THIRD-STRING QB CARRIES STAMPS
Paredes breaks field goal streak record
WINNIPEG — To hear Bo Levi Mitchell tell the tale, his CFL debut ranks as nothing special.
Ho hum. Just another night at the office. Nothing to see here.
So what if he went 29-of33 for 376 yards and three touchdowns? So what if he sliced through the Winnipeg defence with apparent ease in a convincing 37-24 Calgary victory over the sagging Blue Bombers?
And so what if he is only 23 with his entire career ahead of him?
“Happy, but never satisfied,” Mitchell shrugged as television cameras and microphones surrounded him in the spacious visitor’s quarters at Investors Group Field. “Complacency is key. You have to make sure that you’re never complacent, you’re always working to get better.
“There was a lot of bad football tonight — penalties at the wrong times and making sure we’re consistent more throughout the game.” Bad football? Please. Buoyed by solid protection from his offensive line, Mitchell spread the ball around to 10 different receivers. He controlled the clock to the tune of 38:15 to 21:45 in time of possession.
And, most importantly, he didn’t experience a single rookie brain cramp that lead to a costly turnover.
“He didn’t surprise anyone on our team,” raved tailback Jon Cornish. “He’s a Texas quarterback, and Texas quarterbacks, they’re raised from a young age to be relaxed in the pocket.
“Bo was relaxed. He commanded the huddle well.”
Even the man himself admits to experiencing nothing in the way of jangled nerves making his first career start in place of the injured Drew Tate (strained forearm) and Kevin Glenn (elbow).
“Once you’re in this level of football, that’s really not part of it anymore,” he said. “You have that in high school and a little bit in college. But once you get here, you know you’re here for a reason.
“So you just go out and do what you’ve been doing your whole life.”
After that performance, the Stamps clearly have three pivots with the proven ability to start and win on the threedown circuit.
Don’t look now, but Marcel Desjardins and the Ottawa Redblacks will almost certainly raid the Stampeders of a quarterback come the Dec. 13 expansion draft (each team can only protect one).
For now, though, the Stampeders are the envy of the CFL given their depth at the most vital position on the field.
“It’s crazy,” said Cornish, who racked up 174 yards from scrimmage.
“We’ve had three different quarterbacks start. The performance of all three has been very, very impressive.
“It basically doesn’t matter who your quarterback is. Nobody on the team really cared. I mean, Drew, Bo, Kevin. It doesn’t really matter. We’re the Calgary Stampeders. I think most teams, they rally around their quarterback — their one quarterback.
“For us, I think we just rally around each other.”
On a night with two quarterbacks making their first career start, Winnipeg’s Justin Goltz, went 19-of-35 for 194 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
And that, ladies and gentleman, was the ball game.
“First of all, our offensive line played great,” said Stamps head coach/general manager John Hufnagel. “They opened up some holes, and they provided Bo with the protection. My compliments really go to my offensive line.
“They did an outstanding job.”
The Stamps held a 17-14 lead at halftime and ran away with the game on the opening drive of the third quarter when Anthony Parker came down in the end zone with his first career touchdown.
From there, it was all Stamps.
The other major storyline of the night centred around Rene Paredes and his pursuit of the CFL record for most consecutive regular-season field goals. Shaking off the controversy of a blocked field goal (that didn’t go down as a miss) of a week ago, Paredes was a perfect five-for-five on the night to break the previous mark of 30 straight held by B.C. Lions kicker Paul McCallum.
Paredes sits at 34 consecutive field goals, and the recordbreaking kick came against the team that cut him during training camp in 2011.
Can’t get much sweeter than that.
With the victory, the injuryravaged Stampeders head into the bye week with an impressive 4-1 record in the ultratight West Division. The Blue Bombers sink to 1-4 and have yet to win at their beautiful new facility at the University of Manitoba.
Greg Carr, Anthony Parker and Marquay McDaniel scored touchdowns for Calgary.
Jade Etienne (2) and Chad Simpson replied with Bomber touchdowns. Justin Palardy kicked a field goal for Winnipeg and Calgary punter Rob Maver recorded a rouge to round out the scoring.