Calgary Stampeders power past Saskatchewan Roughriders for 2nd straight win
Coming off of a comeback win against the Lions, the Stampeders pieced together a well-rounded team win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium Saturday night, winning their second game of the season with a 37-10 victory.
With both Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell and Saskatchewan’s Zach Collarosout on injury, the Stamps and Riders’ Week 4 meeting was being considered the ‘Battle of the Backups’, and a battle indeed it was.
Nick Arbuckle followed up his nine-for-nine performance against the Lions in Week 3 with a strong performance in Regina. The 25-year-old completed 19 of 22 for 262 yards and two touchdowns.
It would also mark the first time that a pair of brothers faced off as coaches in a CFL regular season tilt with Dave and Craig Dickenson eyeing each other’s gameplan from opposing sidelines.
Running back Ka’Deem Carey opened the scoring for the Stamps after Arbuckle went four of five on Calgary’s opening drive.
Calgary did some serious clockwork in the first quarter with just over 12 minutes of ball possession.
Saskatchewan eventually got themselves on the board thanks to rookie kicker Gabriel Ferraro‘s 36-yard boot in the second quarter.
Rene Paredes went right down the pipe on Calgary’s following drive, reinstating the Stamps nine-point lead midway through the second quarter.
At the half, Calgary held onto their nine-point lead, heading into the lockerrooms with a 15-3 lead.
Arbuckle completed 79 per cent of his passes in the first 30 minutes of play, completing 11 of his 14 pass attempts for 132 yards. Calgary’s offence moved the ball with a balanced mix of run-pass plays, tripling up on first down plays with 17 (106 yards), compared to the Riders five (39 yards).
Saskatchewan got things rolling in the second half right off of the kickoff.
Loucheiz Purifoy took the second half return and immediately bolted to the opposite sideline. The Riders return-man would be forced out of bounds, but not before a 69-yard return.
A first down pass, followed up by a 10-yard rush by William Powell, helped set up a Fajardo plunge to get the Riders their first major of the night.
Late in the third quarter, despite a Jon Ryan punt that saw the football soar past Reggie Begelton, pinning the Stamps deep in their own end, Arbuckle made quick action to get the Stampeders progressing up the field, scoring a touchdown with an Arbuckle to Eric Rogers connection to cap a five-play drive. The touchdown marks Rogers fourth touchdown of the season.
Sooner or later, quarterbacks will begin to completely avoid Tre Roberson‘s side of the field. Until then, he’ll just continue to pick off passes. Saturday night, the second-year defensive back picked off Cody Fajardo twice, one coming in the early goings of the fourth quarter on Saskatchewan’s offensive drive following Rogers’ touchdown. Roberson made quick time to scamper along the sideline and take his fifth interception of the year to the house, increasing Calgary’s lead to 20.
Adding more cushion to their lead, while also sparking a smile across Bo Levi Mitchell‘s face, Arbuckle connected with Reggie Begelton in-stride for a 76-yard catch-and-run touchdown with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Begelton finished the game with four receptions for 102 yards.
With the game out of hand with just a few minutes remaining, Craig Dickenson elected to pull Fajardo, giving reps to first-year quarterback Isaac Harker. The Stampeders would end up getting their third interception of the night off of Harker, which would also mark Harker’s third INT of the season.
The Stampeders will remain on the road next week as they visit Hamilton to face the East Division-leading Tiger-Cats. The Roughriders will spend Week 5 on their first Bye of the season.
