Kyle Myers
Ticats.ca
There are games which serve as confidence builders, and then there are games like Thursday’s tilt between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Ticats had no trouble disposing of the Bombers in their first game action at Alumni Stadium in Guelph, and forced nine Winnipeg turnovers en route to the 52-zero shutout victory.
The Ticats had a great all-around game, and were the beneficiaries of touchdowns from the offence, defence, and special teams units.
“The guys played hard again, and the defence really stepped up,” said Head Coach Kent Austin. “They’re getting a lot of turnovers for us.”
The man responsible for three of the Ticats nine total turnovers on the day was Ray Brown, a rookie who had his last opportunity to impress coaches and earn a spot on the roster Thursday. The Kansas alum snagged three interceptions, one of which he returned 115 yards for a touchdown.
“You never really expect to go out there and get three interceptions, but we had a good day,” he said after the game.
Sure to give much of the emphasis to the team, Brown credited the strong play of the defence as a whole for his ability to make plays in the secondary.
“If they don’t get to the quarterback, he doesn’t throw the ball up like that, and if we don’t play good coverage, they can’t get to him,” he said. “Football is a true team game, it takes an entire defensive unit to make those plays.”
Lindsey Lamar, another Ticats rookie, followed up his 88 yard punt return touchdown in game one of the preseason with another on Thursday, this time from 77 yards. Lamar appears to be the front-runner for the vacant punt-returner’s role on the Ticats, and is making it look easy, racking up over 100 punt return yards in his second consecutive CFL game.
“It’s definitely not easy, it’s a lot of hard work,” he said. “I couldn’t do what I do without the great blocking from my team.”
After sitting out the first preseason game, the Ticats first offensive unit got plenty of action on Thursday, as starting quarterback Henry Burris was given the entire first half to work out the kinks in the team’s new system.
Burris completed 13 of 17 passes for 198 yards and touchdowns to Andy Fantuz and Greg Ellingson, making quick work of the Blue Bombers’ inexperienced secondary.
Still, Austin believes Burris has some work to do to get to the level he expects in the regular season.
“There were times when he looked a bit rusty, and he needs to handle the blitz a little bit better,” he said of the 38 year old starter. “But like veterans do, he settled down in the second quarter and made some plays.”
Now comes the difficult decision of narrowing the final roster to the 45-man limit. There are strong players at each position, and Austin and his staff will now have to evaluate them not only by their play on the field, but their attitudes on and off it as well.
“We need to make sure that the guys that we select for this team aren’t just the best athletes, but are the best fit for what we’re trying to build here,” he said.
One feeling which was unanimous in the locker room after the game was the love for the for the 12,732 Ticats fans who showed up at Alumni Stadium to cheer on the team in their first game in Guelph.
“It was amazing, I wasn’t expecting this kind of support,” said Lamar.
“It wasn’t a distraction at all, this is definitely our home,” Brown said.
Though the win won’t be reflected in the standings once the regular seasons begins, a big victory like this one is bound to have a lasting effect on the team’s confidence level. The Ticats will hope to carry the momentum from this lopsided win into their first game of the regular season next Friday, when they take on the defending Grey Cup Champion Toronto Argonauts at the Rogers Centre.
