The great equalizer
Stampeders’ three-game slump — their coach calls it a ‘dip’ — changes perceptions
The Calgary Stampeders were a barely blemished 12-2 in early October, the undisputed class of the league, still rolling along despite an absurd run of injuries to the receiving corps.
Quite suddenly, they couldn’t win a game, not even at McMahon Stadium, where it often feels like the visitors are down by a touchdown before the coin flip.
An 0-3 slump through the rest of that month, which head coach Dave Dickenson now calls their “dip,” brought the Stamps back to the rest of the Canadian Football League field. B.C. and Saskatchewan beat them here, and the Bombers bested them in Winnipeg. The joyful noise emanating from eight CFL cities was a celebration of the Stamps’ apparent mortality.
Actually, they had merely run out of players who could be trusted to catch the football in a pass-happy league. They lost prime targets Kamar Jorden, DaVaris Daniels and Reggie Begelton to injury over a four-game stretch through September and into October, then immediately slumped, er, dipped.
“We definitely took a dip but there were some games out there where we basically didn’t have another healthy body in the building,” Dickenson said Saturday, on the eve of their West final tussle here with Winnipeg.
The hurt parade was bad; but worse because some of the injured receivers were “explosive players, guys who can do more than just catch the football,” he said.
Indeed, it’s one thing to go all “next man up” and fill a uniform with another lanky speedster who caught a few balls in the NFL, or was really good in his last year of college ball. It’s quite another to replace Jorden, who had 944 receiving yards, 330 of those after the catch, six TDs and 11 receptions of 30 yards or more, the so-called big plays. All in just 10 games. Or Daniels, with his 292 YAC yards and seven TDs.
The Stamps had Marken Michel fill in, but he finished the year on the injured list. Begelton came off the injured list, then broke his arm on a special teams play.
Markeith Ambles, who hung around on the practice roster for the first 12 games, made some big plays down the stretch and he will play his seventh game today. So will Eric Rogers, who had his own injury issues, Chris Matthews, Juwan Brescacin, Lemar Durant, Richard Sindani and Julan Lynch. Only Brescacin and Sindani were on the field for all 18 games. Durant played in 16, Lynch 14, Rogers nine and Matthews just four.
“I think the skill is still there,” said Dickenson. “They are different types of players though. As an offence we’ve had to adjust because we don’t have the same skill set so we’ve got to take advantage of what they do well and try to mould our offence around that.”
Easily said, harder to do for a quarterback who has to sling the ball to a dozen different receivers in a season. Dickenson, an old QB, knows that much.
“It seems like a million years ago that I played but what you do is you kind of read their body language, kind of read how they dip, how they move, how they run certain routes. What angle does he take on his corner route, where is he high and low, can you trust that they’ll make the right adjustment versus blitz? So there’s a lot of things going on.
“You know what, we struggled at times, you could see the production wasn’t there. I do think Bo was the glue that held it all together. I’m very fortunate that Bo was the guy able to stay healthy. We think we can win any game when Bo Levi Mitchell is the quarterback.”
Mitchell emerged from the “dip” as the West Division nominee for most outstanding player, which speaks to his skill set. But he struggled to find chemistry and open receivers and his decline in performance was both a symptom and cause of the dip.
Mitchell’s completion percentage in the Oct. 13 loss to B.C. was a paltry 44.7, his lowest this season. He threw for just 215 yards against the Lions, 221 against Saskatchewan and 274 in the loss to Winnipeg.
He was asked about the challenge of throwing to so many targets.
“I think it takes time to build the chemistry I have with some of those guys,” Mitchell said, referring to Jorden and Daniels in particular.
“Those timing routes in zone, when you feel a thing, you want to put the ball in a window and trust the guy to get there, you know. Those are things that are very hard to deal with, with new guys. But it’s not something that can’t be created and found in a game.”
It was just easier when he knew he could play pitch and catch with Jorden, a constant threat to hit the home runs that Mitchell craves. Jorden’s 249-yard game against these same Blue Bombers in August set a Calgary record and was the single-game high in the CFL this season.
“It’s fun when it’s easy,” said Mitchell. “It’s fun when you have a guy who can go for over 250 yards. There’s nothing to say that the guys that are on the field tomorrow can’t.”
If a Calgary receiver racks up more than 250 yards on Sunday, it will likely be in a winning cause, giving these Stamps an opportunity to halt a Grey Cup “dip” before it gets to 0-3.