We Weren’t Robbed!
It surprises
me, as I talk to other fans and hear media accounts of Saturday’s game against
the Saskatchewan Roughriders, how much negativity there is in their assessment
of it. Putting aside the Dressler fumble for a moment, there seems to be a “here
we go again” attitude among many observers, and a belief among some media
outlets that Hamilton was either outplayed or outcoached.
Clearly they were not
watching the same game that I was.
Over the last three
seasons, this team has been unable to move the ball, and unable to stop the
other team from doing so, with a tendency to fold up their tent at the first
sign of adversity.
This team is
averaging 423 yards total offence per game, good enough for third best in the
league, just 31 yards short of first-place Montreal. They have far and away the
best running game in the CFL, nearly 70 yards per game better than second-place
Calgary, as Jesse Lumsden and his backup Tre Smith leave more celebrated backs
like Joffrey Reynolds and Charles Roberts in their dust.
The defence is still
not where it needs to be, but it is miles ahead of where many expected it to
be, and light years ahead of where it was. These are mostly young players, many
in their first or second seasons in the CFL, and even the veterans have not
been playing together long. Jykine Bradley, currently in his fourth season in
black and gold, is the longest-serving Cat among the starting defence. This is
a unit that is getting better, and already on Saturday, was almost good enough
to beat the best team in the league.
And this team didn’t
give up, even when other teams might have. They came from behind to take the
lead late in the game, and they answered scores with scores of their own. More
importantly, they played to the whistle, as is best evidenced by the most
controversial play of the game.
With under a minute
remaining, and Hamilton leading by a single point, Darian Durant completed a
pass to Weston Dressler, who effortlessly sliced through the Hamilton defence
towards the end zone without a single Tiger-cat in front of him. But though he
would not have been faulted for just allowing the score, Jykine Bradley chased
him down, caught up to him, and punched the ball loose before Dressler crossed
the goal line. Though the ball was awarded to the Riders on Hamilton’s 1-yard
line, and Cates scored the winning touchdown on the very next play, Bradley’s
determination was exactly the kind of never-say-die attitude that we fans
needed to see.
As unpopular as the
ruling was here in Hamilton, it was the correct one. Since no Tiger-cat touched
the ball before it went out of bounds, the Riders retain possession at the
point of the fumble. That is as it should be. The act of hitting the ball out
of a player’s hand does not count as a “touch.” That too is as it should be,
since changing that rule would mean that any fumble out of bounds could be
awarded to either team, based on the opinion of the officials. I’d rather keep
any potential or perceived bias on their part out of the equation as much as
possible.
The notion that the
Riders should lose possession based on the fact that the ball went into the end
zone before going out of bounds is silly. They were the last to have possession
of the ball on that play, and we were unable to gain possession or even make
contact with the loose ball. To give Hamilton the ball, and thus the win, in
that situation would be unfair.
Hamilton did not lose
that game because of an official’s decision, or because of a bad rule. They
lost the game because, prior to the fumble, they allowed Dressler to take the
ball 67 yards to the Hamilton one. Clear evidence that their defence is their
biggest weakness. But it is getting better.
Many people left the
stadium on Saturday feeling robbed, but not me. Quite the contrary, though I
was disappointed, I felt entertained, with high hopes for the remainder of the
season. The Cats provided their fans with an exciting game that could have gone
either way right up until the final minute.
We haven’t seen a lot of
that these past few years.