Grey Cup loss still haunts Stampeders
Calgary players contemplate long road ahead and what it will take to get another title shot
Bo Levi Mitchell waited four long months to watch the video evidence of the nightmare that was the 2016 Grey Cup.
Until then, he needed no reminder thanks to his subconscious working overtime every night as he tossed and turned.
“I was having dreams about each play and how I could have done it differently,” the Calgary Stampeders quarterback says. “You wake up and you think you’re a champion.”
Every morning, Mitchell had to come to grips with the bitter truth. Yes, the Stampeders dazzled in a 15-2-1 regular season. And yes, they won five trophies — including Mitchell’s hardware for most outstanding player — at the CFL awards show.
But Calgary lost the game that mattered most, a heartbreaking 39-33 overtime defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Redblacks.
“It’s so crazy — so hard to describe,” Mitchell says. “You’re playing a team that’s 8-9-1. They have a losing record. You almost expect to win …”
His voice trails off. “As long as you don’t do what I did.”
Mitchell threw eight interceptions through 18 regular-season games. In the Grey Cup, he uncharacteristically tossed up three picks.
But Mitchell, 27, has plenty of company when it comes to Stampeders with regrets.
Slotback Marquay McDaniel wishes he didn’t jam his shoulder in the first quarter, forcing him to sit out and leave Mitchell without his most dependable target. Linebacker Alex Singleton bemoans the numerous missed assignments and blown coverages that allowed an aging Henry Burris to pile up 39 points.
“You don’t win games doing that,” Singleton says. “The defence just wasn’t clicking. It was definitely our side of the ball.”
Then there was the play debated by armchair quarterbacks across Canada. With time ticking down and the Stamps two yards away from a Grey Cup title, head coach Dave Dickenson tasked third-string quarterback Andrew Buckley to sweep right on an option play.
Ottawa stymied Buckley, leaving Dickenson open for criticism about why he didn’t ask Jerome Messam to pound the ball up the middle.
“Actually, Ottawa messed up, but it worked out in their favour,” McDaniel says. “They didn’t cover Anthony Parker ... and since they didn’t cover it right, it ended up working to their advantage. It’s just football. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, then it’s ‘Why didn’t you throw the ball?’ You live with it. Dave is a great playcaller. If they line up right and run their defence a little bit different, then it might have worked out.”
It didn’t. And so the Stamps set out to recreate the regular season fairy tale of 2016 — but with a happier ending.
“Honestly, I think we might have needed that loss even with all the success that we had,” says wideout DaVaris Daniels, the CFL’s rookie of the year. “It shows us that even if you win that many games, it is tough to win the Grey Cup. You have to put that work in now to win that. You can be that close and still fall short.”
McDaniel is a cagey eight-year veteran, so he realizes better than most the magnitude of the missed opportunity.
“I’m not taking anything away from Ottawa,” says McDaniel, 33. “They came to play. They came to play and they punched us in the mouth, and we didn’t respond. It’s going to be a long season. That’s the thing about age. You enjoy playing games, but the playoffs are what matters. You wait to get to that point and try to get a Grey Cup.”
The Stampeders — one year older and one year wiser — realize time spent in the off-season lifting weights and studying game film could spell the difference come November.
Gone are the likes of defensive end Frank Beltre, receiver Bakari Grant, linebacker Glenn Love, defensive back Adam Berger and defensive lineman Zach Minter. But Mitchell, McDaniel, Singleton and Daniels are back, along with much of the core.
“You take what happened and you use it,” Singleton says. “You’ve got to use it as a chip on your shoulder. You’re a professional. You need to be able to show up the next day and do it all over again.”