105th Grey Cup: 5 things to know for Argonauts-Stampeders

In a matchup most would have only half-predicted before the season began, it’s the dominant Calgary Stampeders versus the no longer dormant Toronto Argonauts meeting up in Ottawa for Sunday’s 105th Grey Cup.

Here are five things to know heading into Canada’s title game.

These Stamps have a lot on the line

Considering the importance of the position, it’s not wrong to use the quarterback to delineate era for football franchises. That’s why this segment in time — the four seasons since Bo Levi Mitchell took the controls — has to be considered one of, if not, the greatest in Calgary Stampeders history.

In fact, should the Stamps walk out of Lansdowne Park victorious on Sunday evening, Mitchell will be the first quarterback in the club’s history to lift the Grey Cup twice. That’s pretty incredible.

It goes without saying: Mitchell can cement his legacy with a second Grey Cup in four seasons as a starter. But if the Stampeders fall in consecutive championship games after last November’s heartbreaking loss to the Ottawa Redblacks at BMO Field, then what?

Would it mean that four seasons with a combined 57-13-2 record in the regular season was largely a disappointment? We can’t imagine Mitchell’s Stampeders would ever think otherwise.

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Throw out the records

Favoured by more than a touchdown, the Stampeders are very much deserving of the respect that linemakers have given them heading into the weekend. To wit: when the Argonauts denied the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the first-ever crossover appearance in the Grey Cup last weekend, they did it with their 10th win of the season — or more than two months after the Stampeders had already banked their 10th consecutive double-digit win campaign.

But it matters little where the Argonauts came from (which, if you remember, was a team without football operations when free agency began last winter). What’s important heading into Sunday’s clash is head coach Marc Trestman’s team has progressed into something truly formidable in short order – and since losing twice to Calgary earlier this season by a combined scored of 64-31.

There is a pretty definitive moment that signalled that the Argonauts had turned the corner. When rookie running back James Wilder Jr. took over the starting role in Week 13 (coincidently the same week Calgary won its 10th game), the Argos suddenly boasted a potent attack to pair with a defence that had long established itself as one of the CFL’s best.

With Wilder and a healthy receiving corps, quarterback Ricky Ray has led the Argonauts to a 6-2 record over the last two months – or a mark better than Calgary’s over the same time period.

Could this be it for Ray?

In a second consecutive Grey Cup, the feel-good narrative betrays the Stampeders. At 38, Ricky Ray — one of the greatest quarterbacks to put on pads for a CFL game — could potentially walk away on top, just as Henry Burris did with the Ottawa Redblacks last November.

And in many ways, a win would mean that Ray could strut into the sunset even more triumphantly than Burris had. Ray would set a record with his fourth Grey Cup championship, while 196 passing yards (a certainty, given health) would put him behind only Anthony Calvillo in total passing in the 105-year history of Canada’s title game.

Ray hasn’t made a decision yet on whether or not this will be his swan song, with the 15-year veteran suggesting this week that he hasn’t thought beyond Sunday’s game. Whatever he decides, know this: this isn’t Peyton Manning at Super Bowl 50. Ray’s 5,546 passing yards were the second-most in the CFL this season, and more than he’s thrown for in nearly a decade.

One for Mess

Here’s a stat: Over the last quarter century of Grey Cups, the team that has racked up the most yards on the ground has lifted the trophy 21 times.

That might be reason enough to lean toward the Stampeders, who will have the most motivated player on the field hitting holes from out of their backfield.

Stampeders running back Jerome Messam — one of the greatest active players without a ring and as dominant a Canadian the league has seen in some time — has another chance to win the big game at the end of his ninth season of bludgeoning opposing linebackers with his 255-pound mass.

Fuelling his motivation, Messam believed he would have the chance to salt away a championship win last November when the Stampeders were set up at the goal line in the dying moments with a chance to punch in the game-winning score versus Ottawa. Only the Stampeders were forced to settle for the game-tying field goal after the coaching staff elected to run backup quarterback Andrew Buckley, who stumbled to the ground after a game-saving tackle from Redblacks defensive back Abdul Kenneh.

Star-studded

It would be difficult to curate a better assemblage of talent than what will be on the field Sunday at TD Place Stadium.

The Stampeders boast the CFL’s most outstanding in two of three phases with stud middle linebacker Alex Singleton and the game’s most dangerous returner, Roy Finch. The Argonauts, meanwhile, have Ray — who finished second to Edmonton Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly in the MOP vote — along with Trestman, the CFL’s coach of the year, calling the plays, and the most outstanding rookie, Wilder Jr., leading their rushing attack.

It should be a great one in Ottawa.

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