By Josh Bell-Webster,
CFL.ca
It took nearly 45 minutes for Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Richie Williams to get in the game on Saturday afternoon against the Toronto Argonauts in the Labour Day Rematch.
Some fans may ask, what took so long?
The Ticats had a well-publicized quarterbacking quandary heading into the game. It wouldn’t be fair for the team to throw the recently signed Casey Printers into the fire, with zero practices with his new club under his belt. The former Hamilton No. 1 Jason Maas was preparing to be the new No. 2 (or is it No. 1?) in Montreal following a trade on Friday.
That gave Hamilton head coach Charlie Taaffe no choice but to start Timmy Chang, even after his poor performance the Monday prior on Labour Day. Given the short turnaround, the fact that Maas was still with the team through Thursday and that Williams takes limited reps in practice (running the opposing team’s offence), it was a no brainer.
And how could you not give Chang a second chance? He is a young prodigy with only three years of professional experience. He impressed during the pre-season, was steady during four relief appearances in the regular season where he was 20 for 40 passing for 297 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
But his first ever CFL start was nothing to call home about, especially with those expensive phone charges to Hawaii. Chang was 5 of 15 passing for 44 yards and one interceptions before he gave way to Maas in the second half in what ended up being a 32-14 loss.
When you fall off the bike, the best solution is to get back on and try it again. This certainly justifies giving Chang another opportunity. The only problem is Chang had another wipe-out against the Argos where he was just 10 of 22 passing for 75 yards and four interceptions in a 35-22 defeat.
“I thought he’d have a little more poise this week, but obviously he’s still not where we would like him to be,” said Taaffe after the game.
Clearly the Tabbies were not going anywhere on this day with Chang behind centre. When Taaffe finally went to Williams, however, he breathed life into the offence. He mastered two touchdowns drives, was successful on three third down plays and missed on just one of his throws. His final numbers were 9 of 10 passing for 106 yards.
So why isn’t Williams getting more of a chance with the Ticats? He is just two years older than Chang with only two years experience in the CFL.
Before he was asked during his post-game conference, Taaffe beat everybody to the punch.
“Richie Williams comes in, a guy who gets really hardly any reps, and has hardly gotten any reps with our offence since training camp,” said Taaffe.
“A guy gets a lot of reps, doesn’t play well. A guy gets no reps, goes in there and does a good job.”
“Obviously Richie Williams made a case for himself this afternoon. You can’t deny that.”
Williams to his credit seems happy with his lot in life, and isn’t too concerned about moving up the Ticats depth chart.
“I know I’m third string and I don’t get many reps so when I do, I just got to make the most of it,” said Williams. “So that’s the main thing, go out there and have fun.”
“If the opportunity arises, I’ll be ready. But until then, I’m going to keep doing what I do in practice and that run the scout team.”
At the end of the day, this may well be a moot point. Printers is now the man in the Hammer, for better or worse. A decision may yet be made as to whether he will start this Saturday against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but until he is ready, Taaffe and his coaching staff might be wise to give Williams a lot of consideration.
