Another long, long night for Matt Dunigan as the Stampeder coach watched the Saskatchewan Roughriders demolish his Stamps in the third quarter, on the way to a 40-21 victory. The win drops the Stamps to sole possession of last place in the West division with a 1-5 record. Saskatchewan improves to 2-4 and like their fellow Western teams hold a share of first place in the less than runaway West.
The Riders scored three touchdowns and a safety in the third quarter as Calgary fell apart in front of a sell out McMahon Stadium crowd. Kenton Keith caught fire for the Riders as he accounted for two of their three third quarter TD’s with runs of 12 and 47 yards rushing for 107 yards on the night. Henry Burris had a good night for Saskatchewan, breaking a streak he was probably glad to be rid of. Prior to Saturday’s game he had gone 11 quarters without throwing a Touchdown pass, that ugly little stat can be banished now with his toss to Travis Moore for a touchdown in the third. Burris then added to his personal rushing statistics, by running a TD in himself in the fourth as the Riders put the final touches on the victory over Calgary.
Stamps coach and GM Matt Dunigan was disappointed in the result and less than impressed with his team’s execution on the field. His starting QB Marcus Crandell threw for one touchdown and scored one himself to keep the Stamps on the board, but for his work on the evening Dunigan pulled him from the game in the fourth quarter giving back up Tommy Jones some reps. Jones used his time in the spotlight to his full advantage, driving the team down the field and capping it with a five yard pass to Mike Juhasz to put the wrap on the Stamps scoring on the night.
For Calgary the loss reflects the inconsistent play that has marked the season so far, no aspect of the Stamps game plan seems to be clicking at the moment and the pressure to win a few games must be building on first year coach and GM Dunigan. Calgary fans were curious as to how the experiment with the untested Dungian would go and so far there hasn’t been much in the way of results. Dunigan is preaching patience to his team and searching for ways to turn around the horrid start. But so far it appears that no one is listening.
Amazingly enough, thanks to the inconsistent play of all Western based teams this season, despite the many losses the Stamps are still only a few wins away from claiming first place. It’s a situation that surely can’t last much longer, for Dunigan and the Stamps the need to fix the problems is urgent. Keeping pace will eventually mean winning games, for the sake of the McMahon faithful those wins had best come sooner rather than later.
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