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.