Stampeders display never-say-die attitude in wild 48-42 loss to rival Eskimos
Saturday was ugly, but Calgary can take away some positives, Danny Austin writes.
Perspective matters.
The Calgary Stampeders lost to the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday evening, and there are a number of ways you can look at it.
They lost 48-42, first and foremost, and their defeat came at the hands of their fiercest rival. That’s not great, and a win would have been better, end of story.
They turned the ball over seven times, too, and there’s no sugarcoating it: That’s ugly.
At the same time, the Stamps never rolled over and died. They were down by a lot and still kept fighting back, and they came oh-so-close to completing the comeback, only for a last ditch heave into the end zone to come up incomplete.
That shows they’re not the sort of team that is going to break in the face of adversity, and considering they’re 9-2, there’s a lot of value in proving that to both the rest of the CFL and to themselves.
Fans can choose to take what they want from the loss, but any objective analysis has to admit that there was good and bad in the game.
Here are five other takeaways from Saturday’s contest:
1. INJURIES MATTER
This isn’t meant to be an excuse.
No, really.
The Stampeders didn’t lose because of they players they had sidelined due to injury on Saturday, but there’s no denying that being short-handed had an impact.
The absence of Ciante Evans at corner was particularly notable, as Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly looked for Eskimos receivers down the sideline again and again at Commonwealth Stadium.
That strategy doesn’t work when Evans is in the game, and the Stampeders need their all-star corner back as soon as possible.
2. STEPPING UP
Romar Morris showed why the Stampeders liked him so much in training camp on Saturday night. Don Jackson remains the Stamps’ best option at running back, but Morris had a breakout game.
Not only did he run for 95 yards and two touchdowns, he also caught two TD passes from Bo Levi Mitchell.
If you score four touchdowns in a game, you’ve proven you can contribute in the CFL.
It might have taken Morris a couple games to really show off his skill set, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that he’s got a role to play this season.
3. BE BETTER
The Stampeders defence has been excellent all season, and they weren’t done any favours by either the special teams unit or offensive unit on Saturday.
They were forced to protect the end zone on multiple drives that started deep in their own territory against the Eskimos, and the fact that the Stamps scored twice on their first play of an offensive drive meant the defence was not well rested.
But the defence also had several drives where they just weren’t as good as they needed to be.
“We’ve got to be better,” Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson said. “I think we do need to look in the mirror and decide what we’re doing, can we continue? We’ve had great success, but that doesn’t mean teams aren’t going to figure out what we’re doing and we have to evolve and morph and keep doing different things as a defence to take away what the other team is doing.”
4. BE REAL
The last six games were always going to be a crucial stretch in the season, and all things considered, the Stamps came out looking pretty good.
They beat the B.C. Lions, split a two-game set with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and then went 1-1 with the Eskimos.
That’s pretty good, really, and has the Stamps in the driver’s seat in the West Division.
There’s not a ton of breathing room right now, though, and that might not be the worst thing in the world.
The Stamps need to keep winning to make sure they don’t give up the lead they’ve built for themselves. Having meaningful games between now and the playoffs is probably a good thing.
5. NEXT TEST
The Stamps are travelling to Hamilton next week for a game against the Tiger-Cats, and make no mistake, it’s a big, tough test.
The Ticats have won three in a row and are putting up a lot of points. Beating the Stamps would send a message to the rest of the league.
If the season really does start at Labour Day — it doesn’t — then the Stamps have a great opportunity to prove they’re just as real when the going gets tough as they are in the early going.
Win this weekend, and Saturday’s mistakes will feel like ancient history.