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CFL Obituaries: Line problems and rare defensive struggles doomed Stampeders

Calgary Stampeders' Charlie Power reacts to the scoreboard during their CFL Western Final football game against the Edmonton Eskimos in Edmonton November 22, 2015. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber (REUTERS)

The next installment of our CFL Obituaries series looks at what went wrong for the Calgary Stampeders.

The Calgary Stampeders' season passed away Sunday in Edmonton at the hands of the rival Eskimos, one more sign of a power shift in that rivalry. Until this year, the Stampeders had won 12 straight games against Edmonton and defeated the Eskimos in last year's West Final en route to a Grey Cup win, but that streak of dominance ended with a 27-16 loss September 12 (which cost one Stamps' fan 24,576 beers). Edmonton went on to win the season series 2-1, which proved vital in determining a first-round bye and home-field advantage for the West Final (both teams finished 14-4, so the Eskimos took that prize based on the head-to-head tiebreak), and they came up with a 45-31 win Sunday too. However, while the end result may leave Calgary fans in mourning, it's quite understandable considering what went wrong in the last few weeks.

The biggest problem for the Stampeders came on the offensive line, where they endured injuries all year. Losing import tackle Edwin Harrison for the season on July 13 hurt, as did the various injuries that kept Canadian tackle Dan Federkeil out for most of the year, but those were just a few of the body blows the Stampeders took on the line. The 35-9 West semifinal win over B.C. November 15 was particularly rough, as both centre Pierre Lavertu and left guard Shane Bergman went down, leading Calgary to throw in defensive linemen Quinn Smith (who at least played both ways in college and had been practicing with the offence recently thanks to a lack of depth) and Junior Turner (who had next-to-no OL experience). The Stampeders were able to rejig things a little for the West Final, switching in American John Estes at centre and putting in Canadian rookie Karl Lavoie at guard, but the line was still far from good Sunday against Edmonton's vaunted defensive line.

Yes, Calgary didn't concede a sack on the day, but poor pass protection was a factor all day. Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell threw for 381 yards, but tossed two touchdowns against one interception, and picked up most of his yards and points after the Eskimos' defence took their foot off the gas. Moreover, poor run-blocking was a factor in Jerome Messam only collecting 56 rushing yards on 13 carries (4.3 yards per carry). The Stampeders led the league with 25.1 points per game from their offence this year, and they passed that mark Sunday against a very good Eskimos' defence (which was second in the CFL with 16.9 offensive points conceded this year), but only after the game was almost out of hand, and line struggles were a part of that. Moreover, the line changes created ratio problems elsewhere, leading to them having to sub Canadian Adam Berger in at cornerback in place of Ciante Evans. That may or may not have been a factor in the defence's collapse, but it certainly meant Calgary didn't have their ideal lineup available.

The defensive struggles we saw Sunday were unquestionable, with that unit allowing 31 points in the first three quarters, and that's a long way from the norm for the Stampeders this year. Calgary was first in the league in scoring defence this year, giving up a CFL-low 16.1 points per game to offences and just 302.5 yards per game (second-best in the league), and they were good against both the run and the pass (third and second respectively in yards allowed per game in those categories). In the West Final, though, Edmonton QB Mike Reilly took the Stampeders apart, having an almost perfect day with 370 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, a 79.5 per cent completion percentage, 30 rushing yards on seven attempts, and two rushing touchdowns. Some of that may have just been a great day for Reilly, but Calgary's defensive woes Sunday were certainly a critical part of their demise.

The Stampeders' season will be survived by many, but there will be substantial changes in their roles. General manager and head coach John Hufnagel is moving upstairs to focus solely on being the GM, while offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson is taking over as head coach. Assistant general manager and director of player personnel John Murphy may be heading to Saskatchewan, and other coaches and front office staff might see moves or role transitions too. The team also has 20 pending free agents, and many of the most impressive of them (WR Eric Rogers, DE Freddie Bishop Jr and DT Micah Johnson) seem set to try the NFL. Thus, the 2016 season in Calgary could be very different. It will build on what came before, though, and the ultimate memory of 2015 may be of a year that was good, but not quite good enough in the end.