CFL.ca Staff
HAMILTON — For a brief moment in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats felt like they were Grey Cup Champions.
What happened after that will forever live in Grey Cup infamy, but for the Ticats, life goes on.
“It’s still disappointing,” said Andy Fantuz, whose six catches for 81 yards earned him the honour of Most Outstanding Canadian. “The dust has settled a little bit.”
Instead of dwelling on the winning play that happened but then didn’t, the Ticats will focus on both the tremendous strides made this season and what’s ahead for this promising group.
With each passing day a more positive perspective comes into play.
“We had a pretty good year,” added Fantuz. “We came back once we got our stadium. We came back and played pretty well down the stretch but we came up short and it’s disappointing.”
We expected to win it this year and we didn’t get it done. It gives you more motivation I guess for the off-season.”
After bouncing back from a 1-6 record to win the East Division and eventually appear in the Grey Cup for the second straight season, the Ticats looked like a team of destiny going into their matchup with the Stampeders.
Down 17-0 in the first half, Hamilton battled back to make a game of it. Three Justin Medlock field goals and a shutdown second-half defence made it a four-point game, with the Ticats poised for a Grey Cup turnaround similar to that of their entire regular season.
Faster than Brandon Banks ran back a 90-yard punt return to seemingly put the Ticats ahead in the last minute, though, it was gone. Taylor Reed was flagged for an illegal block, the play was called back and time soon ran out.
Destiny’s name isn’t anywhere on the Grey Cup. The Ticats realize this. The penalty was the single most significant play in the game, but the players understand it can’t be traced as the reason they lost.
“It’s not just one play,” said quarterback Zach Collaros, who threw for 342 yards and a touchdown in the loss. “We had many opportunities to score and we didn’t take advantage of those. That’s why we didn’t win the game.”
Collaros, despite owning a slightly better stat line, watched Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell hold the Grey Cup and earn MVP. In the end, Mitchell and the Stamps offence cashed in on two first-half red zone trips.
After the Ticats were forced to settle for three field goals in the second half, including two in the fourth quarter, red zone efficiency turned out to be the biggest difference – something that haunted the Ticats throughout the regular season too.
“Just situations where we were down there in the red zone and didn’t cash in,” acknowledged the third-year quarterback, who won a Grey Cup in 2012 as a backup with the Argos before becoming the Ticats’ starter in 2014.
“Being down there on the two and not scoring a touchdown there hurts. There was another play I got fooled on the coverage and had to throw the ball away, they brought one more than we could block.”
“Every game you look back at things you could have done better, and there were obviously some things that stick out. We’ve gotta learn from it, and we’ll get better for it.”
As both Head Coach and General Manager Kent Austin and Defensive Coordinator Orlondo Steinauer put it, the Ticats are now among seven other teams that didn’t win the Grey Cup this season. The devastation of Sunday’s loss will probably last a lifetime, as players and coaches may forever imagine, at least occasionally, what should have been.
“Losses like this, unfortunately, you take with you for the rest of your life,” said Austin. “I know it’s just a game, but it’s something we’re heavily invested in and it’s our vocation and we’re in it for a reason.”
“The disappointment is more for the staff and for the players – I hate it for them.”
But there’s also no reason the Ticats can’t get back to the Grey Cup and win it next year, which would undoubtedly ease some of the burden. After all, boasting the league’s youngest roster – one with two Grey Cup appearances already in tow – their window is only just opening.
“We can’t get that or other plays back. It is what it is,” continued Austin, set to enter his third off-season with the team. “We’re going to focus on how to improve our football team first and foremost, and this organization.”
Among the notable free agents on the team are Banks and Luke Tasker, both key pieces of the Ticats’ run to the Grey Cup. Austin hopes to have both of those guys locked up, while for the second year in a row building on last year’s success.
That starts not in June of 2015, but right now.
