CALGARY – The Calgary Stampeders put together a well-rounded performance on all three fronts to begin the 2025 season with a 38-26 win over the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
A balanced approach on offence with scoring spread throughout the game, combined with a sound defensive game plan and key plays on specials teams propelled the Stamps to a home-opener victory, making the Calgary debut for quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. a sweet success.
CFL.ca brings you three key stats from the Stampeders’ win over the Tiger-Cats.
RELATED
» Dedrick Mills hat trick powers Stampeders past Tiger-Cats
» Depth Charts: HAM | CGY
» Game Notes: Tiger-Cats at Stampeders
» Injury Reports: Stay up to date
» Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally
9/9 – START BY VERNON ADAMS JR.
Running back Dedrick Mills ended up being the main attraction at McMahon Stadium on Saturday night, but from the jump, it looked like it would be the Adams Jr. show. The veteran pivot began the contest by going a perfect 9-9 through the air, throwing for over 100 yards before making any sort of mistake with the football.
Operating at a high level on the opening drive allowed the hosts to jump out to an early 7-0 lead and from there, there was no looking back. They followed up that scoring drive with a field goal as Adams Jr. looked comfortable as ever in the early moments of his Calgary coming out party.
Even though Adams Jr. would later cough up a pair of interceptions, his hot start combined with the three touchdown day from running back Dedrick Mills meant it would be Calgary getting into the win column in Week 1.
2 – SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYS
The Stamps made two big plays on special teams on either end of halftime to swing the momentum of the game firmly in their favour.
In the first half, the punt return team brought down Hamilton punter Nik Constantinou after he was pressured and looked to scramble for a first down. That brought on a turnover on downs, resulting in Mills’ second touchdown of the day.
Then, on the first play out of the halftime break, Calgary’s kickoff unit recovered the football after a mistake from the return man Johnny Augustine. A couple plays later, P.J. Walker scored the Stampeders’ third touchdown of the evening, making it 25-9 after the successful extra point.
51:29 – TIME IT TOOK FOR HAMILTON TO ENTER THE RED ZONE
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were held out of the red zone until there was 8:31 remaining in the fourth quarter, a testament to the ability of Calgary’s defence to limit the big plays from last year’s Most Outstanding Player out of the East Division, Bo Levi Mitchell.
Held to a 30.4% conversion rate on second downs, Hamilton was really made to work on offence, averaging a shade over five yards per play, compared to Calgary’s seven. By the time Hamilton started to generate on offence, they were already in a hole, with a late comeback attempt falling short in the end.
