Jul
New Stamps fighting old problems
Courtesy Calgary Herald:
Mark Twain liked to say that Wagner’s music isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds.
And some Calgary Stampeders fans are wont to say that the loss to Winnipeg Thursday wasn’t as bad as it looked, either. It took a miracle catch to beat Calgary, right?
I have news for them.
The coaches may have changed. The players may have changed — particularly on defence. The calendar has changed from 2007 to 2008. But some things have stayed the same from last year’s disappointing finish.
GM John Hufnagel’s salving balm hasn’t healed every wound so far on the Stampeders. Like the offence’s disconcerting habit of answering the alarm clock about half an hour after a road game starts.
Thursday was demoralizingly familiar to fans of the red and white offence.
On the game’s first offensive play against a demoralized Winnipeg club playing a backup QB and a patchwork offensive line, Ken-Yon Rambo — a trusted vet at the heart of the team’s offensive scheming — hauled in the most basic of catches and then fumbled for the third time this year.
On the next set of downs, Rambo was unable to beat his man and get to the first-down marker. On the third possession, a high pass sailed through Rambo’s hands down the sidelines. Had the Bombers’ kicker Alexis Serna not been more scatter-gunned than Yosemite Sam, the Stamps would have been down 9-0 or worse after Winnipeg’s first three possessions.
