CFL.ca Photo/Johany Jutras
The scene has resembled what you might see in Game of Thrones. The remnants of a village, silent, smouldering, the earth scorched.
Fortunately, for the Toronto Argonauts and likely for the Ottawa REDBLACKS, the devastation is only temporary. Both teams share in the experience of getting annihilated by the Calgary Stampeders. Toronto fell 41-7 on June 23 and on July 12, Ottawa took a 27-3 drubbing that felt worse than the score suggests. That loss wrapped a tough back-to-back set that saw Calgary win 24-14 two weeks earlier. That game was closer, with the Stamps pulling away from the REDBLACKS in the fourth quarter.
The aftermath of the lopsided losses has been the same in both cases. Argos coach Marc Trestman called it a failure in all three phases of the game. REDBLACKS coach Rick Campbell talked about needing a spark and an inability to respond.
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Bo Levi Mitchell has been instrumental in Calgary’s continued dominance since his taking of the offensive reigns in Calgary. (The Canadian Press)
While both teams are left soul-searching long after Calgary splits town and fans and media wonder what these teams are missing, there’s something else to consider here: What if Calgary is just that good?
Matt Cauz digs into it a little bit in his Monday Morning Quarterback, but the Stamps are playing at an extremely high level out of the gate this year.
Not only are they dominating defensively (necessary echo of Cauz’s piece: They’re allowing 9.5 points per game!), they’re top-three in most offensive categories, with Bo Levi Mitchell one of just three QBs in the league over the 1,000-yard passing mark already (he’s third behind Jeremiah Masoli and Mike Reilly). They’re getting contributions from everywhere. Rookie running back Don Jackson is second in the league in rushing. Micah Johnson (four) is just behind Saskatchewan’s Charleston Hughes (five) for the league’s sack-lead. Terry Williams missed the second Ottawa game but has already made an impact, scoring a touchdown on punt returns.
It’s still early days in the season, but this Stamps team could be another special one. They’ve had the benefit of exclusively East opponents out of the gate and will get Montreal this week before they head into what should be a tougher stretch of the schedule. They’ll see Saskatchewan twice, BC, Winnipeg and then have the Labour Day series with Edmonton.
Health — Bo Levi Mitchell’s knee is the key — might be the only thing that can slow this team down as it tries to find the ending to the season that has eluded them the last three years.
While they’re eviscerating teams in that journey, the soil doesn’t stay scorched in their wake. The Argos bounced back from that bleak looking result in Toronto last month with a win over Edmonton. The sun came up on Friday after that loss in Ottawa, too, and while they’ve got things to figure out, the REDBLACKS will more than likely get back on track with BC visiting on Friday.
Four games in, the Stamps have two blowout wins to their name. In their other two wins, they turned it on late and pulled away, getting to that unmatchable level by the fourth quarter. They could well be 9-0 or 8-1 by that midseason back-to-back with Edmonton, which would have them en route to their fifth first-place finish in the last six years.
The Argos and REDBLACKS can tell you that the sun does come up after those bad summer losses. They can also tell you confidently that if you’re one of the last teams standing in November, those scorched earth moments can quickly fade from your memory.
