Sacks are not a perfect measure of the performance of a defensive line.
Pressure a quarterback repeatedly and force him to get the ball out of his hands quickly, and you’re generally going to feel like you had a good night.
But every team does want sacks.
And the Calgary Stampeders, in particular, want a lot more of them.
Through five games, the Stamps have managed to take down opposing quarterbacks a grand total of four times. No team in the league has fewer sacks.
“Instead of getting close, we’ve got to get there,” said Stamps defensive end James Vaughters, who has yet to record a sack this season.
Vaughters isn’t alone in that regard.
Mike Rose still doesn’t have a sack, and neither does Julian Howsare.
That’s three of the Stamps’ four starting defensive linemen, and the odd thing about it is it’s not like they’re playing particularly badly.
They’ve been consistently getting in and around quarterbacks but they’re just not quite getting home.
And because sacks can be so disruptive, both in terms of field position and making the opposing QB uncomfortable, it’s obviously an area where the Stamps are looking to improve.
They want more sacks. They need more sacks.
“Of course, who doesn’t?” said Stamps defensive line coach Juwan Simpson. “You can’t really get caught up in that, though. It’s a team game. What’s best for the team? What’s working? What’s not? We’ve missed a few opportunities but at the end of the day I’d rather have these wins than sacks any day.”
There’s every reason to believe the Stamps d-line is due for a breakout game at some point soon. There’s simply too much talent assembled for them to continue being last in the league in sacks.
You’d love to see it happen this weekend against the B.C. Lions, although Vernon Adams Jr.’s well-earned reputation for being the league’s most elusive quarterback means it’s going to be a challenge.
One way or another, though, the Stamps need more sacks. It’s far from the only thing they need, but it’s inevitably going to be a point of focus in the coming weeks.
“More hits, more sacks, more big plays, pressuring the quarterback,” said Stamps GM/head coach Dave Dickenson. “I was talking to Mike Rose, and you can’t just say you’re going to try harder because the guys are giving great effort. Just have to play the system, play with confidence though, have to play with edge and hopefully they’ll come.”
Additions
Over the past couple of days, the Stampeders added a couple of new players.
On Tuesday, they announced that they’d signed former Cochrane High School standout Justin Sambu, a defensive lineman who had been selected in the sixth round of the 2024 CFL Draft by the Toronto Argonauts.
“We knew about Justin,” Dickenson said. “He was hurt at the combine so really didn’t have a chance to look at him enough, so come on in, compete, see what he can do and hopefully he makes a difference for our team.”
The Stamps also brought back defensive back Meiko Dotson.
The Florida State product was with the team in training camp and should largely be expected to play in one of the team’s two corner spots.
Already, the Stamps are light on DBs with both Daniel Amoako and Demerio Houston on the six-game injured list and Ben Labrosse on the one-game injured list, which is somewhat frustrating for an organization that has suffered through injury trouble in their defensive backfield for the past two seasons.
“It has been three years in a row and you don’t know why,” Dickenson acknowledged. “We don’t do too, too much in practice and maybe it’s just bad luck but those guys in our system, the continuity of the back-end is very important and it hasn’t happened for three years in a row now, but it is another man’s opportunity Hopefully we can get the job done, we ‘re facing a team that’s averaging over 400 yards passing.”
