EDMONTON – Reggie Begelton is back.
Or rather, his numbers are back to being what we expected.
It’s not like the Calgary Stampeders receiver was bad earlier this season or anything like that. It was just that the ball didn’t seem to be finding him with the regularity that most people were expecting at the start of the year.
Well, the ball’s finding him now.
For the third straight game, Begelton was pretty exceptional against the Edmonton Elks on Saturday night. After scoring two touchdowns in Monday’s Labour Day Classic, he had his first 100-yard game of the season — he finished with 112 yards. Two weeks ago, he caught a perfect six-of-six passes, too.
So yeah, it’s safe to say Begelton is back to his best. With Kamar Jorden being added to the six-game injured list this week, getting Begelton rolling again as the Stamps try to build some momentum and overtake the B.C. Lions for second place in the West Division – it helps that they’ve got the Lions up for a two-game set next.
It’s often said that you need your best players to be your best players to win big games. For the Stamps, that means Begelton, and for the last three weeks he’s risen to the occasion.
QUICK HITSComing out of this weekend, the league’s leading tacklers are the Toronto Argonauts’ Wynton McManis and the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Darnell Sankey. Both of them are former Stampeders, which is just wild … While the crowd at McMahon Stadium for Monday’s Labour Day was genuinely great and topped-out at over 30,000, unfortunately that didn’t seem to result in a huge swell of interest for the rematch at Commonwealth Stadium. There were more people than there were for the previous game between the Stamps and Elks back in July, it was still way down from what we were seeing in Edmonton as recently as three years ago. This isn’t meant as a knock on Edmonton, it’s just very concerning … Trumaine Washington hadn’t played the last three games, but didn’t waste any time reintroducing himself to the CFL world. He had a pick-six on the Elks’ very first possession against his former team … Rene Paredes was great, as usual, but was slow to get up after taking some contact after a third quarter kickoff. That’s the type of thing that will make Stamps fans very, very nervous … Peyton Logan had some more electric returns, but for the second week in a row he fumbled a punt and gave the Elks great field position. That’s something that needs to get fixed, fast, because it could cost the Stamps games against better opponents than the Elks … Most fans might not have been paying attention to Romeo McKnight prior to last week’s game, but after blocking a punt in the Labour Day Classic he came up with the first sack of his career in the first quarter on Saturday. He might be one of those guys who really breaks out in the second half … While McKnight’s just getting started, Shawn Lemon picked up the 87th and 88th sacks of his career, too. The defensive end now has 10 on the season, which is good for the second-highest total in the CFL. It’s an elite season from an elite player and it’s really time that the wider Canadian football world started paying attention … There was a scary moment in the first half when Cameron Judge was writhing in pain on the turf. He’s too important a player for the Stampeders to lose, but fortunately he didn’t miss much time and returned … The Stamps’ second touchdown came after a truly bizarre moment. The Elks got called for pass interference in the endzone after Stamps receiver Tre Odoms-Dukes had gone down while trying to make a catch. It looked like a soft call, honestly, and Elks head coach Chris Jones understandably threw the challenge flag. After a brief chat with the refs, though, he withdrew his challenge. There was no explanation given for the whole thing, and if I’m being honest I couldn’t make heads-or-tails of the whole ordeal … Tommy Stevens is very good at short yardage plays. That’s a third-string quarterback’s job, so it’s not exactly a shock, but the Stamps have been incredibly efficient when they just give him the ball and let him roll through the middle for the yards they need to extend drives or get in the endzone. He had two touchdowns in the first half on Saturday and another in the third quarter … Odoms-Dukes, by the way, got the first catch of his CFL career in the first quarter. With Kamar Jorden on the six-game injured list, the Stamps will need him to step up in a major way. He wasn’t asked to do much in the early-going, but he didn’t look out of place.
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