Stampeders focus on minimizing mistakes
EDMONTON If Jason Maas saw any vulnerabilities in the Calgary Stampeders when he reviewed the tape of their loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last weekend, he isn’t about to share them.
What the Edmonton Eskimos head coach did reveal on Friday, though, was that his view of the best way to beat the Stampeders hasn’t changed.
“They don’t hurt themselves, generally,” Maas said. “You have to go out and play good football, good, disciplined football to beat them. They don’t hurt themselves, but when they do hurt themselves, you see it.
“Everybody’s vulnerable, so they’re just the same as anybody else when that happens.”
The good news for the Stampeders is that — as Maas said — they don’t tend to make the mistakes they made against the Riders in many games.
Punt returners don’t run back touchdowns against the Stamps often.
Kamar Jorden doesn’t fumble the ball very much.
And Bo Levi Mitchell almost never throws pick-sixes.
It’s unlikely that all three of those happen in back-to-back weeks, especially with the Stamps working hard to clean things up this week in practice.
For Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson, the bigger concern has been ensuring his team doesn’t take as many penalties as they did against the Riders and that they keep their cool.
“I mean, there was more than enough mistakes but I felt like the last game, what I’m trying to get our team to do is just play with a little more poise,” Dickenson said. “We’ve been doing that all year, but we lost our poise across the board so we have to make sure we refocus and take advantage of the next play.
“That’s it, just take advantage of the next play, do what you do and play hard.”
If the Stamps do manage to keep their composure in Saturday’s game (5 p.m., TSN), it’s easy to imagine them bouncing back and beating the Eskimos.
The team firmly believes it has learned its lessons and won’t make the same mistakes. They still have to prove it, though, and that’s hard to do in practice.
IGNORING IT
In general, the Stampeders have been considered favourites by folks in the media for most of their games.
This week, when CFL.ca released its writers predictions, though, six of the seven prognosticators had the Eskimos winning Saturday’s tilt.
The Stamps don’t seem to care. “I feel like we’ve been proving people wrong the last three years,” Mitchell said.
IMPRESSED
With running back Dominique Williams getting his first game on the active roster on Saturday, a lot of eyes will be on the man backing up Jerome Messam.
With the addition of the newcomer, Terry Williams got bumped from the roster, and it would appear there’s a lot of competition for the job of backing up Messam.