CALGARY - Patience propelled the Calgary Stampeders to the CFL's West Division final.
The defending Grey Cup champions outlasted the Edmonton Eskimos 24-21 Sunday.
The Stampeders headed into the second half without a touchdown in
four quarters going back to their regular-season finale in
Saskatchewan.
Then receivers Arjei Franklin and Romby Bryant scored their
first touchdowns for Calgary since their trade from Winnipeg on Sept.
20 in the third and fourth quarters respectively.
Calgary
earned a rematch Sunday with the Saskatchewan Riders (TSN, 4:30 ET) in
the West final. The Riders defeated the visiting Stamps 30-14 last week
to earn the post-season bye.
"They beat us last week soundly. Here's our opportunity to go in and
make wrongs a right now," Calgary quarterback Henry Burris said.
The winner of that game advances to the Grey Cup in Calgary on Nov. 29.
Elsewhere in CFL post-season action, the B.C. Lions travel to Montreal to
face the Alouettes in the Eastern final next Sunday (TSN 1 p.m. ET).
The Lions downed the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats 34-27 in overtime to advance.
Skyler Green countered for Edmonton with a 93-yard return for a
touchdown and quarterback Ricky Ray scored in the second half in
front of 31,356 at McMahon Stadium.
Calgary kicker Sandro DeAngelis made field goals from 21, 20 and 15
yards and his Edmonton counterpart Noel Prefontaine was good from nine and
36 yards and added a last-minute single as Calgary led 9-7 at halftime.
The Stampeders ended a three-game losing streak in division
semifinals against the Esks dating back to 2005. Calgary went 4-1
against Edmonton this season.
"Our experience came through for us today and the fact you never say
a champion is dead until he's dead," Burris said. "The guys are
resilient in this locker-room.
"Guys continued to plug and get after it for 60 minutes. We knew it
was going to be a tough battle. It's hard to beat a team four times,
trust me."
Neither team turned the football over. Edmonton was working to get
within field-goal range with four minutes to go, but two holding
penalties kept them deep in their end where DeVone Claybooks sacked
Ray.
Calgary's offence got back on the field to kill the clock and keep Ray on the sidelines.
"At some point in time we've got to step up and make a play in the
fourth quarter," Edmonton coach Ritchie Hall said. "They made the play
and we didn't make the play. Therefore, they're still playing."
Calgary running back Joffrey Reynolds, the West Division nominee for
the league's most outstanding player, rushed for 127 yards, the fourth-highest playoff total in Stamps history.
Burris ran for 63 yards, completed 19 passes on 32 attempts for 264
yards and threw two touchdown passes. Ray was 18-for-30 for 162 yards,
but no TDs.
"We had a couple opportunities there for some deep throws that we
just couldn't connect on," lamented Ray. "Those are big game-changing
plays and we just missed on some of those opportunities."
Calgary opened the post-season the way it ended the regular season
in Regina, where three second-half drives into the red zone produced just two field goals.
The Stamps again squandered three chances to score touchdowns in the first half and settled for three field goals.
Calgary's 35 penalty yards, including two roughing-the-passer calls
on Charleston Hughes, contributed to Edmonton's second touchdown at
7:44 of the fourth quarter and allowed the visitors to pull within
three points.
Ray capped a 10-play, 65-yard march by diving one yard over the line for the touchdown.
"We have to be able to stay off the quarterback and don't give the
opposing team second chances," Calgary coach John Hufnagel said.
Burris connected on a 29-yard pass with Bryant at 2:52 of the fourth
quarter as the hosts took a 24-14 lead. Bryant says a teammate wrote
the word "finally" on the touchdown football he'll keep as a souvenir.
"It was great to get my first touchdown and it happened to be a playoff game," Bryant said.
Burris found a wide-open Franklin in the end zone at 5:25 of the
third quarter, capping an eight-play, 57-yard drive with a nine-yard
touchdown pass.
"We were moving the ball all game long, but we couldn't get in the
end zone, right?" Franklin said. "In playoff football, you've got to
score touchdowns. Field goals aren't going to cut it."
On the ensuing kickoff, Edmonton's Green
scrambled through a sea of black and red jerseys, going 93 yards for a
touchdown.
The Eskimos trailed by two points heading into the fourth quarter
before Stamps punter Burke Dales kicked a 67-yard single 19 seconds in.
Three Stampeder drives in the second quarter ended with Burris
either dumping the ball off under pressure or throwing an incompletion,
which brought DeAngelis out onto the field.
Stampeder cornerback Brandon Browner stopped Edmonton's Arkee
Whitlock twice from within five yards early in the second quarter to
prevent a touchdown.
