”It was a humbling experience, confessed Johnny Manziel to the media after Friday night’s game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that ended with a score of 50-11. I made some very uncharacteristic throws, especially on the first drive. I did a bad job setting the tone.”
Johnny may feel responsible for the loss, the blame can’t all be put on him. It takes every piece moving right to get the train going. So why aren’t they moving? Is it the pressure, the play calling, the personnel? The team will have to know heading into week 9 to make the necessary adjustments and, as our new QB put it, press forward with a vengeance.
The crowd was hyped up. The beer was only $7. The game… was never close. The Ticats came out strong, scoring on their first offensive series on a 17-yard pass from Masoli to Banks, while our Als fell short from the get go losing five yards on the first play and getting intercepted on the second. The tone was set.
The usually effective special teams were not able to help the offence with positioning – Hamilton took advantage of their second drive, starting at M12 and finishing in the end zone with a rushing TD by Alex Green – and Boris Bede’s first punt attempt of the match was blocked by Ticat linebacker Curtis Newton and recovered by his teammate Sean Thomas Erlington… for touchdown number three. And after a fourth scoring drive by the Tiger-Cats, it was 28-0 with still 45 minutes left to play.
Like we said: the tone was set. It was difficult to watch, even more so knowing how hard the guys – and everyone in the organization – are working to turn the ship around. ‘‘I like the players that I have, said Coach Sherman in his press conference. They do the things I ask them to do during the week. Some way, somehow, they seem to forget all about it on game day.”
While the defence, as a whole, had a hard time containing the Ticats passing game, Henoc Muamba made his way to Masoli in the third quarter to collect a sack, Branden Dozier intercepted what could have been a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and Dominique Ellis led the team with seven tackles throughout the game.
On offence, receiver Eugene Lewis stood out by nailing a few impressive catches that helped move the chains. Lewis was the biggest contributor in terms of receiving yards on Friday with 76. The Als highlight, however, had to be Vernon Adams’ sneak into the Ticats end zone followed by a beautifully executed two-point conversion by the Adams-Cunningham duo.
Despite the (very) tough loss, players came out of the locker room after listening to Coach Sherman’s speech to thank the fans and sign autographs. S/o to Tyrell Sutton who kept his cool when he saw that a fan had crossed off the 0 on his number 20 jersey. What did Sutty do? He took the shirt, went back into the locker room, got it autographed by Johnny and came back out with a smile to hand it to the young boy. Class act.
And that’s what the Als locker room is all about: good guys who love their fans and want, more than anything, to give them wins. ”Two things could happen. It’s either we let this take us down and sulk or we never let it happen again to never have this taste in our mouths again,” Johnny concluded. Well, it’s going to have to be the latter. This game had to be just as uncharacteristic of the Alouettes’ future as Johnny’s throws.
