By Max Campbell
Stampeders.com

QB Bo Levi Mitchell won his 14th game in 15 career starts with a 33-23 Stampeder road win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday night. The third-year pivot went 18 of 28 for 258 yards to go along with pair of touchdown tosses.

Even though Calgary improved to 13-2 on the campaign and will now host next month’s Western Final, Mitchell realizes that the Stamps must continue to improve over the course of their final three games. 

“We won the game; I’m happy with that,” said Mitchell, who was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2010 FCS Division 1 National Championship where he led Eastern Washington to a come-from-behind victory. “I talked to the guys on the sideline between each play and there’s just little things that we can fix each play. With me being away for three weeks and the bye week, these guys were getting used to me (again) and what I like and prefer on certain things. Same thing for me, making sure I get the ball to them when they want it. So we’ve got to make sure that we keep getting better.”

Winnipeg had dropped six straight games coming in to the Week 17 battle and the Bombers were well aware that a loss versus the Red and White would deal a serious blow to their already bleak playoff hopes. With the Blue Bombers’ pressing need to defend their home turf, Mitchell made sure to not enter a state of complacency when the Stamps possessed a 16-point lead late in the third quarter.

“It was a last-ditch effort for them so they were going to bring it all four quarters,” explained the 24-year-old Texas native. “No matter how much (we) got up by, (we knew that) they were going to keep coming. You’ve got to make sure that when you do get up, you keep going.”

With five weeks to go before Calgary’s home playoff date at McMahon Stadium, Mitchell has achieved one objective, but is not about to look ahead to November 23. 

“Our first goal (was) to go out there and clinch first place, so we have that done,” expressed the signal-caller who connected with seven different receivers at Investors Group Field. “Now our second one is the Western Final and making sure we go out there and win a championship. But right now we can’t look past that, we can’t look past any of the rest of the games. We have to make sure we go out this next game and prepare as hard as we can.”