Stampeders beat Lions 42-15, advance to Grey Cup

The Calgary Stampeders are hoping that two-straight bye weeks won’t impact them this afternoon when they host the BC Lions in the CFL’s West Division Final.

Dickenson chose to rest and not play Mitchell against the Als, so Calgary’s quarterback will not have thrown a game ball in nearly a month.

Bo Levi Mitchell – The West Division nominee for Most Outstanding Player, Mitchell has established himself as one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks of his generation. “It’s traditional Stampede, traditional Calgary and we get to bring that to Toronto and share it with a whole bunch of people there”.

Burris, 41, was Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson’s backup when they were Stampeder teammates from 1997 to 1999.

“Playing against Calgary will be insane because a lot of those guys I’m still friends with”, he said. “We had a attractive day, a lovely night”.

The Stampeders earned their second Grey Cup berth in three years with the win. Ottawa, despite its regular season, deserves to be in the Grey Cup.

The coach was asked if being in a covered stadium would appeal to him.

Mitchell completed 21 of 28 passes, throwing scoring strikes to Marquay McDaniel, DaVaris Daniels and Lemar Durant and a 2-point convert throw to Kamar Jorden. Rene Paredes kicked a 34 yard field goal with less than three minutes left to give Calgary a 42-7 lead. Calgary’s front seven led the way in stopping the run, giving up only 72.4 rushing yards per game on the ground to lead the league in that category, while the passing defence wasn’t far behind, finishing third giving up 290.2 yards through the air per game. I still expect us to come out and play well right from the whistle. “No rust at all”, Durant said. I know he’s played longer than that, but that’s when he really seemed to up his game.

“The ultimate goal is to win the Grey Cup”. Bo-Levi Mitchell and that Calgary offense once again seemed to nearly score at will and are going to be a handful for the Ottawa RedBlacks, a team who did tie with the Stampeders earlier in the season. The Lions rallied past Winnipeg last week 32-31 to advance. “I’ve been on two other teams since then so I don’t think about it”. If you want to know who the Calgary Stampeders are, go back and watch their touchdown drive in the fourth quarter that pushed their lead to 39-7. “He’s gonna hurt you, which he did”.

Lulay replaced Jennings to start the second half, but Jennings was back in before the end of the third quarter. They dictated the play at the line of scrimmage; Burris made brilliant throws on both his touchdown passes; and the defence, beyond that Adarius Bowman late 57-yard touchdown, held the Eskimos in check.

“They hit us in the mouth early and we never counterpunched”, Lulay said. Calgary’s execution was superb in a 42-15 thrashing of the B.C. Lions.

There was no magical comeback to be found this time around for the B.C. Lions.

“They’re definitely sore”, said Dickenson. You could sense there was a calm there.

“We’ve got a good team”. He’s done a lot of great things in this league for a very long time. More than ourselves. By saying that, it’s going to take one more huge challenge.

“I think being a veteran and having been there before I can help the young guys who haven’t been there or any of the guys who haven’t been there”, he said.