The Calgary Stampeders dropped a 20-18 decision to the BC Lions on Saturday night from BC Place. In Dave Dickenson’s head coaching debut and Marquay McDaniel’s 100th career game, the Stamps completed just 16 passes and rushed for only 50 yards in the Week 1 loss.

“I think we let that one slip away,” said Dickenson. “But they made the plays when it counted. There was a lot of mistakes, on both sides. Certainly seemed like ours were magnified. We did some uncharacteristic things. Why? We’re going to look into it and fix it. We knew it was going to be a process, we feel like we have to build something here, but we would have liked to have better execution than we did there.”

On the second play from scrimmage, Bo Levi Mitchell found Kamar Jorden down the near sideline for a pickup of 48 yards. But just as the Stamps entered the red zone, T.J. Lee came around the edge to strip Mitchell of the ball, which was rapidly recovered by Mic’hael Brooks.

The following series saw Calgary respond with a sack of their own as fourth-year defensive tackle Micah Johnson dragged down Jonathon Jennings on second down near midfield.

Opening the scoring on the night was the Rene Paredes of the Stampeders, albeit with only a single point, as the Concordia alum failed to split the uprights on his 47-yard field goal attempt.

However, the special unit would soon rebound in a major fashion. Ex-Lion Glenn Love shot through the line to block a Richie Leone punt with just over one minute remaining in the first quarter. Paredes would also connect on his next time out to extend the lead to four.

With just over 11 minutes remaining in the opening half, Charlie Power was left untouched to record a second punt block for the visitors. Love would get credited with the recovery as the Stamps offence then set up at BC’s one-yard line, but was stopped short of the goal line on three straight tries.

Leone would be blocked yet again just moments later as this time it was Vancouver native Adam Berger with the deflection.

A reception of 25 yards by Lemar Durant would soon set up Calgary in position to finally find the end zone, and Jorden ensured the Stampeders found pay dirt. The 18-yard touchdown – and first of his CFL career – added six more points to the scoreboard, but Paredes’ struggles continued with a miss on the ensuring convert.

The Stamps nearly pitched a shutout through 30 minutes, but the Leos concluded the second quarter with a 43-yard boot from Leone to cut the deficit to seven.

In the third, Bryan Burnham’s 33-yard gain enabled BC to escape the shadows of their own goalposts with the receiver finding free space in Calgary’s zone defence. Once the nine-play possession came to a halt, Leone was good from 31 yards out to pull within four points of the Red and White.

Five-foot-seven speedster Roy Finch then exploded up the middle for a 55-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, and Durant’s acrobatic snag while falling to the turf gave Jerome Messam the opportunity to power over the pile for a two-yard TD run.

Following a prolonged 4:30 trip down the field, the Lions punched it in from one yard out courtesy of a handoff to Chris Rainey. The two-point conversion fell incomplete as the third quarter came to a close with a five-point discrepancy.

But Rainey was not done there, capitalizing on the sputtering Stampeder offence once the unit failed to move the chains. The former Florida Gator ran back a Rob Maver boot 72 yards for a momentum-swinging major before Nick Moore tacked on an additional two points.

Back-to-back connections between Mitchell and Anthony Parker preceded offensive lineman Dan Federkeil making his first career reception coming off a play-action pass. Unable to register a touchdown, Paredes attempted a 31-yard field goal to tie the contest at 20 apiece, yet was wide right of the target.

“I’ve gotten so used to him popping it through,” said Dickenson about Paredes. “But it’s the full team. I have a lot of faith in Rene. I thought we would come out of there 20-20.”

The Stamps will now prepare for their 2016 home-opener on Canada Day against the 0-1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Friday night’s kickoff from McMahon is at 8 p.m. MDT.