Stamps look to cool off hot Bombers with quick start
Collision course set between two best CFL teams Saturday at McMahon
When Saturday’s game kicks off at McMahon Stadium, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be a confident group.
They’re riding a seven-game winning streak, after all, and that sort of run tends to breed confidence.
So for the Calgary Stampeders, coming out of the gates strongly and putting points on the board early could be even more important this week than it normally is.
“We emphasize that every week, but you kind of want to get out (in front) on teams just so that the defence can play with the lead,” said Stamps receiver Marquay McDaniel. “You know what type of game it’s going to be, it’s a West matchup so it’s like that every time.
“They are feeling good over there. They’re flying around on defence, so we expect them to come in here confident and we’ve got to play our game.”
More often than not this season, ‘playing our game’ has involved getting off to strong starts for the Stampeders.
Last week against the Ottawa Redblacks, Bo Levi Mitchell also hit Bakari Grant for a 50-yard pass on the Stamps’ fourth offensive play of the game.
He’s been going deep early more often, as Mitchell also found McDaniel for a 54-yard completion on the first offensive play of the game two weeks earlier in the Labour Day Classic.
For the Stamps, putting points on the board early hasn’t been much of a problem this season, with the Labour Day replay in Edmonton being a notable exception.
In that game, the Stampeders came out flat in the first quarter and fell behind 14-0 before claw- ing their way back to win 34-28 in overtime.
For the next week in practice, head coach Dave Dickenson and the Stampeders coaching staff emphasized the need to start strongly, and the players responded last weekend against the Ottawa Redblacks by putting 12 points on the board in the first quarter and taking a 20-7 lead early in the second.
Recent Bombers games also suggest the Stampeders may have a chance to open a lead if they can put a few points up early, because despite the positive vibes coming out of Winnipeg these days, they’ve struggled to score in recent first quarters.
In their 46-23 win over the Toronto Argonauts last weekend, the Bombers took their time getting going offensively, scoring only three points in the first. A week earlier against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Bombers were even slower coming out of the gates, as the lowly Riders shut them out throughout the first quarter.
While those games suggest the Stampeders can jump out to a lead early on Saturday, they also prove that the Bombers won’t just pack up and go home because they have a slow start. The Winnipeg squad did end up winning both games, after all.
There are four quarters to play, and nobody’s suggesting the team that wins the first 15 minutes is going to come away with a victory at the end of the day.
“We always want to get off to a strong start, but we had the problems (in the first quarter) the week before, so you kind of want to focus on the things that gave you problems the week before,” Dickenson said.
“I just want us to be consistent. They’re going to make plays, they’ve got a good defence, their special teams are one of the best.
“I don’t think there’s going to be one team taking over. There are going to be some ebbs and flows, and we’ve got to make sure we’re sharp.”