By Mike Hardiman
Stampeders.com
The Calgary Stampeders close out their 2012 regular-season home schedule with a divisional matchup with the defending Grey Cup Champions, the BC Lions.
It won’t be the last game played this year at McMahon Stadium however as the Stampeders (10-6) clinched second place in the West Division for the second time in the past four seasons. Calgary assured itself of the home playoff date by beating Hamilton 34-32 while the Riders lost 34-28 to Montreal.
The Lions (12-4) enter the game having clinched first place in the West for the second straight year after a 39-19 drubbing of the Eskimos and are riding a three-game winning streak.
For Calgary, the home playoff game is the sixth since 2005 (two West finals and four semifinals) and fourth under current head coach John Hufnagel.
The Lions are 2-0 against Calgary this season after a 34-8 win at McMahon back in Week 5 and a 27-22 victory in Week 15 at BC Place. The two wins this season leave the Lions on a four-game winning streak against the Stamps and give the Leos a 6-1 record over Calgary in the past seven games.
Calgary, currently on a two-game win streak overall and a four-game winning streak at home, is 6-2 at McMahon this season and 5-3 within the division. The Lions have the best road record in the league at 5-3 and are also 5-3 against West teams.
THE KICKOFF
This week’s contest is scheduled for a 7 p.m. MDT start on Friday, Oct. 26 at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. The game will be televised on TSN and RDS2 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 catch the game 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
After benefiting from eight turnovers the week before, the Stamps served up a season-high seven turnovers of their own last week, due mostly to the adverse weather conditions. The Stamps still managed to score 34 points in the game, the fourth time in the last six games they topped 30 points.
Calgary averages 29.0 points scored per game, second in the league to Hamilton’s 29.4. QB Kevin Glenn threw four interceptions in the game after throwing just six in his last five games combined. Glenn did pass for 283 yards and two touchdowns, marking the seventh time in his last eight games that he has passed for more than 250 yards.
RB Jon Cornish hauled in six of those passes for 100 yards and a touchdown, making it the first 100-yard receiving game of his career. Cornish leads the CFL in 1,302 yards rushing (the 14th best total in club history) and is still in the hunt for the CFL record for rushing yards by a Canadian, which is 1,437 yards set by Normie Kwong back in 1956. Cornish has 60 yards rushing in two games against the Lions this year and actually averages fewer yards rushing per game at home than on the road this season.
Cornish has rushed for 498 yards in eight home games (62.2 yards per game) compared to 804 on the road, a 100.5-yard average.
Calgary had 241 rushing yards four weeks ago against the Eskies but since then has only 205 rushing yards in three games. The Stamps are still second in the CFL in rushing with an average of 115.0 yards per game.
SB Nik Lewis has seven catches for 65 yards and raised his season totals to 95 catches (tops in the CFL) for 1,160 yards. Lewis has 12 catches for 159 yards against BC this season and 17 grabs for 213 yards in his past three games. SB Maurice Price caught his first touchdown as a Stampeder — a 56-yard pass from Glenn — and has 105 receiving yards in his last two games.
THE DEFENCE
The Stamps defence collected three more turnovers in the win and added a touchdown. The Stamps now have 14 takeaways in their past four games and are 3-1 in those games.
Calgary has 25 takeaways in its 10 wins and just seven in its six losses. CB Keon Raymond had a monster game with a team-high eight tackles, two sacks and a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown. The touchdown was the eight longest in Stampeders history and second return touchdown of over 100 yards in Raymond’s career (he holds the club record with a 117-yard return for a TD in 2011). It was also the fifth defensive touchdown of Raymond’s career.
MLB Juwan Simpson also had eight tackles and has 78 tackles on the season, the highest single-season total of his Stampeders career and sixth best in the CFL. DE Charleston Hughes also continues to tear it up with seven tackles (which tied his single-game best total) and two more sacks to bring his season tally to 10, second best in the league.
CB Derrius Brooks now has interceptions in back-to-back games, joining Raymond as the only two Stampeders DBs to pick off passes in consecutive contests this season. The Stamps registered a season-high six sacks in the game raise their season total to 34. DT Demonte’ Bolden picked up his second sack in as many games and now sits tied for second on the team.
THE SPECIAL TEAMS
KR Jason Armstead had a combined 251 yards on returns, including an 84-yard kickoff return in the first quarter — the longest of the year for Calgary and longest since 2009. Armstead has proven to be a solid replacement for the injured Larry Taylor with 577 return yards in four games and four straight games of more than 100 yards on returns.
K Rene Paredes did not attempt a field goal for the first time this season and, as a result, scored only four points. Paredes is still fourth in scoring with 142 points and is just four back of second place.
P Rob Maver struggled in the snow, averaging just 35.4 yards per punt. He sits fifth in league punting with a 43.1-yard average but first in net punting at 36.5.
THE OPPOSITION
The Lions looked impressive in clinching the West with a 39-19 win over the Eskimos despite some key injuries. The Lions may look to rest some of those injured players as their remaining games don’t mean much in the standings.
Starting QB Travis Lulay missed the game due to injury but backup Mike Reilly (#13) filled in admirably, passing for 276 yards, two touchdowns and a rating of 108.6. It was Reilly’s first start in three years in the CFL and the Lions offence managed 404 yards of offence and 35 minutes of possession under him.
RB Andrew Harris remains a legitimate threat to Calgary RB Jon Cornish’s nomination as the West’s top Canadian as he leads the CFL in yards from scrimmage with 1,727, a record for Canadian players. Harris also cracked the 1,000-yard mark in rushing last week and has scored 10 touchdowns on the season.
The Lions have been without their veteran slotbacks Arland Bruce and Geroy Simon over the past few weeks but SB Nick Moore (#17) and SB Courtney Taylor (#86) have stepped up to take their place. Taylor has 11 catches for 144 yards and two majors in the past three games while Moore has caught 15 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns in that stretch.
BC’s defence continues to lead the CFL in 19 of 25 categories and has stayed relatively healthy all season long. MLB Adam Bighill (#44) is the anchor in the middle with 88 tackles, seven sacks and three picks but gets plenty of help from the likes of DE Keron Williams (#9), who leads the CFL in sacks with 11, and a veteran trio of defensive backs. CB Dante Marsh (#31), DB Korey Banks (#24) and DB Ryan Phillips (#21) have all been with the Lions for at least seven seasons and each has won two Grey Cups with BC.
RB Tim Brown (#35) had 268 all-purpose yards in the win last week and is a threat on special teams with two career punt-return touchdowns to his credit.
THE OTHER GAMES
The playoff picture in both divisions gets clearer every week and could be almost all decided with this weekend’s slate of games. Winnipeg (5-11) is in Hamilton (5-11) on Saturday with the loser being officially eliminated.
Toronto (7-9, second place) can clinch second place in the East with a win over the Riders at Mosaic on Saturday while Edmonton (7-9, fourth place in the West) can clinch at least a crossover playoff spot with a road win over Montreal (10-6, first place).
NEXT UP
Calgary finishes the 2012 regular season on the road in Edmonton on Friday, Nov. 2. Calgary is 3-0 against Edmonton this season with wins of 31-30 and 39-15 at home and 20-18 in Edmonton.