Courtesy Calgary Herald:

All week long, Calgary Stampeders coach John Hufnagel warned his team that it wouldn’t come easy Thursday night at Commonwealth Stadium.

He said the Edmonton Eskimos would be fired up for their home opener, and motivated to purge the bitter aftertaste of a sloppy loss a week ago in Regina, and snap a seven-game regular-season losing streak.

Turns out, he was right.

And, turns out his team apparently didn’t listen. Not soon enough, anyways.

A stirring fourth-quarter comeback fell short, and the Stampeders headed home a dejected bunch following a 34-31 loss in front of a home-opener crowd of 32,706.

After the Stamps took their first lead with 1:38 left in the game on Nik Lewis’s touchdown, Edmonton slotback Jason Tucker made the catch of the game, a miraculous one-handed 36-yard touchdown grab with 55 seconds to play to send the fans home happy.

In the end, a terrible first half did the Stampeders in.

“No question, our first half wasn’t very good on either side of the football,” said Hufnagel. “We knew it was going to be a hostile stadium and it would be a physical, intense game. Always with a young team, you’re looking for signs where your team is. Hopefully, it was a learning experience for us.”

Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray simply torched the Calgary secondary in the opening 30 minutes, completing 12 of 17 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns.

And he got plenty of help from a much-maligned offensive line, that gave him plenty of time while fending off a Calgary pass rush that didn’t look anywhere near as effective as it did a week ago against B.C.

He finished the night 27 for 41 for 448 yards.

“They (Eskimos) can eat their hotdogs and drink their Cokes and feel like they did a great job,” said Stamps defensive tackle Eddie Freeman. “But for us, we should kick ourselves. We let a football team feel like they were superior to us. Personally, I’m frustrated because we should have won this football game at the end.”

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