How's Hamilton's
- Thread starter #cruncher
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Not sure about the Tiger-Cats back-up QB?!!? Think UNDER 48.5 maybe the Play in this affair. :yup
Good Luck Always cruncher!!! :0074
Best Bet on the 1st day of August, in my humble opinion, is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers -14.5 The Argos are not bad, they are REALLY bad!!! :yup
Four years ago when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats looked like good bets to end their long Grey Cup drought, starting quarterback and most-outstanding player candidate Zach Collaros went down with a knee injury. You probably remember that.
The year after, Andy Fantuz got hurt and was lost for the year. Just as the Ticats were pulling themselves out of an 0-8 crater and starting to look pretty decent the year after that, star receiver Luke Tasker was sidelined. Last season as they were showing signs of goodness, all-purpose offensive dynamo Brandon Banks was KO'd with a broken collarbone.
In case the pattern hadn't been firmly enough established, running back Sean Thomas Erlington injured his knee in Week 4 this year, and starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli crumpled to the turf untouched with a torn ACL last week. He's now out for the season.
It all makes you wonder if this team is cursed. If maybe the players should sacrifice a goat or something.
Fair enough. But what the heck? How does this keep happening?
"I don't think it's really that unique in football," Tasker says. "I think it's so easy for every team to find the look-what-happened-to-us story. There's adversity in every season for every team. Whether it was one guy or another, it was going to be somebody."
Again, fair enough. But with this squad it always seems to be the most important guy. And in Canadian football, nobody is more important than the quarterback. Especially when he's turned himself into one of the best in the league, which Masoli has.
Just how important is he? You have to go back more than three decades to find a team that lost, or changed, its starting quarterback mid-season and went on to win the Grey Cup. Thirty three years, in fact. Plenty of teams lost their starter in that time. None sipped champagne.
Of course, after practice on Monday, those in the Ticats locker room were tamping down any doubts that this could be their future. New starter Dane Evans will be just fine, they say.
asker says the players simply have to bear down and do their own jobs properly. Everything else will fall into place. Head coach Orlando Steinauer says Masoli isn't a meaningless loss by any stretch, but everyone expected adversity at some point. This team, he says, has been built to deal with it.
Then there's veteran offensive lineman Chris Van Zeyl, who says he's seen everything in his career, including injuries to quarterbacks. He points to his time in Toronto when Ricky Ray got hurt and things looked a little dicey. That's when Trevor Harris and Collaros got their chance, and were just fine.
"Both of them played well when they were relief of Rick," he says.
Can Evans do the same? Or is the Ticats' season now toast?
For those looking to believe the answer to that second question is no despite history's suggestion that this is not a good scenario, there are some threads to which you can cling.
First of all, most of those other crushing injuries of recent years came near the end of the season, leaving little time to adjust before the playoffs. Evans will have a dozen regular-season games to figure things out and get himself rolling. That could be a huge bonus.
Second, as has been well-documented, the East Division is a bit of a mess this season. Meaning there's some forgiveness there for the Ticats as the kinks are worked out. Third, five other teams are in the same predicament. At this rate, every team might be relying on their backup soon.
Finally, that last time a quarterback was replaced mid-season and his team went on to win the Grey Cup was 1986. The team that did it was the Tiger-Cats. Ken Hobart had opened the season as the starter but Mike Kerrigan supplanted him in Week 7.
Maybe there's some more magic there. Maybe history can repeat. There's certainly no sense in the Hamilton locker room that excuses are being prepared in the event of the alternative.
"We expect (Evans) to execute the game plan and make plays," Steinauer says. "This is professional ball. This isn't let's-just-kind-of-ball-control-it-and-see-where-it-ends-up.
"We're playing to win."
The year after, Andy Fantuz got hurt and was lost for the year. Just as the Ticats were pulling themselves out of an 0-8 crater and starting to look pretty decent the year after that, star receiver Luke Tasker was sidelined. Last season as they were showing signs of goodness, all-purpose offensive dynamo Brandon Banks was KO'd with a broken collarbone.
In case the pattern hadn't been firmly enough established, running back Sean Thomas Erlington injured his knee in Week 4 this year, and starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli crumpled to the turf untouched with a torn ACL last week. He's now out for the season.
It all makes you wonder if this team is cursed. If maybe the players should sacrifice a goat or something.
Fair enough. But what the heck? How does this keep happening?
"I don't think it's really that unique in football," Tasker says. "I think it's so easy for every team to find the look-what-happened-to-us story. There's adversity in every season for every team. Whether it was one guy or another, it was going to be somebody."
Again, fair enough. But with this squad it always seems to be the most important guy. And in Canadian football, nobody is more important than the quarterback. Especially when he's turned himself into one of the best in the league, which Masoli has.
Just how important is he? You have to go back more than three decades to find a team that lost, or changed, its starting quarterback mid-season and went on to win the Grey Cup. Thirty three years, in fact. Plenty of teams lost their starter in that time. None sipped champagne.
Of course, after practice on Monday, those in the Ticats locker room were tamping down any doubts that this could be their future. New starter Dane Evans will be just fine, they say.
asker says the players simply have to bear down and do their own jobs properly. Everything else will fall into place. Head coach Orlando Steinauer says Masoli isn't a meaningless loss by any stretch, but everyone expected adversity at some point. This team, he says, has been built to deal with it.
Then there's veteran offensive lineman Chris Van Zeyl, who says he's seen everything in his career, including injuries to quarterbacks. He points to his time in Toronto when Ricky Ray got hurt and things looked a little dicey. That's when Trevor Harris and Collaros got their chance, and were just fine.
"Both of them played well when they were relief of Rick," he says.
Can Evans do the same? Or is the Ticats' season now toast?
For those looking to believe the answer to that second question is no despite history's suggestion that this is not a good scenario, there are some threads to which you can cling.
First of all, most of those other crushing injuries of recent years came near the end of the season, leaving little time to adjust before the playoffs. Evans will have a dozen regular-season games to figure things out and get himself rolling. That could be a huge bonus.
Second, as has been well-documented, the East Division is a bit of a mess this season. Meaning there's some forgiveness there for the Ticats as the kinks are worked out. Third, five other teams are in the same predicament. At this rate, every team might be relying on their backup soon.
Finally, that last time a quarterback was replaced mid-season and his team went on to win the Grey Cup was 1986. The team that did it was the Tiger-Cats. Ken Hobart had opened the season as the starter but Mike Kerrigan supplanted him in Week 7.
Maybe there's some more magic there. Maybe history can repeat. There's certainly no sense in the Hamilton locker room that excuses are being prepared in the event of the alternative.
"We expect (Evans) to execute the game plan and make plays," Steinauer says. "This is professional ball. This isn't let's-just-kind-of-ball-control-it-and-see-where-it-ends-up.
"We're playing to win."
Three days after losing starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli to a season-ending injury, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have signed QB David Watford.
Masoli tore his left anterior cruciate ligament on Friday night in a win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Dane Evans replaced Masoli and is expected to start Thursday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Rookie quarterback Hayden Moore also is on the roster.
Watford, 26, appeared in 18 games for the Roughriders last year, completing 15-of-32 passing attempts for 168 yards with one touchdown and two interception.
The six-foot-two, 212-pound native of Hampton, Va., joined Saskatchewan's practice roster in October 2017 after spending parts of two seasons (2016-17) in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Masoli tore his left anterior cruciate ligament on Friday night in a win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Dane Evans replaced Masoli and is expected to start Thursday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Rookie quarterback Hayden Moore also is on the roster.
Watford, 26, appeared in 18 games for the Roughriders last year, completing 15-of-32 passing attempts for 168 yards with one touchdown and two interception.
The six-foot-two, 212-pound native of Hampton, Va., joined Saskatchewan's practice roster in October 2017 after spending parts of two seasons (2016-17) in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles.
I was definitely going to play Hamilton before Masoli went down but don't think I can do it now. I was considering the Over also (have the game around 60), but won't touch it now for the same reason(s) I'm not playing the side (although Saskatchewan has played significantly better on the road than home.
I've got Winny by 23, should play them but probably won't; have trouble laying a lot of points.
Good luck to you also Double Two!
