Opinion | Bombers, Ticats will face off in a Gray Cup showing the more things change, the more the CFL stays the same

The Gray Cup game. Oh yes, we remember you. Back after a two-year absence, and ready to rescue the Canadian Football League again.

That, for those who have followed Canadian three-shot soccer for a long time, has been the case many times in the past. The CFL championship contest will attempt to do so one more time next Sunday as the league celebrates what was once called the Grand National Drunk for the first time since 2019.

The entire league was sidelined by COVID last year, making it questionable whether it would even survive. But it has, and while the 2021 season was shortened to 14 games, produced worrisome attendance figures and an unenjoyable brand of football dominated by defense, the 108th Gray Cup will take place at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton before 24,000. fully vaccinated clients.

That, in itself, is a huge achievement for a league long known for its endurance, and one that was prematurely reported to be on its deathbed many times.

It will be a home game for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who defeated the Toronto Argonauts 27-19 at BMO Field in the Eastern Final, and will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a rematch of the 2019 championship game. The Bombers won that one with relative ease, and will be favorites to repeat despite a surprisingly error-ridden effort in the West final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Both the Tiger-Cats, with a No. 68 decal on their helmets honoring the late Angelo Mosca, and the Bombers, the best team in the league this season, needed comeback efforts to advance. Hamilton was shut out by the Argos in the first half, while the Bombers committed six turnovers and lost by three points at home before the fourth quarter. But neither the Argos nor the Green Riders could score enough points when they got the chance to do so, and neither could keep their hard-earned leaders on hold.

For the Argos, Sunday’s game started as an opportunity to show that the CFL still has a pulse in Toronto. The influx of several thousand Hamilton fans from the QEW helped produce a crowd of 21,492 and the best atmosphere of the season at BMO Field. After the league interceded to relax COVID protocols enough to allow several Toronto players, including starting quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, to play, the Argos appeared dominant early on and took a 12- lead. 0.

It could have been more if it weren’t for a spectacular defensive play by Hamilton quarterback Dane Evans among all people. In the last minute of the second quarter, Evans completed a pass to Steven Dunbar Jr., who then fumbled. Argo linebacker Henoc Muamba recovered the ball and then passed to teammate Shaq Richardson.

Just when it looked like Richardson could get the ball into Hamilton’s end zone, Evans ripped the ball out of his hands and immediately gained control before falling out of bounds.

“We knew almost everything that could go wrong in the first half, he did,” Evans said afterward. “We knew we were going to win the game. It was about how. “

The comeback began in the second half with a 92-yard punt return for a touchdown by Hamilton’s Papi White. Before the third quarter ended, a touchdown pass from Evans to Jaelon Acklin tied the game.

With running back Don Jackson punishing Argos’ defense, Hamilton took the lead in the fourth quarter to stay. Argos kicker Boris Bede kicked six field goals, but three came from within the 20-yard line, and Bethel-Thompson failed to organize an offensive touchdown for the home team.

Evans finished with a perfect 16 of 16 passes and ran for two touchdowns himself to eliminate the Argos. The 148-year-old Toronto soccer club, owned by sports conglomerate Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, is now entering an offseason that will likely be full of speculation about whether they will even be in the league next season.

In Manitoba, conditions were much colder and snowy for the West final, enough to leave bearded players with icicles on their icy faces.

“Inclement weather is the biggest draw in professional sports,” former Winnipeg defensive lineman Doug Brown tweeted before the game. “Change the strategy, the base, the dispositions and the game plans. Soccer is tougher in the cold and the toughest team usually prevails ”.

It seemed like the Riders were the toughest team in the first half. The 11-3 Bombers, perhaps showing the effects of not having played a meaningful game in six weeks, flipped the ball five times in the first half.

But just when the Argos drove inside Hamilton’s five-yard line twice in the first half only to come out with a couple of field goals, Saskatchewan was able to generate a measly 10 points from all those Blue Bombers errors, and that. came back and bit. them in the second half when the Bombers found their footing.

Canadian standout running back Andrew Harris, a playing time decision due to injury, led Winnipeg’s comeback with his downhill running style. After a while, it seemed like the Riders no longer wanted to sacrifice themselves to tackle Harris, and he ended up rushing for 136 yards on 23 carries and a touchdown. QB Zach Collaros put the Bombers ahead to stay on a one-yard run in the fourth quarter.

“It was an uphill battle,” Harris said. “This was a brave victory.”

Now, after a two-year hiatus, the Gray Cup is back, with the same two teams that lined up the last time it was played. There is some poetry in that.

Having been hit harder by the pandemic than most North American professional sports leagues, the CFL, which never calls itself uncle, needs, and frankly deserves, a classic.

Damien Cox is a former Star Sports reporter who is currently a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin