Kyle Myers
Ticats.ca
In a vacuum, you could look at the Hamilton Tiger-Cats overtime victory over Montreal in the Eastern Semi-Finals and call it what it is – one of the most exciting finishines to a football game imaginable.
The thing is, when viewed in the context of Hamilton’s 2013 season, late drama – like Kent Austin’s decision to go for the first down on two consecutive third-and-ones rather than tying the game with a field goal – is simply par for the course for this team.
These days the Tiger-Cats are winning far more games than they’re losing (including 10 of their last 14) and many wins, like last weekend’s OT victory over the Alouettes, have been down-to-the-wire, character victories like those portrayed in Hollywood blockbusters. Defensive captain Jamall Johnson believes that Hamilton’s newfound success in clutch situations is a result of a different, positive attitude in the locker room.
“It’s a different mentality, a different culture that’s been started around here,” says Johnson, now in his fifth season with the Tiger-Cats. “It started in mini-camp when the new staff came in. We have a lot of new blood and guys are buying into the things we want to do.”
The Cats have now won their last two meaningful football games against the Alouettes by coming from behind in the fourth quarter. When you include games like the Ticats’ victory over the Argos in Guelph, when Arthur Hobbs was the recipient of Ricky Ray’s first interception of the season in the end zone with just over a minute to play in the fourth, it’s clear that something is starting to click in Hamilton, especially as the game clock ticks down.
“We’ve been playing pretty good football and I think our character has shown a lot in the past five or six weeks,” says receiver Andy Fantuz. “To hang around and get the job done when it counted, offensively that shows that we never gave up, we continued fighting. And the defence has kept believing us, kept shutting them down and giving the offence opportunities.”
Johnson attributes much of the Ticats’ success lately to the team forging a closer bond, both on and off the field.
“We have coaches that have played the game at a high level, won Grey Cups, but it’s still good to be able to hear stuff from your teammates,” he said. “We all respect each other, and we’re the ones on the field together so we have to have that relationship where we can talk about anything, and we can hang on each other during tough times in games.”
For his part, Head Coach Kent Austin has been consistent in what he’s preached to his team, no matter the score, no matter the situation.
“They’re professionals,” said Austin, “they’re getting paid to play and to perform and to be prepared. If they’re relying on my solely for their motivation, that’s a mistake. At the end of the day they’ve got to get themselves ready to play.”
Whatever they’re doing, it’s working, and the Ticats will now have a chance to clinch a Grey Cup berth for the first time since 1999. Much is said about ‘peaking at the right time’ in football, and Fantuz believes that emotional victories, like last weekend’s over Montreal, bode well for the team in their journey forward.
“It was a big character win to come back and win that game at the end,” said Fantuz. “Going forward we have that confidence that we can have late comebacks and late drives that work out in our favour.”
It’s hardly something you can plan to do, but it’s certainly nice to know that you have the ability to do so in your back pocket.
Just in case you need it.
