Eskimos left labouring as Stamps dominate Classic
Forget about the Most Outstanding Player arguments or which team is truly the CFL’s best. Bo Levi Mitchell and his Calgary Stampeders temporarily put an end to those disputes Monday with a Labour Day lashing that should silence gloating from the northern half of Alberta for at least another three days.
The only debate now is over whose daughter is more advanced: Mitchell’s six-monthold Ele or Mike Reilly’s precious Brooklyn.
Reilly preceded Monday’s first-place showdown with some banter about how the two ultracompetitive quarterbacks had discussed earlier in the summer whose daughter would walk first.
“Mine is crawling all over the furniture, so unless he has a superbaby, I have him beat on that one,” Reilly told Postmedia Saturday.
After leading the charge on a 39-18 throttling of the Edmonton Eskimos, Mitchell disputed his rival’s claim.
“First of all, his kid is three months older than mine,” said Mitchell, ever the competitor, with a chuckle.
“Until I see video proof of his kid walking, he doesn’t win that one. Ele might walk before she crawls. The debate is still on.”
Supremacy in the west is no longer up for debate as the Stamps won their sixth straight Labour Day contest to go 8-1-1.
Mitchell outplaying Reilly had plenty to do with it.
“Bo is the best in the league by far,” said Stampeders running back Jerome Messam, who rambled for two touchdowns.
“He’s very consistent, he has ice in his veins and he’s a student of the game who works hard all the time. Today was no different.”
Now losers of three in a row, the 7-3 Eskimos entered the game with Edmonton’s quarterback sporting slightly healthier stats than Mitchell, despite the rash of injuries around him. However, with Mitchell continuing to battle a shoulder ailment of his own, the 27-year-old Stamps quarterback won the first of three head-to-head matchups against the only man who could unseat him as league MOP.
After running onto the field during player introductions with a large Texas flag, the native of Katy, Texas wasted no time dissecting the Eskimos’ defence. Mere minutes after two CF-18s flew over McMahon Stadium, Mitchell’s first play was a 45-yard strike to DaVaris Daniels, which eventually set up a field goal to give the Stamps their fifthstraight wire-to-wire Labour Day win.
“That’s how I feel we were last year — when we were hitting on one of the first or second plays, I felt like our whole offence took off,” said Mitchell, who pieced together three scoring drives over 65 yards before the first quarter expired.
“The defence and special teams fed off it right away and we just kept rolling.”
A healthy crowd of 33,731 revelled in the victory, but fans were deprived of the usual Labour Day lunacy that tends to mark most such matchups. This one was out of reach just before the half, when Roy Finch ran a punt back 90 yards to put the hosts up 25-3.
“I thought Bo played really well. The stats don’t always show that, but he played really well,” Calgary coach Dave Dickenson said.
The only blemish on the 277yard passing effort, Dickenson said, was a miscommunication with a receiver that led to a late interception.
“When your quarterback is your best player, ultimately that’s a good thing,” he said.
Reilly was forced to press all day long against a defence that intercepted two of his 53 pass attempts, leaving him 34 of 53 for 320 yards and two meaningless touchdowns late.
Mitchell was an efficient 19 of 27 for 277 yards and the win.
Ever the perfectionist, Mitchell said afterwards he was “disappointed on the sidelines,” as he feels his club still has a ways to go before becoming the well-oiled machine that went 15-2-1 last year.
“But don’t take anything away from an amazing win,” he added.
“We got the job done.”