Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
With the game hanging in the balance Friday night at Tim Horton’s Field, and a lot of positive plays made by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to get them into a tie with the Calgary Stampeders, Bo Levi Mitchell spun out of the pocket to his left and spun the rock 53 yards down field to a waiting Anthony Parker who had drifted about 75 yards from where he started the play.
Flags everywhere.
The coverage was good. The pass rush forced the Calgary quarterback to reset himself in a new position and the Tiger-Cats had the right call in, but the final execution to finish the play and regulation time was missing.
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Hamilton would get called for pass interference on the last play from scrimmage and Rene Parades drove the stake through black and gold hearts everywhere as time expired with a 28-25 win in Hamilton. Couple that with a REDBLACKS comeback win in Saskatchewan Friday night and you get a Tiger-Cats team officially eliminated from the CFL playoffs.
After starting 0-8 there is no doubt the Ticats were up against a historic challenge but somehow – be it through East Division mediocrity or stunning progression on both offence and defence – the Ticats playoff chances were able to stay relevant until late in the regular season.
As soon as the Parades field goal went through the Tim Horton’s Field uprights it felt like Hamilton football fans understand what had just been taken from them and now those same fans are looking squarely into the soul of a three game stretch against East Division opponents with little to no implications on anything in the playoff picture.
As a broadcaster and a fan of Canadian football I couldn’t care less about the wide ranging effects of a game on playoff spots or anything else. The game sells itself to me and always has. I could watch a regular season game from 1995 and enjoy it as much as this weekend’s intriguing Riders game against the Stampeders.
Ticats decision makers have to approach the game the same way. They have to use these last three weeks as an opportunity to learn and get better moving into the off-season.
I am not a believer that a great amount of knowledge can be gleamed from any garbage time games that will actually carry over to the 2018 regular season but when put in the position Hamilton faces, what other approach is acceptable?
Will the Tiger-Cats rest their starters, like Brandon Banks, as they head down the stretch of the regular season? (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
The true fork in the road ahead of this weekend’s game in Montreal is what Hamilton will do with the depth chart.
Should the team play the athletes deemed to be the best available option to win? Those would be the same starters who have led them to four wins since Labour Day and possibly the future starters in 2018.
The other option is to play all backups and developmental players in hopes of being able to get a read on guys worth bringing into spring mini camp and June training camp.
Playing the current starters allows for more film to be accumulated on the projected starters which can lead to off-season lessons learned and a head start in May of next season BUT it could also mean a player hidden in the depth chart never gets discovered.
Weighing on this whole conversation is the idea that June Jones is not locked in to return next season as of yet, Zach Collaros has been relegated to backup with a sizable contract and current quarterback starters Jeremiah Masoli is a free agent in the off-season.
Where the Ticats go from here is anyone’s guess over the final three weeks. With a game in Montreal then only four days preparation before playing on the road in Ottawa one thing is for sure.
You will learn plenty about the players selected to take part in the final three regular season games rosters before packing up this 2017 adventure.
