A Game of Inches
and a Foot
They say that
football is a game of inches. But in the Tiger-cats’ case, it is a game of a
foot.
Specifically, the
left foot of Pat Woodcock who caught what would have been the game-winning
touchdown against the Edmonton Eskimos on Friday night. Would have been, had
his left heel not landed on the white stripe of the sideline as he was making
the catch.
The call was correct,
and even if Charlie Taaffe’s request for a review had been heard, the play
would have stood. Of course, coaches are not allowed to request a challenge in
the final three minutes, which to me is silly. Essentially the officials are
saying, “You guys go ahead and play football for 57 minutes, and in the final
three minutes we’ll decide who wins.” But that’s a discussion for another day,
since as I said before, the call was correct.
Of course, the Ticats
would not have needed a winning touchdown in the final minute if the defence,
who had been playing pretty well up until that point, had not once again seen a
Hamilton score as a permit to slack off. I complained about this last week, how
every time the offence scored a touchdown, the defence allowed their opponents
to respond with a touchdown of their own on the very next drive. And once
again, after taking a four-point lead in the fourth quarter, Hamilton’s defence
became spectators as the Eskimos put together a 14-play, 88-yard drive, taking
over six minutes off the clock and regaining the lead they would never
relinquish.
There was one
positive note: Hamilton’s special teams coverage was spectacular, keeping
Tristan Jackson (or “Trismo” as he’s being called) contained on kick and punt
returns.
But another weakness
is showing in this team. They allowed eight quarterback sacks against a team
that had managed just five in the previous four games. Eight sacks -- one more
than they allowed in the entire 1999 season. Sure, it may be unfair to compare
this team to those from the quick-release Danny McManus era, but I don’t think
it’s asking too much to have fewer than 15% of our offensive plays end with the
quarterback eating the ball.
Of course the team
was not helped by the fact that their leading receiver, Tony Miles, was sidelined
with an injury. They aren’t using that as an excuse though, which is good. The
good teams don’t make excuses, and I’m glad to see that ours doesn’t either.
Maybe this is a sign that winning football is just around the corner.
But whether it’s inches,
feet, yards or Miles, it’s clear this team has a way to go to get to that
corner.