STAMPEDERS 27 ROUGHRIDERS 10

CALGARY – Jerome Messam had no doubt a breakout game was around the corner.

The Calgary Stampeders running back not only picked the perfect opportunity to crack the 100-yard mark for the first time this season, but also the perfect way to cap his big outing.

Messam’s one-yard plunge late in the fourth quarter salted away a 27-10 victory for the Stampeders against the Saskatchewan Roughriders Saturday night.

Photo: Larry McDougal

“Something about that green. I see the green and I get mean. No, I’m joking,” he said with a laugh.

“It’s the icing on the cake for your hard work. I was grinding out there, getting yards and getting us in position to score and I was happy to get into the end zone.”

Messam finished the night with 135 rushing yards on 28 carries, by far his biggest game of the season.

His touchdown, the second of the season for last season’s CFL rushing leader, was a perfect example of a squad nailing down a victory in emphatic fashion before the crowd of 30,274 at McMahon Stadium.

After staking a 17-point lead by halftime the Stampeders watched the Roughriders pull within a converted touchdown early in the fourth quarter, but immediately answered with a couple of scoring drives.

“Putting the hammer down at the end of the game, that’s how you win,” said Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. “When we’re able to run the ball like that and you know we’re going to run it, that’s going to make us a pretty dangerous team.”

Through the first 30 minutes, the Stampeders (3-1-1) looked to be taking dangerous to a new level.

Not only were they clicking offensively, with Mitchell firing touchdown strikes to Marquay McDaniel – the 100th of Mitchell’s career – and Lemar Durant, but were dominating defensively while keeping the visitors off the scoreboard.

Saskatchewan quarterback Kevin Glenn was sacked five times in the first half, three times by Charleston Hughes in his first game back after missing two outings due to injury and twice by James Vaughters.

Photo: David Boll

Glenn said his squad simply couldn’t find any rhythm.

`”With a team like that, you can’t come out slow like that,” he said. “You can’t have the type of first half we had and think you’re gonna win the game.”

Briefly after the break, though, the Riders threatened to muster a comeback.

Cameron Marshall’s five-yard touchdown run capped an 80-yard dive on the opening possession of the second half to put the Riders on the board – a drive in which Glenn became the seventh QB in league history to reach the 50,000 passing mark – and a Tyler Crapigna field goal made it a 17-10 affair.

But that was as close as the Riders could get.

“We got beat by the better football team,” succinctly stated Riders head coach Chris Jones, whose squad falls to 1-3.

Not that the Stampeders were willing to put all that much stock in the victory.

“Just because you won doesn’t mean you’re playing great football,” cautioned Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson. “We played better, though. We did. We win at home and that’s the key.”

Calgary kicker Rene Paredes booted a pair of field goals, including a key 47-yarder midway through the fourth quarter, a sign his game is rounding into top form.

Mitchell finished the night for Calgary with 16-of-28 for 253 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, with McDaniel and Kamar Jorden both collecting 88 receiving yards.

Glenn completed 20-of-29 passes for 203 yards on a night he couldn’t fully relish joining elite company of CFL history.

“It’s tough to enjoy it because the bigger prize is the win,” said Glenn who noted even one of the officials congratulated him during the game.

CHRIS JONES POSTGAME COMMENTS

– You have to give them all the credit in the world. They had a great game plan and put us behind the 8-ball early. Their offensive line was more physical than our defensive line. Anytime a guy runs for 135 on you, they’ve had a pretty good night.

– We’re gonna look at the film and try to see exactly what it is. Like the Winnipeg game we played good early, had a spurt and then came back. Same thing tonight. We cut it to one score but we gave them some penalties, allowed them to score and got momentum.

– On injuries, we’ll have to go wait and see. It’ll take a a few days to assess I’m sure.

RB CAMERON MARSHALL

– I thought the way we came out in the second half, we played fast. That’s how we’re used to playing. We played well then, but there’s a ton of things to improve on. You can’t come out flat like we did and expect to win.

– We gotta go back and watch the film, see where we were missing up. There were some things they did that we didn’t respond too well against. 

– We can’t get too down on ourselves. We know who we have in this locker room. We gotta clean things up and come out and play Roughrider football.

DE WILLIE JEFFERSON

– Bo-Levi was just Bo-Levi. With where I lined up, we tried to get a little movement out of him. I was trying to be on him and make it a little bit more difficult.

– It was just us. We knew they’d try to run Messam. The D-line, we’re trying to get off the ball and make them move but I don’t really know. He just had a good game. There wasn’t anything we were doing scheme-wise. We had him in the backfield but he broke tackles and made plays.

– My best advice that I can give my teammates is that we came here to win, and they beat us. Let that one go. I know that’ll be hard because it was a big game but we’ll have a big crowd behind us next week against Toronto. We know we can stop the run and play the pass. We can’t get down ourselves, we have to get to the stadium, watch film and get prepared for Toronto.

(With files from the Canadian Press)