For the third time this month, it’s the Battle of Alberta.
After the Canadian Football League schedule-maker kept the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos apart for the first two months of the 2012 season, the provincial rivals are seeing a lot of each other in September. The sequence started with the traditional Labour Day home-and-home series and concludes with Friday’s contest at McMahon Stadium. Kickoff is at 8 p.m.
Calgary won both of the previous meetings with the Eskimos — 31-30 at McMahon on Labour Day and 20-18 in the rematch at Commonwealth Stadium on Sept. 7.
The Stamps saw their four-game winning streak come to an end on Sunday with a 30-25 setback in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders but they remain in sole possession of second place in the West Division with a 7-5 record.
The Eskimos, meanwhile, are 0-4 in September with the most recent loss coming by a score of 19-18 against the visiting BC Lions on Saturday. Three of the four Edmonton defeats during the slump have come by either one or two points. The Eskimos are 5-7 and currently occupy last place in the West.
Calgary is 4-2 at home this season while the Eskimos sport a 2-4 road record.
Stamps slotback Nik Lewis needs just five yards to move past Earl Winfield (10,119 yards) and into 14th place on the CFL’s all-time receiving list. Lewis has been achieving milestones on a weekly basis of late as last week he passed Rocky DiPietro to move into 10th place on the all-time CFL list for receptions while the week before he reached the 700-catch and 10,000-yard career marks.