Stamps ready for first- place showdown
Edmonton looks like a contender at one game back
In one corner, you have the defending champs, winners of threestraight games, who have suddenly found their run game again with their star player back in form.
In the other corner, the No. 1 contenders, who have also rattled off four victories in a row, the last two in comeback fashion.
The heavyweight battle is set for McMahon Stadium. Saturday night fight for first. Calgary Stampeders vs. Edmonton Eskimos.
“No question this is going to be a big game,” said Stamps GM and head coach John Hufnagel. “It’s going to be an exciting game.
“Both teams over the last two weeks have won the game in the last minutes. Both teams can handle adversity, they’ve shown that. Both teams have won a lot of tight games in the fourth quarter. It should be a good game.”
The Eskimos ( 10- 4) managed to keep pace with the Stamps ( 11- 3) in dramatic fashion Saturday in Winnipeg, as kicker Sean Whyte nailed the winning field goal from 53 yards out with no time on the clock, just moments after the Blue Bombers took the lead.
This was quite the response to the Stamps’ walk off win over the Hamilton Tiger- Cats on Friday night, as Rene Paredes split the uprights from 37 yards out.
A cynic could say both the Eskimos and Stamps got lucky in these close wins. If not for four missed field goals by Lirim Hajrullahu, the Eskimos wouldn’t have been close at the end. The same goes for Calgary’s win a week earlier against the Blue Bombers, when it took a missed Hajrullahu field goal to clinch it, but pulling out late victories is a trend that can’t be ignored on either side.
The Stamps, coming off a Grey Cup win last November over those same Ticats, are 6- 1 in games decided by five points or fewer this season. They’ve been fortunate in some instances, but they’ve won too many tight contests to say it’s all luck.
“There’s so much parity in this league that games are coming down to the last few minutes to decide how it will go,” said running back Jon Cornish. “Because of that, the teams that separate themselves are the ones who can win in the last few minutes. These things have happened multiple times. It’s not like you win here or lose here. That’s different than winning all those close games.”
The last time the Stamps faced the Eskimos, they lost 27- 16 at Commonwealth Stadium, an outing that marked the end of Cornish’s tenure on the injured list.
Over the past two weeks, Cornish has found his legs and a rhythm with jumbled offensive line. In howling winds against Tiger- Cats, Cornish ran for 90 yards on 14 carries and picked up another 64 yards on seven receptions — an average of 7.3 yards per touch.
It will be the matchup to watch Saturday at McMahon Stadium — Cornish vs. the Eskimos’ topranked defence.
“They are playing really well, but they haven’t played against the Stampeders and their full complement of players,” Cornish said. “I think that’s important. When we lost to them in Edmonton, it was the first we had lost to them in a while ( since 2011).
“They were particularly excited. I hope in their minds they think they got us now.
“For me, I’ve always enjoyed playing against Edmonton. They are all going to be stoked to play against me. Every time we play against them my game has been elevated to another level every time. I’m hoping to do that again this time.”
The winner of this game will capture the season series and important tiebreaker for playoff positioning. If the Stamps win, all they would need in their final three games is one win or one Eskimos loss and they would clinch homefield for the West final on Nov. 22.
The Stamps would like nothing more than a repeat of last year, when the Eskimos were left in the dust at McMahon.
With everyone else in the West Division struggling at this point, it seems inevitable they will meet again for a berth in the Grey Cup, regardless of where the West final is held. That just ups the ante on the hype for this week.
“This is going to be a dogfight,” said Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. “We know it and they know it.
“It’s a game from the future ... a premonition of what could happen. Right now we have to focus on this game. We have to do whatever we can, expound every ounce of energy we have not only physically but mentally ... to beat these guys this week.”