A friend of mine (and a fellow season ticket holder with me) asked our group watching yesterday’s game which type of season would you consistently rather watch. A 9-9 type season where they win the Grey Cup or a winning 15-3 season where they lose the Grey Cup. He picked the latter because he would rather agonize over a big one game loss and watch a winning season as opposed to having a mediocre season and agonizing over 9 losses during the regular season. What would you rather watch?
I’m with your friend - let’s watch a winning season. If you know that the team is good and has the potential to finish with lots of wins then you also know their chances of getting to and winning the GC are much better. Calgary is a good example - three trips in three years although they only won the ultimate prize once. And they had to play in the west to win that one. Both losses came while playing in Toronto and Ottawa.
Its funny how great minds think alike or fools never differ
I was just about to start a thread with the following post
A sad way to end a great season. Hamilton’s offensive and defensive lines were totally outplayed. The Winnipeg lines probably played one of their best games of the season while Hamilton’s lines countered with probably their worst. The end result was Hamilton loosing the Grey Cup.
So enough said…get over it.
Hamilton is a team that everyone counted out the moment Masoli went down but yet they not only found a way to get into the Grey Cup they did it by leading the league in wins and setting a franchise record for totally wins in a season and being undefeated during the regular season at home for the first time ever.
The true character of a team and for that matter a franchise is not how the perform in any one game but how the face adversity day in and day out. Hamilton showed over the year that they have the makings of a dominant franchise, well unless they get decimated by free agency this year.
As a fan I would rather watch my team win 15 regular season games and loose the Grey Cup than squeak into the Grey Cup like Toronto did the other year with a 9 and 9 record and win the Grey Cup
Of course, a player’s view point might be totally different but then I am only a fan.
15 and 3 any day. Going 10 and 0 at home is priceless.
I would rather have a winning season and win the cup?
I’ll settle for 12-6 and a Grey Cup victory.
It goes to show you nothing is a gimme in sports. We were slight favourites to win this Grey Cup but Winnipeg was on fire.
At least we lost to a team with a winning record.
The Alouettes(13-5) lost to the lions(8-10)in 2006.
We beat the heavily favored Eskimos in 86. I believe they were 13-5, we were 9-9.
I’ll take a Grey Cup win, at all costs. Until the drought ends. Then I’ll worry about regular season win percentage.
This!
I have been surprised to realize that the Grey Cup has gone to the hosting conference for the last 9 consecutive years. The league doesn’t really let the East host as many Grey Cups (only 3 of the past 11), so this is a bit of an issue.
- The 15-3 season means nothing to most people now !!
All everyone across the CFL will remember now is that total beat down and embarrassment
yesterday in the biggest game of the year !! :
It felt like a Winnipeg home game. That must have been discouraging for the Ticats to see the majority of fans supporting the Blue Bombers.
I know great teams find a way to win on the road but still upsetting.
I’m really comforted, reading this thread.
I thought, perhaps, I was a loner, having always appreciated and respected, as a much greater accomplishment, the Tiger-Cats, having the best record in their division, compared to winning the 2 or 3 game annual “tournament” that is the playoffs and Grey Cup. This year, quite unlike any other, I had tremendous confidence in the Head Coach, his coordinators, and the importance of winning the big one to the veteran players and, while a close loss wouldn’t have been a huge shock to me, I never imagined, for a moment, getting thumped like that. The Cats lost 3 road games, this year, by a total of 13 pts. and then the championship game by 21!
It’s sadly interesting, though, that looking at the Tiger-Cats’ 7 best records over their 70 regular seasons (in order, compared by %): 2019, 1952, 1972, 1998, 1958 / 1964, 1981, they won the Grey Cup only once in all of those years.
This 2019 season, even with its shocking end, was a dream come true for this old fan.
Was thinking that last night. Some tough luck for the Cats.
@ Sask and vs Sask was an uphill battle.
@ Vancouver
@ Calgary
Makes it really tough for the home fanbase to help make it a home game, there would have been way more Ticat fans at Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.
15-3 won’t be forgotten. If and when this team doesn’t get near that total next year?
“We used to be a 15 win team, what happened?”
Agreed!
That being said, there are a lot of things to be proud of this season as the team was able to accomplish a number of new feats for this organization. But if we continue to win 15 games a year without winning it all, it will get old fast. I do appreciate the heights reached by the team this year and in a way it does take some of the sting out of the disappointing loss, but the Grey Cup is the goal. Period.
You hit the nail on the head. I think this is the main reason for Winnipeg hoisting the Cup.
Yep. Win a Cup. I don’t care how we get there, it’s been too long. We need to win one.
Agreed.
Grey Cup all the way.
I’ll take 15 and 3. But, I have to say, his year I missed the end of season excitement that comes with say a 9 and 9 record.
Maybe that was part of the problem in the Cup: not being really challenged for the last month or so compared to Winnipeg playing their guts out for their last few games.
I like this team, I’m looking forward to next season.
The more 11-15 win seasons you have the more chances you have at a cup…or 3.
Still think we have something big brewing and this loss will be a large part of making this organization stronger.
Still wouldn’t trade our last 5 years with Toronto’s or Ottawas. Never.
I agree, but also… we’ve been the 9-9 (more often then not) team battling down the stretch and been the underdog…and lost. This year we’re the favorite…and lost.
It’s hard to buy into all the cliches about a learning experience and being better next year because '13 was a learning experience and we still lost in '14.
Only thing at this point is if we come next year with most of the same group…and maybe add a bigger/taller reciever to diversify the mix a bit… quick dump passes for 5-10 yards would’ve been helpful yesterday. Maybe we’ve invested too much into small and speedy types.