I am not one of those folks who think of a Grey Cup berth after beating Toronto as an afterthought. When you get to the championship, you have to take advantage of the opportunity and win. I am disappointed in the result, but when one considers where this franchise was this time last year, the season showed there is room for optimism in the direction it's headed.
We made too many mistakes to overcome the Riderggedon. I think we went away from things that we were successful with during the latest win streak. Ultimately we did not the opponent's intensity or focus. Congrats to Riderville on their win.
Honestly,I didn't have a good feeling about this one once Sasky won last week...
Frankly,they own us this year and today is really no exception...
We were beaten by a more physical and,a simply put,superior football team...
As for this year,after July I figured the year was a washout...So,it's been better than I ever would have thought...
Probably why I'm not taking this as hard as I thought I might.
By the way,I also agree that you play to win championships.You don't play to beat the Argo's every year,even though that's always nice....
This team has a very good core,but,it definately requires improving in key areas that were exposed tonight.I think we'll all talk about that later.The future is looking a lot better than this time last year,that's for sure...
That Grey Cup wasn't exactly a classic as this Rider team simply totally outplayed this Ticat team. It was disappointing to see this loss, but I'm actually not that disappointed, as this team was able to get to this game. They overcame a 1-5 start, and even after they showed much improvement after that, critics just kept doubting them. And on that road to the Grey Cup, they proved their critics wrong twice. They beat that Montreal team that many pundits expected Montreal to win, and they somehow defeated a Ricky Ray-led team that was supposed to be too much for the Ticats to beat. Just like 1998, we'll enjoy looking back on how this team went from being the league's worst to making it to the Grey Cup game.
So congratulations to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but congratulations to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as well.
While I am very disappointed in the outcome of this game, I am very proud that my Ticats made it to the game at all. And given the youth on the team and these coaches, I am extremely confident in the team's competitiveness for the next few years.
And here's another tweet, one from Eric Norwood, that says it all in fewer than 140 characters:
Eric Norwood ?@ENorwood40
Tough loss but what a great run we had this year, Thank you to all of the @ticats Fans and my teammates for the support and a great season.
And it was good to see this one from Dyakowski:
Peter Dyakowski ?@PeterDyakowski 26m
Thanks everyone for all the kind words. It was a great season even if it didn't end the way I expected. I'll be OK & back next year. #ticats
Schultz did say that a team built for this year beat a team that was built for the future. This 101st Grey Cup game was referred to as "Grey Cup 101" a few times, and it was one where the Riders took this Ticat team to school. But players on this team gained experience in the big game. And that's something that'll hopefully make it so that they'll be more likely to be that team that celebrates Grey Cup wins in the future.