Stampeders in CFL’s Week 21: Calgary's playoff fate rests with Lions in awkward reality to close out regular season

The Calgary Stampeders have made their final play.

Now they must stand on the sideline and watch another team determine whether their season continues.

The Stampeders did their job Saturday, hammering the BC Lions 32-13 at McMahon Stadium to finish the regular season at 9-9. The victory kept the Red and White alive, but it didn’t secure them a playoff berth.

That decision — ironically — is now in the hands of the team they just defeated.

Indeed, the Lions host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday (8 p.m. MT, TSN) to determine the Stampeders’ fate regarding the 2026 Canadian Football League post-season.

If the Lions win, the Stamps advance. If the Blue Bombers win, the Stamps’ season is over.

No trick play, challenge flag or last-minute drive can change their destiny.

All the Stampeders can do now is wait.

“It’s a little awkward,” Stampeders quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. told reporters following the win over the Lions. “We could have helped ourselves out earlier in the year. You can’t go back on it. It is what it is. We’re just going to sit back and see what happens.”

Indeed, that’s the Stamps’ uncomfortable reality.

They controlled what they could control Saturday. Adams threw for 324 yards and a touchdown, fellow QB Quincy Vaughn scored twice on short-yardage runs, receiver Ajou Ajou caught a touchdown pass and kicker René Paredes booted four field goals in what could have been his final appearance in Red and White.

The defence shut out Lions after halftime.

Now the Stampeders need those same Lions to rescue them.

“We know the West — it’s always tight, and it’s a really good division (with) really good teams,” Adams said. “It just sucks that so many close games we lost early on in the season could have gone a different way (with) a play here and a play there.”

Stampeders skipper Dave Dickenson knows it but isn’t about to write off the long-shot hopes of reaching the 2026 Grey Cup on his team’s home field — that scheduled for Nov. 15.

“Can’t really go there,” the Stamps GM/head coach told reporters. “Because I don’t know where the year’s at.”

“We’re going to keep working,” continued Dickenson, whose crew is currently on a bye during this concluding week of the CFL’s regular schedule. “We’ll just do a lot of individual stuff, drill work, compete periods, situational football …”

Paredes, who’s about to retire after 15 CFL campaigns — all with the Stamps — couldn’t recall finishing a regular season under stranger circumstances.

“We took care of our job,” the 41-year-old said. “We got to 9-9, and all we can do is just wait until next week. Hopefully, we have a shot at playoffs.”

“Hopefully,” added Adams, “some things shake our way.”

The equation is simple yet uncontrollable …

The Bombers must lose Friday to the host Lions.

Big Blue enters its finale with a 8-9 record. A victory would move them to 9-9, level with the Stamps, but the Bombers own the tiebreaker after winning 2-of-3 meetings between the clubs, thereby eliminating the Stampeders.

A Lions victory would leave the Bombers at 8-10, giving the Stampeders the final CFL playoff berth.

What place the Stamps end up in the standings would then depend on Saturday’s matinee between the Edmonton Elks and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

If the Bombers lose and the Roughriders win, the Riders would finish third in the CFL’s West Division, leaving the Stampeders to play as the crossover team and visit the Toronto Argonauts in the East Division semifinal.

If both the Bombers and the Riders lose, the Stamps and the Riders would finish tied at 9-9. But because the Stampeders won their season series with the Riders, they would take third in the West and visit the Lions in the West semifinal challenge, while the Riders would cross over to play the host Argos.

There is no home date available to the Stamps in this equation. The Elks have already secured first place with a 13-4 mark and will host the West final, while the Lions (10-7) locked up second to host the West semifinal. In the East, it’s the Montreal Alouettes owning first place with a 13-4 record and the Argos earning second at 9-8.

“We know we’re going to play, I believe, B.C. or Toronto,” Dickenson said. “We’ll keep working and lock in those two opponents. If we get our opportunity, let’s take advantage of it.”

First, however, Calgary needs the opportunity.

For one night, everybody in the Stamps camp is cheering on the Lions.

Calgary didn’t wander into football purgatory via one bad bounce.

It got there with one close loss after another.

The Stampeders were 2-3 after a 37-30 loss in Montreal in July, a stumble that mixed glimpses of Adams’ big-play ability with too many drives, quarters and games that slipped away.

They recovered well enough to reach Labour Day at 5-6 to be still very much alive in the crowded West. Then the Elks delivered the two-game blow that nearly ended the Stamps’ season.

The Elks won the Labour Day Classic 38-28 at McMahon and followed with a 53-16 pounding of the Red and White in Edmonton. The Stamps fell to 5-8, and a return to the playoffs suddenly appeared more fantasy than forecast.

Injuries added to the strain.

Running back Dedrick Mills went onto the six-game injured list with a hip injury, receiver Reggie Begelton missed most of the season, and the offensive line underwent weekly repairs, forcing the Stamps to move bodies around while trying to keep Adams upright.

But what followed was the club’s best stretch of the season.

Paredes drilled a franchise-record 62-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Ottawa Redblacks 40-38 at McMahon. Then the Stamps went east the next week and handled the Redblacks 45-31. And even better, they then marched into Regina and beat the Riders 37-31.

Adams threw four touchdown passes in Saskatchewan, and the Stamps led 34-13 before allowing the score to become cosmetically respectable late.

“I didn’t like how we finished,” Dickenson told Stamps TV. “Obviously, that does taint it a bit for me, but I’m not going to let it. I’m going to let the guys celebrate because that’s a huge win on the road against a great team.”

The three-game run lifted the Stamps from 5-8 to 8-8 and give them back control of their playoff fate.

Then came a third-straight road game in Winnipeg.

A victory over the Blue Bombers would have clinched a playoff berth. Instead, the Stamps lost 33-28 and handed control right back to the blue crew.

The Stampeders settled for field goals on promising early drives, allowed Trey Vaval to return the second-half kickoff for a touchdown and failed on a pair of two-point conversion attempts.

“That’s what football is about — who’s going to make the least amount of mistakes,” Adams said after the loss. “We want to help the defence out more. The first half had one too many field goals. Get those into touchdowns if we can.”

Dickenson saw a team constantly chasing the game.

“We felt like we were going uphill the entire game,” Dickenson told Stamps TV. “Even though the fight was there, it was just not good enough football.”

The Stamps closed to within two points but never took the lead in the affair.

“We obviously know we don’t control our own destiny now,” Adams said. “We gotta come back to work, man. We got a really good, hot BC team coming in and just gotta get on to the next one.”

The Stampeders did exactly that.

They controlled Saturday’s finale against the Lions, scoring 22 unanswered points after the Lions took a 13-10 lead. Adams found Ajou for a touchdown just before halftime, and the Stamps owned the second half.

The Lions rested QB and 2025 CFL Most Outstanding Player Nathan Rourke after the first half and removed other starters as the game progressed.

But the Stamps still did what was required. They won decisively, finished 4-1 over their final five games and reached nine victories.

Historically, that total has almost always bought a team a CFL playoff ticket. Nine wins were sufficient for nearly three decades before a 10-8 team missed the post-season in 2025.

This year’s West has been equally unforgiving.

The Stamps lost several games that were there to be taken, including a three-point drop to the Riders and a seven-point loss in Montreal. And It squandered a clinching chance in Winnipeg, and now must hope the Lions provide one final favour.

Dickenson called it a “weird year.”

A victory Friday by the Lions would extend it.

A win by the Bombers would end it.

The Stampeders have practised, rallied, stumbled, recovered and completed all 18 games. For the first time since June, there is no opponent across from them and nothing left to fix themselves.

Their season is still alive.

They just aren’t in control of what happens now.