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July 30, 2017

About last night…

Shaquille Richardson celebrates a pick-six on July 29, 2017 (Photo by David Moll)

Here’s a closer look at Saturday’s 60-1 Stamps victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at McMahon Stadium:

Decisive decision: The 59-point differential was the largest ever in a Stampeders game and third-biggest in CFL history.

The Stamps’ previous largest margin of victory was 50, set in 1963 against Toronto (50-0) and matched in 1995 against Ottawa (57-7). Both of those contests were on the road, so the previous winning differential for a home game was 47 points (52-5), which was established in the 2010 Labour Day Classic against Edmonton.

The only larger discrepancies in a CFL contest were Montreal’s 68-point victory over Hamilton (82-14) in 1956 and a 60-point shellacking (63-3) by Edmonton against Ottawa in 1995.

The 60 points were the third-highest total by a Stamps team, surpassed only by the two occasions they put 62 points on the board – in 1994 against BC and in 1996 against Montreal.

Dino-to-Dino deed: No. 2 quarterback Andrew Buckley replaced starter Bo Levi Mitchell at the beginning of the second half, and a series of historic events ensued.

For one thing, when Buckley connected with Anthony Parker in the fourth quarter, it marked the first time in CFL history that one U of C Dinos alumnus had thrown a touchdown pass to another. It was also the first touchdown pass by a Canadian university product since Larry Jusdanis (Acadia) did it for Hamilton in 1996.

Until Buckley connected with Parker, no Canadian pivot had thrown a TD pass for the Stamps since Greg Vavra in 1985.

And yet, that only scratches the surface of the noteworthiness of Buckley’s performance, which saw him go 10-for-10 on pass attempts. Like how about the fact that one of those passes was to himself? Sure, he wound up losing four yards on the play, but let the record show that Buckley caught a pass attempt that was batted down by rushing Ticats defensive lineman Adrian Tracy and that it goes in the books as a completion.

It was the first catch by a Stamps quarterback since Kevin Feterik in 2003.

Later on the same drive, the Stamps lined up to go for a field goal, but the snap went awry and Buckley, now serving in his role as holder, scooped up the loose ball and tried to salvage the play. The first man he spotted downfield was, of all people, kicker Rene Paredes and the improvised pass came surprisingly close to resulting in a touchdown. Instead, a Hamilton penalty negated what otherwise would have been Buckley’s first incompletion of the night and the local product wound up hooking up with Parker on a much more conventional scoring play.

Hitting for the cycle (almost): When a team puts up 60 points, it’s not surprising that the job gets done in a variety of ways. On Saturday, the Stamps came very close to hitting for the cycle of scoring methods.

There were a half-dozen offensive touchdowns (including a hat trick of Jerome Messam rushing TDs), a defensive major (Shaquille Richardson’s pick-six) and a special-teams score (Roy Finch’s punt-return TD). There was a field goal, a two-point convert, six one-point converts and a rouge. The only thing missing was a safety.

Messam, by the way, became the first Stamp with exactly three rushing touchdowns in a game since Joffrey Reynolds in 2009. Jon Cornish had a four-touchdown game in 2013.

Overall, the eight touchdowns tied a team record accomplished four previous times, most recently in 1995.

The 213 points so far in 2017 represent the Stamps’ highest total six games into a season since they put up 257 points during 5-0-1 start in 2000.

Meanwhile, after allowing 70 points in the first two games of the current season, Calgary has allowed a total of just 51 points in the past four.

Marquay’s streak ends: Despite the 60 points and the 22 combined completions by three different Stampeders quarterbacks, Marquay McDaniel was shut out in the catch column.

That’s big news because McDaniel went into the contest with a reception in 78 consecutive games, the fifth-longest such streak in franchise history. The veteran slotback had caught a ball in every game he had played since getting shut out in an Aug. 25, 2012, outing against Saskatchewan.

Strangely, the streak comes to an end on a night quarterback Andrew Buckley (on a batted-down ball), offensive lineman Spencer Wilson (on a two-point convert) and third-year special-teamer William Langlais all made their first CFL receptions.

Hot at home: The win was the Stamps’ 13th in a row in regular-season action at McMahon, tying the second-longest run of home victories in franchise history.

In addition, Calgary is tied for the eight-longest home winning streak all-time in the CFL. The record of 27 was set by the 1992-95 Stamps.

In their current 13-0 run at home, the Stamps have outscored their opponents by a cumulative margin of 499-273. Calgary has scored at least 30 points 11 times during the streak and has surpassed 40 points on six occasions.

Saturday’s result also extended the Stamps’ winning streak against Hamilton to 11 games.