Stampeders look to stay unbeaten at home, avenge Week 8 loss as Redblacks visit

Calgary Stampeders quarterback Jake Maier hands the ball to running back Dedrick Mills in Ottawa on July 26, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

When the Calgary Stampeders step onto the field at McMahon Stadium on Thursday night to face the Ottawa Redblacks, they’ll have something to prove.

Intent on keeping their perfect home record intact, the Stampeders (4-5) will also be out to avenge a lopsided 33-6 setback they suffered in Ottawa to the Redblacks (5-2-1) on July 26.

“What happened a few weeks ago was unacceptable," said Stampeders quarterback Jake Maier, who has a perfect 4-0 record at home so far this season. "I still think guys have that chip on their shoulder from that experience.

"You can’t lie to yourself. I think that’s very real, but at the end of the day if we play better with the things that we can control then a lot of those issues we had a couple weeks ago will get solved. That’ll be the theme and the focus.”

The Stamps will also be looking to bounce back from a 39-25 road loss to the Toronto Argonauts last Friday.

“We didn’t have our best performance in Toronto as well,” said Calgary coach Dave Dickenson, whose team beat the Argos 27-23 at home five days earlier. “We’re an up-and-down team. We’re just trying to find consistency and we’re trying to make it a little easier on ourselves. It seems like we’re the ones making the potential mistakes.

“Let’s show up with confidence. Let’s show up with a great mindset and a great attitude and attack it … and kind of let things fall where they may.”

Before heading to Calgary on Wednesday, Ottawa coach Bob Dyce spoke with local media about what sort of challenges his team will face against the Stamps at McMahon Stadium.

“They’re going to come out fired up,” Dyce said. “The trip in Toronto, they’re probably not very happy about and they want to continue their success at home. I know coach Dickenson will have them excited and ready to play in front of their home fans.

“This is the most important game on our schedule and we’re locked in and focused to make sure we perform at a high level.”

Ottawa receiver Bralon Addison said what happened last game is in the past and doesn’t matter.

“We know they’re going to come out punching,” Addison said. “We’ve got to be able to answer that punch. We’ve got to be ready to go out there, be ready to play in front of their home crowd. As an offensive unit, we’ve got to be able to go out there and outperform their offence.”

Calgary cornerback Demerio Houston leads the Stamps with four interceptions this season, including two at the end of home games to lock down victories for his team.

“Whenever it gets late in ball game and it’s a close game, I tell everybody, ‘Somebody needs to make a play,’ but I always put the weight on my shoulders to be that person to make the play,” he said.

Houston said he expects the Stampeders will have a much better outing against the Redblacks than they had three weeks ago in Ottawa.

“I just feel like they had some good play calls that we really weren’t ready for communicating-wise on the defensive side of the ball,” he said. “I feel like we’re mentally ready. We’re at home. We’re going to have the crowd cheering us on, so we’ll be ready.”

After Thursday’s game, the Stamps won’t play again until they host the Edmonton Elks in the Labour Day Classic on Sept. 2.

During their walk-through session at McMahon on Wednesday, Houston spoke up and had a message for his teammates.

"It was pretty much, do what you’ve got to do,” Houston said. “We have 24 hours to get ready for the game. Yes, we have a bye week, but earn your bye week. I don’t need guys to look ahead to the bye week. Handle business tomorrow and then enjoy your bye week."

Maier took Houston’s words to heart and said he hopes that all of his teammates adopt that same mentality.

"We’ve played very good football at home,” Maier said. “We want to keep that going, but we need to play well, because we do have almost an off-season here as this game ends, which is good and bad.

"You want to be able to earn your downtime. You want to be able to put yourself in a situation going into a bye week where you have momentum, where you can maybe gain some ground on the rest of the teams in the (West Division). All those things are definitely right in front of us and I love that we get to do that at home."

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Aug. 14, 2024.