After TD drops, Daniels vows to be better
Receiver becomes Mitchell’s primary target with Jorden, Rogers out of action
About an hour after the Calgary Stampeders’ loss to the Edmonton Eskimos had wrapped up last weekend, DaVaris Daniels tweeted out a simple message.
The Stamps receiver was coming off his second straight game in which he had over 100 yards through the air, but a dropped pass in the end zone was weighing heavily on him.
“Gotta be better for my team,” Daniels tweeted. “I will be.”
With Kamar Jorden’s season over and Eric Rogers still on the six-game injured list, the Stampeders need Daniels to step up.
All things considered, he’s done exactly that, and it says a lot about who Daniels is as a player that he’s so focused on the two dropped touchdowns passes he’s had in the last two games.
Otherwise, he’s been pretty great for the Stamps.
In the team’s last four games, Daniels has caught five touchdowns. He’s got 382 receiving yards in that stretch, as well, so he’s now No. 6 in the CFL in that category, while also sitting tied for the league lead in receiving touchdowns.
By pretty much any measure, Daniels is having a very solid season and is getting better week after week. With Jorden and Rogers out, he’s likely going to be more of a focal point than ever.
He’s not patting himself on the back about any of that, though.
“I made mistakes. That dropped ball in the end zone. When you lose a close game like that, every mistake is heightened, so I just kind of felt bad about it,” Daniels said. “My teammates had my back, and I feel like I owed them something, so I just wanted to make sure I come out and bounce back and have a good week in practice and a good game this week.”
His teammates don’t seem worried about it. Daniels wasn’t the only player to make a mistake Saturday, after all, and it’s not as if the dropped touchdown pass cost the Stamps the game in Edmonton.
“I don’t expect more out of him — I expect DaVaris to be DaVaris,” said Stamps QB Bo Levi Mitchell. “When his number is called, he balls out. Sometimes when he overthinks things, that’s when things happen. But that’s everybody. That’s myself. Sometimes I overthink things and want to make a big play instead of just reading it out and taking the easy ones.”
Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson wasn’t overly critical of Daniels, either. If anything, it’s clear that there’s nobody who is harder on Daniels than the man himself, and that’s probably a good way for a professional football player to be.
“I think he’s playing well, but he’s had a couple drops that he’d like back,” Dickenson said. “Both Labour Day and the last one, he’s had touchdowns that he should catch, but he has still been working hard and, I think, playing fairly well.”
The thing is, “fairly well” isn’t good enough for Daniels, which is why he was so public about feeling like he needs to be better.
“That’s super uncharacteristic of me. It’s not something I’m used to, being in that situation,” Daniels said of the drop. “I just want to bounce back from it.”
That dropped ball in the end zone. When you lose a close game like that, every mistake is heightened, so I just kind of felt bad about it.