Forget revenge, Ticats are just desperate for a win at this point
HAMILTON The Hamilton TigerCats are 0-3 to start the 2017 CFL season.
Or 0-4 if you count last year’s 2421 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos in the East Division semifinal.
In fact, Hamilton hasn’t won a game since Week 18 of last season, making for a current stretch of six in a row that includes an earlier regular-season loss to the same Eskimos team that ended up knocking them out of the playoffs.
But the Ticats are adamant the past is in the past and Thursday’s game (7:30 p.m., TSN, ESPN3, 630 CHED) is all that matters now. Their last game against the Eskimos, who currently sit atop the West Division standings at 3-0, didn’t even come up in discussions this week.
“No, other than maybe some things schematically that might still be appropriate or maybe reconfigured just from a gameplanning standpoint,” said head coach Kent Austin. “This year’s a new year, we’re not real big on that. What happened in the past is really not relevant to what we need to do today to get better.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces, every team does. You have changes, it’s a pretty big turnover ratio. Probably half the guys who are playing for us don’t even know anything about that game.”
There are those who do remember it well.
Especially the pair of penalties on a crucial play late in the fourth quarter that a league official later said were blown calls.
A roughing-the-passer penalty against Eskimos defensive end Odell Willis was negated by a holding penalty by Hamilton, turning a would-be first down into secondand-14 before quarterback Zach Collaros threw an interception that resulted in the winning field goal.
“There is a human element in
This year’s a new year, we’re not real big on that. What happened in the past is really not relevant to what we need to do ... to get better.
sports and I don’t ever want that to disappear,” Collaros said Wednesday. “There’s mistakes by coaches, there’s mistakes by players, there’s mistakes by referees. There were situations in that football game last year where we could have won the game.
“There not being a penalty on the play you’re talking about didn’t change the next play. You have to focus on the next football play and, for me, I didn’t do a good enough job the next play after that whole scenario was going down.
“So I’m never going to point the fingers at an official. I respect what they do and how much heat they take in the age of social media. I would never want to do that, so I respect what they do.”
That doesn’t mean there have been no held-over hard feelings in Hamilton’s dressing room.
“We still had an opportunity to win, but there was just frickin’ no consistency in the calls,” said one Ticats player wishing to remain anonymous, adding it made for a long off-season. “For sure and then this start is also burning motivation too to get a win off.
“I feel like they should have just been like, ‘All right, don’t say anything about (the blown calls),’ just like, ‘Whatever.’ ”
Last week, the Eskimos were in the same position Hamilton is in now, facing an Ottawa Redblacks club that ended Edmonton’s season in last year’s East Division final.
“Yeah, it’s motivation. I think everybody uses things differently,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “Obviously, to me, that’s something I’m sure, whether they want to admit to it or not, you always want to avenge things and look for motivation.
“But I’m sure in that lockerroom, they’ll tell you they’re 0-3 and they want to win no matter who it is. They just want to win.”
While the Eskimos are at the other end of the standings, they aren’t any less focused on continuing their winning streak.
“We’re the same. We’re 3-0, we’re as hungry as anybody, I can assure you,” Maas said. “There is no resting on your laurels or thinking you’re better than what you are. We know that we have to battle every single week and do all the little things to win, but we’re ready to do that.
“That’s what we prepare for, that’s what we coach, that’s what our culture is on our team: To go out and play every play like it’s your last and to do all the little things it takes to win games.”