So we meet again.

Last Friday night witnessed the Stampeders and Ottawa RedBlacks go head-to-head in a grueling, double overtime thriller that ended in a tie game.

Provided just a short week to recover, the two teams will hit the turf in their third straight game against one another on Thursday night at McMahon Stadium in the Red and White’s home-opener.

There’s no doubt a solid – and bitter – rivalry has formed between the two clubs.

“Any time you play a team over and over and over, you start knowing what each other does and creating some dislike,” said Stamps Head Coach Dave Dickenson. “Plus, the games are so competitive. I don’t see why that will change this week, so we’re expecting a dog fight.”

Having played quite a bit more football than usual in the Week 1 OT tilt, there were plenty of bumps and bruises nagging the Stamps players.

Combined with a short-week, the players were only subjected to two practices between games.

“We cut down on our reps, tried to save their legs as much as possible,” Dickenson said. “Hopefully we’ll play fast.”

Playing a team two games in a row isn’t a common thing for the Stamps — save for the Labour Day Classic and rematch with Edmonton.

“Ultimately, it’s a little bit easier as a coach because you don’t have all the film breakdown and all that,” said Dickenson. “Sometimes you just guess what they’re going to do because you don’t have anything new to go on. You ran your plays, so now you hope your guys execute them better. I don’t feel that there are a lot of surprises in a back-to-back. In the end, you run what you run and they run what they run. Whoever can see the play and make quick decisions and a lot of times it comes down to mental toughness. Hopefully we’ve got that.”

Both teams experienced a mix of successes and failures in their Week 1 match-up and they’ll be looking to correct those mistakes in round two.

Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, who threw for 376 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions last Friday, is expecting some adjustments on both sides of the field but no radical changes.

“Not too much,” Mitchell said of the short week affecting his preparation. “The short week is harder when you’re playing a new team. This week we’re playing the same team. We know there are going to be wrinkles, but they’re going to be who they are and we are going to be who we are.

“No one’s going to re-invent the wheel for a game just after six days. We’ve had enough time to prepare for these guys and we’re excited to go out and play our second game of the year.”