Toronto Argonauts 10 Calgary Stampeders 33 (July 21, 2007)
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0 commentsFirst, a commentary. For those that have followed the CFL here and for those of you new to the game, Calgary Stampeders quarterback Henry Burris is the best player at his position about half the time. The other half, he is the biggest joke in all of football. When Burris is on his game, the Stamps win big. When he is off his game, the team gets crushed.
Now onto the recap from cfl.ca.
Quarterback Henry Burris threw for a season-high 307 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night as the Calgary Stampeders avenged a blow-out loss to the Toronto Argonauts nine days ago with a 33-10 rout.
After taking 57 minutes and 21 seconds to first find the end zone in its 48-15 blow-out at Rogers Centre, the Calgary offense under the guidance of Burris looked much sharper scoring on the opening drive of the football game in front of 28,202 at McMahon Stadium.
Highlighted by a 39-yard reception by Brett Ralph the 90-yard drive was capped by an alert three-yard pass from Burris to Reynolds at 5:32.
Burris added a 70-yard touchdown strike to Marc Boerigter in the fourth quarter as Calgary poured it on in the final 15 minutes outscoring the Argonauts 20-7. Included was a fake field goal with two minutes left in which Ralph, normally the holder, shovelled the football to Trey Young who rambled into the end zone from 39 yards away.
Calgary (2-2) pulls into a tie for third place in the West Division with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Toronto (2-2) remains in second spot in the East, missing an opportunity to move past the Hamilton Tiger-Cats into top spot.
Jeremaine Copeland finished as Calgary's top receiver with five receptions for 114 yards, the first 100-yard game of the season for a Stampeders receiver.
Ahead 10-0, the only scoring in the second quarter was an exchange of field goals with Sandro DeAngelis splitting the uprights from 28 yards out followed by Prefontaine delivering a successful attempt from 30 yards out.
Calgary had another first quarter threat extinguished by video review. A 46-yard completion to Jeremaine Copeland that took to the Stampeders down to the Toronto 13 was overturned after video review with referee Bud Steen ruling that Copeland did not keep possession of the ball as he hit the ground.
Copeland would exact his revenge later getting behind cornerback Jordan Younger for a 66-yard pass and run that took the Stamps down to the Toronto five-yard line and eventually led to a 11-yard field goal by DeAngelis to start the fourth quarter.
It was an auspicious debut as a CFL starter for Toronto quarterback Mike McMahon. Filling in for Michael Bishop, who broke his wrist late in last week's 48-15 win against the Stampeders, McMahon began the game with five straight incompletions and it was eight-plus minutes into the second quarter before he finally completed his first pass, as well as generated the Argonauts initial first down.
McMahon is the third different starting quarterback for Toronto in four games. Veteran Damon Allen started the opener before Bishop took over the reigns in week two. Bishop, who shares the CFL lead in touchdown passes (7) will be lost to the team for the next six-to-eight weeks.
Allen took over in the fourth quarter but was unable to move the team either. It was Allen's fumble halfway through the final quarter, recovered by Scott Coe, that led to Boerigter's touchdown.
It was a confidence boosting game for the Stampeders defense, who yielded 97 points over the previous two games. The lone Argonaut touchdown would come on a 29-yard pass from Allen to Obed Cetoute on the final play of the game.
Notes: Struggling Calgary WR Nik Lewis, a 1000-yard receiver in each of his first three CFL seasons, was a healthy scratch. It's the first CFL game he has missed... Former Stampeder all-stars LB Alondra Johnson and WR Terry Vaughn were honoured before the game... It was the 110th game as head coach for Michael Clemons moving him past Leo Cahill and into second spot on Toronto's all-time list. Bob O'Billovich (171) tops the list... Calgary's last regular season loss at McMahon Stadium was exactly one year ago when the B.C. Lions beat them 43-20... Toronto WR Derrell Mitchell had 24 yards receiving and is now four yards short of passing Paul Massotti and becoming the Argos all-time leading receiver.
Date
July 21, 2007
