CFL.ca
It is the age old dilemma for Canadian Football League teams.
How do you play a game when there are no standing repercussions on the line and a bye week is staring you right in the face?
For the Stampeders, the temptation is to rest any and all starters, in hopes of saving their bodies for the upcoming Division Final. Then, of course, there are the repercussions of having players inactive for a three week period.
Do they lose that edge heading to the biggest game of the year?
That is the challenge, as the Stamps head to Vancouver to conclude the 2013 regular season. All week long, Calgary general manager and head coach John Hufnagel has been telling his players and the Calgary media that his team will play to win.
All of his regular starters will be on the field as the game begins. However, he also said everyone on the trip will play at some point in the game. It is easy to deduct that many of the high-profile players will be cooled out on the sidelines by the time the game concludes.
While there may not be any movement in the standing for Calgary, there are plenty of individual and team accomplishments on the horizon.
With a win, the Stampeders would equal the franchise record for wins in a season. They won 15 games on three consecutive years (1993, 1994, 1995).
That could be equaled in Vancouver.
Running back Jon Cornish will take aim at a long-standing Calgary team record. He needs 97 yards rushing to surpass Willie Burden’s single season rushing mark of 1,896 yards, a standard that was established in 1975.
Burden’s exploits took him to the Hall of Fame and interestingly enough, one of the people who handed him the ball en route to the hall was Hufnagel.
Calgary’s prolific place-kicker Rene Paredes is also close to a couple of records. He needs 14 points to establish a Calgary record for points in a season. The record maker of 220 is shared by Mark McLoughlin and Sandro DeAngelis.
Paredes is also close to the Canadian Football League mark for field goal percentage in a season. If he makes all of his kicks in this final game, he will finish ahead of Paul McCallum’s 94.34 per cent mark set just two years ago,
However, Paredes must be perfect in this game to set the record. Given the fact he has hit 52 of his 55 attempts this year, he stands a good chance to kick all field goals successfully.
A final player to observe this week is defensive end Charleston Hughes. He is two sacks away from breaking the single-season franchise mark for sacks, set by Harold Hallman in 1986.
No matter what happens with this game or the records, the Stampeders will be headed to the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season. The team will return from Vancouver, have a brief rundown, then have a few days off to recuperate. They will gather next Wednesday for three days of workouts, then will begin work on their West Finals opponent.
The team’s position in the standings may be fixed, but there is still plenty for the Stamps and their players to achieve in 2013.
