Unquestionably the best team in the Canadian Football League, and by such a vast margin it isn’t even funny. The Western Conference champion Stampeders have been unstoppable all year, and had they not lost in the last game of the regular season – opting to rest their starting quarterback, Bo Levi Mitchell – they would have recorded the best ever Canadian Football League regular season record. They’ve been that good, dominant in all three phases of the game.
Season record: 15-2-1
Regular Season finish: 1st, Western Conference. 1st overall.
It might be that the only team who can beat Calgary this year is Calgary themselves, with mental errors and the like, but we’ve scarcely seen any of that under first year head coach/Calgary legend Dave Dickenson. It’s been a season of brilliant execution on both sides of the football – not to mention the special teams department. This is a special team, without any glaring weaknesses, and greatness awaits on Sunday in Toronto.
Offensively, it’s the Bo Levi Mitchell show. The young quarterback is fast becoming a Canadian Football League legend. He threw for nearly 5400 yards, with thirty-two touchdowns against just eight interceptions in a stellar regular season, making superstars out of receivers Marquay McDaniel, DaVaris Daniels, Anthony Parker and others – too many weapons to count. One thing is for certain: Mitchell isn’t starved of threats on the flanks.
Mitchell made superstars out of his offensive line, too. They’re largely responsible for keeping him upright and able to make plays so often, despite plenty of personnel and position changes throughout the season. Tip of the hat here to Dan Federkeil, Spencer Wilson and the big eaters who’ve moved all over that line, gotten good results and definitely flown under the radar this season.
Then there’s Jerome Messam, the Canadian who ran for nearly 1200 regular season yards and eleven rushing touchdowns, adding nearly 500 receiving yards and an extra score to his impressive body of work. He has deceptive and startling quickness for a big man, and when he gets rumbling, opposing defenses are in strife.
On the defensive side, there’s little that Calgary can’t do. Their defensive line is ferocious, led by CFL sack leader Charleston Hughes. The corps of linebackers are anchored by Canadian Alex Singleton, who is arguably the best story of the second half of the regular season. His rise to prominence and a starting spot in the middle of the Stamps defense after the season-ending injury to defensive captain Deron Mayo has been nothing short of phenomenal.
In the secondary, Tommie Campbell and Ciante Evans lead a ball-hawking group who stamped their authority on the West Final, with cornerback Jamar Wall picking off BC Lions quarterback Jonathan Jennings for a defensive touchdown to give the Stampeders an unassailable 32-0 lead right on the stroke of half time. If that isn’t a nice representation of what that group of Stampeder safeties and cornerbacks can do, I don’t know what is.
Don’t sleep on Calgary’s special teams, either. The diminutive Roy Finch is one of the more dangerous returners in the Canadian Football League and his work on the opening kick-off of Sunday’s West Final gave the Stampeders great field position. He only needs a small hole to run through and once he’s in open field, he’s rarely stopped.
With Calgary’s offence being as good as it is, punter Rob Maver doesn’t get a lot of work, but when called upon, he’s a weapon the Stamps can use to flip the field. And then there’s Mr Automatic, Rene Paredes, who scarcely misses a field goal kick, a mainstay in Calgary, and one of the best kickers in the CFL.
Hard to go past the Calgary line-up. This is as good a team as the Canadian Football League has seen in years. Will they taste glory on Sunday?
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