Powerful Stamps finally win the Cup
Calgary ends series of post-season failures to celebrate victory, writes Ed Willes.
As far as curses go, this is a strange one.
For three straight seasons from 1993 to 1995, the Calgary Stampeders finished the regular season with a 15-3 record. They were, indisputably, three of the most powerful teams in CFL history. The problem, as they’re acutely aware in Calgary, was all three teams failed to bring the Grey Cup back to Cowtown and two of them failed to make it to The Big Game.
You can therefore excuse Stamps’ supporters that, when the 2014 squad finished 15-3, their response wasn’t, ‘Let’s run the parade route down The Red Mile.’ It was more: ‘What chance do we possibly have?’ Throw in a Hamilton team that had finished the season with eight wins in its last 11 outings and you could understand why, prior to Sunday’s kickoff, Calgarians’ bottoms, were tighter than Spandex on Mike Duffy. They would get tighter. But, finally, there was release, sweet release.
It isn’t always a given in the CFL, but this time the form chart held and what was supposed to happen in the Grey Cup is exactly what happened. More or less. The Stampeders, who had been the deepest, most complete team in the league all season, utilized all their considerable resources in subduing the game Ticats 20-16 in the 102nd Dominion championship. In so doing, Bo Levi Mitchell and company succeeded where Wally Buono’s great teams of the ‘90s failed, even if it turned out to be more difficult than the game’s opening act would suggest.
Before a near-sellout crowd of 52,056, the Stamps dominated early and, despite a late push by the Tabbies, never surrendered control. In a masterful performance that seemed to announce the CFL’s next great quarterback, game MVP Bo Levi Mitchell completed 25 of 34 passes for 334 yards, including a brutally efficient 14 of 17 for 220 yards in the first half while the Stamps were building a 17-0 lead on a pair of Drew Tate sneaks for touchdowns.
Mitchell, who completed passes to eight different receivers, also threw 10 straight completions from the end of the second quarter to late in the third quarter, effectively controlling the game and the clock through the air the way Jon Cornish generally does it on the ground.
Then again, with Mitchell executing offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson’s passing attack flawlessly, the ground game wasn’t really needed. If you were wondering why Dickenson is in demand as a head coach, you now have an answer.
Still, there was drama and, while it took its sweet time to develop, the fourth quarter provided more than a few anxious moments for the Stamps. Ticats quarterback Zach Collaros, who had been ineffective for most of the first half, caught a spark in the final frame, engineering three drives deep in to Stamps’ territory which, unfortunately, all ended in field goals. The third came with just over two minutes left and cut the Stamps’ lead to 20-16. Then came The Call. With Calgary punting from midfield, the Ticats’ Brandon Banks picked up a bouncing ball, spun to the outside and raced 90 yards for what appeared to be the go-ahead touchdown. But, as was the case with so many special teams play this season, Hamilton’s Taylor Reed was called for an illegal block and the rally died a painful death.
In addition to erasing the bitter memory of those failed teams of the ‘90s, Sunday’s win went a long way toward rehabilitating John Hufnagel’s reputation in big games. In their seven seasons under Hufnagel, the Stamps had accumulated a gaudy 89-36-1 composite record with four Western Division championships but had just one Grey Cup to show for it.
Like a lot of things, that changed for Calgary on Sunday.