quarters, they were up 33-2.  BC was able to score a single in the 2^nd and 3^rd which obviously had to be mentioned, and 11 points in the 4^th, but the Argos were able to win this on 40-13

                #3 James Wilder Jr., TOR, Wk. 18 Vs. Winnipeg, 38.7pts

                In back to back games for the Argos, JWJ came out on a mission to get his team 1^st place in the east division.  Toronto finished their schedule against Ottawa in week 5 and they were really the only competition that they had for top spot and no chance to bury them with a 4 point game late in the season.  Toronto came in losers of their last 2 and a win would be massive, with the Argos holding the tie-breaker over the RedBlacks.  JWJ would open the scoring 5 minutes in with a 12yd TD run and added his 2^nd late in the 3^rd after the Argos were shutout in the 2^nd quarter.  He would finish with 112yds on 18 carries with 2TD and 85yds on 7 receptions.  The Argos would win the game 29-28 on the strength of a 9-3 4^th quarter to secure the victory.

                #2 James Wilder Jr., TOR, Wk. 13 Vs. Edmonton, 38.7pts

                I promise there is other RBs on this list, I swear there is, but just not yet.  JWJ set his career high for rushing yards in this one and had the season high league wide win 190yds…on only 11 carries.  I’ll do the math for you, 17.3yds/attempt which is just absolutely ridiculous.  He had a TD on the ground and added 67yds receiving on 7 catches, which was also the game high for the Argos.  Toronto was up 24-14 at the half and 31-15 after 3 before getting outscored 11-3 in the 4^th quarter but Toronto had done its damage and won the game 34-26.

                #1 Chris Rainey, BC, Wk. 19 @ Winnipeg, 41.9pts

                Mr. Rainey, as Buono would call him during a health bomb on the sideline pre-game during the 2018 season, came out to shine in this one showing what he was capable of.  A guy that is mainly used a return specialist and maybe a spell back here and there when needed got the start as Jeremiah Johnson slipped to 3^rd on the depth chart for this one.  The move paid off in spades for the Lions.  Rainey’s stat line was pretty impressive.  106yds on 16 carries, 89yds receiving on 6 catches with 2 TD, and added 109yds returning Kickoffs.  All in all, he had 304 all-purpose yards in the matchup and helped lead his team to the 36-27 victory on the road.