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News July 10, 2012

Stamps travel to Montreal

The Stampeders have little time to dwell on their Week 2 loss to the Argos as they are on to their next opponent a mere five days later.

Calgary (1-1) travels east to Montreal for a rematch with the Alouettes (1-1), a team the Stamps beat 38-10 in Week 1. Calgary is 1-1 after two games for the second straight season and was 1-1 for five straight seasons from 2004-2008. Calgary opened 2009 at 0-2 and 2010 at 2-0.

This is the third time since 2006 Calgary will play an opponent twice in the first three weeks. Calgary was 1-1 in 2006 in back-to-back games against the Eskimos to open the season and went 1-1 against the Argos in 2010. In both cases, the Stamps won the home game the first week and then lost the road rematch (18-14 in Edmonton in ’06 and 27-24 in Toronto in ’10).

As Montreal is an Eastern team, this will be the last Calgary sees of the Alouettes this year unless both teams meet in the Grey Cup or a crossover playoff game. The Alouettes are a strong team at home as last week’s turnaround win in their home-opener proves — Montreal is 22-5 at home over the past three seasons.

The Als also play West teams tough as they sport a 15-9 record against the other division since 2009. Calgary has had some success against the Als in Montreal over the past six seasons — the 32-17 win last season evened the Stamps’ record to 3-3 over that span and broke a two-game losing streak. The Stamps have won big in Montreal (41-23 in 2006), lost big (46-19 in 2010) and won close games as well (23-19 in 2008). They haven’t won two consecutive games at Percival Molson Stadium since 2005-06.

Calgary is 0-1 on the road early in 2012 and 1-1 against East teams while Montreal is 1-0 at home and 0-1 against the West.

THE KICKOFF

The game gets under way at 5:30 p.m. MDT on Thursday, July 7 at Percival Molson Stadium in Montreal. This is Calgary’s first of three Thursday night games (the Stamps were 1-0 last year on Thursdays), with future Thursdays coming next week at home to Saskatchewan and on the road in Hamilton on Week 7.

The game will be televised on TSN and RDS, and can be heard on the radio at QR77 (AM 770 on the radio dial and www.qr77.com on the Internet) and on SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Channel 157 and Channel 160 for XM subscribers. Fans in the U.S. can the game live via webcast on ESPN3 (www.espn.go.com). The game will also be seen the next day at www.tsn.ca on TSN’s video-on-demand page.

THE OFFENCE

Calgary’s offence scored 36 points (the second straight week with more than 35 points) and recovered well from the early loss of starting quarterback Drew Tate to injury. QB Kevin Glenn passed for 172 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in relief and sits third in the CFL in QB rating at 102.7 after two appearances in two games.

Glenn passed for 3,963 yards (his seventh straight season of over 3,000 yards passing) in 2011 and threw 19 TD passes. Glenn ranks 13th on the CFL’s all-time passing list with 32,699 yards and has a career passing rating of 88.6.

Calgary’s offence leads the CFL in points scored (74), touchdowns scored (six) and first downs (46). Although the passing game ranks fifth in yards per game (287.0), it is first in completions percentage (76.2) and gain per pass (9.1 yards).

SB Nik Lewis led the team in receiving for a second straight week with seven catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns and is second in the CFL with 19 grabs for 200 yards and three major scores. It drops off a bit after Lewis though as the next Stampeder to appear on the league’s receiving list is SB Chris Bauman who, with five catches for 86 yards, ranks 22nd.

SB Marquay McDaniel checked into the lineup for Week 2 and posted good numbers with four catches for 62 yards, second on the team.

RB Jon Cornish was held in check in the loss, rushing seven times for just 39 yards and is sixth in the league with 125 yards thus far in 2012. Cornish had 71 yards and two touchdowns in the win in Montreal last season. Cornish’s lukewarm start to the season has Calgary’s rushing attack in fifth spot in the league with an average of 92 yards per game and the Stamps are seventh in gain per rush at 4.5 yards.

THE DEFENCE

Calgary’s defence could not duplicate its success from Week 1 in the loss in Week 2. Toronto put up 518 yards of offence and scored 39 points including three touchdowns and six field goals.

Calgary gave up 39 points or more only once in 2011 (55 points in the loss to Hamilton in Moncton). The Stamps won their first three games in 2011 in which they gave up 30 or more points but then lost the last five regular-season games as well as the playoff contest (33-19 to Edmonton).

Calgary is third in points allowed with 49, third in touchdowns allowed with four and fifth in totals yards allowed at 363 yards per game. Against the Argos, the Stamps surrendered six big plays, including four passes of 30 or more yards, and gave up 217 passing yards on second down despite limiting the Argos to 52 per cent on second-down conversions.

Calgary did intercept two Ricky Ray passes and scored its second defensive touchdown in two games when S Eric Fraser returned one of the interceptions 61 yards for a major. Keon Raymond had the other pick.

Calgary had three defensive touchdowns all of last season and had an impressive total of seven in 2010. The Stamps lead the CFL in interceptions with four and are second in takeaways with six but have only two sacks to their credit, leaving them in seventh spot in that category.

Calgary’s linebackers were active against the Als with the three starters accounting for 20 of the team’s 61 total tackles. Malik Jackson and Demetrice Morley each had seven while Juwan Simpson had six. DT Torrey Davis led the D-line with five stops.

THE SPECIAL TEAMS

 Larry Taylor had a monster game for the Stampeders in the loss, totaling 441 all- purpose yards, the second-highest single-game mark in CFL history.

Taylor caught one pass for 13 yards, had two punt returns for 70 yards, returned eight kickoffs for 222 yards and took two missed field goals back for a total of 136 yards, including one for 125 yards and a touchdown (the third-longest missed-field goal return in club history).

Taylor’s return touchdown was one of four return majors in the CFL in the first two weeks after the league totaled just eight over the entire 2011 season. Taylor is second in both punt and kickoff returns and is averaging 18.4 yards per punt return and 27.7 yards per kickoff return.

P Rob Maver continued to be strong in his transition to full-time punter, averaging 48.7 yards on six punts. He leads the CFL in punting average at 48.7 yards per punt. Rene Paredes scored only four points on converts after missing his only field-goal attempt and now has 17 points in two games.

THE OPPOSITION 

 Montreal looked like a completely different team at home in Week 2 from the one that was dismantled by the Stampeders on the road in Week 1. The Als scored just 10 points and one touchdown in the loss to Calgary but erupted for 41 points and five majors the against Winnipeg.

QB Anthony Calvillo (#13), who had passed for only 174 yards and one TD against the Stamps, threw for 443 yards (his highest single-game total since Week 13 of 2010) and three majors. Calvillo averaged 374.5 yards per game against Calgary in 2011 and threw four touchdowns and one interception.

RB Brandon Whitaker (#2) also had a huge game in Week 2 after a slow start in Week 1 as he touched the ball 27 times and totaled 235 yards from scrimmage, scoring three touchdowns in the win. Whitaker, who led the CFL in rushing in 2011, is fifth in the CFL in 2012 with 141 rushing yards and is tied for the lead with three majors.

SB S.J. Green (#19) was Calvillo’s other main target, hauling in five passes for 120 yards. He leads the team with seven receptions for 149 yards after two games. The CFL’s leading receiver in 2011, SB Jamel Richardson (#18), is off to a bit of sluggish start to this season with only seven receptions for 99 yards. Richardson was a big weapon against Calgary last year, catching 13 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns in the two games.

On defence, LB Chip Cox is second in the CFL in tackles with 17 (he has averaged 80 tackles per season over the last three years) followed on the team by S Kyries Hebert (#34) with nine stops. MLB Shea Emery (#41 — one sack, six tackles), LB Rod Davis (#12 — one interception, six tackles) and CB Billy Parker (#17 — one interception) are other players to watch on the Montreal defence.

THE OTHER GAMES

 Calgary and Montreal open Week 3 in the CFL followed by a Friday Night Football contest featuring Winnipeg (0-2) on the road for the third straight week, this time in Edmonton to take on the Eskimos (1-1).

The league has a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday — first up is a battle of undefeated West teams as Saskatchewan (2-0) plays host to BC (2-0) followed by Toronto (1-1) on the road in Hamilton (0-2).

NEXT UP

Calgary returns home for a two-game stand starting with the Roughriders in town for a showdown on Thursday, July 19 at 7 p.m. MDT. Calgary swept the Riders last season, winning all four games by a combined score of 132-69.

— Mike Hardiman