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October 21, 2017

Stamps pay price for subpar play

Bo Levi Mitchell during a game on Oct. 20, 2017 (Photo by David Moll)

Perfection is the ideal. The aim.

“We want to be perfect,’’ said Micah Johnson, in an uncharacteristically, eerily subdued Calgary Stampeders locker room on a cool, rainswept Friday night. “Or at least as close as possible. That’s why this hurts.

“But that’s professional football. You can come out any week and get beat.

“Not that we were complacent or anything like that, but sometimes you need a reminder. Well, we got one.

“You don’t get wins just by showing up.”

The clinch is on hold. Temporarily.

The streaks are over.

The Stamps’ inner sanctum in their digs hadn’t been this funereal since Oct. 10, 2015, the last regular-season loss at McMahon Stadium, 15-11 to the Edmonton Eskimos. After that, a 17-start run of celebration.

As well, they’d strung 11 in a row together, all venues, this campaign.

Yet the world has not come to an end as we know it, despite a 30-7 clunker to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Only one win over their closing two starts or a single Winnipeg Blue Bombers loss and first place, the bye week and the West final hosting assignment is theirs.

Johnson recorded a pair of tackles and a sack in Friday night’s loss (Photo by David Moll)

A 13-2-1 record remains the envy of the league.

Still.

“It was three-phase poor effort by our team,’’ summed up coach Dave Dickenson. “Special teams have been talking like they’re special. Not tonight.

“Defence played hard but so undisciplined. Selfish, selfish penalties. And then the offence basically didn’t show up. We had one OK drive and after that, we made no plays.

“They thoroughly outplayed us. They deserved to win.

“It’s the way things work in the CFL and all pro sports. Sometimes you have a stinker. I’ve been around ‘em lots. Didn’t see it coming tonight. Really didn’t.

“But … we haven’t been practising well, haven’t been practising with urgency. And I harp about how you play like you practise.

“Well, we did tonight.”

What didn’t go wrong? Receiver Marken Michel was lost on the first series to a hamstring pull. Bo Levi Mitchell had his gong rung and suffered through one of his poorest statistical days – 14 for 27 for 136 yards and two interceptions – as this franchise’s name-above-the-marquee man.

The punt coverage team was torched for a 61-yard TD return by Christion Jones. The defence hung tough but offset their grit and resilience with an epidemic of dopey infractions.

“We’ve gotta come out and play,’’ murmured DB Jamar Wall. “We’re not as good as maybe we think we are.

“It’s gonna take everyone – I mean everyone – to win this Grey Cup. Yeah, we were the best team record-wise but they came in and outplayed us. Statement of fact.”

Jamar Wall and Shaquille Richardson team up for a tackle on Friday night (Photo by David Moll)

Compounding the misery, Duron Carter, the lightning rod for so much distracting controversy this week, made his much-gnawed-over switch to cornerback a memorable one, delivering the KO three minutes into the fourth quarter.

Thieving a Mitchell pass intended for Juwan Brescasin, Carter set off on a merry chase, reversing field, shedding would-be tacklers, serpentining 37 yards – officially, distance travelled might’ve been twice that length – into the end zone to push the Riders into a 28-7 lead.

The reigning MOP was only just back in the game after a series on the sidelines going through concussion protocol, the result of a late hit from Riders defensive lineman Makana Henry that drew a roughing the passer call and wiped out another pick-6, this one by Ed Gainey.

“It’s a physical sport,’’ said Mitchell afterwards. “I took a hit. They asked me all the questions and I answered them all – Score from last week, what day of the week it was, what the score was, the down and distance.

“Answered ‘em all.

“I felt fine. I wanted to get back in there and help my team.

“Then made another bad play.”

The discipline problem – 12 penalties for 112 yards – particularly galled Dickenson.

“We lost our composure, which I don’t like to see as a coach. Our guys … they gotta understand they can play with fire, have emotion and all that, but you have to control it and not put yourself in a bad situation.

“Effort has nothing to do with execution. If you’re not executing, doing the right things, and play off each other, play as a group of 12, it’s not gonna work.”

Wall could only shake his head when reminded of the torrent of hankies his group initiated.

“We definitely had some stupid penalties. They’re a chippy team, a chirpy team and they goaded us into a lot of stuff.

“In doing that, we let them dictate the tempo of the game. We played into their hands. That’s not us. We’re used to setting the parameters.”

That glittering neon may have momentarily dimmed as a result of Friday.

But nothing tangible, nothing meaningful, changes. If, that is, the warning signals the Riders set off are addressed.

“Each one of us has to be honest with himself and make corrections, man,’’ chided Wall. “We don’t lose often. You can say: ‘Oh, it was bound to happen some time.’ We can’t look at it that way.

“We’ve got a group of guys in here that take it very personal.

“It starts with ‘you.’ You’ve got got take it upon yourself to be better before anybody starts pointing fingers.

“Is this a wake-up call? It better be.

“This wasn’t good enough. You play up to the standard you set for yourself. And that, tonight, was not it.”