Plagued by four turnovers, the Calgary Stampeders saw their four-game Canadian Football League winning streak come to an end Monday at McMahon Stadium with a 35-7 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos in the Labour Day Classic.
The Eskimos scored 21 points on Calgary’s first three turnovers of the day including a pair of Henry Burris fumbles deep in Stampeders territory.
In addition to the turnovers, the Stamps were flagged for 14 penalties and 130 yards.
“I’m very disappointed with our football team,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “All three phases, especially our offence other than that one drive, (played poorly). Defensively, we held the fort in the first half but the second half was not so good.
“We wore down and Edmonton came down here a hungry football team and they took it to us.”
Burris completed just 13 passes on the day for 132 yards.
“It was unacceptable,” said Burris, whose disappointing play in the Labour Day Classic comes on the heels of a performance that earned him the CFL’s offensive player of the month honours. “It’s embarrassing to have played that way and I know I have to better.”
With Monday’s result, both clubs are 6-3 at the top of the West Division with Edmonton holding the tie-breaker edge on head-to-head record. The same teams meet again on Friday at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium for the traditional rematch.
“It’s not easy to play two football games in that short an amount of time,” said Hufnagel. “But it’s part of the schedule and hopefully we’ll be ready to play a better football game. If we don’t then it’ll be the same results.”
Down 7-0 after one quarter, the Eskimos scored 15 points in the second quarter and 17 more in the third to take control of the contest.
The Stampeders opened the scoring late in the first quarter on an eight-play, 99-yard drive that featured eight consecutive passes.
The march was capped by a seven-yard touchdown pass from Burris to Nik Lewis. The score was the 50th of Lewis’ CFL career.
The second quarter was all Edmonton as the Eskimos chalked up 15 points on a touchdown, two field goals and a couple of rouges.
The major came two plays after the Eskimos recovered a Burris fumble at the Calgary 17-yard line. After a completion to Adarius Bowman, backup quarterback Kerry Joseph scored on a one-yard keeper.
Derek Schiavone kicked field goals of 46 and 20 yards for the visitors.
In the third quarter, Schiavone added a 42-yard field goal while Andrew Nowacki and Bowman hauled in touchdown passes from Ricky Ray.
Schiavone added his fourth field goal of the afternoon in the fourth quarter.
More coverage
>> Video: Game highlights
>> Locker-Room Blog by Robert McCune
>> Video: Reaction from the locker-room
>> Audio: Coach Huff’s post-game comments
>> Photo gallery
>> Updated standings
INDIVIDUAL STATS
PASSING
Cgy: Burris 13-23-132-1-2, Tate 1-3-19-0-0; Edm: Ray 14-21-131-2-0, Joseph 3-4-36-0-0, Ward 1-1-1-0-0
RUSHING
Cgy: Cornish 7-43, Burris 3-21, Reynolds 6-13, Tate 3-6; Edm: Messam 14-51, McCarty 9-32, Ray 2-15, Ward 1-13, Fils 2-9, Armstead 1-4, Joseph 2-3-1
RECEIVING
Cgy: Bryant 2-37, Lewis 5-34-1, Forzani 2-32, Arthur 1-24, Cornish 2-13, Rambo 1-6, Taylor 1-5; Edm: Bowman 5-81-1, Henry 3-27, McCarty 5-18, Armstead 1-10, Messam 1-10, Rodriguez 1-7, Scott 1-8, Nowacki 1-7-1
NOTABLES
Cgy: McCune 8 TKL, Hughes 7 TKL, Morley 6 TKL, Fraser 4 TKL 1 STT, Smith 3 TKL 1 KD; Edm: Schiavone 4-4 FG 3-3 XP 15 PTS, Davis 5 TKl 1 SK, Peach 4 TKL 1 STT 1 FF 1 FR, Hill 5 TKL 1 KD 1 FR, Thompson 2 TKL 1 INT