Can Mac get back in stride after thrashing?
Had last week not happened, it would be easy to say McMaster will steamroll Queen’s in Saturday’s OUA football quarter-final.
For most of the season, Mac has shown itself to be one of the dominant teams in the province, led by a stifling, unrelenting defence. Queen’s, meanwhile, snuck into the playoffs as the final entry on the back of a four-game winning streak against three awful teams (Windsor, Toronto and York) and one that had gone stone cold (Waterloo). Plus, McMaster is playing at home. Massive advantage, Marauders. Except last week’s 40-15 throttling by Laurier, a week after a lethargic performance against a terrible Windsor side, has raised some red flags on enough issues that while this is still a game McMaster should win, there are now questions about whether it will.
The offence that had been getting better every week has suddenly taken a step backwards. The defence that was so, so good has had two unimpressive performances in a row. And the leagueworst penalty issues that should’ve been cleaned up by now are still there.
On top of all that, the Marauders are banged up after having no rest week — their bye came on Week One before they’d played a game — and their most-explosive offensive weapon is out with a knee injury.
Even so, some will dismiss the concerns by pointing at how Queen’s got here. They’re really not that good, they’ll say.
It’s true that the Kingston university is still alive thanks to a generous schedule that allowed the Gaels to recover from an 0-4 start. Still, it’s impossible not to note that they and Mac beat the league’s three weak sisters by exactly the same total number of points. Plus, the Gaels could have won their first two games, which ended as a five-point loss to Carleton and a one-point loss to Ottawa.
The point is, the guys in gold that’ll be on the Ron Joyce Stadium field on Saturday — kickoff is 1 p.m. — may not have a sexy record, but aren’t a joke. The Gaels have scored more points per game than Mac, have put up more yards per game, have rushed for more yards per game and have the best passing numbers in the province. So what happens in this one? If the Marauders play as they can, they win. They are the better team. If they can rediscover that same high gear they played in against Carleton, Western. Ottawa and Guelph, they’ll be just fine and on their way back to Laurier next weekend for a rematch.
That said, they haven’t been near their best for a couple weeks now. Meaning their season and their hopes of possibly playing in a Vanier Cup here in Hamilton rely on them recapturing that past excellence right now.
We’ll find out on Saturday whether they can do it.