Stampeders outlast Ticats' comeback, but late call raises wider questions

The Calgary Stampeders managed to hang on for a 30-24 win against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Sunday night, and their win suggested that they're still the league's most consistently impressive team. This was the sixth-straight win for the Stampeders, who improved to 7-1-1 in the process, and it was a solid showing in all three facets of the game. However, it was a win that could have been much easier if not for a late 115-yard interception for a touchdown by Tommie Campbell being nullified by a challenge that determined there was illegal contact away from the play.

That play, one of the most impressive we've seen this year, should have put Calgary up 34-16 with just 1:27 left, but a coach's challenge from Hamilton's Kent Austin led to it being overturned; the Ticats then punched in the ball for a touchdown of their own, making it 27-24 inside the final minute. The Stampeders were still able to hold on for the win thanks to a Rene Paredes field goal and strong defensive play, but this illustrated some of the issues remaining with the CFL's current challenge system even after the league took midseason action to change it.

It's a pity that this end-of-game issue showed up to haunt what was otherwise a great showcase for the league. We saw a terrific quarterback duel Sunday, with Hamilton's Zach Collaros completing 34 of 53 passes for 439 yards and three touchdowns with a 64.2 per cent completion mark and Calgary's Bo Levi Mitchell completing 27 of 37 passes for 323 yards and a touchdown (73.0 per cent). There were star receivers on both sides, with Hamilton's Terrence Toliver hauling in nine passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns and Luke Tasker adding 10 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown, as well as Calgary's DaVaris Daniels grabbing five catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.There were strong defensive plays on both sides, too, with Stampeders' linebacker Deron Mayo (10 tackles) and Ticats' linebacker Simoni Lawrence (nine tackles) particularly standing out.

The unveiling of the #CFLWired innovation (putting live mics on the quarterbacks and head coaches throughout the game) worked out decently, too. While the quarterback play-calls weren't necessarily too informative for viewers, the reactions the mics caught from QBs and head coaches added something to the game. Examples included Mitchell criticizing his receivers for rolling the wrong way, or Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson questioning the timing of a Hamilton challenge. It wouldn't be surprising to see this kind of wired innovation make its way into future CFL games, perhaps with producers electing to use less in-huddle talk and more reactions, and perhaps also miking up other players (such as linebackers, defensive backs or receivers) to capture more trash talk.

Still, the largest takeaway from this game may be how this late-game illegal contact call almost spoiled it. We've seen a sizable number of problematic illegal contact and illegal interference reviews this year after the league decided to make those plays challengeable. In theory, having the ability to review more plays and get them right isn't a bad thing, but the problem is that so many of these plays have happened well away from the ball (so they've had limited impact on what actually happens) and haven't been observed or called by the officials on the field in real time, illustrating how little contact there's often actually been. In 2015 or any season before that, an illegal contact play like this not initially called on the field would not have been challengeable. From what we've seen this year, that might have been the superior approach.

The league cut down on challenge bloat a bit this week by making the first challenge cost a timeout if you're wrong, but they may need to make a further change to how minor infractions away from the play are called. While this wasn't the only problematic call in this game (another bad one went against Hamilton when they were called for "roughing the passer" on a play where Mitchell was running), and while it didn't wind up altering the outcome, it adds to the numbers of questionable illegal contact calls after-the-fact we've seen this year thanks to the ability to review that now. There's a case to be made that the current rules and interpretation of them could use significant improvement, whether's it's from removing illegal contact as a reviewable play altogether or restricting challenges on it to a certain radius from the ball. This call didn't fully overshadow Sunday's otherwise-excellent game, but it illustrates an issue the CFL needs to at least thoroughly consider, and one where perhaps the older way of doing things was better.