Geoff Robins/CFL.ca
It’s often said that home is where the heart is. Home is the place you’re supposed to feel a deep connection and a natural draw towards.
When the Hamilton Tiger-Cats opened Tim Hortons Field the building affectionally known as “The Donut Box” came to life in a way that drove the Ticats to success after success.
Hamilton opened the building with ten straight wins including a 2014 Labour Day marquee victory over the Toronto Argonauts but have since rode the ebbs and flows of CFL football at home. If you prefer the micro look at things, the lowest of the ebbs is likely losing the 2016 East Division Semi-Final to the Edmonton Eskimos in a crossover game. If the macro perspective is more your flavour then dropping 12 of their last 14 regular-season and playoff games at home defines the Ticats struggles to bring Tim Hortons Field to life.
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In the 2018 home opener, after earning a split with an impressive road win in Edmonton while doing the ‘Alberta double’, Hamilton brought Tim Hortons Field back to life by showing the loyal Hamilton faithful that these are not the same Ticats that lost so many games in the heart of Hamilton.
Replaced by that despair this time last year is hope.
Hope for a team many are starting to realize has the talent to contend in the East Division after finishing 2017 strongly and beginning 2018 on the same foot.
All the talk about the Ticats through the off-season, training camp and pre-season has been about the backup quarterback Johnny Manziel. I get the fascination and don’t even mind the constant push from a certain group of fans to have Manziel play sooner rather than later, but Manziel has not been the headline through three weeks of Ticats football and certainly wasn’t in the home opener Friday night.
Jeremiah Masoli, Jerry Glanville’s defence and the emergence of talented national running backs finally getting a chance to show their value is the story in Hamilton.
Masoli threw an interception on his fourth pass attempt of the Ticats week three matchup against Winnipeg. A throw which left half the stadium scratching their heads and the other half smiling as they looked towards June Jones on the sideline hoping to see a quick hook and a Manziel entrance song.
It won’t happen. Especially not that early.
June Jones is one of the most patient and understanding coaches I’ve ever been around. He believes in allowing players to fight through adversity because “it creates character” as Jones told the media in training camp.
That same character building led Jones’ Hawaii teams to national prominence despite starting at the bottom of the standings and statistics barrels while playing without national television exposure. A huge detriment to recruiting and development.
This patience is especially true with Masoli. A quarterback first appreciated by June Jones after the eventual Ticats bench boss watched the tape of his record breaking consecutive completions streak (23) in Edmonton in 2016.
“He’s a rhythm thrower, sometimes Jeremiah just needs a chance to get in that rhythm and once he does he’s near unstoppable” Jones told the media after Masoli’s slow start at home in the first pre-season game against Toronto.
After the Masoli interception there was no question which quarterback would take the field on the next possession and Masoli eventually found his groove to the tune of 31 completions on 41 attempts (75.6%), 369 yards, 1 touchdown and that early interception.
Those 369 yards marked his eighth straight game with 300 or more yards through the air matching streaks by Mike Reilly and Anthony Calvillo in CFL lore.
This is what June Jones does. He takes talent, finds its strength and multiplies it ten fold by putting players in situations to have success. The formula he’s using in Hamilton has traveled with Jones everywhere he’s been in a long and storied football life. It’s nearly undefeated if turning a team around is considered a win.
Most of the places Jones has been his current defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville has followed close behind. On Friday night one of footballs oldest and most enjoyable marriages showed that age is just a number and winning is often the result.
Many worried about Glanville’s rushed adaptation to twelve-man football, the waggle and Winnipeg’s young stud dual threat quarterback Chris Streveler.
Glanville himself admitted Thursday, “If I were starting a team right now I’d want that kid (Streveler) and I’d run that offence, it’s great.”
When asked if he’d be able to stop Streveler and Winnipeg offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice’s varied, imaginative attack the 76-year-old Glanville responded, “that’s why we play the games.”
Glanville’s defence played Streveler, Harris and the Bombers offence in a way both Edmonton and Montreal had been unable to in the first two weeks of the season holding Streveler to 50 yards passing until the 4th quarter.
While Masoli and Glanville’s defence performing at an elite level were likely required parts of a victory the third and final aspect of Hamilton’s home opener victory couldn’t have been predicted by even the greatest football minds amongst us.
The emergence of Montreal Carabins alumni Sean Thomas Erlington as a back-breaking running back just seven days after Calgary Dinos alumni Mercer Timmis ran for 133 yards in Edmonton. Good for fourth on the Ticats all time national running back single game yardage totals.
Thomas Erlington got an opportunity to play in the CFL as an eighth round pick. A mid-cast running back in the CFL game he was moved to slotback – and listed there during training camp – before returning to the backfield Friday earning 92 yards on 11 carries while Timmis plunged into the end zone twice to bring Hamilton fans to their feet.
A pretty impressive feat considering the running back on the other side of the ball Andrew Harris is the gold standard for national ball carriers and was held to 66 yards on 14 carries.
The Ticats home field advantage is back in a big way through the combination of a patient coach, a rhythm thrower, an aggressive defence and a pair of Canadian running backs.
Up next, the Saskatchewan bye week sandwich for Hamilton. A pair of Thursday night games in Regina then back home against the Riders with a bye week conveniently in the middle for both teams.
If Hamilton could steal a game on the road Thursday and return home to their home field advantage the Ticats might appear in control of the East division at the quarter pole mark of the 2018 season.
Not bad for a team that Friday night moved to above .500 by week three for the first time since 2009.
