Jun
Cats brass upbeat after loss
Courtesy Hamilton Spectator:
Take a deep breath Ticat Nation. Calm yourselves.
Think happy thoughts and take time to remember that exhibition season wins don’t mean a thing. Banish from your collective psyche — damaged as it is — concern over your beloved Tabbies falling behind 26-0 and eventually losing 32-22 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Wednesday night.
Ticat coaches and players were also doing their best to emphasize the positive in the wake of the loss, putting a nice shade of lipstick on a game that went oink, oink, oink, particularly in the first half.
“We got off to a little bit of a rough start but I thought we hung in there and got better as the game went on. But, obviously, we can’t afford to get off to the kind of start we got off to,” said defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall, whose unit was burned early and often by the Bombers’ starters.
“I think it took a little bit of time for some of the guys to settle down. It was the first time for a lot of them playing a CFL game situation. We’ve simulated things in training camp but you get into the game and the tempo is a little bit quicker and you’re a little bit nervous fighting for a job,” he said. “Hopefully, it was a good learning experience.”
Marshall pointed out that the team left several starters behind on defence, including linebackers Otis Floyd and Markeith Knowlton and halfback Chris Thompson. The latter two were all-stars last season.
“You have to understand the situation, the type of defence we were playing, who we were playing defensively, who they were playing on offence,” said head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. “The average fan doesn’t get the opportunity to see that.”
And despite falling behind early, the Ticats made a game of it. They turned two muffed kicks into 10 points and climbed within a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“If we take anything away from this game, it’s don’t judge how you’re playing during the game, just take each play as it comes and you’re always in it, even if it seems like you’re not,” said quarterback Quinton Porter.
Both Bellefeuille and Marshall said evaluating players was the focus of the first pre-season game as the coaching staff prepares to trim the roster from the almost 80 players in camp to the 55 or so that will start the regular season.
“We’ll go back and watch the film and from that make some decisions on some people and then get back to practice. We’ll start to pare down and get more repetition and more work with the guys that we think will play Toronto,” Bellefeuille said.
The Ticats get a double dose off the Double Blue over the next two weeks. The teams meet Tuesday in the pre-season finale before renewing acquaintances to start the regular Canadian Football League season July 1.
Bellefeuille said the team will take a different approach to next week’s game.
“We’ll play more of our starters and for a longer period of time. The four or five starters we left behind will get a chance to play as well,” he said. “It will be more indicative of what our team looks like. We’ll do a little more in terms of scheme, but we’re not going to show everything either.”
The coach points out that success in the pre-season is not necessarily a precursor to winning when the games count.
“We won these two pre-season games last year. They won the two pre-season games the year before. You really have to figure out what your focus is. It’s nice to win them but it’s more important to do the right things to prepare your team for the season,” he said.
Porter was even more succinct in his analysis.
“It’s not anything to get worried about.”
