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November 19, 2017

Unfinished Business

To the skeptics, naysayers and cynics, the scoffers, ridiculers and deriders whose number swelled to legion over the past month, Bo Levi Mitchell has only one thing to say: Thanks.

“Attitude, man,’’ declared the Stampeders’ emotional and competitive fulcrum. “That’s what’s different from last year. Attitude.

“We’re not satisfied. We’re not complacent. We’re not taking anything for granted. We’re not thinking we’re this or we’re that.

“We’re not buying into any hype.

“We’re not listening to the ‘Oh, you’re so great …’ crap, because no one’s been saying it.

“This year there’s been doubt.

“So guys took a different light, a different mindset, to how we attacked this game.

“And so, to all those who thought we couldn’t do it: Thank you.

Since reconvening for training camp in early summer, the mantra echoing around McMahon Stadium has never wavered: Unfinished Business.

Atonement for last November’s 39-33 OT loss to the Ottawa Redblacks in the 104th Grey Cup game.

The slogan has been much a part of them, of their drive and ambition, it should’ve been embossed on their business cards.

That startling loss has festered like an open wound ever since, an entire calendar year’s worth of ache, of ongoing agony.

Well, the chance to finish the business, to suture the wound, has arrived, Sunday at TD Place Stadium in the home of their 2016 tormentors, versus the evergreen Ricky Ray and his Toronto Argonauts.

Another down-to-the-wire, life-or-death slog, 32-28 over the Edmonton Eskimos (Mike Reilly-led teams being notoriously harder to kill off than a salacious rumour) Sunday in the Western Final has propelled Dave Dickenson and Co. back to the title tilt.

Stampeder Ja’Gared Davis tackles Eskimo quarterback Mike Reilly Sunday. (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press)

Coming off a string of three consecutive losses to close out the regular campaign, appearing jittery early Sunday in falling behind 14 points in the first-quarter and unable to feel absolutely safe until cover man Pierre-Luc Caron recovered a spilled punt by Eskie returner Jamill Smith with but 13 ticks remaining on the scoreclock, the Stamps gutted it out.

This was a triumph of will more than skill. And that bodes well for what lies ahead.

“We’ve had a lot of people wondering about us the last few weeks,’’ admitted 11-season fullback Rob Cote, toting two-and-a-half-year-old Miller in the crook of his right arm. “And deservedly so.

“I think we’d be lying to say we had the swagger we usually have. But we showed up today. And we battled. With Mike Reilly behind centre, the weapons they have at receiver, that is a dangerous group.

“We needed a great over-all football game to beat them. All we wanted was another shot at this thing and now we got what we wanted.”

The scenario looked eerily familiar post-game, then to now, 2016 to 2017, late Sunday afternoon. Darkness setting in. The Stamp co-captains – Mitchell, Cote, Josh Bell, Rene Paredes and coach Dickenson – up on the makeshift stage underneath the scoreboard video, accepting the West Division Championship Trophy.

What has to change in the script is the ending.

“Because of last year,’’ replied Cote, “I think we’ll be better prepared. I think we had too much confidence going into that Grey Cup game. I mean, nobody was putting money on the Redblacks to win. Nobody. I don’t think anybody in Ottawa was betting on them.

“We heard all those things and, this is still tough to admit, somewhere in the backs of our minds we started to believe them.

“And you can’t believe them.

“Now we’re going to face a great football team with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. There’ll be no underestimating them.

“We’ve got to show up with the energy and the intensity we did today.”

The Stampeders head east Tuesday armed with a renewed sense of conviction and as much motivation as any group could desire heading into an afternoon of such magnitude.

“This time,’’ promised cornerback Tommie Campbell, “we’re going to have a crazy-sized chip on our shoulder.

“This is gonna be a whole different Calgary team. This is gonna be trouble for Toronto. You play to win a championship. Nobody remembers who finishes second. You play to be No. 1.”

And that wound that’s lain open all this time?

“The only way to stitch it up,’’ replied Campbell, with a cat-lapping-at-a-bowl-of-milk smile,“is to get that trophy.”

Amen, echoed his quarterback.

“Honestly, I thought we played with a desperation today, with physicality, with purpose,’’ said Mitchell. “We just wanted it.

“Guys in the locker-room love to hear people talk about ’em, tell us how great we are. That’s an athlete’s mindset. And, I guess, only human nature.

“But tonight shows you this group feeds more off the hate, the doubters, the people who think we’re not going to get the job done.

“We know that no matter what anybody says, now it’s going to come down to Double Blue vs. Red and White and it’s going to be a (hekcuva) battle.

“Unfinished business? Yeah.

“It’s time to go finish this.”