CFL.ca Staff
VANCOUVER — The Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats are two very different teams on exactly the same mission.
On Sunday at Vancouver’s BC Place, they’ll clash in the 102nd Grey Cup Championship. There, at the same time one team’s season-long goal comes to fruition, the other team will leave empty-handed – again.
“We understand what we’re in,” said ‘Cats linebacker Simoni Lawrence.
It’s not that a lack of focus cost the Ticats, the CFL’s youngest team, the Grey Cup last year in Regina. Yet ever since the team spent most of its five-hour plane ride from Hamilton to Vancouver studying, rather than sleeping, it’s clear that ‘focus’ has been the Ticats’ theme of the week.
“We understand that if we don’t have focus, we won’t be able to accomplish the main goal of winning the Grey Cup.”
The Ticats surprised everyone with last year’s trip to the Grey Cup, and will be a heavy underdog for the second straight year on Sunday. The Stampeders, on the other hand, have been the CFL’s best team over the past half-decade, but have just one Grey Cup to show for it.
It’s why these teams are equally troubled by the vivid images of past Grey Cups gone awry. It’s why 24-year-old Bo Levi Mitchell can envision it happening again – so that, at least he hopes, it doesn’t happen again.
“The biggest thing to me is that I think about the other team holding up the trophy,” said the Katy, Texas native, who witnessed such a sight in 2012 when his Stamps couldn’t overcome the hometown Toronto Argonauts in a game they probably expected to win.
Mitchell was just a rookie then and didn’t get the start, although he threw a late touchdown pass with the game already out of hand. He hopes he’ll never see again what he had to watch after that game.
“I think about the other guys winning the awards, holding the trophy, the graffiti falling in their colours, their fans being happy,” said Mitchell. “Because that wakes me up and it motivates me.”
“From the moment I wake up, it says we don’t have it yet – I know we don’t because it’s not in our hands.”
Outside of their desire to win on Sunday, the Stamps and Ticats are mostly different.
The Stampeders boasted the league’s number one offence in scoring, touchdowns, and first downs, led by a relentless rushing attack and the league’s top-rated running back.
But their young multi-talented quarterback, while inexperienced, could also put the team on his back when needed – such as during last week’s 43-18 win over the Edmonton Eskimos in which Mitchell accumulated four touchdowns on just five completions by the end of the first half.
Hamilton’s run to the Grey Cup was never as cut and dried. The Ticats started the season 1-6, and while another young pivot in Zach Collaros along with a brand new stadium helped turn their fortunes just after Labour Day, the team found numerous ways to win games.
That was the case in the Ticats’ Eastern Final victory over Montreal, one they managed despite being outgained and losing the time of possession battle. They protected the ball and won the turnover battle, though, while two electrifying return touchdowns by Brandon Banks propelled them to the Grey Cup.
In the end, though, both teams are here, and both have a multitude of explosive weapons with game-breaking ability. Whichever team can limit those weapons the best will win the game, and it starts with the Ticats’ defence against Cornish.
Marquee Matchup: Jon Cornish vs. Ticats’ run defence
No team ran the ball better than Calgary this season while no team defended the run better than Hamilton, which is the biggest story entering the 102nd Grey Cup.
Cornish came up short of a second straight MOP honour, but still managed to lead the league in rushing, break 1,000 rushing yards for the third straight year and win Most Outstanding Canadian – all despite starting in only nine games.
The Ticats’ run defence is ranked first in the CFL, allowing a team record low 76.8 rushing yards per game in 2014 – the fifth-lowest slowed by any CFL team since 1999 and 19 yards per game less than second-ranked Edmonton.
Their success stopping the run is synonymous with winning games, and against Cornish that’s accentuated.
“We hope to make it hard for Jon on Sunday,” said Ticats Head Coach and General Manager Kent Austin, who’s now appeared in the Grey Cup in each of his three seasons as a head coach. “They play well together. They’re strong. They have quickness in their initial get off the line of scrimmage. They’re very unselfish in their roles.”
He said stopping Cornish as about more than just each individual player making the tackle.
“Schematically you have to do things that are not going to allow you to make the tackle, but will allow others to.”
“You win in a unit like that by playing together and staying within the scheme,” he continued, “to cancel the gaps you’re supposed to cancel, and to play the role that’s given to the best of your ability.”
Stopping the run played a huge role in the Ticats’ win over Montreal, holding the Alouettes to just 73 rushing yards and forcing them out of their game plan early. But while the ‘Cats had Montreal’s number all season, the Stamps present a different challenge.
Calgary ran for 249 yards in two regular season wins over the Ticats, despite missing Cornish from the lineup in both games. The New Westminster native clearly isn’t the only one that makes the Red and White tick.
“They’ve got a great quarterback,” started Ticats’ defensive lineman Bryan Hall, “they’ve got a great offensive line, their receivers are playmakers.”
“It’s not just about Jon Cornish,” he continued. “We’ve got to stop everybody.”
“If he gets the ball 20 times, we’re gonna be there 20 times for him. They’re a great team.”
Pressure Situation: Collaros vs. Mitchell
The Grey Cup isn’t always about the quarterbacks, but all eyes will be on the signal-callers in this one as Mitchell and Collaros make what could be the first of many appearances in the big game
Both teams will certainly lean on two good running backs in Cornish and Nic Grigsby, but how Collaros and Mitchell, both in their first full seasons as starting quarterbacks, can manage the game will play an important role in which team wins.
Collaros led the Ticats to a 9-5 record in games he started, including 4-2 in games decided by five points or less. Mitchell on the other hand is 16-2 to start his career, after this year leading all quarterbacks with a 98.3 QB rating, ahead of esteemed starters like Ricky Ray and Mike Reilly.
“He’s a quarterback that has demonstrated terrific poise when he’s playing the game,” said Stamps head coach John Hufnagel, 88-37-1 in his career in regular season games after the Stamps’ 15-win season. The Stampeders have a chance to win 17 games in all this year, which would tie them for the second-most in a season in CFL history.
The fact that it’s all with a 24-year-old first-time starter under centre says everything you need to know about Mitchell, who Hufnagel likens to Collaros.
“He’s a young quarterback just like Zach, and they’re both winning quarterbacks. You see it during games – when plays need to be made, they make plays. That’s what you want from your quarterback.”
They won’t ever face each other on the field, but these two are very much going head-to-head in Sunday’s game, particularly in terms of both how they protect the football and convert first downs.
No two factors in football are bigger than turnovers and time of possession. The team that wins the turnover battle is 44-5 in Grey Cups since 1952, with no team overcoming such an obstacle since the Eskimos did it in 1987. The winner in time of possession, meanwhile, has won the l
ast nine Grey Cups.
Given those trends, the performance of both Collaros and Mitchell will be pivotal.
Special Teams Battle: Stopping Brandon Banks
The man known as ‘Speedy’, Banks was once considered an X-factor in the Ticats’ lineup. Now he’s more of a focal point, helping the Ticats lead the CFL in punt return average with 11 yards per return.
Standing just five-foot-seven and weighing 153 pounds, Banks showed during the team’s Eastern Final win that no one can run faster or change a game faster. In that game he either set or tied three all-time CFL playoff records, with two punt return touchdowns; 294 combined yards; and 226 punt return yards.
The Ticats wouldn’t be where they are without Banks in the lineup, and he’ll look to strike again like a lightning bolt on the biggest of stages.
“You know what his strengths are and you try to limit those,” said Stamps special teams coach Mark Kilam. “We are going to play our game and our guys are confident in how we cover and the schemes we run.”
“Once you make him stop his feet his timing is off and we can catch up,” added Calgary’s special teams ace Karl McCartney. “If he’s allowed to run he will change your angles. The main thing is just get one stop and try to slow him down and trip him up.”
The battle on special teams will be an interesting one, as someone has to win it and both units are exceptional. The Stampeders haven’t allowed a return touchdown in all of 2014, and a punt return touchdown since near the end of 2012.
They were also able to bottle up Banks in both previous meetings this year, and don’t believe there’s any secret to stopping him other than just good, sound and disciplined coverage.
“We just have to be us,” said Simon Charbonneau-Campeau, also a key member of Calgary’s coverage unit. “We can’t starting being crazy about him and think he’s some kind of super hero.”
“We just have to play our game, be aggressive and I think we will be good.”
Whoever can win two of those three battles is likely to end the night holding up that trophy, and while the odds makers suggest Calgary is the favourite, a Hamilton win wouldn’t mark the first time the underdog has flipped the script.
The Ticats believe they’re better equipped for what’s to come after experiencing it all last year in a similar situation, one in which they were again the underdog and the far less experienced team.
The Stampeders, meanwhile, are wary of the odds coming in. They know they can’t take the Ticats lightly, especially knowing that only 13 points separated these teams in two regular season games, plus the fact that the Black and Gold seem to be improving each and every week.
In the end, Sunday’s game promises to excite. If not for a matchup between some of the league’s most exciting players and two hottest teams, then for everything riding on the game’s outcome.
Any player, coach or fan donning Red and White knows the Stamps are long overdue for a Grey Cup Championship after years of regular season success. Leaving Vancouver without the trophy this time around will cast even more doubt as to whether or not this group can get the job done when it matters.
The Ticats, meanwhile, are young and seemingly only just getting started. But getting that early Grey Cup win would be a sure momentum-builder, potentially setting up a dominant run for a team whose best years are ahead.
Whatever, the 102nd Grey Cup promises to be an exciting one, coached by two of the league’s best and highlighted by many of the game’s greatest playmakers.
Kickoff is at 6:00 P.M. ET, and can be seen live on TSN or followed live with CFL.ca Gamecast.
