Photo courtesy: Calgary Stampeders

The Calgary Stampeders lost at home for the second time this season on Thursday, as the Montreal Alouettes got a 57-yard field goal in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to win 23-21.

Here’s what I saw from high in Section I.

Adams injured

Vernon Adams Jr. left late in the third quarter with a suspected concussion, although head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson refused to confirm the injury following the game. He also didn’t excuse what came after the injury to one of the early season frontrunners for the CFL Most Outstanding Player.

“I’m not really going to speculate on what happened. I know that he went in the tent and didn’t come back, so that was obviously something that we know can happen,” Dickenson said.

“A lot of teams are playing with their backup QB, including Montreal, so we have to be able to function and get points and get first downs, and we weren’t able to do it.”

Adams led three touchdown drives, but had a stretch of eight straight incompletions to end the first half that let Montreal back into the game and allowed them to take a lead into halftime. After leaving the game, he was seen visibly upset on the sidelines.

If Adams misses anytime, the situation could sour the Stampeders’ resurgent season.

Not the only injury

Adams Jr. going down wasn’t the only injury of significance in the game for the Red and White.

On the first series, Damien Alford — he of 5 touchdowns in three games heading in — aggravated a hamstring that was wrapped the rest of the night.

Later, Adrian Greene, who now leads the league in interceptions after grabbing a McLeod Bethel-Thompson offering in the first quarter, was also removed from the game with concussion-like symptoms.

Losing the team’s top receiver, ball-hawk DB, and QB all in one game was a hill too steep to climb.

Making the situation worse, as both Alford and Greene are Canadian, it meant that standout defensive tackle Jaylon Hutchings was also forced off the field for long portions of the game to satisfy the ratio.

“I think both teams were digging deep on their roster. We kind of ran out of some people there, and we were trying to adjust. I just didn’t think we played winning football,” Dickenson admitted.

Penalties all over

Calgary came into the game as the least penalized team in football, with the lowest total number of penalties and the fewest total penalty yards against.

In this game, the team had 11 penalties for 121 total yards.

After the game, Dickenson went almost as far as I can remember him going when it came to criticizing the refs.

“We probably earned the majority of them. You have to play to a standard, and we’ll see if it was called to that standard, as well,” he said. “But I do feel like, for the most part, the ones that were called were probably earned and legit.”

It isn’t quite the epic rant we have seen from other coaches in the past, but it does highlight that he wasn’t thrilled with his players’ play or the officiating crew’s work during the game.

Special teams miscues make the difference

In a game that was decided by a razor-thin margin, the Stampeders can look back on two plays specifically for the difference on the scoreboard.

The first came early, as Rene Paredes missed a rare convert on the first touchdown of the day. It was Paredes’ first miss of the season, and he now sits at 20/21 in 2025, having made more than any other kicker has attempted thus far.

The next one was even more rare, as returner Kaylon Horton fielded a ball one yard into the Stampeders’ endzone on a kickoff that followed the lone Montreal touchdown of the day and took a knee, awarding the Alouettes a single point.

A kickoff rouge and a Paredes missed convert are two plays that happen infrequently. Combine them, and you have the two-point difference that made for the winning margin.

Next up, more gruel!

There is no rest for the Stampeders, who just played their fourth game in 21 days. They will again play in the Thursday night matchup, this time against Ottawa on July 31.

Given that the Redblacks’ only win of the season was against Calgary, the motivation will certainly be there to avenge the loss. However, this will also be the third time in a five-game stretch that the Stampeders are playing early in the schedule against a team coming off a bye week.

The Redblacks should be well-rested, while the Stampeders will be looking at their fifth contest in four weeks, three of them on the road. Following this game, the team will play once more on August 9 after a nine-day rest before heading out on a well-deserved bye week.