By Mike Hardiman
Stampeders.com

The Pregame

The RedBlacks are next up for the Stampeders as they travel to Ottawa for their second road game of the season.

Last week, the Stamps (3-1) won another nail-biter, 26-25 at home over the Blue Bombers, while Ottawa (2-2) dropped its second straight game to the Eskimos, this time 23-12 at home. Calgary lost its only other road game so far this season, a 29-11 thumping at the hands of the Alouettes in Montreal in Week 2.

Calgary swept the two games played between the Stamps and RedBlacks in 2014 — 38-17 at McMahon in Week 7 and 32-7 in Ottawa in Week 9. Before the CFL folded the Renegades prior to the 2006 season, the Stamps had lost three straight games in Ottawa and were 1-3 in the brief history of that Ottawa franchise (2002-2005), the win coming in 2002 by a 26-22 score in OT.

This is the fourth game in five against an Eastern team for Calgary and the Stamps will play against the East twice more before finally meeting another Western foe in Week 9. Calgary is 2-1 against the East and 0-1 on the road while Ottawa is 1-1 at home and 1-2 against Western opponents. 

The Kickoff

When/Where: Friday, July 24 at 5 p.m. MDT at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa
Television: TSN, ESPN3
Radio: Newstalk 770, SiriusXM Channel 167
Internet: www.newstalk770.com

The Stampeders

The Stampeders sit at 3-1 but have won all three games by a combined total of just seven points including two one-point wins. 

The Stamps’ lowest margin of victory in 2014 was three points (a 10-7 win over Hamilton) and Calgary had a 6-1 record in games decided by seven points or fewer. Calgary won its 15 games last season by an average of 12.2 points compared to just 2.3 points this season.

One thing Calgary will be looking to do is get off to a better start as they have given up the most first-quarter points in the CFL at 45 and have the worst point differential after one quarter at minus-30 (Ottawa has yet to score a first quarter point and is minus-28, second worst).

The Stamps dominated Ottawa at TD Place in their first visit back to the Nation’s Capital last season, scoring 32 points and totaling 453 yards of offence while limiting the RedBlacks to just 159 yards of offence, the lowest total allowed by Calgary in 2014. Despite passing for 277 yards in the win last season in Ottawa, the passing game does not favour the Stamps in this game as their seventh-ranked passing attack will go up against Ottawa’s top-ranked pass defence.

There are good individual matchups on both sides of the ball however as red-hot SB Eric Rogers will see lots of DB Jerrell Gavins while Calgary’s corners Buddy Jackson and Fred Bennett will have their hands full with speedsters Maurice Price and Chris Williams.

Jon Cornish returned to form with 120 rushing yards against the Bombers and is now on pace for his fourth straight 1,000-yard season.

Calgary’s stingy run defence held Ottawa to just 104 rushing yards in the two games last year and it remains a good matchup for the Red and White this season as Calgary averages only 78.2 yards per game allowed along the ground compared to Ottawa’s average of 81.5 rushing yards, eighth best. 

Who to watch:

Eric Rogers – SB, #80
2015 stats – 17 receptions, 276 receiving yards, 16.2 yard average, 3 TDs; leads team in receiving yards and catches
Last game – 4 receptions, 71 receiving yards, 17.8 yard average, 1 TD – vs Winnipeg; led team in receiving
2014 vs Ottawa – did not play

Jon Cornish – RB, #9
2015 stats – 54 carries, 305 rushing yards, 5.6 yard average, 2 rushing TDs; second in CFL rushing
Last game – 15 carries, 120 rushing yards, 8.0 yard average, 0 TDs vs Winnipeg; led team in rushing, named CFL Top Performer
2014 vs Ottawa – 16 carries, 74 rushing yards, 4.6 yard average, 0 TDs in one game played – Week 9 in Ottawa

Marquay McDaniel – SB, #16
2015 stats – 16 receptions, 192 receiving yards, 12.0 yard average, 0 TDs
Last game – 2 receptions, 18 receiving yards, 9.0 yard average, 1 TD – vs Winnipeg
2014 vs Ottawa – 13 receptions, 179 receiving yards, 1 TD in two games played

Buddy Jackson – CB, #38
2015 stats – 20 tackles, 3 pass knockdowns – leads team in tackles
Last game – 5 tackles, 1 pass knockdown – vs Winnipeg
2014 vs Ottawa – 5 tackles in two games played

Freddie Bishop – DE, #95
2015 stats – 14 tackles, 2 tackles for losses, 3 sacks – leads team in sacks
Last Game – 3 tackles, 2 sacks – vs Winnipeg
2014 vs Ottawa– 1 tackle, 1 sack in one game played – Week 7 in Calgary

The RedBlacks                                                    

The RedBlacks reworked their offence after finishing last in the CFL in scoring but haven’t seen much of a statistical improvement offensively thus far in 2015, though they did match their win total from the entire 2014 season after just the first two weeks.

All of Ottawa’s current offensive numbers are comparable to last season’s and the RedBlacks are once again last in league scoring. QB Henry Burris (#1) has plenty of targets in his rebuilt receiving corps, all of them free-agent signings. WR Chris Williams (#80) highlights the group that includes SB Ernest Jackson (#9), SB Greg Ellingson (#82) and a couple of former Stampeders in SB Brad Sinopoli (#88) and WR Maurice Price (#7).

Williams is also a huge threat on returns with six career kick-return TDs.

No. 1 draft pick Alex Mateas (#56) and free agent SirVincent Rogers (#55) were brought in to shore up an o-line that gave up 56 sacks in 2014.

Ottawa’s defence has improved quite a bit from last season and features former Stampeders CB Brandon McDonald (#22) and LB Malik Jackson (#10) as well as CFL veterans CB Jovon Johnson (#2) and LB Damaso Munoz (#45). DE Justin Capicciotti (#93), LB Antoine Pruneau (#6) and DB Jerrell Gavins (#24) are all rising stars who are all in their second years with the RedBlacks. Ottawa leads the CFL in fewest passing yards allowed and most sacks and is second in takeaways and total yards allowed. 

Henry Burris – QB, #1
2015 stats – 140 attempts, 95 completions, 67.9% completion rate, 983 passing yards, 4 TDs, 6 INTs,  79.6 QB rating
Last Game – 39 attempts, 29 completions, 74.4% completion rate, 252 passing yards, 0 TDs , 1 INT,  80.3 QB rating – vs Edmonton
2014 vs Calgary – 52 attempts, 32 completions, 61.5% completion rate, 394 passing yards, 1 TDs , 3 INTs, in two games played

Brad Sinopoli – SB, #88
2015 stats –23 receptions, 243 receiving yards, 10.6 yard average, 1 receiving TD; leads team in receptions
Last Game – 5 receptions, 53 yards, 10.6 yard average, 0 TDs – vs Edmonton
2014 vs Calgary – did not play, member of Stampeders

Damaso Munoz – LB, #45
2015 stats – 16 tackles, 2 special teams tackles, 2 tackles for losses, 1 pass knockdown – leads team in tackles
Last Game – 5 tackles, 1 special teams tackle – vs Edmonton
2014 vs Calgary – did not play; NFL

Stats

Week 5 in the CFL

Friday, July 24 – Toronto (2-1) at BC (2-1)
Saturday, July 25 – Winnipeg (2-2) at Edmonton (2-1)
Sunday, July 26 – Hamilton (1-2) at Saskatchewan (0-4)

Bye : Montreal