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Turnover battle looms large for Stampeders in West Division Semifinal

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REGINA — Don’t turn the ball over. Just don’t.

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There are other keys to Sunday’s West Division Semifinal for the Calgary Stampeders you can pinpoint.

None loom quite as large as the turnover battle, though.

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Three times, the Calgary Stampeders played the Saskatchewan Roughriders in October. The Stamps won twice, the Riders won once.

All three were close, but you could easily make an argument that they shouldn’t have been. In the Stamps’ second win and the Riders’ one victory, Calgary turnovers were what gave their rivals in green a shot.

If the Stamps are going to keep their season alive on Sunday afternoon, cutting out those costly turnovers has to be Priority No. 1.

“It is the biggest stat, I think it’s the stat that tells you whether you win or lose the most,” Dickenson said. “Second one is going to be winning the line of scrimmage, sacks, running the ball things like that.

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“You usually can’t win if you lose by more than one (in the turnover battle), you can usually get away with maybe one more than your opponent. If you go two or more, your odds, I think, are something way down.”

While turnovers didn’t play as big a role in the first meeting between these two teams — a 23-17 Stampeders win on Oct. 2 — they loomed large in their other clashes.

On Oct. 9 in Regina, the Stampeders had 449 yards of offence, while the Riders had only 260. You look at that and it seems almost impossible that the Stamps required a last-second field goal by Rene Paredes to claim a 22-19 win.

That’s what happened, though, and it was almost entirely because of turnovers. Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell threw two interceptions and Calgary also had a turnover on downs. That allowed the Riders to stay in it, even if they couldn’t find the end zone often enough to win.

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Two weeks later, the teams met for a third time and, again, turnovers were the story of the game. The Stamps had 381 yards of offence to the Riders’ 290, but Mitchell threw three interceptions and they turned the ball over on downs again. The third interception led to a Riders touchdown on their ensuing drive. Given that the game ended with the Riders winning 20-17, the turnovers were costly.

“The truth is, sometimes it’s better to take a sack than throw an interception against them,” Mitchell said. “You can throw the ball out of bounds every once in a while, too, but they don’t run too many different coverages. But they’re very, very good at what they do and they have some veteran guys at the back that can really make plays on the ball, so you’ve got to take care of the football and make smart choices.”

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Turnovers have been a problem for the Stampeders this season, although they cleaned things up down the stretch. Mitchell wound up throwing 13 interceptions in the regular season, but none in the Stamps’ final three games.

Protecting the ball and not giving the Riders strong field position is a priority for the team on Sunday. Their defence has been as good as any in the CFL this year, so there’s every reason to believe they won’t give up much. But there’s only so much they can do if the Riders are starting drives deep in Stamps territory.

That’s been an issue all year, as the Stamps allowed 83 points off turnovers this season, the third-highest total in the league. If you subtracted points off turnovers from every CFL team’s points allowed this season, the Stamps would have allowed the second fewest.

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So the defence should give them a shot in Sunday’s West Division Semifinal. If the offence can make sure they protect the ball, there’s every reason to believe the Stamps can come out of Regina with a win and keep their season going.

“Everybody do their job, don’t try to do anything more and obviously keep the turnovers to a minimum and we’ll have a really good chance of winning this game,” said Stamps running back Ka’Deem Carey.

daustin@postmedia.com

www.twitter.com/DannyAustin_9

Points for per game and rank: Calgary 22.5 (3rd) Saskatchewan 20.7 (7th)

Points allowed per game and rank: Calgary 18.8 (3rd) Saskatchewan 20.3 (4th)

Yards passing per game and rank: Calgary 274.8 (2nd) Saskatcheawn 233.8 (8th)

Yards rushing per game and rank: Calgary 80.4 (8th) Saskatchewan 93.0 (5th)

Net yards offence per game and rank: Calgary 343.5 (4th) Saskatchewan 307.6 (8th)

Net yards allowed per game and rank: Calgary 339.8 (6th) Saskatchewan 334.3 (5th)

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