Mitchell still on sidelines with muscle tear
Former Georgia State star ‘playing good football’ after settling into role as starter
Bo Levi Mitchell is getting another week to recover from his torn pectoral muscle.
After a week of speculation — but very little participation in practice — about the Calgary Stampeders superstar quarterback’s availability for Saturday night’s game against the Montreal Alouettes, the team did not include Mitchell on its active roster for the game at Mcmahon Stadium (5 p.m., TSN/ News Talk 770 CHQR).
Instead, Nick Arbuckle will get his seventh straight start for the defending Grey Cup champions.
“Nick looks good to go, and unfortunately with Bo, we’re just going to have to put him back on the shelf and see what happens as the season goes on,” said Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson. “I’m just going to quit putting a time schedule on it, because we’re just not sure. Let him try to find the right balance. We do have a bye next week, which should help him — but just not sure.”
Mitchell has not played since Week 3 against the B.C. Lions, when he hurt his pectoral muscle late in the game and Arbuckle came in to finish the matchup, leading the Stamps to a late comeback victory.
With a bye week coming up after Saturday’s game, Mitchell will now have significantly more time to recover. Because the Stamps play the Edmonton Eskimos in the Labour Day Classic next, he won’t have to be rushed into game action early. So once again, it’ll be Arbuckle. And the 25-year-old Californian will be gunning to improve his 4-2 record since Mitchell was shelved due to injury, although it wasn’t certain whether Arbuckle would be ready to face the Alouettes after being limited in practice Thursday due to elbow stiffness.
“Unfortunately, Bo had to take a step back,” Dickenson said. “We just weren’t able to get him practising and feeling good, but Nick does feel like he’s ready to go, which is kind of what we’ve been operating with the last six weeks anyway. It’s a big challenge in front of us. Nick’s been playing good football, but we know we’re going up against a real good opponent, and hopefully, our offence plays well.”
There was a thought after Thursday’s practice that Stamps third-string QB Montell Cozart might be pressed into starting Saturday’s game. But Dickenson is confident Arbuckle is healthy enough to be the guy again. And Arbuckle is confident in his own ability.
“Any doubt?” Arbuckle said. “No, not at all. We just kind of took it easy in practice (Thursday) — made sure I was ready for the game, just feeling good ...”
So far, call the Arbuckle era a success.
He may not have the flash that comes along with Mitchell, but he’s managing games and making it count on the bottom line. The Stamps (5-3) come into this affair against the Alouettes (3-4) still in the mix in the Western Division and could be tied atop the west with the leaders, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7-2), if not for a few big special-teams plays allowed against them in last week’s 26-24 loss to the Bombers.
“I feel like I’ve done well,” said Arbuckle, a former standout with the NCAA’S Georgia State Panthers. “And it always feels like an up-anddown thing when you first come in. Because you come in, and the defences really don’t know much about you, and then they start to catch on to what you’re doing, so they try to do things differently to take things away, and that might slow you down a little bit, and then you try to adjust to what they’re doing, so you take a step forward.”
On the season, Arbuckle is 143of-201 for 1,733 passing yards and seven touchdowns against five interceptions.
He’s also run for 53 yards and three majors.
“We struggled to find the end zone for a couple of weeks,” Arbuckle said. “I feel like we didn’t have that problem last week against Winnipeg (22-of-35 for 260 yards with one TD and two interceptions). We did a good job once we got drives going. And I feel like that’s something to build on.”