Adam Gagnon, CFL.ca
HAMILTON — It’s the situation any quarterback wants to find himself in, especially as a rookie playing in his first professional start.
That was the scenario put forth for Dane Evans as he gathered the Ticats offence for a huddle following a critical interception by Courtney Stephens off of Matthew Shiltz, giving the ball back to Hamilton for the opportunity to have Evans orchestrate a game-winning drive.
Unfortunately, after setting the Ticats up in field goal range, Lirim Hajrullahu was unable to capitalize, having the ball sail wide left as the Alouettes returned the ball out of the end zone and letting time run out, bringing to an end their season, but ending on a high note with a 30-28 win as their off-season gets underway.
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Looking back on his performance, Evans was pleased despite the end result, as the Ticats failed to draw their record even at season’s end, falling to 8-10 for the year.
“I thought I did alright,” said Evans following the game. “I made a couple mistakes on things I don’t want to make mistakes on. Things I thought going into the game I had a good handle on, but… shoot… there’s nothing like going out there and actually doing it.”
With the Tiger-Cats guaranteed to be hosting the Eastern Semi-Final next week against the BC Lions, head coach June Jones decided to rest the majority of his starters, which included quarterback Jeremiah Masoli — opening the way for Evans.
“I felt as the game went on, though, I didn’t make those same mistakes,” Evans said. “I’m not even really that mad about the picks because that’s going to happen, man. I’m just trying to play ball out there. The one thing I am mad about is not catching the snap.”
The play which Evan speaks of came at the end of the second quarter. Evans fumbled the snap as the Tiger-Cats were nearing the red zone. As a result, Montreal recovered on a play that had the remaining 17 seconds tick off the clock, sending the Ticats to their locker room at halftime empty-handed.
Nonetheless, Evans displayed a strong knack in his first professional start to manage drives and chip away at the field as the Ticats made a ball game after trailing the Alouettes 20-11 at halftime.
“We were out there playing ball, you know what I mean? It didn’t matter we were up here in the CFL or back home in the backyard doing the two-minute drive,” Evans said. “That’s what it’s all about as a quarterback, that’s what you want, and elite quarterbacks capitalize on those two-minute drives. I know it was only my first game, but personally, I thought as soon as we got the ball there was no doubt we were going to win.”
It was a unique situation for Evans, who spent his collegiate career at Tulsa as a Golden Hurricane before spending training camp with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017 before joining the Ticats in October of last season. It was a unique situation due to the fact that the game had no implications on the standings, which is part of the reason as to why Evans started in place of Masoli, allowing their MOP candidate the opportunity to rest and be healthy ahead of their playoff game.
“I’ve never been in a football game which kinda didn’t really mean anything,” Evans said of the scenario, going on to say, “shoot, wish we would have won.”
While Evans saw some growth with the opportunity, as did his head coach.
“I thought he made some good decisions,” June Jones said following his team’s loss. “Made some good throws. I thought he was pressing it a little bit, throwing it too hard… you’ve got to pass the ball, not throw the ball, and he was throwing the ball because I think the energy of being able to be in the game for the first time in a long time. But he did some good things, he tries hard, he took us down and gave us a chance to win the game at the end, which is tough for a rookie to do sometimes.”
Evans finished the game completing 22 of his 37 pass attempts, throwing for 315 yards and throwing a pair of touchdowns and interceptions while also rushing for 24 yards.
Although Evans won’t be starting for the Ticats come playoff time, Saturday marked a critical point in any player’s growth and development when coming to the CFL, and this may not be the last we see of Dane Evans.
