NOTHING ELSE MATTERS BUT GETTING THE WIN
Stampeders out to clinch home field for West final by beating Blue Bombers
If oddsmakers want to make the Calgary Stampeders the underdogs, they get it.
If they’re no longer the top team in various CFL power rankings, they understand.
After two straight losses and three disappointing performances in a row, the Stampeders know the narrative has flipped on their season a little bit as they head into Friday night’s pivotal tilt with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Anyone expecting the Stamps to start dismissing their critics is going to be disappointed, though.
They know how they’ve played, and they know the importance of Friday night isn’t about silencing their critics.
They just need to win.
“I saw the power rankings, as well, and I wouldn’t put us at the top of the power rankings right now,” said Stamps QB Bo Levi Mitchell. “Power rankings are, ‘Who is playing the best football right now?’ And we’ve lost our last two games.
“I hope it’s a shock to our own guys and I hope it inspires us to go out and fight a little bit more.”
Officially, bookies have the Stampeders listed as a 3.5 point underdog against the Bombers. It’s been a long time since they haven’t been the favourites in a regular season contest.
It’s easy to see what the bookies are thinking, as the Bombers are riding a four-game winning streak and the Stamps haven’t looked like their normal, dominant selves since they beat up on the Toronto Argonauts on Sept. 28.
In the time since, they struggled against the Montreal Alouettes but somehow pulled out a win, and then lost to both the B.C. Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders.
There are legitimate excuses for the Stamps’ struggles, as they’ve been brutalized by injuries to their receiving corps and are trying to work new players into the lineup to cover for the likes of Kamar Jorden, DaVaris Daniels and Marken Michel.
It’s also worth noting that, for all the talk about what’s gone wrong with the Stamps, they’ve still lost by less than a touchdown to two of the top teams in the CFL despite all the injuries.
That’s not good enough, though. The Stamps need one more win — or tie, or Riders loss — to clinch first place in the West.
That makes the goal against the Bombers pretty straightforward.
“We just want to get better and win,” said Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson. “Something to prove? You’re on the road against a team that’s one of the best in the league. You’re on a bit of a losing streak and you want to get back to playing winning football.
“Winning breeds winning, and obviously losing breeds losing, so you want to get winning and get back to feeling good about not only the results, but you put a lot of time and effort into something and a lot of the time, it’s the same whether you win or lose. So let’s make sure you get back on the winning track and feel good that you’re going in the right direction.”
There are reasons to believe the Stamps can win on Friday. They’re on a nine-game win streak against the Bombers in Winnipeg, after all, and handed Friday’s hosts a 39-26 defeat when they played at McMahon Stadium in August.
The Stamps offence also showed signs of life in the second half against the Riders, while the defence should be a lot better than they were last weekend. They almost always are.
None of that actually matters, though. What matters is getting the win on Friday night and securing a bye in the first week of the playoffs and a home game in the West final.
It’s what they’ve been working for all year. If doing that will silence the critics, maybe that’s a nice little bonus, but maybe it doesn’t matter.
“I don’t know. I don’t think we care,” said Stamps linebacker Alex Singleton. “We don’t forget who we are. We’re the same guys who show up in the building every day together, the same guys who work hard together, and the same guys who are going to come out on the field tomorrow night.”
Winning breeds winning, and obviously losing breeds losing, so you want to get winning and get back to feeling good.