Calgary 19 - Edmonton 33
The Stampeders have nobody to blame but themselves. In a do-or-die game the team brought one of their worse performances of the year. The mistakes were costly and unreflective of a team 19 games into the season. Compounding the problem, in a QB driven league it's imperative that your QB is one of the best players on the field. Calgary's struggle since mid-season for consistency at the QB position continued into the playoffs. Veteran pivot Henry Burris sat for newly crowned starter Drew Tate. The experimentation by head coach John Hufnagel proved to be a detriment to the team's success.
Drew Tate may have shown flashes of finesse moving the offence in the final games of the regular season, but he was still prone to mistakes and never showed full control that would spell success in the playoffs. Make no mistake, Drew Tate is the future of this organization, but he was put in too early and ultimately cost the team a victory.
Today he was the unequivocal reason why the Stampeders lost. He single handedly took 14 points off of the board for the Stamps and handed the Eskimos 7. His fumble and costly interception collapsed the team. Stupid penalties contributed to the slow demise. Defensively, Calgary stood tall.
Henry Burris came into the game in the second half to try to salvage anything but didn't perform any better. Hindsight is 20/20 but the treatment of the QB situation in Calgary is purely a coaching mistake. John Hufnagel got this wrong and it cost the team dearly. The mistake, in my opinion, is grave enough to cast doubt on his capability to continue coaching the team. He makes a fine GM, but it seems time to move on from someone who wants to make late season changes to such a crucial position.
On the other hand, Hufnagel did in fact make the right call with the Jon Cornish for Joffrey Reynolds swap. Mind you, that change was 2 years in the making and was completed weeks earlier than the Burris fiasco. For his part, Jon Cornish has established himself as one of the best in the CFL and took Jerome Messam to SCHOOL this afternoon.
Maybe it's play calling, but you can have to pin responsibility on players who didn't perform. The offensive collapse in the most crucial game of the season with everyone less the running back incapable of making plays will speak loudly with respect to who will be asked back next year.
What do you do now as a coach? You dumped vets late in the season, got one right and the other wrong, and you have last year's MOP under contract through next season. Management and ultimately ownership will make that call during the off-season. But as for this year, it's done, put a fork in it, the Stamps choked and will the Grey Cup from home with the rest of the disappointed fans.
