Stampeders head to Ottawa for rematch after Paredes' walk-off heroics
Graphic: Provectus Media (PM)
The Calgary Stampeders (6-8) close out their Eastern slate Saturday with a rematch against the Ottawa Redblacks (0-13) at TD Place — one week after Rene Paredes' 62-yard field goal as time expired sealed a 40-38 thriller at McMahon Stadium.
Paredes tied his career long with a 57-yarder in the second quarter before nailing the winner. Vernon Adams Jr. threw for 350-plus yards for the 13th time in his CFL career, with Tevin Jones and Jalen Philpot both topping 100 receiving yards with a touchdown catch. Deonta McMahon ran for 102 yards in his Calgary debut filling in for the injured Dedrick Mills. Defensively, Derrick Moncrief had the game's only tackle for loss and Zy Alexander added a timely interception.
Philpot, listed as questionable this week with an abdominal injury, bounced back with the big performance after a rough outing in Edmonton. "I'm myself's biggest critic," he told Stampeders TV's Natasha Staniszewski in a 1-on-1 posted Thursday on the team's YouTube channel. "I just had to come back, refocus on the little things, and then I felt like that just transitioned to the game, and I was able to play more confident."
On facing a winless Ottawa side at home: "It's pro football at the end of the day, right? They're going to lock in. They're hungry... They arguably could feel like they outplayed us. So we know that they're going to have energy. They're at home and they really want that first win."
The offence wants a cleaner start this time around. "We can't really start off slow and we can't get into a lull like we kind of did last week," Philpot said. "We try to come out and play a full four quarters."
Ottawa got five touchdown passes from McLeod Bethel-Thompson in his first start of the year, three of them to rookie Keelan White, while Justin Hardy caught 12 passes on 19 targets.
A win would put Calgary above .500 against the East Division for just the third time since 2018, when the Stamps went 8-0 against the Ontario- and Quebec-based teams. Calgary has also scored exactly 100 points off turnovers and sits 10 points shy of becoming the first team to 500 this season.
After the two-game set with Ottawa, the Stamps finish with three straight against the West before a bye, starting Oct. 2 in Regina against Saskatchewan.
Kickoff is Saturday at 1 p.m. MT from TD Place. TV: TSN, RDS2, CTV, Crave. Radio: QR Calgary 770 AM.
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