It was high praise, indeed.

And well deserved.

Last season’s CFL sack leader Charleston Hughes was suitably impressed by teammate Micah Johnson’s three-sack showing against the Ottawa RedBlacks during the Stamps 43-39 home-opening victory Thursday at McMahon.

“He put on quite the performance, that’s what I can say,” said Hughes, who sits second all-time in sacks by a Stampeder with 89.

“I can’t recall the last time a defensive tackle got three sacks like that. The last one was probably Jim Davis, and that was a long time ago. He really made a name for himself and made a statement. I think that was his breakout game.”

While Davis did complete the feat with the Stampeders in 2009, the last interior defensive linemen to record three sacks in one game was Quinn Smith, who did it against the BC Lions in 2014.

In fact, the most recent three-sack game by a player wearing the Red and White was done by Hughes in 2016 in a game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The 6-foot-2, 277-lb. Johnson was happy with his personal effort, but he was more concerned with getting the win.

“It was cool,” Johnson said through a grin. “Just trying to work and get better every week. More importantly, we got the win, so that made it even better.”

Johnson, who had seven sacks in 2016, has almost reached half of that output in 15 less games. He now sits with 21 career sacks in 46 games with the Stamps. His three sacks in 2017 currently leads the team.

He knew that he needed to step up in the wake of a rash of maladies on the defensive line.

“We have a lot of injuries going on right now, so I want to be one of the guys that the team can lean on to make plays, especially from a defensive stand point,” said Johnson. “I want to keep making plays especially while guys like Cordarro Law and Ja’Gared Davis are out. They’re real hard to replace, so we’ve just got to keep working.”

In Week 1 of the season, the Stamps defence was unable to record a sack against RedBlacks QB Trevor Harris.

Defensively, they weren’t satisfied and Hughes made a bold statement saying that things would be different when Harris takes to the turf at McMahon Stadium.

“I said in multiple interviews that we were going to get Harris on the ground and we were going to sack him and we came through.”

“Getting to Harris is good,” Johnson said. “He’s a tough guy and he can stand in the pocket with the best of them. Trevor is real tough and he’s a top-notch quarterback.”