By Mike Hardiman
Special to Stampeders.com

The Pregame

The Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders meet in the 2013 Western Final with a trip to the 101st Grey Cup game in Regina on the line.

The Stampeders won the West and the right to host the final by finishing in first place with a 14-4 record. It’s the third time since 2008 the Stamps have finished in top spot in the West and the first time in club history that they have ended the season with 14 wins.

The Riders finished second with an 11-7 record and hosted the West Semifinal last week, coming from behind to beat the BC Lions by a 29-25 score. This will be the fourth time in the past five seasons the two teams have met in the playoffs and the third time since 2009 they have met in the West final. This will also be the third time in four years the two teams have played a playoff game at McMahon.

Calgary won the most recent meeting, a 36-30 thriller in last year’s semifinal.

The two clubs met three times in the regular season in 2013. Calgary won both games played at McMahon — 42-27 in Week 7 and 29-25 in Week 18 — while the Riders beat the Stamps 36-21 in Regina in Week 2.

Calgary finished with the best home record in the CFL, an 8-1 mark, while the Riders were 5-4 on the road.

The Kickoff

When/Where: Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2:30 p.m. at McMahon Stadium in Calgary
Television: TSN, NBCSN (tape delay)
Radio: News Talk 770, Sirius Satellite Channel 157, XM Satellite Channel 160
Internet: www.newstalk770.com

The Stampeders 

The Stamps had last week off after dropping the final regular-season game of the year, 26-7 to the Lions.

The Stamps enter the contest having won five of their last six games and the 14 wins for the season are the most under current head coach John Hufnagel. The Stamps placed 10 players on the West all-star team — the most since 2010 — and will represent the West in five of the six CFL player award categories, the most in club history in a single season.

RB Jon Cornish will need to continue his regular-season success against the Riders and QB Kevin Glenn will need to lean on veterans WR Maurice Price and SB Jabari Arthur as well as newcomer WR Jeff Fuller in the passing game.

Calgary averaged 377 yards of offence against the Riders in three games — including 135.3 yards rushing — and averaged 24 first downs. Calgary averaged 32:42 minutes of possession in the two wins but had only 24:02 of possession and 58 yards rushing in the loss.

Calgary’s linebacking crew of Juwan Simpson, Keon Raymond and Deron Mayo will be charged with containing Rider RB Kory Sheets and QB Darian Durant. The three combined for 22 tackles against the Riders (Raymond and Mayo did not start in the Week 2 loss) while Sheets totalled 308 rushing yards in the three games.

Calgary averaged 349 yards of offence and 125.3 rushing yards allowed against the Riders this season. 

Who to watch:          

Jon Cornish, RB, #9
2013 stats – 258 carries, 1,813 yards rushing, 7.0 yard average, 12 rushing TDs – West Division nominee for both Outstanding Canadian and Outstanding Player; Western All-Star
Last Week – 4 carries, 14 yards, 3.5 yard average, 0 TDs –  Week 19 versus BC
2013 vs Ssk. – 36 carries,  326 yards, 9.0 yard average, 5 rushing TDs in three games

Kevin Glenn, QB, #15
2013 stats – 335 attempts, 223 completions, 66.6% completion rate, 2,710 passing yards, 18 TDs, 7 INTs, 100.5 QB rating – second in CFL in QB rating, set career high in QB rating
Last Week – 8 attempts, 5 completions, 66.6% completion rate, 45 passing yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 77.6 QB rating –  Week 19 versus BC
2013 vs Ssk. – 45 attempts, 32 completions, 71.1% completion rate, 338 passing yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT

Maurice Price, WR, #17
2013 stats –  57 receptions, 788 receiving yards, 13.8 yard average, 7 TDs – second on team in receiving, 17th in CFL
Last Week – 1 reception, 5 receiving yards, 5.0 yard average, 0 TDs – Week 19 versus BC
2013 vs Ssk. – 15 receptions, 130 receiving yards, 8.6 yard average, 0 TDs in three games

Charleston Hughes, DE , #39
2013 stats – 39 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 18 sacks, 1 INT, 3 pass knockdowns, 3 forced fumbles  – West Division nominee for Outstanding Defensive Player; Western All-Star
Last Week – 1 tackle – Week 19 versus BC
2013 vs Ssk. – 12 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 forced fumble in three games

Juwan Simpson, MLB, #12
2013 stats – 56 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 6 sacks, 1 INT, 6 pass knockdowns, 1 fumble return, 2 forced fumbles  – Western All-Star
Last Week – 2 tackles  – Week 19 versus BC
2013 vs Ssk. – 14 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble in three games

The Roughriders                                                               

The Roughriders and Stampeders are pretty evenly matched as a look at the stats table will point out.

The two teams are within a couple of ranks of each other in most categories and the Riders have the No. 2 offence and No. 1 defence to contend with. Saskatchewan averaged 29.3 points scored against Calgary compared to the Stamps’ season average of 22.9 points allowed per game and the Riders gave up an average of 30.6 points per game to the Stamps, right on Calgary’s season average of 30.5.

QB Darian Durant (#4) was sharp both though the air and on the ground last week and passed for 435 yards and four TDs in last year’s playoff game at McMahon. Durant has lots of weapons to deploy in RB Kory Sheets (#1) and three 1,000-yard receivers, the most on any one team this season.

Sheets was second in CFL rushing with 1,598 yards and SB Weston Dressler, SB Chris Getzlaf and WR Taj Smith all cracked the magic 1,000-yard mark.

Saskatchewan’s D-line is one of the best with 38 sacks totalled by the starting four. DE Alex Hall (#99) and former Stampeder DE Tearrius George (#93) were both Western all-stars.

S Tyron Brackenridge (#41) joined DB Dwight Anderson (#33) on the all-star team while LB Craig Butler (#28) had his best season moving down from safety. The Riders defence led the league with 25 interceptions, but only had two against the Stamps. 

Who to watch:

Darian Durant, QB, #4
2013 stats – 531 attempts, 325 completions, 61.2% completion rate, 4,154 passing yards, 31 TDs, 12 INTs, 95.7 QB rating – Western All-Star
Last Game – 23 attempts, 19 completions, 82.6% completion rate, 270 passing yards, 2 TDs , 0 INT; 6 carries, 97 yards rushing – West semifinal versus BC,  CFL Offensive Player of the Week
2013 vs Cgy. – 97 attempts, 63 completions, 64.9% completion rate, 738 passing yards, 6 TDs, 1 INT in three games

Weston Dressler, SB, # 7
2013 stats –  70 receptions, 1,011 receiving yards, 14.4 yard average,  9 TDs –  Western All-Star
Last Game –  6 receptions, 43 yards, 7.2 yard average, 2 TDs – West semifinal versus BC
2013 vs Cgy. – 19 receptions, 224 receiving yards, 11.8 yard average, 1 TD in three games

Dwight Anderson, DB , #33
2013 stats – 53 tackles, 5 INTs, 9 pass knockdowns – Western All-Star
Last Game  – 5 tackles, 1 pass knockdown – West semifinal versus BC
2013 vs Cgy. – 15 tackles, 2 pass knockdowns in three games

Stats

Here are the two teams’ offensive and defensive totals and league rankings after last week’s games

The CFL this Week

Sunday, Nov. 17, 11 a.m. – Eastern Final – Hamilton (10-8) at Toronto (11-7)