CALGARY – A lack of discipline and a lack of finish sank the Calgary Stampeders.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the favoured Stampeders 20-16 in the CFL West final Sunday, and the emotions in the Calgary locker-room after the game ranged from disappointment to anger at the officiating.
“This one is going to sting for a while,” said Calgary head coach John Hufnagel.
“It’s very disappointing. In the first half we had too many penalties which was killing us on both sides of the football. In the second half we moved the ball but when we got across the line we weren’t able to finish,” he added.
The Stampeders were assessed 13 penalties for 92 yards compared to just five penalties for 15 yards called against Saskatchewan.
The angriest player in the Calgary dressing room was defensive back Dwight Anderson, who was nailed twice for pass interference. Anderson wasn’t willing to give any credit to Saskatchewan’s receiving corps.
“You line up any one of their receivers against me one on one and I shut them down period and there ain’t one of them better than me,” said Anderson.
“I’m better than half of these dudes over here straight up and at the end of the day (CFL director of officiating) Tom Higgins, you got what you want.”
Other Stampeders felt the players only had themselves to blame for missing out on the Grey Cup final.
“We didn’t get it done. That’s the pitiful thing. We didn’t get it done. Not enough people got it done,” said wide receiver Nik Lewis.
“It is what it is. We didn’t make enough plays and it’s pitiful. I look around this room and see all the talent and then to lose,” he said, shaking his head.
The Stamps, who finished first in the CFL West with a 13-5 record, had homefield advantage though there were plenty of Rider fans cheering for the visitors. Calgary had all week to practice in the frigid and snowy temperatures of McMahon Stadium and built up an 11-0 lead before the game started slipping away.
“Definitely we put ourselves in a position to go out and get a victory and we were one win away from being in the show,” said quarterback Henry Burris, who ended up the day 19-of-28 for 229 yards with one interception and one touchdown.
“We just didn’t get it done. We didn’t play the typical Stampeder football tonight.”
Burris declined to comment on the refereeing but did acknowledge the number of penalties.
“You can’t have penalties like that and expect to win and that’s something that coach preaches to us all the time and they killed us today,” he said.
“I’m not here to question calls. I’m not trying to get money taken out of my cheque. You seen the game. You saw what happened,” added Lewis.
Running back Joffrey Reynolds said the reason the Stampeders lost was because the offence didn’t get the job done.
“With the homefield advantage I feel we were really prepared for this game but for whatever reason in the game and throughout the second half we didn’t make plays,” said Reynolds who finished the game with just 52 yards.
“We didn’t get the bounces but I personally think we definitely had a lot more opportunities as an offence to be more consistent. It was just a lacklustre effort for the offence.”
