All season long they were the two best teams in the CFL so it’s only fitting they will clash for the right to head to Toronto for the 104th Grey Cup. Your BC Lions are set to invade Calgary for the Western Division Final this Sunday afternoon (1:30PM PT/TSN/TSN1410/ESPN 3) at McMahon Stadium. It is the sixth time in league history the two clubs will meet to determine who represents the West in the league championship game. Following last week’s epic comeback win over the Blue Bombers, Wally Buono knows his Lions have their work cut out for them against Calgary squad that went 15-2-1 in the regular season. “They were by far the class of the league in terms of their level of consistency and how efficient and well they played,” Buono said.
The Stamps’ dominance can be attributed to the fact they are perhaps the most balanced team in the CFL. Bo Levi Mitchell led all quarterbacks with 32 touchdown passes and his 5, 385 passing yards were second in the league, behind Mike Reilly and ahead of the 3rd-place Jonathon Jennings. Jerome Messam had more rushing yards than any other back and their offence allowed both the least amount of turnovers and sacks. On the other side of the ball, they allowed the least amount of points and sacked the quarterback more than any other squad.
One edge you could argue the Lions do have is momentum. Calgary locked up first place on October 10th and in addition to their first round playoff bye also had the final week of the regular season off. Add it all up and they will not played a “meaningful” game in six weeks.
Dave Dickenson insists his group will not be worried about rust. “I think it did help us to get away from it a bit,” the head coach told stampeders.com. “I think we were running out of gas. We had three practices last week and I felt like the energy was way higher than at any stage in the last 4-6 weeks. I don’t really feel it (the layoff) is an excuse. I think our guys would rather have that rest and any team that has the bye is going to take it.”
“I have been on both sides of it and I’ve always wanted to be on the Stampeders side, finishing first and worrying about the rest after that,” Buono said. “As you saw last week, the games are very intense and they take a toll on you emotionally and physically. For us, it’s an emotional high but there is a price to pay for that.”
Here are some other storylines for Sunday’s Western Final:
All hands on deck?
Both Manny Arceneaux (concussion protocol, ankle) and Shawn Gore (concussion) are listed on the 46-man roster. Gore took part in full practice this week and appears to have no setbacks, while Arceneaux was back in practice gear Friday and looked to be moving around and running routes with no difficulty. His ankle will be drained before a final decision is made before game time.
“I expect to play. You can’t keep a man down too long,” Arceneaux said. “It wasn’t a concussion, it was just a hit that I took that kinda wiped me out and hit the reset button, but it is what it is. It’s football. It’s a collision sport, those things happen. It’s all about getting right back up.” Gore was taking first team reps. from the start of the practice week and looks to be fresh after sitting out the final two regular season contests. He originally suffered his concussion on October 1st against Ottawa. Having both receivers available will give the Lions a much better chance at pulling off the upset. Eric Fraser missed practice on Thursday and Friday after tweaking a groin, but hopes to suit up and play his usual role on special teams.
To Be The Best, You Must Beat The Best
That’s the motto Mike Edem is using as he and the defence prepare to face Mitchell and the highly potent Calgary attack. In the three regular season meetings, Mitchell passed for 937 yards, six touchdowns and of course helped engineer that big 4th quarter comeback on July 29th before the Stampeders prevailed 44-41 in overtime. Simply out, all Bo has done is win. The Eastern Washington product has a career regular season record of 43-7-1 and a Grey Cup ring in 2014. “Bo sees everything. He knows coverages, he undertands defences, he gets the ball out quick, he knows where his checkdowns are and he’s a real cerebral quarterback,” Edem said. “We have to make sure we come out and execute our defence and if we have 12 guys doing their job then we’ll be alright. We’ve got to be able to protect the field from sideline to sideline.” Mitchell’s favourite targets in 2016 have been Marquay McDaniel ( 83 catches for 1,074 yards), DaVaris Daniels (51 for 885) and Anthony Parker (51 for 654). The fact they only had one receiver eclipse the 1000-yard mark again speaks to how balanced they have been on both sides of the ball. Bakari Grant will return to their receiving corps after being out with injury since September 17th.
X Factor (s) Alert
In less than two full seasons with the Lions, Chris Rainey has made a habit out of terrorizing the Stampeders. His 72-yard punt return was the difference in a 20-18 victory back in week one and he also had a rushing major in that game. On July 29th, Rainey opened the scoring with a 95-yard punt return touchdown at McMahon Stadium. Overall, Rain Man has five touchdowns as many career meetings with the Stampeders. He also proved to be a big difference maker last week after Arceneaux went down, hauling in four catches for 57 yards and playing a big role in flipping field position in the second half. The Florida Gators product lives for these big games so you can expect him to play a big role in the Lions’ fortunes in their quest for a Grey Cup appearance. The other intriguing cog in the Lions’ wheel is Jeremiah Johnson who provides a pretty good response to what the Stampeders have in Messam. The Lions, as you may recall, led the entire CFL in total rushing yards and Johnson’s legs proved to be a big turning point in last Sunday’s comeback, most notbaly the 40-yard touchdown run right before half that cut Winnipeg’s lead to 25-12. If the offensive line performs to the level it has been playing at on this four-game win streak, number 24 will play a major role.
Three Keys To Victory
1) Own them on special teams– this is where Rainey comes in. The later it gets, the colder it gets which means field position will become a much bigger factor. The stud return man can change things around in the blink of an eye.
2) Attack the Calgary Secondary– Jennings wasn’t afraid to take on the Blue Bombers’ ball hawks and the same will go for the Stampeders defensive backfield. With all of his receivers healthy, he will pull out all the stops.
3) Pressure Bo Levi – You know the West nominee for Most Outstanding Player will do his best to try and exploit the Lions’ young secondary. The best way to help out Chandler Fenner, and Anthony Gaitor is to pressure Mitchell early and often. That starts with the two ends, Alex Bazzie and David Menard.
Quotable
“I’m just as excited as last week. It’s another step closer to where we want to be. We feel like we can play with anyone and can beat anyone. We have a great group of guys in this locker room. We beat Calgary, thought we had a chance to a second time and we’re excited about the opportunity to match up with them again.”
Jennings on being one step closer to playing for a championship.
Extra Yardage
These teams have met in the playoffs 12 times overall. The only Lions victories were the 1994 and 2000 Western Finals as well as a best of three division semi-final series in 1964. Each time the Lions defeated Calgary in the playoffs, they went on to win the Grey Cup.
The Lions 6-3 road record was second best in the CFL behind Winnipeg. Calgary was a perfect 9-0 at McMahon Stadium. Dating back to the start of 2014, they are 26-3 in front of their home fans including playoffs.
Every year the debate pops up about how much the bye actually helps the host team going into a division final. Since 2000, the first place club has a record of 9-7. As a coach, Buono was on the receiving end of three of those losses, 2000 with Calgary and then 2005/2007 here in BC. In addition, since the division final became a single-game format in 1972, the visitor has won 19 of 44 matchups, or 44% of the time.
Do you think the turnover battle might be critical? The Stampeders are unbeaten in their last 31 games ( 30 victories and a tie) when they create more turnovers than the opposition.
TSN 1040 has you covered for the Western Final with coverage beginning at 9:00AM with Bob Marjanovich and Lowell Ullrich live from McMahon Stadium. Scott Rintoul and Giulio Caravatta have the call at 1:30PM. Viewers can watch on TSN and those south of the border can tune in on ESPN 3.
You can download the Lions roster and depth chart for Sunday here!
Matt Baker: mbaker@bclions.com