Ticats face must-win game No. 1
Defensive back Emanuel Davis was locked up in coverage during a drill in practice this week, the receiver leaping to make a contested catch in the end zone.
But, as the two players went to the ground, Davis knocked the ball away at the last second, forcing an incompletion.
“Don’t count me out, damn it,” Davis yelled as he made his way back to the defensive huddle. “Don’t ever count me out.”
Davis wasn’t speaking for the entire Hamilton Tiger-Cats team, but he could have been.
The Ticats head into Friday’s match up with Ottawa still winless on the season and desperately needing a victory to keep their remote postseason chances alive. No team in CFL history has ever started a campaign with seven straight losses and made the playoffs.
“Every game from here on out for us is must-win, every single one,” said head coach Kent Austin.
“We know the importance of this game. That being said, we can’t focus on that. We need to go out and play.”
Davis, who missed last week with food poisoning but is set to make season debut against the Redblacks, said the team has tried to shut out the outside criticism from fans and media, but the age of social media makes that challenging.
“Coach Austin said he doesn’t like to do the ‘us against the world mentally’ but it’s going to be that way when you’re 0-7. You can’t be optimistic unless you really believe,” Davis said. “We know that we have to be a band of brothers in the locker-room.”
At this point, the players are starting to stick up for each other.
Running back C.J. Gable chastised the assembled media this week as they gathered around quarterback Zach Collaros’ locker to, once again, ask questions for which they are no satisfactory answers: Why are you struggling? Why is this team so bad?
“You guys need to leave him alone. Everybody is trying to blame him and make it seem like it’s his fault. It feels like everybody is going off on him,” Gable said. “It’s a team. Everybody is responsible for the losses, not him. It’s annoying. If you say it’s his fault then clearly you don’t know football. Clearly. I feel like a lot of people are turning their backs on us.”
Collaros has been sacked 20 times on the season and pressured another 62, easily the highest mark in the CFL. According to league statistics, Collaros has been under duress on a full 30 per cent of his drop-backs this season — eight percentage points higher than the next closest pivot. The least-pressured quarterback: Bo Levi Michell of the 51-1 Calgary Stampeders.
Not that Collaros would mention any of that. With rare exceptions, Collaros has faced the media in his usual polite, if methodical, manner during what is the worst stretch of his football career at any level.
“It comes with the territory playing the position at any level. The offence hasn’t been where it’s supposed to be and it starts with the quarterback,” Collaros said.
“I love C.J., he’s always had my back and we’ve been together for a long time. I trust him and he trusts me, and he’s just looking out for me.”
The team’s offensive play-calling has also been an ongoing issue. The season started with offensive co-ordinator Stefan Ptaszek on the headset, head coach Kent Austin took over for a game, then returned to Ptaszek. There were reports that new assistant head coach June Jones, brought in two weeks to help right the ship on offence, would take over this week but Austin said that isn’t so.
“June Jones is not calling the plays. That’s not exactly true: there’ll be elements of the game that he’ll call and have an impact on, but it depends on what’s going on in the game,” said Austin. So it’s still Ptaszek? “I didn’t say that, either,” he said. “Why do you care? The impact on the game is execution.”
In some respects, Austin is correct. If the Ticats can’t find a way to win to some games, the 2017 season will be all but lost and who’s calling the plays will matter very little. It may be too early to count them out but, without victories, that time is coming, and soon.