By Geoff Crane
Stampeders.com
It had been a while — since August of 2014 in Ottawa, to be exact — since Joe West had broken the 100-yard receiving mark but the timing for a return to top form may have been perfect.
With one more game to go in the Calgary Stampeders’ regular season, the time for fine-tuning game plan and building chemistry is at an end. When the playoffs begin, teams that taste success are those who are usually firing on all cylinders.
“We’ve got some new guys that we’ve implemented into our offence,” says West, speaking of recently acquired Canadian running back Jerome Messam. “It’s been great to see that everybody comes in and we embrace the fact that we need to execute.
“We took full advantage of practice this week and the reps we were given to focus on being able to execute the game plan.”
For West and his teammates on the offence, 2015 has been full of a lot of highs and lows.
For every game in which the offence has looked unstoppable, there have been others that the offence seemed out of sync, resulting in some narrow victories.
While he acknowledges it hasn’t been smooth sailing all year, West feels everything is now coming together and the offence if finally building momentum for the post-season.
“We implement a lot of plays during practice each week,” says West. “For us to go out there (Saturday) and execute the plays we did – and we didn’t even go through all the plays we had on the call sheet – it’s really huge.
“Knowing that we have plays in our pocket that we can pull out any time is good. Now we’re just attacking things.”
Having caught eight passes – tying a career best – for 102 yards, West led the Stampeders in a sound win over the hard-luck Saskatchewan Roughriders.
It was West’s fifth 100-yard plus game and the first since the much-publicized game in Ottawa in which No. 85 put together an inspired effort, mere hours after learning of his brother’s tragic passing.
Finally, feeling all the hard work and preparation coming together, West feels he and the offence are clicking and is hoping to ride this momentum all the way through the playoffs. Hopefully, it will all culminate in a second straight Grey Cup appearance and his third in four years.
“Next week, we’re going to finish with a win and go into the playoffs feeling good about ourselves,” he says.
And how about that road through the playoffs?
Sunday’s win for the Edmonton Eskimos over the Montreal Alouettes means the Stamps will play in the West Semi-Final against the BC Lions.
The winner of that contest will earn a date with the Green and Gold at Commonwealth Stadium on Nov. 22, with a berth in the Grey Cup game on the line.
That’s not something West and his teammates care to focus on, however. Right now, the focus remains on the regular-season finale against the Lions.
Regardless of the route to the 103rd Grey Cup, coming into the playoffs hot is just what the Stampeders are hoping to do.
