The Calgary Stampeders came into the game against the Ottawa Redblacks undefeated at home, facing a team that humiliated them a few weeks ago to the tune of a 33-6 beatdown.
When the smoke cleared, or in this case thickened due to wildfires in the region, the Stamps were still on the wrong side of the scoreboard by a razor-thin margin falling 31-29 after Lewis Ward kicked a walk-off field goal.
Here’s what I saw from the press box:
Empty seats
I will get to the game in a moment, but the most troubling thing on display at McMahon was the sheer amount of space available in every section of the stadium.
A season low 17,692 fan attendance was announced, and typically that number is inflated as it represents tickets sold and not butts in seats.
With more than half the season done in Calgary, the average attendance remains below 20,000 in a stadium that has a capacity of almost 35,000.
There are a few big games to come with the Riders and Elks still on the calendar, but gone are the days when thousands of Edmontonians would bring their hundreds of teeth down the highway and watch the Labour Day Classic.
Last season saw a boost of around 4,000 fans above average for Labour Day and the Riders contest boosted attendance by about 6,000.
Spreading those extra fans over the season average would increase the number to slightly over 20,000 for the year, a substantial fall from grace from the team that averaged over 28,000 fans for 17 straight years between 1998 and 2015.
Since then, the numbers have been trending down for the team that plays in the league’s oldest stadium, with no plan on the horizon to fix it.
On-field results haven’t helped either, as the team has been falling in the standings since the last Grey Cup win in 2018, bottoming out at 6-12 last year, the first time in 14 seasons the team was under .500 to finish the year.
I don’t know what will bring fans back to McMahon. Winning should help, but they just posted their lowest number of the year with a four-game home winning streak on the line.
The Stampeders are trying many things, reaching out to new Canadians, opening the Coors Light Patio which is a standing-room-only set of bleachers in the corner of the end zone where fans can get beer at a reduced price, and feature bands and the like during halftime.
None of it seems to be working yet, although it may be early days to see if those investments pay off. The Stampeders ownership group is among the wealthiest in the league, but their focus does seem squarely on the biggest ticket in town, the Calgary Flames.
As such, it does a disservice to the long-suffering Stampeders fans who feel that given the relative wealth of the ownership group, they are still the ‘poor cousin’ when looking across the league at other teams and facilities.
New King of the Hill?
It’s no secret to hear that the Stampeders are thin at running back after Dederick Mills stepped away from the team for personal reasons.
Last week the team didn’t even dress a fullback and Peyton Logan was the only running back on the game-day roster. This week they added Kylin Hill to active duty, after signing the former Green Bay Packer and Ottawa Redblack on July 31.
Hill didn’t get a ton of yards with 38 on nine carries and 18 more through the air on three catches, but there were moments where he looked like he could make some noise. His first carry went for 13 yards, then his second saw him swallowed up for a loss.
Given Logan has been pressed into duty as a returner of late due to some difficulty at the position the last few weeks, he could absolutely use the break Hill can provide.
Logan had just four carries and one catch offensively but fumbled on the first possession of the game. That led to an Ottawa field goal and negated the strategy of receiving the opening kickoff to start the game.
With one game under his belt and 18 days to prepare for the Labour Day Classic against an Edmonton team that sits middle of the pack for average run against (4.8), Hill has an opportunity to run right into a starters role with a good performance.
Begelton goes over 5,000
Reggie Begelton has had a career full of ups, downs, and loop-de-loops you’d associate with a rollercoaster since coming to Calgary in 2017.
He spent the early part of his career flirting with being on the roster getting into 15 games in his first two seasons. He then broke out late in the 2018 campaign with a pair of games where he combined for 303 yards before breaking his arm and losing the rest of the year.
In 2019, he was Mr. Everything in the Calgary offence, piling up 1,444 yards in 17 games before signing with the Green Bay Packers in the offseason. With the pandemic and another injury suffered with the Packers, he was back in Calgary to finish the 2021 campaign and has been here since. Injuries continue to dog Begelton though, as he only has one full 18-game season as a pro.
Against the Redblacks, Begelton wasn’t targeted often, but he caught all four targets including a 50-yard connection that put him over the 5,000-yard mark in the fourth quarter to set up a touchdown. Those 5,000 yards have come in 77 career games.
After the game, Stampeders quarterback Jake Maier told the media that teams do their best to take Begelton away as a weapon, especially in second and long situations which explained his lack of targets.
“If you can get it to him on first down against more of a base defence, that’s great,” Maier said about the Stamps’ most experienced receiver.
“But on those second-and-longs, and even on second-and-manageables there is going to be a guy above Reggie and there is going to be a guy below Reggie. That comes with being a great receiver. But when he gets a chance to cash in those opportunities downfield, he did it last week, he did it again tonight. You have to make the most of it.”
Call me Ish
Ishmael Hyman has been wowing since entering the lineup.
Signing in the offseason, Hyman bounced around several American football leagues before joining Calgary in January. He got on to the roster in Week 9 and is building a rapport with Maier who found him for five catches on six targets, both game-highs.
The targets-to-catch ratio likely would have been perfect but for a very obvious pass interference call on Redblacks defensive back Brandin Dandridge, who dove desperately to defend what would have been a touchdown catch.
Hyman would use the same route to secure a 41-yard grab before sliding into the pylon. The play was ruled a touchdown on the field, but reviews showed the defender making contact with Hyman’s foot just before the goal line, placing the ball down at the one.
After the game, Maier praised Hyman’s speed and said the CFL rookie can be a great weapon for the Stampeders as he can “blow the top off a defence.”
Getting run over
I’m not sure what has happened to the Stampeders run defence this season, but they have been getting gashed all year long. Last in rushing yards against, last in average rushing yards against, last in tackles for loss, this defence can’t seem to get off the field.
Surprisingly, the team is second-best in the league when it comes to big plays surrendered, having only given up 13 plays that fit the category of rushes greater than 20 yards, passes of more than 30 yards, or returns over 40 yards, and field goal misses from outside the 30-yard line. Knowing that several of those plays have come on special teams including a Rene Paredes miss last week, the figure for huge plays against the Stamps is even more impressive.
But to build on what Maier said about Hyman earlier, does it matter if you keep the lid on things, if you don’t turn down the heat enough for the water to stop boiling?
If you take away the one-play kneel-down, the Redblacks had 13 drives, and the Stampeders forced punts on six of them. Another two-and-out was on their first series, where Ottawa was able to kick a field goal after a turnover in Stampeders territory.
Something is missing defensively and Dave Dickenson suggested their upcoming bye week may be coming at the perfect time to look for midseason help from NFL cuts to bolster a defence that is bending so far it may as well be breaking.
Touchdown Tommy triple take
Tommy Stevens is the league leader in rushing touchdowns after taking three trips into the end zone against the Redblacks.
Not sure there has ever been a lonelier three-touchdown performance in a post-game locker room, however, as I was the lone ink-stained wretch with questions for Touchdown Tommy. (I refuse to use the Wild Thing nickname.)
We spoke about the pride he takes in his role on the team and the whole short-yardage squad’s near perfection on the season as they have only been stopped once so far this year on third down.
I went to Stevens primarily though to talk about an odd play late in the game where he took his customary plunge forward, and after what seemed like a good amount of time, had the ball taken from him and returned the other way without a whistle.
Upon review, it was determined Stevens forward progress had been stopped and the Stampeders retained the ball, but it did take a while before the command centre did make the decision.
Stevens said that if he had done a better job holding onto the ball, there wouldn’t have been an issue, but he did think that earlier in the game whistles had been coming a little sooner than on that play. “I was already starting to get up,” the QB told me.
Dickenson was very demonstrative on the sidelines after the play but after the game added his perspective.
“They got it right,” he said several times while answering the question adding “There’s an overreaction when something goes wrong. In the previous game, they blew the whistle and we lost out on potentially a long return. So there is always an overreaction to something that is a critical potential missed call. It’s not surprising that they swallowed the whistles on it. He was sitting on the ground, or on top of a few guys for a couple of seconds, but guess what? They got it right.”
Time for a breather
The Stampeders sit at 4-6 on the season and head into their second bye week before returning to McMahon for the Labour Day Classic on Monday, Sept. 2. They’ll take on a suddenly resurgent Elks franchise that will likely be looking not only to build on recent changes in fortunes, but also be looking to get new owner Larry Thompson his first victory in the best rivalry in the CFL’s premiere event.
Before that happens, there may be changes on the horizon for the Stampeders as they gear up for the stretch run, with eight games left in the season and a 17-year playoff streak in the balance.
