STAMPS SEEKING MORE REVENGE AGAINST IRKSOME REDBLACKS
Grey Cup favourites finally have opportunity for closure
There’s something poetic about the opponents the Calgary Stampeders have been matched up against in these CFL playoffs.
With all due respect to the Montreal Alouettes, who beat the Stampeders in a meaningless endof-season tilt during which Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson rested many of his starters, only the B.C. Lions and Ottawa Redblacks managed to keep the Calgarians out of the win column this season.
The Lions beat the Stamps in Week 1, handing them their only loss until the season-ender in Montreal. The Stamps, of course, would go on to avenge that loss three times, most notably in last weekend’s West Division Final.
The Redblacks, meanwhile, would keep the Stampeders out of the win column in a Week 3 showdown in Ottawa when overtime created no separation between the teams and they finished tied at 26.
In Sunday’s Grey Cup at BMO Field, the Stampeders will get their chance to avenge that draw for the second time — they hammered the Redblacks 48-23 on Sept. 17.
Does that matter to the fiercely competitive group in the Stampeders locker-room? Well, it depends who you ask.
“For us, this is what we’re happiest about,” said Stampeders QB Bo Levi Mitchell. “We would have loved to see any team right here at the end, because it means you’re here, (but) it’s nice to play against B.C., play against Ottawa.
“They’re two teams that sort of had our number at the start of the year and it helped turn our season around, honestly. It poked our guys up, as did the year before, starting off 2-2.”
Given the stakes of Sunday’s game, avenging an early-season tie isn’t exactly the first thing on the Stamps’ minds. There’s a national championship on the line, after all, and the chance to go down in the CFL history books as one of the most dominant teams in league history. But that game against the Redblacks in early July was a weird one, and it has to sting just a little bit.
The Stampeders team that soon emerged fully formed at mid-season would have turned a couple of Rene Paredes’ four field goals into touchdowns. Paredes himself probably wouldn’t have missed the 39-yarder that sailed left in the second quarter.
The Stamps just hadn’t fully hit their stride yet, and while the same can be said about the Redblacks, the Stampeders would become the league’s most dominant team only a week or two after the tie.
They have every reason to believe they’re the superior team and it is in every athlete’s nature to want to prove they’re the best, so it would seem safe to assume that the Stamps are relishing their chance to prove the tie was a fluke. They’re not admitting it, though. “We don’t look at it that way,” said Stampeders receiver Marquay McDaniel.
“Those were two of the better teams behind us in the regular season, so we kind of just look at it like that and kind of just worry about the game we need to play.”
Other than Mitchell, most of the Stamps echoed McDaniel’s sentiment when they were asked at the airport after landing in Toronto on Tuesday evening.
This is a team that has spoken about securing their place in history in recent weeks, so why would they focus on petty little things like avenging regular season losses?
“That’s what we want, we want to be known as the best ever,” receiver DaVaris Daniels said after Sunday’s win over the Lions.
If the Stampeders are going to go down as one of the CFL’s all-time great teams — and make no mistake, with a 15-2-1 regular season record, they have that chance — they need to beat the Redblacks.
When defensive lineman Charleston Hughes was asked about avenging the tie, it mattered so little to him that he immediately switched gears and began talking about his admiration for Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris.
“It’s just the way everything worked out. I mean, we’re playing against Ottawa and we know Hank as well as any other quarterback in this league,” Hughes said. “I’m pretty confident about what we’re getting into.”