The Calgary Stampeders have gone from checking the rear-view mirror to leaning on the horn.
Three straight wins have dragged Calgary back to 8-8 and within one victory of a playoff berth. The Stamps can clinch Saturday by beating the 7-8 Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Princess Auto Stadium, a tidy little arrangement for a team recently stuck in traffic.
The streak began with Rene Paredes drilling a career-long 62-yard field goal with two seconds remaining to beat Ottawa 40-38. Calgary then visited those same Redblacks and won 45-31 before walking into Regina and knocking off Saskatchewan 37-31. That is one escape, one controlled road win and one upset in a building where subtlety is rarely part of the decor.
Now comes Winnipeg, where the stands will be full, the wind may have opinions and the Bombers are trying to save their own season.
“They’re fighting, and we’re fighting,” Vernon Adams Jr. said to reporters.
Adams has been the engine behind the climb. In Regina, he completed 22 of 29 passes for 242 yards, threw four touchdowns and did not give the Roughriders a turnover. Clark Barnes, Damien Alford, Tevin Jones and Jalen Philpot caught the scoring passes as Calgary built a 34-13 lead before Saskatchewan made the final minutes considerably less relaxing.
The performance earned Adams a CFL Player of the Week nod for the second straight week. More important, it showed why Calgary is suddenly becoming an opponent nobody should be eager to find on a playoff bracket.
“Vernon had another solid game. He’s doing the little things better and better but also doing the same things he was doing early with being explosive, but still taking care of the football. So those are all good things,” general manager and head coach Dave Dickenson said to reporters.
“He managed the pocket well. He made a lot of big throws. He used his legs,” Dickenson said to reporters.
The useful part is not that everything has gone according to plan. Almost nothing has. The useful part is that Calgary has stopped treating trouble as a cue to unravel.
“The hard thing is when you feel you’re playing pretty good and then you’re not getting wins. You feel like you have opportunities to win games and you’re not getting those wins. Can you stay together, stay connected and stay positive? And our guys did that,” Dickenson said to reporters.
Three or four weeks ago, the Stamps were running out of room. Close losses had turned encouraging stretches into a 5-8 record, and the West Division race was beginning to look like a party Calgary might watch through the window. Instead of splintering, the team kept working and found several different ways to win.
That variety gives the streak some weight. Beating Ottawa on a kick from another postal code was thrilling, but it was not a sustainable weekly plan. Returning to Ottawa and winning by two touchdowns was cleaner. Beating Saskatchewan on the road showed Calgary could carry its form into a louder, nastier game against a direct West rival.
The Stamps are trending upward because their quarterback is hot, but also because the room has bought into a smaller view of the chase.
“One step at a time, one play at a time and one bite at a time,” receiver Tevin Jones said to reporters.
Jones has become one of the streak’s useful symbols. He was taken out of the lineup earlier in the season, kept working and returned without dragging resentment behind him. Since coming back, he has supplied energy, veteran perspective and another receiver Adams trusts when a play needs somebody to win the football.
“When the ball comes to me, I catch the ball. If the coach asks me to sit out, then I hate it, but sometimes that’s the best thing to do,” Jones said to reporters.
Jones also understands the temptation to stare too far down the road. Calgary is one win from qualifying, the Grey Cup will be played at McMahon Stadium in November, and a late surge can make imaginations run wild. He would rather keep the menu small.
“You can’t worry about the Grey Cup. You can’t worry about things going on outside of here. All you can do is worry about what you can control, and that’s right there in front of you,” Jones said to reporters.
Directly in front of Calgary is a Winnipeg team with plenty of scar tissue and no interest in becoming the happy ending to somebody else’s comeback story. The Bombers are 7-8, the season series is tied 1-1 and each club has already won in the other’s stadium. Calgary took the latest meeting 52-30 in July, but October football has a short memory.
“It’s a fun place to play. They pack it and they support their guys. They always have a physical mindset. They’ve got a lot of veteran players who understand how important this game is,” Dickenson said to reporters.
Calgary understands too. A win secures the playoff berth and allows the Stamps to enter their Oct. 17 finale against BC with postseason football guaranteed. A loss keeps Winnipeg alive and turns the final week into another round of standings arithmetic, tiebreaker talk and nervous scoreboard watching.
“We know they’ll show up, and we have to make sure we show up,” Dickenson said to reporters.
Calgary spent much of the summer flashing enough talent to intrigue people and enough inconsistency to exhaust them. Now the pieces are beginning to stay together. Adams is protecting the ball without holstering his arm. Receivers are making plays. The defence is finding timely stops. Paredes is apparently willing to kick from neighbouring municipalities.
Three wins do not erase eight losses. They do change the direction of the conversation.
A month ago, Calgary was being asked whether it could remain in the chase. Saturday offers a playoff place and the chance to make the West deal with a team arriving hot, confident and happily inconvenient.
They are kicking down the door, one bite at a time.
