It’s not that offence wasn’t spectacular in the win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday, it’s just that the Calgary Stampeders defence looked almost superhuman.
Yes, Bo Levi Mitchell threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns, and Eric Rogers had over 150 yards in the Stamps’ 36-8 win. And everyone is talking about the one-handed catch Jeff Fuller made. Yes, the offence produced, but the scoreboard at the end of the game told the story of the explosive Calgary defence. Defence is the reason why Calgary won so definitively.
At the beginning of the game, just after Mitchell’s throw to the end zone was picked off, Keon Raymond flew through some eager Winnipeg receivers and intercepted the ball around midfield and blew away coverage, taking it almost to the end zone. Although his interception did result in a touchdown on the next play, Raymond missed out on his sixth career interception-return touchdown. He still broke the Stampeders franchise record for interception-return yards, so it’s still superhuman in my books.
That wasn’t the only interception. In the third quarter, defensive back Jamar Wall intercepted the ball around the Bombers’ 30-yard line and by almost making it look easy, Wall took it to the end zone. Wall also made five tackles Saturday evening.
The defence made it very hard on the Bombers’ rookie quarterback Robert Marve. The defence kept the pressure on Marve for most of the game and rushed many of his throws. If the pressure wasn’t bad enough, with superhuman speed, defensive linemen got to Marve in the pocket quickly and racked up sack after sack, five in total.
It wasn’t just one lineman causing problems for Winnipeg, it was four. Brandon Boudreaux had two sacks (and three tackles); Deron Mayo, Micah Johnson and Freddie Bishop III each had one sack. Bishop himself commented, “That’s what we like, we were able to get to the quarterback, keep him in the pocket and get him on the ground tonight… We wanted to keep him on his toes, keep him looking over his shoulder.” They did just that; Winnipeg’s quarterback was unable to register even one touchdown.
If you’re looking to bring the defence down to human level, the defence is still taking unnecessary penalties. These penalties were plaguing the Stampeders early on in the season. Even though they have cleaned up their act considerably in the past few games, illegal contact and pass interference calls crept up a few times in the game. It’s something that can easily cause problems.
The Stampeders have the luxury of going into their Labour Day classic series with a couple of confidence-building wins. But the Edmonton Eskimos will be looking to capitalize on anything they can to get a win over Calgary. So, it’s just something Coach John Hufnagel and Defensive Coach Rich Stubler should keep their eyes on.
There were many great plays that defined Saturday’s game. No matter how great Calgary’s offence was, and they were, it was all about the superhuman defence that kept the offence on the field longer and kept the Winnipeg Blue Bombers out of the end zone. That really is super for Stampeder fans.
