Quick turnarounds aren't kind to the Calgary Stampeders. Having eeked out a win 5 days ago in Hamilton, the team jumped into Toronto tonight in attempt to go 3-0 in the season. Although Milt Stegall is an absolute moron with his comments that the Stamps have already peaked 2 games into the season and are mediocre at best, there were some elements that made the team look average--I'm thinking particularly the offence who did little to help pull out a win when needed.
The entire offence seemed to be out-of-sync dropping numerous balls on important downs and untimely turnovers.
Calgary isn't average at best, in fact, their defence is looking exceptionally strong. Four turnovers by the special teams and defence. Unfortunately, on the other side of the ball it was a frustrating piece of work. The offence committed as many turnovers as Toronto plus one.
Starting with receivers dropping balls, Reynolds unable to get the run going (when Reynolds doesn't run the Stamps lose), and Burris throwing untimely interceptions with points in the balance, the offence was horrible. I could be the fact there's been so much turnover recently (Jackson one week, PK Sam another, Ryan Thelwell today) but in reality they were simply not good enough. I dont think rest is the issue here, I think there's some fundamental problems with the receiving corps.
You can fault Burris for his interceptions, but for the first half he was on the money. Calgary essentially shot themselves in the foot and Toronto was the team that decided to capitalised on the mistakes.
After the Hamilton game much was made about Mike Labinjo's poor play and the potential he'd be out of the starting lineup if he put in another poor performance. Labinjo was mostly invisible all night until a major gaff mid-way through the fourth that gave what would have been a Calgary ball (5th turnover of the night) but instead he was flagged for holding away from the play and the Argonauts instead kicked a field goal. That was perhaps the game changer in a contest filled with turnovers.
You can expect that Labinjo will be in street clothes or off the team come two weeks.
As for the rest of the team, there were a number of bright spots, but none on offense. Tough to say 'go back to the drawing board' when in fact some fundamental mistakes were made by individuals. Hopefully the team takes the time off to fix the errors and return in two weeks to face stiffer competition because let's face it, Toronto aren't as bad as we thought they would be, but they aren't great.
