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November 18, 2018

D-ominant

They say defence wins championships.

In this case, they certainly helped get their team to one.

It was a lights-out game for the Red & White defenders, who held the Winnipeg Blue Bombers without a touchdown in the Stamps’ 22-14 Western Final victory at McMahon Stadium Sunday evening.

“We came out and made a statement,” said defensive lineman Ja’Gared Davis. “We came out and let them know the Calgary defence is still the best defence in the CFL.”

Point proven.

“We started out as one of the best defences up here,” Davis continued. “We were trying to make history. And we fell off a little bit, we lost, we got out of character and stopped being ourselves. So we went back to the basics; flying around, being physical, 12 hands to the ball, and executing our plays – that’s what we did today.”

Number one is where they plan to stay, too.

“We just wanted to go out and play our brand of football,” said linebacker Alex Singleton, who had eight tackles on the night.

“We just wanted to go out and keep doing what we do. We don’t care what anybody says … We’re going to correct ourselves, we’re our biggest critics, and we’re going to be ready to play.”

There was one goal – make tackles.

Mission accomplished.

“We’ve been saying it for the last two weeks, or really all season, when we don’t play a good game it’s because we don’t make tackles,” Singleton said. “We’re always in the right spots; guys are doing the right things. But it’s just the little things, you know, making tackles, we did that tonight and now that’s why we’re the West champs.”

Along with those tackles, came a lot of pressure as the defence held Bombers’ quarterback Matt Nichols to just 156 yards.

Davis played an integral role in that accomplishment – recording two sacks in the second half to go along with his four other tackles.

“We knew we had to make him (Nichols) uncomfortable,” Davis explained. “Get him off his spot, get to him and get hands to the ball as much as possible.

“Nichols is one of the better quarterbacks up here in this league … When he has time, he can pick any defence apart no matter who it is.”

Prior to the contest, head coach Dave Dickenson said it would be a game won in the trenches.

“Those guys, they wanted it,” Singleton said of his defensive line. “Junior (Turner), Micah (Johnson), Derek (Wiggan), (Cordarro)Law, and Ja’Gared Davis. They wanted to win that game, they wanted it and they proved it out there.”

But it wasn’t just the men up front doing the heavy lifting.

“I wouldn’t be able to do what I did today without our secondary,” Davis said. “They played lights-out today. I can point out every guy on our secondary and say the play they made that helped me get in the backfield to create havoc.

“Without them, we wouldn’t be nothing.”

Davis and the Stamps now head into their third Grey Cup is as many years.

And this time, he’s more determined than ever to take it home.

“It means the world to me honestly – to be able to make it,” he said. “A lot of guys don’t get to go to the Grey Cup ever in their careers – even in a 10-year career – so for me to be up here and go three years straight that means a lot to me.

“But it’s going to mean the most at the end of the Grey Cup game when I’m holding the trophy.”

What can they learn from the past?

“The biggest thing we can take from the past few years is we can’t go in overconfident or conceited,” Davis said. “Because the past few years we were the clear cut favourite to win … and we didn’t show up in the Grey Cup the last two years. We always started off sluggish, started off slow, and it came and bit us in the butt.

“We have to come out just as hungry as we were tonight.”

That means there’s not much time to celebrate Sunday’s win.

It’s right back to business for the Stamps, as they head to Edmonton to take on the Ottawa Redblacks in the Grey Cup on Nov. 25.

“We’ve got to come out, practice, and prepare for Ottawa,” Singleton said. “This is the second time in three years we’re playing them, so we have to come out with the right mindset.”