CFL’S best record didn’t help Tiger-cats

Early turnovers began a night of heartbreak

• There’s more heartbreak in The Hammer.

The Hamilton Tiger- Cats, the Canadian Football League’s best team in the regular season, fell short Sunday in the Grey Cup, losing 33-12 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

This one will hurt for a city that felt such hope for a team — a team with the league’s best offensive and defensive statistics — that dominated its opposition much of the season. There will be pain, something that won’t easily go away. But it will. The Ticats are building a culture, one that will pay off. Just not this year. Just not in the biggest game of the season.

The Ticats haven’t won a Grey Cup since 1999, 20 years ago, and now it’s back to the drawing board.

The decision- makers will dwell on the what-ifs and the what-wentwrongs. They’ll think about early turnovers, late turnovers and the loss to injury of their best player — the league’s most outstanding player, Brandon ( Speedy) Banks, who was out of the game in the third quarter. The Ticats will also think a lot about how they couldn’t stop Andrew Harris, the Bombers’ explosive running back and game MVP, who slithered and steamrollered his way to more than 100 yards rushing.

They’ll also wonder how they couldn’t get enough push up front to make the inches they needed on a couple of third-down gambles.

On Sunday, they weren’t good enough. They showed flashes of what made them so great. But while the Ticats had questions, the Bombers, who conquered a Grey Cup drought of their own — they had not won since 1990 — had the answers.

The Bombers dominated the first half — time of possession was 17:4112: 19 in their favour and they outscored the Ticats 21- 6. Harris was on fire, with five rushes for 53 yards and a touchdown and five catches for 35 yards and another TD.

The Tiger- Cats made two turnovers in the first three minutes of the game. After a couple of runs by Tyrell Sutton got the Ticats a first down, a Dane Evans pass was tipped by receiver Jaelon Acklin into the hands of Winnipeg defensive back Brandon Alexander for the interception. The Bombers took over on their 45. And the tone of the game was set.

To open the second half, Winnipeg got a 39-yard field goal to make it 24- 6.

On the Bombers’ 25, needing less than a yard on third down, Hamilton was again stopped short, turning it over for the fourth time.

The Ticats used some trickery deep in Winnipeg’s end. On a fake field goal, Hajrullahu tossed a 12- yard pitch to Luke Tasker. Two plays later, the Ticats got a touchdown on a pass to Bralon Addison. The two- point convert attempt didn’t work and it was 24-12.

A Bombers touchdown was overturned on a review so Winnipeg settled for a short field goal. The Bombers stripped the ball out of Evans’ hands twice in a row and, the second time, got possession. Another field goal made it 33-12.