Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
If the Ticats win on Friday night in Calgary, it will accomplish a number of different things.
Obviously the opportunity to play with the support of your fans behind you is huge, especially against the Argos at Ivor Wynne Stadium.
But that’s not the only advantage to securing a home playoff date.
“You want to do that for the city and for the fans, a home playoff game isn’t just for us,” said quarterback Kevin Glenn. “The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have a rich football tradition and to give them a home playoff game is something we want to do every year.”
Also important to the team is that they still have an opportunity to take care of their own business. Regardless of the fact that they would clinch home-field with an Argo loss to Montreal on Friday, you get the sense that this is something they want to do themselves.
“We want to make sure that we control what we can control, you never want to hope or wish that somebody is going to take care of it for you, you want to do it yourself,” said Glenn.
At 9-7, the Ticats have matched their win total from last season with two games left to play. The ability to make a tangible, statistical improvement on last season would go a long way for the players, the organization and the fans. Especially in a century where double-digit win seasons have been sparse.
“You always want to do better than you did the previous year, just like you want to play better than you did the previous game,” said Glenn.
“That’s the nature of being a competitor, you always want to out-do yourself,” he added.
With the Stampeders coming off of a loss, the fact that they have already locked up home-field in the West Final may be less of a factor.
Like Hamilton, they surely want to gain some positive momentum before the start of the post-season and will be under some pressure in front of their home-town crowd after losing to B.C. last week.
The Ticats will also be looking to gain some measure of revenge after losing by one point in a squeaker at Ivor Wynne Stadium at the beginning of the season.
