Eight Ticats questions ahead of Sunday’s East Final

The 2019 season has been a magical year for the Tiger-Cats and really for the city of Hamilton as a whole.

The city’s professional soccer team, Forge FC, won the very first CPL championship earlier in November; the city’s professional basketball team, the Hamilton Honey Badgers, made it to the CEBL’s championship final; the city’s university football team, the McMaster Marauders, are playing in their first USports national semifinal since 2014 with a chance to advance to next week’s Vanier Cup; and, of course, the Ticats themselves have had a remarkable season, finishing a league-best 15-3, going a sterling 9-0 at home (just the eighth team in CFL history to ever do that), earning themselves a bye into Sunday’s East Final.

To say 2019 has been a good year for the city, sports-wise, would be an understatement.

But that doesn’t mean Sunday’s tilt between Hamilton and Edmonton is devoid of intrigue. As we set the stage for Sunday’s game, here are eight questions going into a first-ever East Final matchup between the black and gold and the green and gold.

Can the Ticats live up to the hype?

Finishing atop the table is not a place the Ticats are used to being, and despite people thinking they would run away with the East this season, did anyone actually think they’d be this dominant? I say no, considering it took well into the season before the many power rankers were wise enough to put them at No. 1 in their rankings.

But rolling the way they have rolled this year, losing just once since August 1, and doing it without a plethora of star players for all or most of the season, the Ticats are coming into a playoff game with hype around them that hasn’t been seen before. Like the Calgary Stampeders the last few years, anything short of a championship will be unacceptable.

The Ticats have exceeded the hype all season, and they are two wins away from proving the hype is real.

Can the Ticats stop Trevor Harris?

The last two times Trevor Harris has played a playoff game in the eastern time zone he has been outstanding. Last week against the Montreal Alouettes, Harris completed his first 22 passes en route to going 36-of-39 for 421 yards and leading Edmonton to a 37-29 victory.

Rewind to a year ago at this time and Harris, in an Ottawa Redblacks uniform, torched these Tiger-Cats to the tune of 367 yards on 29-of-32 passing and six, yes six, touchdown passes in a 46-27 pasting that took the Redblacks to their third Grey Cup in four years.

To say the Ticats have a task ahead of them is an understatement, but don’t mistake this year’s Ticats defence for last year’s. Hamilton led the CFL in points allowed, giving up an average of just 19.1 points per game, the only team to average fewer than 21 points allowed per game this season.

The Ticats didn’t face Harris in the two matchups between these teams in the regular season, but they did face many of the other elite quarterbacks this year.

And remember, after Harris ripped the Ticats apart in last year’s East Final, he put up a dud against a much better Calgary Stampeders defence in the Grey Cup, finishing a paltry 20-of-38 for 288 yards and three interceptions.

Montreal’s defence was the league’s worst against the pass this season, so it is much more likely Harris comes back down to earth against a much stingier defence than deliver a repeat of last week’s tremendous output.

Can Dane Evans perform on the big stage?

Making his first career playoff start, all eyes will be on Dane Evans, and many are wondering whether he can perform on the big stage.

I always find it silly to ask that of guys who played major college football in the U.S., but even though Evans played at Tulsa and not somewhere like Alabama or Texas, he has some experience playing in front of much larger crowds than the one he will be in front of on Sunday.

Let me take you back to September 19, 2015, when Evans led his Golden Hurricanes into Norman, Oklahoma to take on future No. 1 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield who was at the helm of the powerhouse Oklahoma Sooners. Evans and Tulsa would come out on the losing end that day, 52-38, but Evans played the game of his life, going 34-of-51 for 427 yards and four touchdowns. That Oklahoma team would go 11-2, win the Big 12, go to the College Football Playoff, and finish the year as the No. 5-ranked team in NCAA Division I.

Oklahoma’s stadium holds over 80,000 people, and that was what Evans dealt with on that beautiful September day.

So can Dane Evans perform on the big stage? Hell yeah he can.

Who wins trench warfare (Pt. 1)?

The battle in the trenches is likely where this game will be won, and Hamilton’s offensive line and Edmonton’s defensive line have respectively been key in both these teams getting this far this year.

The Ticats had three of their hogs named divisional all-stars, while Edmonton had both their interior lineman named divisional all-stars. Edmonton was able to accumulate 56 sacks on the season, tied for first in the CFL, while the Ticats were tied for fourth with 37 sacks allowed.

In two games against each other, Edmonton took Evans down seven times, including three when the teams met at Tim Hortons Field in October. The Ticats front five will have to be much better at keeping Almondo Sewell, Kwaku Boateng, et al off Evans in Sunday’s clash.

Edmonton’s ferocious pass rush has obviously been one of their biggest strengths this season and the Ticats will need to keep them at bay.

Who wins trench warfare (Pt. 2)?

Now we flip the script and look at the other matchup of big men, where both teams have been just as excellent as their counterparts.

Edmonton surrendered a league-low 25 sacks in 2019, nine fewer than the next-closest team, while the Ticats finished third in the league with 56 sacks, just two behind co-leaders Edmonton and Saskatchewan.

Of the 25 sacks that Edmonton gave up, 32 per cent of them came in their two games against the Ticats, where Hamilton picked up eight — three when the teams played in Edmonton, and five when the teams met in Hamilton.

Nearly one-third of all the sacks Edmonton allowed came when they played the Ticats, and you have got to think that all-stars Ja’Gared Davis and Dylan Wynn, as well as Ted Laurent and Julian Howsare, are looking to feast once again.

Can anyone stop the Killer Bs?

Both finishing in the top five in receiving, and one headed towards a richly deserved MOP award, Bralon Addison and Brandon Banks are the league’s preeminent receiving duo. It will be incumbent upon the Edmonton secondary to slow them down. I say slow down, because no one is going to stop them.

While Edmonton gave up a league-low 222.9 yards per game in the air, against the Ticats they gave up an average of 306.5 yards: Banks and Addison accounted for nearly 55 per cent of those yards. Edmonton’s pass defence was quite good most of the season, but against the Ticats’ Killer Bs, they were pedestrian at best. Except that to continue on Sunday.

What impact will returning Ticats Larry Dean and Don Unamba have?

There are a lot of former Ticats headed back to the Hammer for Sunday’s matchup, but the two Ticats fans will have their eyes on most are two of the most recent defectors, Larry Dean and Don Unamba.

Along with Simoni Lawrence, Dean and Unamba formed one of the best linebacking trios a year ago. Dean was a finalist for Most Outstanding Defensive Player (losing out to Winnipeg’s Adam Bighill), while Unamba was a league all-star at cover linebacker. Both left via free agency and both landed in Edmonton.

In the two games these teams played, neither Dean nor Unamba made much of an impact, though both did register a sack, with Unamba nabbing his in the game in Edmonton, while Dean picked his up in the game in Hamilton. Dean was once again great, being named a division all-star again this year, while Unamba missed some time with injury, which hurt his numbers.

Can either player make an impact on Sunday? We will have to wait and see.

Who will win?

The ultimate question, right?

What Trevor Harris did in last year’s East Final is irrelevant, and even using this year’s Hamilton-Edmonton matchups as a measure is also tough because Harris didn’t play in either of those games.

But here is what we know: the Ticats are a 15-3 team, while Edmonton was 8-10. Even with Harris in the lineup, the green and gold were a middling 6-6, so let’s not pretend they were some juggernaut cruising to a league-best record that was torpedoed when Harris went down in September.

What we have seen from both teams all year says that one squad is significantly better than the other, and while anything can happen in a one-game elimination scenario, if the Ticats play as they have all season, they will be headed to Calgary to try to win the Grey Cup.

Edmonton has been asking “Why not us?” in regards to them being the first Western crossover team to make it to the Grey Cup, but the answer to that is simple.

Why not you? Because the Ticats are just better.