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By Stampeders.com Staff
Here’s a closer look at Saturday’s 34-31 road victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The backfield of tandem of Matt Walter and Tory Harrison continue to do good work in the absence of starting tailback Jon Cornish.
Walter registered the second 100-yard rushing game of his career and contributed two points on a convert. Harrison scored the first two touchdowns of his young CFL career — both on receptions — and his nimble 19-yard run late in the fourth quarter allowed the Stamps go to into victory formation and nail down their third win in a row.
Harrison has produced exactly 160 yards from scrimmage — 80 rushing and 80 receiving — in the three games he has played since Cornish was sidelined with a broken thumb and accounted for 14 points with two majors and a two-point convert.
Walter has run for 191 yards in the past two games and contributed one touchdown and one two-point convert to help the Stamps go 3-0 since the loss of Cornish.
Despite having three starters in sick bay, the offensive line got stronger as the game progressed and much of Walter’s good work on Saturday — 71 yards’ worth, to be exact — came in the second half. With Shane Bergman a late scratch, John Estes made his CFL debut.
In Eric Rogers’ early days with the Stamps, his colleagues very unoriginally dubbed him “E.R.” because of his initials.
Thanks to the receiver’s outstanding play, however, a new nickname is starting to catch on — The Paramedic. It’s a play on his initials — it stands for “Emergency Room” in addition to “Eric Rogers” — and also a reference to the fact that opposing pass defences are often in need of medical assistance after futilely trying to stop the Stamps’ rising star.
Rogers had seven more catches on Saturday and he recorded his third 100-yard game of the season. He also extended his streak of games with a touchdown to six when he rose out of a sea of Riders defenders to pull down a Hail Mary pass at the of the first half.
TSN has pulled out a nifty stat on Rogers — the California Lutheran product now has 83 touchdowns in his past 59 games in college, the arena league and now the CFL.
Rogers is the first CFLer since Weston Dressler in 2012 to record a touchdown catch in six straight games and in his next game he will try to match Travis Moore, who had a major in seven straight games during the 2000 season.
Terry Evanshen holds the Calgary record with a TD in 10 straight games during a stretch that started during the 1966 campaign and carried over into 1967.
After playing six of their first seven games against the East Division, the Stamps opened a run of six in a row against Western rivals and improved to 2-0 within their own division.
Calgary is 15-3 in its past 18 games against the West and 24-8 since the start of 2012 season. It’s a big part of the reason why the Stamps are slowly putting themselves in a strong position to host a playoff game for a fourth year in a row.
Brandon Smith was once considered one of the most underrated players in the CFL but after being recognized as a CFL all-star in 2014, the veteran defensive back is finally starting to get some of credit due to him.
It’s easy to understand how Smith flew under the radar for so long — he’s low key on and off the field and his forte is tight coverage on the opponents’ top receivers rather than interceptions or hard hits.
But on Saturday, Smith made a splash on the scoresheet by notching both an interception — just the ninth of his seven-year career — and his sixth career sack. He also had a knockdown that foiled a Saskatchewan first down and forced the Riders to punt.
“The most consistent defensive player since 2008,” tweeted Nik Lewis, Smith’s longtime Calgary teammate. “Only player in the same convo is Chip Cox.”
Here is more coverage from Saturday’s game
>> Game story
>> Stamps TV: Recap
>> Stamps TV: Hail Mary
>> Photo gallery
>> Locker-Room Blog: Tim Brown
>> Game stats