Here’s a closer look at Friday’s 23-5 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at McMahon Stadium in the Stampeders’ regular-season finale:

Three down

On Nov. 3, 2007, the Stamps were shaded 25-24 at BC Place as Calgary’s losing streak was extended to three games.

That stood as the Stamps’ most recent three-game losing streak until exactly 10 years later and Friday’s defeat against the Blue Bombers, which followed setbacks against Saskatchewan and Edmonton.

The losses may not have impacted the standings – Calgary locked up first place in the West a couple of weeks ago and will still host a playoff game on Nov. 19 with a chance to advance to the 105th Grey Cup in Ottawa – but the team will nevertheless focus on sharpening its game and finding the best lineup in order to get back to the form that saw the Red and White start the season 13-1-1.

History has shown that in and of itself, a poor regular-season finish does not necessarily spell trouble for the playoffs.

Just as a for-instance, the 1971 Stamps were 0-3-1 in the final four games and just 1-5-1 in their last seven before shaking off the cobwebs and knocking off Saskatchewan in the West final and Toronto in the Grey Cup to win the second championship in franchise history.

The 2010 Montreal Alouettes suffered a pair of horrendous losses in the final three weeks of the regular season – 40-3 against Hamilton and 30-4 against Toronto – before getting their act together in November.

Just a year ago, the Ottawa RedBlacks lost four of their six final scheduled dates before coming back to life when the games mattered most.

Still, no one in the home locker room at McMahon Stadium believes that it’s simply a matter of flipping on a switch and the team has two weeks to find a solution. The return of ailing bodies such as Marquay McDaniel, Ja’Gared Davis, Brandon Smith, Ciante Evans and Marken Michel, who all sat out the regular-season finale as a precautionary measure, would be a positive step, too.

Rory’s story

Appropriately, Stampeders receiver Rory Kohlert played his 100th career regular-season contest against the club with which he spent the vast majority of his career.

Kohlert played 85 contests with the Blue Bombers from 2012-16 before signing with the Stamps as a free agent in March.

The Regina native took the winding path to get to the 100-games milestone – he was undrafted out of the University of Saskatchewan, signed with Hamilton as a free agent, was cut at the end of 2011 training camp and spent a year out of football before hooking up with the Bombers.

Though he spent five years with Winnipeg, there was a detour along the way as he was claimed by Ottawa in the expansion draft in December of 2013 but wound up back with the Blue Bombers when his contract expired and he became a free agent a couple of months later.

One thing Kohlert’s CFL resume is a little light on is post-season action – the Western Final in two weeks will be just his second career post-season game.

Roy returns

Despite the frigid conditions at McMahon and despite missing the three previous games due to injury, Roy Finch turned in a solid performance for the Stamps on Friday as he had 163 combined kick-return yards including a nifty 51-yard kickoff return.

His 40 punt-return yards boosted his season total to an even 1,200 – a franchise record and the third-best total in franchise history.

Only Henry (Gizmo) Williams with Edmonton in 1991 and Chris Wright with Baltimore in 1995 have ever amassed more yards on punt returns in a single season. Also, Finch’s average of 16.4 yards on punt returns is the third-best figure in league history.

Despite missing a total of five games this season, Finch had 1,914 return yards and he now has a total of 4,165 return yards in two seasons with the Red and White.

Turnover tally

It was an ugly night for the Stamps in many categories on Friday including turnovers.

Twice Calgary gave the ball back to Winnipeg because of failed third-down gambles and the quarterback tandem of Andrew Buckley and Ricky Stanzi combined for three interceptions and two fumbles due in large part to the fact the duo was under constant pressure from the Winnipeg defence all evening.

Friday’s result notwithstanding, the Stamps had an excellent season in the turnover department as their season total of 25 is a new team record.

Countdown to the Western Final

The Stamps know they’ll host the Western Final on Nov. 19 and their opponent could be one of three teams.

Winnipeg clinched second place on Friday and will face either Edmonton or Saskatchewan in the Western Semi-Final on Nov. 12. The winner of that game will be at McMahon a week later.

Calgary has had recent West final matchups with both Saskatchewan (2013) and Edmonton (2015) but it’s been 52 years since the Stampeders and Blue Bombers squared off in a division final. In fact, it’s so long ago that the 1965 confrontation between Calgary and Winnipeg was under the old best-of-three format.