STAMPS LOOKING FOR PAYBACK AGAINST LIONS
Is anyone sick of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the B.C. Lions yet?
If you include the two-game preseason slate, the Calgary Stampeders have been through six different game-days so far this season, and four of them have been against those two franchises.
Friday’s clash with the Leos at McMahon Stadium (8 p.m., TSN, News Talk 770) will make it five of seven.
But unlike the Bombers — who the Stampeders (2-1-1) have dispatched in relatively easy fashion twice already in the regular season, including last Thursday’s 33-18 win at Investors Group Field — the Lions (3-1) have placed a blemish on the Red & White’s record.
That 20-18 loss in Week 1 at BC Place still stings — just about every Stamps player believes they gave the game away — and they’re looking to make things right.
Here are five battles to watch in a matchup for first place in the West:
STC MARK KILAM VS. KR CHRIS RAINEY
Rainey is off to a terrific start, leading the CFL in punt-return average (13.1) and kick-return average (29.0). The former Florida Gator has become a Stampeders killer, running back a pair of touchdowns in the return game last year, and then ripping a 72-yard punt return that finished in the end zone in Week 1. But the Stamps did shut the bringer of rain down last year in the playoffs, and Kilam will look to repeat that.
RT UCAMBRE WILLIAMS VS. DE ALEX BAZZIE
After suffering through a sophomore slump last season — eight sacks in 15 games would be a career year for some guys, but expectations were high coming off a 10sack season in 2014 — Bazzie has started hot in 2016, racking up four sacks in four games to tie Hamilton Tiger-Cats veteran John Chick for the league lead. That’ll provide a stiff test for Williams, a 23-year-old rookie out of South Alabama making not only his first CFL start but his first start at right tackle.
CB CIANTE EVANS VS. WR MARCO IANNUZZI
Now fully recovered from a toe injury, it didn’t take long for Evans to supplant veteran Fred Bennett at field-side cornerback this week. Bennett is off the roster completely, and Evans will be looking to keep the job permanently with a lockdown job on Iannuzzi, a brainy Calgary product who went to Harvard.
K RENE PAREDES VS. K RICHIE LEONE
One year ago, Leone, in the first season of the extended 32-yard extra points, missed a CFL-high 11 point-after attempts. This season, Paredes is doing his best to erase the Lions’ big-legged punter/kicker from the record books by missing five PATs through the first four games of the season. Paredes and Leone also sit seventh and eighth, respectively, in field-goal percentage this season, ahead of only Montreal Alouettes kicker Boris Bede and his epic struggles out east. In what’s expected to be a close divisional game, neither one can afford to leave points on the field again.
SB LEMAR DURANT VS. HB RYAN PHILLIPS
The last time we saw Durant, he was making a spectacular leaping grab down the sideline at BC Place in Week 1. The only problem was the 23-year-old limped off the field with a high-ankle sprain after that 31-yard catch and was forced to sit out the next three games. But the 6-foot-2, 230-pounder practised in full this week and is ready to return against his hometown team and Phillips, a player 10 years older than him who he grew up watching. The youth and playmaking ability of Durant against the wiliest of wily veterans should be fun to watch.