The Calgary Stampeders can’t seem to get out of their own way lately.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the team had lost four straight games for the first time in 20 years and was in the basement of the West Division standings.
Doom and gloom settled in Calgary in the days preceding the game. The weather turned, bringing heavy rains, and the beginnings of fall temperatures provided a brisk environment for a portion of the 20,187 fans on the shady side of McMahon Stadium.
The imposing Alouettes, already playoff-bound, looked set to send the Stampeders further into this soul-searching tailspin, favoured by gambling sites by almost a full touchdown. What ensued was a knock-down defensive struggle, ending in a 19-19 tie.
The Stampeders roared out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, thanks to a pair of turnovers, and never trailed in the game, finally allowing a field goal on the final play of regulation to force overtime.
Typically, I write about the individual efforts of the Stampeders and the feelings of players and coaches about the end result. Given the rarity of ties in the modern CFL era, I thought it might be more fun to write about the six moments that made both teams snatch a kiss from their sister.
In no particular order, here is what I saw from McMahon.
Command Centre overturns Alouettes’ TD
The most obvious moment came on the first play of the second quarter.
The Stampeders were deep in their own zone and forced to punt. As Cody Grace received the ball, Montreal’s Sean Thomas-Erlington broke through the line and nearly took the ball right off his foot. The ball was then scooped up and taken into the endzone for a touchdown.
Replays would eventually show that STE had made contact with Grace’s plant leg, resulting in the touchdown coming off the board and being replaced by a 15-yard roughing-the-kicker penalty. That gave the Stamps a fresh set of downs.
Calgary would end up punting a few plays later and the ensuing Montreal drive would end in a touchdown, but the impact of a special teams score on the fragile psyche of a spiralling Stampeders team was lessened by that call.
Paredes’ fourth quarter miss — number one
Regular readers of this space are well aware that Rene Paredes has been on a typical heater this season. Coming into this week, the Stampeders’ veteran had only missed one field goal attempt this season, as well as a single convert.
Paredes has routinely made kicks from deep distances as well, having connected on 23 attempts of over 40 yards, including a perfect five-for-five from beyond 50 yards.
When the Stampeders lined up for a 51-yard attempt early in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to six, seeing Paredes put it off the upright was eyebrow-raising. It also foreshadowed our next moment.
Paredes’ fourth quarter miss — number two
Just two series later, the Stampeders put together a nine-play drive that ate up a huge chunk of the rapidly disappearing clock.
Peyton Logan had just run the ball down to the Alouettes’ 15-yard line when the official announced that the run would be negated due to a face-masking penalty on a Stampeders’ offensive lineman. Accounting for the negated yards, the Stampeders suddenly found themselves in first-and-25 — 26 yards further back than where Logan had been tackled.
After Dederick Mills ran into the pack at the line of scrimmage, the laundry soared again. This time it was for unnecessary roughness after the play and the Stampeders were scrimmaging second-and-39 from their own 52-yard line.
Following a 10-yard pass, Paredes again lined up to try and seal the game. This time the ball was pushed wide right, perhaps as an overcompensation from the previous kick that hit the left upright. Regardless, once again, the Stampeders were unable to increase the lead.
A fortuitous trip or a well-timed dive?
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Alouettes running back Walter Fletcher took the handoff from Cody Fajardo and ran toward the middle of the field before falling down in a better position for the field goal attempt.
This happened with just one second left and one has to be impressed with the timing.
It did appear at first glance that he stumbled as a result of contact with his own player, but the timing was nevertheless a daring risk taken by Alouettes head coach Jason Maas, who centred the ball but came within a whisker of losing the game in regulation.
Had the Stampeders been able to hold up the running back even slightly, the Alouettes would have lost.
Logan saves the day
On the last play of the first half, Jake Maier dropped back in an attempt to fire a Hail Mary down the field, only to have the ball knocked loose by Alouettes’ defender Mustafa Johnson. The big man picked up the fumble and scampered toward the Calgary end zone.
Speedster Peyton Logan turned on his afterburners and brought Johnson down at the five-yard line, saving a touchdown. With zeroes on the clock, the Alouettes could not capitalize on the turnover, instead taking what momentum they gained into the locker room at halftime.
Overtime drops
The Stampeders may never have been able to get more than the field goal they managed on the first series of overtime, but a pair of costly drops certainly didn’t help.
The first came on a flea-flicker that saw a first-down handoff tossed back to Jake Maier, who briefly looked downfield before checking it down to a wide-open Marken Michel. The receiver appeared to turn up-field before securing the ball, resulting in an incomplete pass.
The next play saw Dedrick Mills do nearly the same thing, albeit on a shorter throw, forcing the field goal attempt.
A chance to build
To a man following the game, from coaches to players, the Stampeders were buoyed by the result.
Taking the defending champion Alouettes through overtime and not losing the game was the focus in the locker room, even if some of them admitted they’d never been in a tie in their professional careers and were confused about how to feel.
It is also very clear that the team is hyper-focused on the game ahead against the well-rested Saskatchewan Roughriders, who are mired in a losing streak of their own and were watching this game from the comfort of a bye week.
With the Riders twice, Lions and Elks still on the schedule, the Stampeders season has a chance of recovery, but it has to start with a win next week.