The final result was a loss, but the Stampeders’ most recent visit to Toronto’s Rogers Centre was nevertheless very noteworthy from Calgary’s standpoint.

In an Oct. 14 battle with the Argonauts, Drew Tate came off the bench to throw for 263 yards and two touchdowns in half plus one drive of action and very nearly guided the Stamps to a comeback from a 19-point deficit.

Calgary actually did come all the way back in the game but a penalty-assisted final drive allowed the Argos to kick a late field goal and pull out a 31-29 victory.

In the bigger picture, Tate’s performance was the beginning of his ascension to the No. 1 quarterbacking job with the Red and White. The Texan has started all four regular-season games for Calgary since that night in Toronto and he has won each and every one of them.

“I’ll never forget that,” said Tate, who faces the Argos again Saturday afternoon in a 1 p.m. MDT kickoff. “That I came in and it just felt like it was the spark that we needed at the time. It didn’t end the way you would hope but it catapulted us for the rest of the season and then, personally, for my career.”

Tate had been impressive in spot duty prior to the game in Toronto but the 28 passes he threw that night were nearly twice as many as he had ever uncorked in a single previous CFL regular-season outing.

“That’s where it really matters the most,” said Tate. “(The performance was also important) so that my teammates and coaches could say, ‘OK, this guy, he can lead us..’ And then being able to win the next three games really helped, too, as far as them trusting me to be able to win in the CFL.”

That night may have been when the rest of the CFL took notice of Tate but the Stamps already had a pretty good idea what the University of Iowa product could do.

“It just re-emphasized what I observed before,” said head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “It’s that when he got in games, he makes things happen.”

“See, that’s the thing,” replied running back Jon Cornish when asked if he learned anything about the pivot that night. “You guys saw him for the first time but I had been seeing Drew do that for many years on the scout team, just doing his thing and making the team look good. That’s Drew Tate.”

“Drew won in high school and he won in college,” pointed out slotback Nik Lewis. “And he’s winning here. He just has that mentality that he wants to go out and win.”