Rambo's return to lineup has Stamps celebrating
CALGARY — Nik Lewis was over the 100-yard mark before halftime and matched his regular-season career high for receptions.
Juwan Simpson and Brandon Browner were all over the field on defence.
Rookie kicker Rob Maver connected twice from a career-high 45 yards.
But, really, could this night have belonged to anybody else but Ken-Yon Rambo?
Playing his first Canadian Football League game after spending more than a year fighting his way back from a knee injury, the 31-year-old Calgary Stampeders receiver scored the game's first touchdown, propelling the Stamps to a 23-20 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in front of a crowd of 30,150 at McMahon Stadium.
"It's amazing," said Rambo in a lively Stampeder locker-room afterwards. "Words cannot explain it. It's better than what I hoped for. Wonderful, man. I just wanted to come out and be productive for the team and help out in whatever way possible. And I loved the touchdown."
He wasn't alone, suffice to say, as the Stamps improved to 4-1 on the season.
Rambo couldn't hold on to the first pass thrown his way; the ball squirted free after he was hammered by Bombers cornerback Jovon Johnson.
But the second pass? Rambo made no mistake on that one. Running a crossing pattern, Rambo caught a 20-yard strike from Henry Burris in full stride and celebrated his first touchdown since the 2008 West Division final against the B.C. Lions.
"You could see the spark early on whenever we got the ball to him — when he got that touchdown," said Burris, who completed 28-of-38 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns. "Guys fed off of that. He really got us going in the first half as far as the offence was concerned.
"Of course he's rusty. He didn't have much of a camp. He didn't have a pre-season. Really this is his first game of the pre-season. He's going to get better from here on out. That's something that will make us better — having a dangerous Rambo out there."
Rambo continued to be a presence all night. Later in the first half, he instigated a melee in front of the Stampeder bench when he took offence to an Ian Logan tackle that may have reminded him of the Javier Glatt horse-collar tackle that caused the knee injury on July 24, 2009.
"It felt like a horse collar," said Rambo, who finished with six catches for 86 yards. "And it's the rule now (new rules passed in the off-season broaden the description of a horse-collar tackle). I got real concerned; it's my first game back, and I thought it was a horse collar."
And while the spotlight was on Rambo for much of the night, Lewis was in the midst of one of the finest nights of his six-plus-season career. He finished with 10 catches (the third time he's hit that number in his career, and second only to his 11-catch Grey Cup 2008 performance) for 160 yards, including a 64-yarder that led to Rambo's touchdown.
Deon Murphy scored the other Stampeder touchdown, while Maver was good on all three field-goal attempts, from 45, 45 and 37 yards. The Bombers got touchdowns from Fred Reid, on a 46-yard run, and Terrence Edwards, a 61-yard bomb from quarterback Steven Jyles.
But when the Bombers were surging in the fourth quarter, the Stampeder defence came up with two big stops in the final minutes to keep alive a streak dating back to Chris Jones's hiring as defensive co-ordinator of winning 18 straight games when holding opponents to 20 points or fewer.
"We couldn't ask for a better scenario, the defence on the field to win the game, and we happened to make the plays to get it done," said cornerback Brandon Browner, who was credited with five tackles and two knock-downs. "It's a great feeling. I think we're getting there. We're not all the way where we want to be. But we're getting there, and that's a positive."
