Dave Chidley/CFL.ca
CALGARY — Heading into a game against an undefeated team, yet to win a game at home, the pressure was on for the Calgary Stampeders.
Quarterback Jake Maier led the league in passing yards going into the battle, but also led in interceptions with 11, and was determined to have a better showing against a defence he knew would put the pressure on to force him to turn the ball over.
The motivation was less about what the Stamps needed to do to beat the Toronto Argonauts, but how they could set themselves up for long term success.
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“I mean we were pretty motivated, but honestly when you play a team that good, it’s more about focusing on your game plan, we executed our gameplay, defence was awesome, we had the big break there for a touchdown, we just did enough on offence,” Maier told TSN’s Farhan Lalji after the victory.
“We maintained drives, we were motivated but at the same time it’s like we can’t put too much energy and focus on being motivated to beat someone, you gotta be more focused on what you’re doing and you’ve gotta do your job, and I feel like we did that tonight.”
From start to finish, the Stamps showed that they could compete with the best of the best – from getting on the board early thanks to a long drive getting the first downs needed to get Tommy Stevens into the end zone, to putting the pressure on Toronto’s two quarterbacks and nearly grabbing multiple interceptions, it was one of the better showings from the Stamps this season.
Completing 22 of 24 attempts in the game for 149 yards, Maier slowed down the pace of his game, attempting over 40 passes in the last couple of games, and connected with six different receivers as the Stamps found ways to march downfield and set themselves up in the red zone for a score or for René Paredes to add to the tally.
“It just makes it more of a complete win for us, obviously I had an emphasis on not turning the ball over, that’s a defence that causes more turnovers than anybody in the entire league, so we had to do that, and it was just an executed game plan and hats off to everybody,” said Maier.
The Stamps winning their first game at home and handing the Argos their first loss of the season may have looked like a statement win to some, but to Maier and the rest of the team, the upwards trend is the main focus, not just one victory.
“The message is that we finally played a clean, complete game as a group, but we’ve gotta do that more than once. If we want to send a message, it’s gonna be weeks and weeks and weeks, not just one night.”
