Well that sucked...

Thought the refs were pretty bad in the first half.

I am proud of the team. Just seemed everytime we got any momentum out there we or the zebras quashed it.

It's odd saying this but I think we need another receiver next year.. Some that can take the top off the defence a flat out burner if you will.

Any word on Pete?

Yeah, not at all what I expected. Guess the Riders just owned us this season, much like we did to Arblots and to some extent the Als.

Still. in all it was a really good season. Could have been 1 game better, but sure beats the basement. Now the 6 months of waiting. Who will Ottawa take? Who will leave as a FA, who will come in? Who are we going to rip?

I think Giguere should be traded to Montreal for another good Cdn. It looks to me, when he is out on the field, Hamilton is the last place he wants to be. He seems to make very little effort to break tackles, is more than willing to step out of bounds and does not make difficult catches very often. To be fair, he made some catches in the playoffs that helped them win, but I could sure live without him. Got to be better Cdn receivers out there...

Yes, it sucked.

Not just in terms of the result, but from an entertainment aspect.

There was simply no doubt at any point during the three or so hours as to who was going to win the game.

No drama at all, really, just waiting for the final whistle and the Riders' celebration.

Sort of like last year's Cup, again in that one there was never any doubt as to who was going to win.

You have to hand it to the Riders, they were clearly the better team. The breaking point of the game was the 19 yard run on 2nd by Sheets for a first down. Thought the Cats were still in it to a point up until that time.

Congrats to the team and entire organization for getting to the 101st Grey Cup. We were not quite at the championship level yet but feel confident that next year or the year after, Earl Grey's mug will be ours.

MadJack I don't agree. I thought we got the better of them in the first quarter. They got REAL lucky on two Durant fumbles, especially the second one when sheets grabbed the ball and scrambled for a big gain. Without that we may have been leading after the first quarter and things could have gone differently. Our offence was moving the ball ok (I think Burris was 6 for 7 at one point. Our defence looked strong. But we lost momentum when a Ticat receiver dropped the ball on a sure first down... Then it got ugly.

I tend to agree withe TC. The cats started strong on both sides of the ball but that freaky Durant fumble that Sheets caught in mid air was a bad omen of things to come. I stopped watch with about 2 min. to go in the 1st half.
Oh, well next year.

The DD fumble was a huge shift but it came down to a number of vets on the Riders that shined and DD made some crazy throws and Sheets and the o-line ripped apart the Ti-cats Dline. After the big Sheets run on the fumble #99 on the Cats was gassed. That was a sign that the Riders were going to be able to wear down the Ticats.

However being at the game I can tell u that the crowd got into Hanks head cause Hank is human. Every missed throw 2 and out dropped ball, Fumble, sack. He got taunted I don't care what he or Austin say that is going to get in ones head and it did.

However the Ticat fans should be proud they will have this experience to build on and have a much better chance to win next season with the experience they got this game.

Also next season the GC is in a dome which is more suited to Austin and Hank.

What calls were missed?

For the most part I agree with this sentiment. Specifically;

I thought Kent Austin's pre-game speech was weak ... it set a rather flat tone.

Offensive execution was not up to a Championship level.

The freaky Durant fumble to Sheets sucked huge.

The roughing the kicker penalty sucked the most. As stated by Austin, that was the true tilting point of the game. Not saying that we would have won, necessarily, but the Grey Cup balloon was most definitely popped on that play.

The result, notwithstanding - this was a great year to be a Ticat fan ... the future looks bright with many reasons to feel good about the team, and organization.

Looking forward to seeing this team in the new digs, and hopefully returning to the big game next season.

It sucked for sure,I was at a Grey Cup party where every one else there was cheering for the Riders even though they were not Rider fans.I sucked it up and stayed the entire game and post game only left after they turned on the NFL game.
Now the next thing I have to do is call my brother and congratulate him on the win he is one those die hard watermelon wearing Roughrider fans.

This one falls on the coaching for poor preparation and game plan .

We were destroyed in every aspect of this game .

Their play calling was excellent and ours was terrible. Their players were wide open and ours were checked well.
It was bad Henry again and I hate to say it but this team cannot become a champion with such an inconsistent QB .
SASK were playing 3 db’s at linebacker and missing REY Williams and we had absolutely no game plan to exploit that. I thought we’d have screen plays and draw plays and Henry scampers up the middle and some straight runs with GABLE .
This King guy at safety is not a starter in this league as he does not have a nose for the ball and he can’t get to the QB when he does blitz. He is of no help to the db’s . He showed his lack of speed on the Durant scramble. If he can’t catch Durant then how could he catch a receiver or rb ?

Mcculough was completely lost on both Simon TD’s and the move was not anything special . DB’S had no help from the safety.,

When we don’t use Gable in our offence then we lose ….Why does Austin insist on using this guy as a blocker so much when we need his ball handling skills and running ability.

We still don’t have much of a pass rush and need a true DE like CHICK or Hall on their side .

To me , it looked like a high school team versus a pro team . That 2knd and 19 draw play to Sheets was a symbol of the game . We have to be able to stop them there .
There were some gutsy performances on D from Boudreau and Simoni and Jamal and Murray but overall the entire defensive backfield sucked .

It seemed as well that E. Davis was never able to keep his man in check …usually Getzlaf .

It all seemed way to easy for SASK .

I though the team were practicing with noise …we can’t be snapping the ball into air in giving them the ball on our 20 ? what happened Henry !

SASK are not that good ….their entire linebacking corp and db’s are all pretty average with Anderson and brackenridge beaing standouts and Chick is the really only elite guy on that line .

I thought we could have had such a better game plan on both sides of the ball . SASK is not that good against the run and we had no plan there …so they deploy another linebacker in FERRI who is really a db and we have no counter for that . Burris was throwing into coverage all game and fantuz and ellingson had guys glued to them.

We need a running game for next year . If Gable can’t run the ball go get Simpson from WPG . He might be available . OR is the problem with the OLINE ?

It was a very embarrassing and depressing game to watch . Sure this team has come a long way and has a bright future but I feel they could have been much better prepared by the coaches on this day .

I kind of think they were prepared. They looked good in the first quarter. Re-watch the first quarter. I was convinced after the first quarter that we could win that one with a little luck. Burris 6 for 7 Defence holding them and creating two fumbles that unfortunately we could not recover. But, things started to fall apart in the 2nd quarter. Yes a switch in QB might have stemmed the tide and allow us a little more ball control and a chance to establish a running game. But it is what it is. A loss is a loss whether you lose by three points or 40 it's still a loss.
We actually even started mounting a comeback in the third quarter that had the potential to make this one close, but it eventually fell apart...
We got to the big show and that was a giant step in the right direction...

Agreed.

The Roughriders were prepared, the Tiger-Cats clearly were not.

330 yards vs 130 yards in the first half alone.

Burris 20 for 43, Gable only running 6 times for 23 yards, while the Riders amassed over 500 yards offense.

Great job by Cortez with his usual potent offense.

Former Ti-Cat coaches Chamblin and Cortez out coached Austin and his staff.

It was a humiliating domination that showcased too much bumbling along with a spanking.

Wait’ll next year.

(Full disclosure, Iliked bellefeuille, Cortez and Austin all as hamilton HCs)

Sorry but that is just stupid. I get that you wish your team played better. However consider that the Riders beat every single team in the CFL at least once this year.

They got to the Greycup by beating The Stamps that had a 14-4 record. Not only did they beat them they destroyed them 35-13.

Then in the Greycup the Riders won 45-23 which is the largest margin of victory since 1997. (Which the Riders were on the loosing side of so I understand it sucks to get blown out in the Greycup)

The Riders won the cup in 2013 because they were the best team in the CFL in 2013.

Hamilton I think will be a much better team in 2014.

What a boring game. I tuned out at the end of the first quarter.

Well, if it wasn't bad enough watching the Cats get crushed I also lost $500 because of that last meaningless touchdown we got. You guessed it, I had Cats 6 Riders 5 in the office pool....:frowning:

I think he may have referred to the taunting penalty on the ticats which resulted in the ticats getting a field goal instead of a td. I think that’s what he meant, overall I think the refs let them play, which is good, but the taunting call was cheap.

From Milton,

It's also best to remember, and maybe cherish, that these Ticats were scaling a steep stairway two steps at a time. They won a mere third of their games last year, and came into this nomadic season, the most unusual in club history, with a new coach and general manager, new offensive and defensive co-ordinators, and new quarterbacks in the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 holes, and a defence that needed more repair than New York after Hurricane Sandy. They never practised where they played and inhaled bus diesel every day to and from McMaster and every second week on the way to Guelph. An organization which was already busting its collective butt, had to divide itself in two to serve a pair of markets.
And then just about everybody outside of Henry Burris got hurt and they opened the season at 1-and-4. They were compelled to employ a CFL-record 80-plus players, and still came into the Grey Cup with 11 wins in their last 15 games.

Thus, for this one time only, these Ticats shouldn't be characterized as the team that lost the Grey Cup but as the team that won the eastern championship.

More great reading in this!

http://scratchingpost.thespec.com

Thanks Grover!

As usual, Steve Milton writes with terrific insight.