Calgary Stampeder Thread

[jerrym]

Bo Levi Mitchell's goal is to go undefeated.

If Bo Levi Mitchell had it his way, the Calgary Stampeders would never lose a game again.
He’d never have to take the disappointing, head-hung-low walk off the field, never have to explain what went wrong to members of the media and never have to feel the disbelief of an overtime loss in a game late in November.
Finishing an entire season without a loss may seem far fetched but it’s not impossible.
The 1948 Calgary Stampeders remain the CFL’s only team to have a perfect regular season, finishing their campaign with a 12-0 record. They were 2-0-1 in the playoffs and went on to defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders to win the Grey Cup. ...

2016’s Stampeders were as close to a perfect season as any team has been in recent memory.
The Stamps were without a loss from Week 2 all the way until their season finale in Week 19 – a loss against the Montreal Alouettes that head coach Dave Dickenson elected to rest most of his starters, including Mitchell.
After that stellar season, Calgary solidified themselves in history with the longest single season win streak at 14 games and the longest unbeaten streak at 16 games – after a loss against the BC Lions in the team’s opening week, and the loss in the season’s ender, a Week 3 tie against the Ottawa REDBLACKS was the only blip in the Stamps’ impressive run.
Mitchell himself also set the most consecutive wins by a starter at 14.
And when asked about matching last season’s success in 2017, the Calgary quarterback confidently said, “I’m going to go undefeated one year.”

https://www.cfl.ca/2017/04/29/mitche...go-undefeated/

“I’m going to go undefeated one year.” - @BoLeviMitchell has lofty goals but is quite confident in them.

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— CFL (@CFL) April 29, 2017

[jerrym]

After a 15-2-1 winning season that ended with a loss to a 8-9-1 Redblack team, the Stampeders will be playing with a chip on their shoulders because of their haunting memory of their loss. Bo Levi Mitchell, Marquay McDaniel, DaVaris Daniels and Alex Singleton talk about how the Grey Cup loss still affects them below.

Bo Levi Mitchell waited four long months to watch the video evidence of the nightmare that was the 2016 Grey Cup.
Until then, he needed no reminder thanks to his subconscious working overtime every night as he tossed and turned.
“I was having dreams about each play and how I could have done it differently,” the Calgary Stampeders quarterback says. “You wake up and you think you’re a champion.” Every morning, Mitchell had to come to grips all over again with the bitter truth. Yes, the Stampeders dazzled in a 15-2-1 regular season. And yes, they won five trophies – including Mitchell’s hardware for most outstanding player – at the CFL awards show. It’s so crazy – so hard to describe,” Mitchell says. “You’re playing a team that’s 8-9-1. They have a losing record. You almost expect to win …” His voice trails off. “As long as you don’t do what I did.” Mitchell threw eight interceptions through 18 regular-season games last season. In the Grey Cup, he uncharacteristically tossed up three picks.
But Mitchell, 27, has plenty of company when it comes to Stampeders with regrets over how the championship went down.
Slotback Marquay McDaniel wishes he hadn’t jammed his shoulder in the first quarter, forcing him to sit out and leave Mitchell without his most dependable target. Linebacker Alex Singleton bemoans the numerous missed assignments and blown coverages that allowed an aging Henry Burris to pile up 39 points. “You don’t win games doing that,” Singleton says. “The defence just wasn’t clicking. It was definitely our side of the ball.”
Then there was the play debated by armchair quarterbacks all over the country. With time ticking down on second-and-two – and the Stamps two yards away from a Grey Cup title — head coach Dave Dickenson tasked third-string quarterback Andrew Buckley to sweep right as part of an option play. The RedBlacks stymied Buckley, leaving Dickenson open for criticism about why he didn’t ask Jerome Messam to pound the ball up the middle.
“Actually, Ottawa messed up but it worked out in their favour,” McDaniel says. “They didn’t cover Anthony Parker, who was in motion. They didn’t cover him, and he came back to the side he was supposed to come to. But Ottawa didn’t cover it right and since they didn’t cover it right, it ended up working to their advantage. It’s just football. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, then it’s `Why didn’t you throw the ball?’ You live with it. Dave is a great play caller. If they line up right and run their defence a little bit different, then it might have worked out.”
It might have worked out, but it didn’t. And so the Stamps set out to recreate the regular-season fairytale of 2016 but with a happier ending.
“Honestly, I think we might have needed that loss even with all the success that we had,” says wideout DaVaris Daniels, the CFL’s rookie-of-the-year. “It shows us that even if you win that many games, it is tough to win the Grey Cup. You have to put that work in now to win that. You can be that close and still fall short.”
McDaniel is a cagey eight-year veteran, so he realizes better than most the magnitude of the missed opportunity. “I’m not taking anything away from Ottawa,” says McDaniel, 33. “They came to play. They came to play and they punched us in the mouth, and we didn’t respond. It’s going to be a long season. That’s the thing about age. You enjoy playing games, but the playoffs are what matters. You wait to get that point and try to get a Grey Cup.”
It snowed Monday in Calgary, but the Stampeders — one year older and one year wiser — realize time spent in the off-season lifting weights and studying game film could spell the difference come November. Gone are the likes of defensive end Frank Beltre (New York Jets), receiver Bakari Grant (Saskatchewan Roughriders), linebacker Glenn Love (Saskatchewan Roughriders), defensive back Adam Berger (Ottawa Redblacks) and defensive lineman Zach Minter (Saskatchewan Roughriders.) But Mitchell, McDaniel, Singleton and Daniels are back, along with much of the core.
“You take what happened and you use it,” Singleton says. “You’ve got to use it as a chip on your shoulder. You’re a professional. You need to be able to show up the next day and do it all over again.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...423/story.html