WINNIPEG — As 2-and-1 records go, the one the Calgary Stampeders have compiled this Canadian Football League season would have to be considered rather ugly one.
In all three games, their opponents have had a field-goal kick to win the game in the final minute. Toronto’s Noel Prefontaine made his in Week 1; B.C.’s Paul McCallum and Winnipeg’s Justin Palardy didn’t, in Week 2 and 3 respectively.
Yes, a win is a win, but the satisfaction from tonight’s victory will only go so far.
The defence is off the hook (although I strongly urge you to head to the Winnipeg Free Press website in the next little while and check out what should be some very provocative comments gathered by that paper’s world-class football writer Paul Wiecek regarding the Stamps’ tactics on defence tonight; those same comments will appear in my game story in tomorrow’s print edition of the Herald).
The offence? The Winnipeg offence was very inconsistent and managed just 333 yards of total offence; Calgary, meanwhile? Just 278 yards of offence.
I suggested to various players in the Calgary locker-room that their inconsistency was partly due to some terrific work done by Winnipeg’s defence. Suffice to say, there was some skepticism. Ken-Yon Rambo suggested that, in fact, the Bombers didn’t shut down the Stamps’ offence. The Stamps did. And there were nods of agreement all around.
So it’s clear that this offence is not running on all cylinders. Henry Burris is not on target with his passes; he badly overthrew Rambo in the end zone in the third quarter, and had troubles getting his timing down with his receivers for the third straight week.
Also concerning: the horrible discipline shown by the Stampeders. They committed an appalling 16 penalties for 161 yards, and were fortunate the Bombers didn’t take advantage of them more often. Two roughing-the-passer flags. Two 15-yard no-yards penalties. Just not smart football — not even close. The Stamps will not win the West Division playing the kind of football they did tonight, and they know it.
But they also have to be somewhat satisfied that they got through a challenging early stretch of the schedule, with victories in two tough stadiums, going into some time off before their July 23 home game against Edmonton.
So from that perspective: mission accomplished, even if it wasn’t very pretty.

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