By Stampeders.com staff

Turnovers and penalties were costly on a snowy Saturday afternoon at McMahon Stadium as the Calgary Stampeders dropped an 18-13 decision to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Calgary turned the ball over six times including five fumbles and committed 14 penalties.

“You can’t win a football game with that many turnovers,” said Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel, “especially the back-to-back ones in the fourth quarter when we are trying to get back in the game.”

“Penalties hurt us also — we had some nice gains that were nullified by penalties. Those are the two varying areas that we need to tighten up on.”

The Blue Bombers blocked a Rob Maver punt early in the third quarter and took over possession at the Calgary four-yard line. Two plays later, Winnipeg quarterback Robert Marve connected with Clarence Denmark for a four-yard touchdown pass.

In the fourth quarter, the Blue Bombers capitalized on a pair of Stampeders fumbles to kick a pair of field goals.

The setback snapped a four-game winning streak for the Stamps while the Blue Bombers put the brakes on an eight-game skid. It was Winnipeg’s first win at McMahon since Oct. 18, 2002.

Calgary falls to 14-3 with one more regular-season game to play while the Blue Bombers wrap up their season with a 7-11 mark.

Calgary plays in BC next week before returning home on Nov. 23 to host the Western Final.

“Truthfully,” said Hufnagel, “I was very glad that the weather was like it was today so we had an opportunity to play in adverse conditions — because we know Nov. 23 will be a little frosty, most likely.

“We just have to learn from this and understand the importance of doing the things that are necessary to protecting a football.”

The Stamps wasted a great ground game as both Jon Cornish and Matt Walter each ran the ball for more than 100 yards.

Cornish had 48 rushing yards on Calgary’s opening drive, which was capped by a 10-yard touchdown pass from Bo Levi Mitchell to Rob Cote.

Later in the opening quarter, a Cornish fumble led to a 21-yard Lirim Hajrullahu field goal to cut Calgary’s lead to 7-3.

Rene Paredes’ 28-yard field goal accounted for the only scoring of the second quarter and made the score 10-3 Calgary at halftime.

The Blue Bombers put 15 points on the board in the second half thanks to the Denmark touchdown and three Hajrullahu field goals while all the Stamps could manage was a Maver punt single and a safety conceded in the final minute of play by Hajrullahu.

Shawn Lemon recorded his 11th sack of the season for the Stamps and also took sole possession of the franchise single-season record with his seventh forced fumble of the year. He had been tied for the record with Brian Clark, who established the mark in 2006.