Tiger-Cats have Brandon Banks back for a rematch with the Lions tonight

There’s always a different feel to a football game when the same two teams have faced each other only a week earlier.

So imagine how different this one has to feel.

Here are the B.C. Lions, riding the psychological tailwind of an astonishing-bordering-on-miraculous victory, coming into Tim Hortons Field to face the Hamilton TigerCats who’ve had to process the emotional wreckage of that 35-32 double overtime loss.

No need to recap that gruesome you-gotta-bekidding-wait-no-you’re-not finale: Ticat Nation relives it every night as they struggle to sleep and every morning when it’s spelled out in their Alpha-Bits.

Saturday’s 4 p.m. rematch marks the third of four times this year that the Ticats play the same team in consecutive regularseason games.

But this one is an Outlier. And not just because last week we saw the only one of the 106 regular-season overtimes in CFL history necessitated by a twopoint convert on the final play of regulation time.

It’s rare enough to get beaten when you own the ball and the game with a minute left and so far from your own end zone everyone had forgotten it existed. And equally rare to get the ball at your own 35-yard line down eight points with 33 seconds left, and still win.

But to have essentially the same cast of characters of that passion play re-assemble the very next weekend, even if it is on a different stage? That’s Albino Alligator territory.

“It’s definitely a confidence boost for us,” says B.C. defensive tackle Davon Coleman, traded west from the Ticats in May. “If we’re in a bad situation I know my teammates can come back and make a big play at the last moment.”

And how do the Ticats shed the negative remnants of that loss, which also dropped them below .500 and two games back of firstplace Ottawa? Where do they turn for composure?

To the same place that football players always do.

“When you go back and watch

the game film, you see the mistakes you made can be corrected and that most of them were selfinflicted,” says Ticat linebacker Larry Dean who recorded a career-high 11 tackles against B.C. “And that is calming.”

It’s akin to looking a terrifying unknown right in the eye. If you put a face on it, no problem seems quite so threatening or baffling.

“You watch the film and you see that it’s not a mystery,” explains Ticat receiver Luke Tasker. “Sometimes I think the fans are trapped in a way: there’s nothing they can do until the next game. There’s nothing they can fix.

“We’re in here every day, and know that If only we’d just done this, done that, there’s a bunch of different ways we could have won. Film and preparation is inherently a confidence-builder.”

Both June Jones and his B.C. coaching counterpart Wally Buono, who plans to retire at the end of the season, say that in the back end of a home-and-home there are always a few tweaks but that, for the most part, teams don’t change their core offence or defence.

“To me, the confidence you should have is that you should be better prepared because the guys you’re playing against, you know what they do well and what things you can maybe improve on yourself,” Buono says. “Familiarity is always a good thing if you use it well.”

Although they’re going to be missing some defensive linemen, Hamilton should be buoyant about their own obvious tweak from last week: having Brandon Banks back in the lineup. The elite wide receiver has missed two games, both losses, but says that from the perspective of distance he may have gained some insight about the Lions’ defensive tendencies.

He also says that sitting out another game was definitely a consideration, because the Ticats’ final bye week starts Sunday, but that “my competitiveness” nixed that notion.

Banks, like many of his teammates, isn’t a huge fan of back-toback games but theorizes that they “also bring out a little more in you as a football player. You have to play a little smarter the second time.”

The Ticats need a win Saturday to avoid a three-game losing streak just when it’s imperative to go in the other direction.

Notes: For the three remaining home games, the Ticats will use a combination of alumni players, local celebrities, Hamilton youth involved in Ticat communityoriented programs and other guests to lead the traditional Oskee Wee Wee chants . . .The last time Hamilton played the same opponent in consecutive games four times in a season was 1960, when Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto were the only opponents on their schedule.