THE NOISE WILL BE A FACTOR

Mosaic Stadium will be rocking for the West final on Sunday.
Photograph by: Herald Archive, Canwest News Service
Rita Mingo
For the Calgary Herald

For those of us who have not experienced football in Saskatchewan, John Hufnagel is ready to elucidate.
‘’A long, long time ago when I played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Winnipeg and the B.C. Lions were pretty big rivals and they had just started playing inside the dome,’’ related the head coach and GM of the Calgary Stampeders. “You couldn’t buy a ticket for those games and the noise was just something else. You could be screaming right next to a person and they couldn’t hear you; that’s how loud it was.

“When you go to Mosaic Stadium, that’s how loud it is. We have to be very good with our poise in the noise.’’
The Stamps, who defeated the Edmonton Eskimos 24-21 on Sunday, head to this Prairie den of madness later this week to take on the Roughriders in the CFL West Division final this Sunday. The big juicy carrot, the Grey Cup game on Nov. 29 in their own backyard, is all the impetus this team needs.

“That’s a motivating factor in itself,’’ Hufnagel pointed out. “The players want to earn a right to play in the Grey Cup; they have the opportunity to do that. It’s going to take a good hard week of practice and then great execution for three hours on Sunday.’’

A season-ending loss to Saskatchewan, 30-14, meant the Stamps will have to succeed in a sold-out stadium that has been less that welcoming in 2009. Calgary, in fact, is winless against the Riders, having dropped two games and tied another.

“Saskatchewan is a tough place to play,’’ conceded Hufnagel.

“It’s going to be a fun football game for both teams and the people in attendance. There’s not a lot of times where you have that kind of electricity in a stadium. It’s going to be there on Sunday. One thing I was pleased about in the last game against Saskatchewan was that I thought we did handle the noise situation fairly well. We didn’t have a lot of procedure calls; it didn’t affect our communication offensively or defensively.’’
That last meeting is probably still hanging around the collective thoughts of the players, even though Hufnagel may discount that.

“Truthfully, going into this game what we accomplished or didn’t accomplish during the regular season games has no bearing on their mental makeup for this football game,’’ he said.

“You build on what you tried to establish. We have to play better football against this football team and find ways to put the ball in the end zone and keep them out of the end zone and not give up big plays against them, since that’s been our Achilles heel.’’

The Stamps came out of the semifinal fairly healthy, save for offensive lineman Rob Lazeo, who was sidelined with ankle and knee problems. According to Hufnagel, they’ll have a better idea of his status on Wednesday, “but it’s not looking great.’’

He did have words of praise for Lazeo’s replacement, Tim O’Neill, as well as for Jeff Pilon, who had been felled by turf toe and the flu, respectively.

“We were hoping to get through the game without having to use Tim, but he stepped up.

“I was very pleased with our two offensive linemen who didn’t have an opportunity to practise all week long, both Tim and Jeff. They played good football.’’

Another who earned kudos from the coach is quarterback Henry Burris, who was methodical in directing the offence against the Eskimos.

“He played good playoff football; he executed the game plan very well,” he said. “He used all of his abilities. The game plan was for him to have that opportunity and he didn’t disappoint anybody.’’
The misadventures on special teams — lack of tackling and conceding the single point — were things the coaching staff will address this week.

“The other problems we have are easily correctable,’’ he said.

EXTRA POINT: Receiver Teyo Johnson, victim of a knifing last week, is questionable for Sunday, but Hufnagel is optimistic he’ll be in the lineup.

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