There is no joy in Mudville. The Hamilton 46 are down a man; the most important one, the quarterback.
Now Hamilton had the best team in 2015 WITH Collaros. Grey Cup glory was certainly a strong possibility. But without him? Can they still win it all? The Ticats still have a very good defence and head coach (despite him bumping opposing players). But can they win it all without Collaros?
I cast my vote for Yes, based on a bit of semantics. Yes, the Cats can still win the Grey Cup. Is it likely? No, not now, at least in my opinion. But stranger things have happened. Calgary won it all in 2001 with a journeyman Marcus Crandell at the controls. The Riders won it in 2007 with Kerry Joseph's only good season as a CFL quarterback. This has been a wild and wacky year so far, so I won't write Hamilton off. Their GC road just got a lot tougher, though.
Yikes... I'm sorry for the awful news Hamilton fans, its not good for the league with star pivots go down. It just isn't good for the game, but this is football, not hockey, not soccer, not anything else... It's next man up because everyone else has injuries somewhere and their next man is contributing. As an Esks fan, we had to witness Matt Nichols bake cupcakes till we traded him. Look where we are... 8-4. (6-4 before Reilly's first start since Week 1). I have faith Hamilton will rally around Matthews now. Do I pick Hamilton as favorites to win it all? No. I would put them 3rd behind Edmonton and Calgary now. (Both teams are almost inseparable for my first choice, but if I had to choose, it would be Edmonton not because of bias, but because our team just looks better... and yeah, maybe a tiny bit of bias haha).
I have faith in Hamilton to make the East final (by bye week or through a 2nd or 3rd place finish) at the least. Looking forward to seeing Collaros back next season, he's top 3 for sure. :thup:
Mudville?
If you want a dig that will stick, don't start with an M.
Start with the letter H. duh
e.g. Hammeroid. Hamlittleton. Halfulliton. Hellyeahiton. Hermitilton. Hitittieston etc.
You are more of a Shemp than Curly, but I am compelled to vote.
They must have had great QB coaching to bring out the best in Joseph that year. Who was the Riders’ coach in 2007? If only we had access to that guy.
Or even the guy who coached Damon Allen to his one and only MOP season in 2005.
As it stands, we’ve got to settle for the guy who helped turn Zach Collaros into the league’s best QB in less than two years, and who’s been coaching Jeff Mathews since his college days.