FROM BIT PLAYER TO UNSTOPPABLE JOB AT THE HELM
Former backup QB Masoli leads Ticats to dominating win in East semifinal
Masoli did everything a winning quarterback is supposed to do. And the Ticats’ offence, defence, special teams, all of them, lined up behind their QB.
Jeremiah Masoli was going to Grey Cup Week in Edmonton, either way. One question remains: Is he going for the party or is he going for the football game?
One win will get Masoli’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats to the Grey Cup. Two wins and they’ll be getting sized for championship rings.
“That’s the point,” said Masoli, the long-shot quarterback who is just so Hamilton.
Nobody really took Masoli seriously. Nobody thought when former Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey traded him from Edmonton to the Ticats in 2012 that it was a deal of any importance. He was a bit player in Edmonton and then a bit player with the Ticats. He was a third stringer, then a second stringer, and even his offensive coordinator from his last season in college football, Kent Austin, didn’t make him a starting quarterback in Hamilton.
But Masoli is a lot like the city of Hamilton and a lot like his team — and if he wasn’t perfect Sunday afternoon in the Ticats’ 48-8 demolition of the B.C. Lions in the East Division semifinal, he was as close as you can get.
Masoli was brilliant behind centre Mike Filer. He didn’t just play his instrument well in the crossover playoff game, he conducted the orchestra.
He was absolutely in charge. “He’s the most valuable player,” said coach June Jones, who made Masoli his starting quarterback when he took over as Ticats coach.
Masoli did everything a winning quarterback is supposed to do. And the Ticats’ offence, defence, special teams, all of them, lined up behind their QB.
He doesn’t necessarily look the part, and would rather not talk about himself. He plays on a team battered by injuries with his most explosive receiver missing. Yet the Ticats dominated Sunday, ruining the final game of Wally Buono’s brilliant CFL coaching career.
Buono’s last game was Sunday: His players left him one game earlier. They didn’t show up on Sunday.
The Lions had no answer at all for Masoli, passing early and often to Bralon Addison. Addison caught eight passes for 124 yards and looked unstoppable. But everything started with Masoli, who completed his first 10 passes, and had 245 yards passing in the first half, including three touchdowns.
He didn’t need to throw much after that. The Cats led 28-0 at the half, and 44-0 in the third quarter. The dealing of Masoli to the Ticats was years ago, but the effects of the trade between Edmonton and Hamilton were on display in front of a crowd of 23,911 at Tim Hortons Field.
Masoli was the best player on offence. Simoni Lawrence, also part of a trade few paid attention to originally, was the best player on defence.
The man who made the deal, Hervey, is now general manager of the Lions. Sunday was not a good day for Hervey, for Buono, for anyone who ever doubted Masoli or Lawrence or even Addison, the Toronto Argonauts castoff and former Oregon receiver, where Masoli began his college career.
These are the Ticats. Somebody’s castoffs. In the city nobody notices.
Heck, this season has been so injury-filled for Hamilton that they lost a player, defensive back Jumal Rolle, in the pre-game warm-up. And just carried on. The Hamilton defence forced the Lions to turn the ball over six times, twice on fumbles, one on an interception, three times on downs. And Lawrence, the linebacker who was part of the Masoli trade — or was Masoli the quarterback part of the Lawrence trade? — almost scored on a 92-yard fumble return, getting caught from exhaustion at the one-yard line.
“I had blitzed the three previous plays,” said Lawrence, who has a fine sprint time in the 40-yard dash, not so great in the 90. “I had nothing left by the end of that play.”
And he added: “Masoli is the MVP of this team, the MVP of this league, and it’s not even close. We are in this to win it. We just have to stay humble and ready and let’s go to Ottawa next week and see what happens.”
Lawrence loved the game, how he played, how his teammates played. Everything was a lasting memory of sorts — including his time on the field with the legendary professional wrestler, Ric Flair, brought in by the Ticats to promote the event. Lawrence couldn’t take his eyes off Flair and he admits being slightly consumed by being in the presence of greatness.
“That’s the legend,” he said. “A real life legend.” Lawrence said years from now “I’m going to remember this. I’m going to remember I was on the field with Ric Flair.”
The fans of Hamilton will remember this, too. On the way out of Tim Hortons Field, there were more “woos” heard by fans than the traditional “Oskee Wee Wee” chants. Even in the hallway that leads to the Ticats dressing room, some players and some family members were heard “wooing ” after the victory.
“Amazing day,” for Masoli, who had an amazing week. The voting for Most Outstanding Player closed at 1 p.m., just before Sunday’s game. Masoli is up against Bo Levi Mitchell for the award.
It is Masoli’s award to lose. And up next for Masoli, Sunday afternoon in Ottawa: a first shot at the Grey Cup.