Eastern rivals the tale of two moods following Battle of Ontario

As a courtesy to its guests, the music died down very briefly on Monday night in the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ locker room.

Very, very briefly.

With a 24-22 Labour Day win, the weight of the world had come off of a perpetually down and out Ticats roster. Two months of collapses, failed comebacks and the odd blowout were finally given a break; the voice of a new head coach finally ringing true on the promises of doing things the right way paying off for them.

The silence was contained long enough for Ticats QB Jeremiah Masoli to run through how he and his teammates managed to come through a two-hour rain delay — stretching the game to the five-hour mark — for their first win of the year.

As soon as the scrum broke around Masoli, the music cranked back up in the locker room. Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone blared through the speakers, swallowing up any potential conversation in the room. A shirtless Brian Tyms wailed on his air guitar and flew overtop of the railing around the Tiger-Cats logo in the middle of the room. Standing on sacred ground, it was the first genuine rock star moment in a season that until Monday night had been buoyed by low notes.

“Any time you’re 0-8 you’re the butt of every joke,” Ticats linebacker Simoni Lawrence said.

“You don’t want to be that. That you get to win against your rivals, the guys down the street that you see all the time, makes it even better.”

Tyms, on cue, seeing another interview taking place, rolled up on his hoverboard to stick his face in the scrum. Lawrence burst out laughing and broke away, falling back into the celebration they’d waited so long for. A long, mentally draining night finally over, 80s pop rock and foolishness outweighed profound thought. Masoli, Lawrence and their teammates had earned that.

The deep thinking was taking place on the opposite side of the building, as the Argos very quietly packed up the visitor’s room at Tim Horton’s Field.

At 4-7 heading into their first bye week of the season, the Argos need to take time to think about their yo-yoing performance so far.

“We’re not playing good football,” receiver S.J. Green said flatly. Green broke the 1,000-yard receiving mark this season with a nine-catch, 103-yard performance.

“Our first three drives of the game we had penalties that took us out of scoring points range. We had a punt return called back because we had a holding penalty on special teams, which is one that hurts.

“We’re just not playing sound football. Some people are doing good things. We’re having good drives and good plays in moments, but overall we’re not consistent. Until we become a consistent group, we’re going to continue to have the same struggles. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and dig deep.”

Argos coach Marc Trestman was of a similar mind.

“Right now we’re a good football team not playing good football,” he said.

“We’re a 4-7 team. That’s who we are and we’re not playing well enough to win. We have it in us. The reality is we’re not playing good football and that showed up (in the loss).”

A dejected Lirim Hajrullahu feels the sting of missing a 37-yard field goal that would have sent Monday’s Labour Day Classic to overtime (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

The Argos go into the bye week as an enigma. In bursts, they’ve shown that they could be the best team in the East Division. They’ve eked out tough wins over Ottawa, traded lopsided games with Montreal and been out-classed when they’ve faced Western opponents. With seven games left and a division that’s collectively still trying to find itself, Trestman sees time for his team to pull it together.

“Like I said to the guys, Ottawa’s found a way to dig themselves out. Saskatchewan has found a way to dig themselves out,” Trestman said. “I think we’ve got the heart and the backbone to do the same as well.”

Through the silence, the frustration clearly wounded prides that made up the Argos locker room, kicker Lirim Hajrullahu put the loss on himself.

The wind swirled all night in the stadium, toying with both Hajrullahu (2-4 on field goals) and Ticats kicker Sergio Castillo (1-2). Hajrullahu’s 13-yard second-quarter field goal into the wind looked like it took everything he had. At the other end of the field, his 37-yarder to tie the game late in the fourth quarter was wide to the left, capping one of the more trying nights for two teams in recent CFL history.

“A friend of mine a few years ago told me you have a 24-hour rule for a game, no matter if it’s a good one or a bad one,” Hajrullahu said.

“I’ll go back, look at the tape and see if there’s anything to it. More or less, I know what I did wrong and what happened.

“We’ll be all right. It’s tough for the guys that worked so hard and that’s the biggest thing, letting your team down. Myself, I’ll look at the film, see what I did, reminisce on it for 24 hours and after that,” he said, exhausted with a blank stare, “It’s a new week.”