Why try to make sense of the unexplainable.
Just sit back and enjoy.
Or sweat.
Depending on your viewing perch.
“I don’t know what it is about Ottawa,’’ marvelled Stampeders’ wideout Kamar Jorden. “Always these crazy games.
“Man …
“So much going on.
“I felt like when it mattered, though, at the end, we came through with more big, clutch plays.”
Eighty-two points. A couple long-distance returns for touchdowns. Eight hundred and seventy yards cumulative offence.
Fumbles. Sacks. No lead secure. Special teams homeruns, blocked punts, you name it, the game had it.
“Hey, CFL,’’ joked Stamps’ coach Dave Dickenson, “Not every exciting, is it?
“Every time I thought we had a little distance, kinda had a chance to separate ourselves, they came right back. Give them credit it on that.
“Once again, we played a little sloppy. I thought we had good rhythm early. It was back-and-forth, back-and-forth.
“I didn’t want to give them the ball back late. I was aggressive on the play calls. I didn’t think our defence had anything left in the tank.”
The Stamps and Ottawa RedBlacks, meeting for the third time in a row, followed up a 31-31 OT stalemate in the nation’s capital last week with Calgary prevailing – just – by a 43-39 count.
An 11th straight W on home turf and a 1-0-1 record to open their 2017 account.
Dating back to Grey Cup Sunday, last Nov. 27, the two sides have played three times, two of those requiring overtime, and a total of 10 points separating them.
With the screws (predictably) tightening Thursday in Calgary’s home-opener, on the heels of a Mossis Madu Jr. TD scamper that had whittled the Stampeders lead to 36-33 with a shade over eight minutes remaining, Bo Levi Mitchell dusted off his MOP pedigree, choreographing the drive of the night, going 6-for-6 for 85 yards through the air, keyed by 48-yard dropped-out-of-the-night-skies to Jorden bomb.
Then soft-shoeing up into the pocket and away from traffic, he pitched his third TD strike of the night, again to No. 88, from eight yards away. The Stamps had eaten 4:21 off the McMahon Stadium scoreclock.
“At the end of the day, you want to play four quarters,’’ said Jorden. “But we know when it comes down to those clutch situations, we, the offence, have to step up and make plays.
“We’ve been in these tight situations in the last three games, all against Ottawa, so we know what it feels like.
“I live for those situations. I love making those type of plays. Those are the plays people remember.”
So, done and dusted?
Now, now. Don’t be foolish.
RedBlacks quarterback Trevor Harris required one play, a single slingshot of his right arm, to hook up with Diontae Spencer on a 65-yard pass-and-romp play to shave the lead once more.
Only another 48-yarder from the from Katy, Tex., gunslinger, this time to Lemar Durant on the ensuing drive, dragged the Stamps out of a positional hole, providing the patrons at McMahon the luxury of exhaling.
However, nervously.
“What I expect playing Ottawa,’’ said Mitchell. “High-powered, explosive offence, guys that can make plays all over the field, can score the first time they touch the ball. Then special teams, defence, scoring on both sides.
“Heckuva game all around.
“We were a bit conservative in the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, when you’ve gotta have it, let us air it out and that’s what happens. The ball gets moved down the field.
“If we want to be the team we want to, we’ve got a long way to go. That’s what I love about this locker room and this coaching staff. Even a win like that, putting up 40-plus points, against a team that threw for 450 and put up a lot of points and put up a specialty (team) TD themselves, we’re still hungry for more.”
While content with the outcome, amazed at the to-and-fro, given-and-take, Dickenson fully understands the need for all-around improvement.
“I don’t think our consistency is anywhere close to where it needs to be offensively,’’ he critiqued. “Honestly, we’re not stuffing it up there in the run game. We’re making mental errors in the pass game.
“Bo is chucking the ball pretty damn well. That’s a good thing.
“It’s Week 2. We hope we’re not playing our best ball in Week 2. We’re undefeated and it feels like everyone’s playing poor. That’s not the case. But we have such a high standard.
“The guys believe in themselves but it’s not very good football. We’d better look in the mirror or else pretty soon we’ll be getting losses.”