The 2010 Calgary Stampeders' season met its end Sunday night against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They battled valiantly at first and even jumped out to a 11-0 lead, but that wasn't to last for long. Under increased attack from the Roughriders, the Stampeders faded down the stretch before passing away quietly at home.
There were a multitude of potential causes listed by local authorities, and most were quite valid. The Stampeders simply were the worse team down the stretch in Sunday's game; their vaunted running game stalled and their defence became surprisingly vulnerable (conceding 14 points in the second quarter alone. Their special teams also couldn't take advantage of their opportunities, namely on Ryan Grice-Mullen's fumbled punt that Wes Lysack almost picked up for an easy touchdown but bobbled, allowing Jerrell Freeman to make a potentially season-saving play. The Stampeders couldn't stop Darian Durant (pictured above evading Corey Mace) were undisciplined throughout, with Brandon Browner alone taking two crucial pass interference penalties and Romby Bryant adding one for excessive celebration. All of these aspects factored in to their eventual loss, but perhaps the root cause was hubris.
Going into Sunday's game, the Stampeders had every reason to be confident. After all, they'd put up a CFL-best 13-5 regular-season record, had the league's most proficient offence by points scored and the West Division's top defence by points allowed. They'd had a league-high eight players named to the CFL all-star team, and certainly had plenty of talent at every position on the field. They were also hosting the game and looked to keep the home team's two-year streak of triumphs going, and they were heavy favourites heading into this clash.
It's certainly possible that the Stampeders started reading their own press clippings and replaying the stellar wins from this year in their minds, concluding that they barely needed to show up to win. That isn't necessarily the case, and I don't doubt that their players were genuinely fired-up and passionate. I think they may have started to believe their own hype, though, and started to think they were several degrees of magnitude above the Riders. A look at the matchups shows that wasn't the case; this was a battle of two good teams, and some of us even picked the underdog Riders to triumph. Calgary had been the more dominant team this season, but neither team had been terribly consistent, and both had critical flaws.
In the case of the Stampeders, another part of the reason for their demise was a lack of depth in the secondary. Browner and Dwight Anderson did a relatively good job of shutting down Andy Fantuz and Weston Dressler Sunday, but Calgary wasn't able to effectively cover Chris Getzlaf or Cary Koch. That wound up costing them, as both picked up receiving touchdowns on the day and were crucial elements of Saskatchewan's victory.
Still, on paper, Calgary had the talent to fight through this. They even showed they could draw up a winning game plan against Saskatchewan with that 11-0 lead after the first quarter. That's when the hubris may have particularly kicked in. With everything going well, the Stampeders appeared to start coasting. That let the Riders back into the game and allowed them to take (and eventually hold) the lead. Calgary fought back at the end and could have survived with a couple of different bounces, but in the end, it wasn't enough.
a league with this much parity, the Stampeders certainly thought this was their year. For the 9-9 Toronto Argonauts, getting pasted in the East Final was still worthy of note, as it marked a substantial improvement from where they'd been and was considerably farther than most had expected them to go. For the 13-5 Stampeders, a West Final loss is more of a downer.
The Stampeders had a considerably better season then last year, and maybe it isn't such a bad thing that there's a mood of depression around them right now; that signifies that they aren't content to just turn in good regular-season performances and leave it at that. They may have been left holding their heads in their hands, as backup quarterback Daryll Clark was (pictured at right), but that might bode that better things are to come. The demise of their season proves the Stampeders weren't as far above the pack as they may have thought; if they take that knowledge to heart and work to avoid such hubris in the future, their story could change from tragedy to comedy.
Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry
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