Consistency.

That’s been the name of the game for the Stampeders for the better part of the last six years.

It was way back during Weeks 2 and 3 of the 2012 campaign when the Red and White last lost back-to-back regular-season games. Since then, the team has gone 101 games without two consecutive losses, which is a Canadian professional football record.

By a long-shot.

The next longest streak in modern-day CFL was 51 games, set by the Edmonton Eskimos from the start of the 1979 season to Week 4 of the 1982 season. Which means after next Friday’s game in Hamilton, the Stamps will have doubled the Esks’ record.

The 2017 edition of the Red and White have already clinched a home playoff game which means they are guaranteed to finish first or second in the West. And although the team’s consistency is remarkable, they know it doesn’t really matter if you aren’t hoisting the Grey Cup at the end of November.

“It’s nice to win,” Stampeders general manager John Hufnagel told Postmedia last month. “It’s a lot, lot better to win a championship.

“We’ve been very fortunate. We have had good records and we have been up there in the dance. We’ve had fun at the dance and we’ve been disappointed at the dance.

“Each year is its own challenge and each year we work hard to try to win a championship.”

Calgary has gone an impressive 81-18-2 over this 101-game stretch. And while the Stamps haven’t lost consecutive games during this span, there have been 140 times when a CFL team has.

Let’s take a look at each team’s longest run without back-to-back losses since the Stamps started their 101-game stretch. Those that are active are listed with a (*)

BC – 28
Hamilton – 23
Edmonton – 21
Winnipeg – 17*
Toronto – 16
Ottawa – 15
Saskatchewan – 11*
Montreal – 10

Looking at our neighbours to the south, the longest an NFL team has gone without back-to-back losses is 60 games, by the San Francisco 49ers from 1995-99.

The next best record is held by the New England Patriots, who went 57 games without consecutive losses from the final game of 2002 to the middle of the 2006 season. Notably, Hufnagel was on the New England staff for 2003, the first full season of the streak. After losing two games in a row in 2006, the Pats then went 50 in a row from 2006-09 without back-to-back losses. So that’s 109 games with only one two-game losing streak!

“We’ll take that as a compliment,” Hufnagel said about being compared to the Patriots. “I don’t know whether it’s fair or unfair. I’m not complaining about the comparison.

“Obviously I had the privilege to work for that organization for a year,” continued Hufnagel. “I know what they promote and honestly I have tried to instill some of that in the program that I started back in 2008.”

The Stampeders have never lost three games in a row since Hufnagel first joined the team that season as general manager and head coach.