Bo leads Stamps to Battle of Alberta win
MITCHELL OUTPLAYS RIVAL QB REILLY TO DECIDE LOPSIDED LABOUR DAY CONTEST
Forget about the Most Outstanding Player arguments or which team is truly the CFL’s best.
Bo Levi Mitchell and his Calgary Stampeders temporarily put an end to those disputes Monday with a Labour Day lashing that should silence northern gloating for at least another three days.
The only debate now is over whose daughter is more advanced: Mitchell’s six- month- old, Ele, or Mike Reilly’s precious Brooklyn.
Reilly preceded Monday’s first- place showdown with some playful banter about how the two ultra- competitive quarterbacks had discussed earlier in the summer whose daughter would walk first.
“Mine is crawling all over the furniture, so unless he has a super-baby, I have him beat on that one,” Reilly told Postmedia Saturday.
After leading the charge on a 39-18 throttling of the Edmonton Eskimos, Mitchell disputed his rival’s claim.
“First of all, his kid is three months older than mine,” chuckled Mitchell, ever the competitor.
“Until I see video proof of his kid walking, he doesn’t win that one. Ele might walk before she crawls. The debate is still on.”
Supremacy in the west is no longer up for debate as the Stamps won their sixth-straight Labour Day contest to go 8-1-1.
And Mitchell outplaying Reilly had plenty to do with it.
“Bo is the best in the league, by far,” said Stampeders running back Jerome Messam who rambled for two touchdowns.
“He’s very consistent, he has ice in his veins and he’s a student of the game who works hard all the time. Today was no different.”
Now losers of three in a row, the 7-3 Eskimos entered the game with a quarterback sporting slightly healthier stats than Mitchell despite the rash of injuries around him.
However, with Mitchell continuing to battle a shoul- der ailment of his own, the 27- year- old Stamps quarterback won the first of three head- t o- head matchups against the only man who could unseat him as league MOP.
Hardly a surprise given Mitchell’s career record is now 51- 8-2, his club has won 15 straight home games and he was playing with hurricane- ravaged Texas on his mind.
After running onto the field during player introductions with a large Texas flag, the native of Katy, Texas, wasted no time dissecting the Eskimos defence.
Mere minutes after two CF-18s flew over McMahon Stadium in stirring fashion, Mitchell’s first play was a 45- yard strike to DaVaris Daniels, eventually setting up a field goal to give the Stamps their fifth- straight wire- to- wire Labour Day win.
“That’s how I feel we were last year, when we were hitting on one of the first or second plays I felt like our whole offence t ook off,” said Mitchell, who pieced together three scoring drives over 65 yards before the first quarter expired.
“The defence and special teams fed off it right away and we just kept rolling.”
A healthy crowd of 33,731 revelled in the victory and the brilliant sunshine while also buying 50- 50 tickets with proceeds split between hurricane relief efforts and a military charity. Mitchell’s junior high school was turned into a hurricane shelter last week.
Fans were deprived of the usual Labour Day lunacy that tends to mark most such matchups, as this one was out of reach just before the half when Roy Finch ran a punt back 90 yards to put the hosts up 25-3.
“I t hought Bo played really well. The stats don’t always show that but he played really well,” said coach Dave Dickenson who said the only blemish on a 277- yard passing effort was a miscommunication with a receiver that led to a late interception.
“When your quarterback is your best player ultimately that’s a good thing.”
A warrior who is certainly worthy of challenging Mitchell for top billing, Reilly was forced to press all day long against a defence that intercepted two of his 53 pass attempts, leaving him 34 of 53 for 320 yards and two meaningless touchdowns l ate. Mitchell was an efficient 19 of 27 for 277 yards and the win.
Ever the perfectionist, Mitchell said afterwards he was “disappointed on the sidelines,” as he feels his club still has a ways to go towards being the well-oiled machine that went 15-2-1 last year.
“But don’t take anything away from an amazing win,” he added.
“We got the job done.”