STAMPS REBOUND VS. ARGOS
Defence leads the way in victory
Beating the Toronto Argonauts only tells us so much about the Calgary Stampeders.
The Stamps (3-2) should beat this year’s winless Argos (0-5) team, and on Thursday night they did exactly that.
A strong Stampeders defensive effort forced seven turnovers, giving a struggling offence the field position it needed to get to the end zone and secure a 26-16 win.
What does it mean? Well, the most important thing was getting the win. They face a challenging schedule over the next six weeks that will see them play four games against the two teams ahead of them in the West Division standings — three against the Edmonton Eskimos and one against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
As strange as it sounds, that made beating the Argos more important than your average mid-july CFL game against a non-divisional opponent.
On the defensive side of the football, the Stampeders really seem to be rounding into form.
Brandon Smith, Raheem Wilson, Robertson Daniel and Cory Greenwood all came down with interceptions, and the Stamps scored touchdowns on the drives that came directly after Smith and Wilson’s picks.
Tre Roberson added a touchdown himself when he scooped up an Armanti Edwards fumble and ran it back 93 yards for a touchdown. It should be noted that Greenwood forced the fumble, and later recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter, meaning the Stamps linebacker was directly involved in three Argos turnovers.
Those turnovers were the difference in Thursday’s game.
Of the Stamps’ 26 points, 22 came off of turnovers. There may have been some worried about the defence earlier in the season, but the group appears to be coming together nicely and they gave Bethel-thompson lots of trouble. The Argos QB completed passes for 32-of-42 passes for 343 yards and two touchdowns, while also throwing four interceptions.
On the offensive side of the ball, things were a little less encouraging.
That’s not necessarily a surprise, given that the Stamps were starting their third straight game with backup quarterback Nick Arbuckle as their starter in place of the injured Bo Levi Mitchell, and were also without starting centre Ucambre Williams and starting running back Don Jackson.
While receiver Juwan Brescacin returned to the lineup and scored two touchdowns — one in the first quarter and one in the third — the offence never really seemed to fully click against the Argos.
The offensive line was better after a first quarter in which they allowed Arbuckle to be sacked three times, but at the end of the game their quarterback had still been taken down four times.
The run game was better than it was five days ago when the Stamps fell to the Tiger-cats in Hamilton, and Ka’deem Carey certainly as if like he belongs, finishing with 12 carries for 65 yards on the ground and adding four receptions for 30 yards through the air.
Arbuckle, meanwhile, was not as effective as he’d been in previous starts. It’s probably inevitable that he’d regress somewhat now that opponents have some film of him, and he still finished having completed 20-of-30 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns, although he did add two interceptions