The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are going to the Grey Cup and football fans in Steeltown are on cloud 9.
Hamilton secured a spot in the Canadian Football League‘s 107th Grey Cup championship after a dominating 36-16 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos at Tim Hortons Field on Sunday.
Dane Evans, making his first career playoff start in the CFL, didn’t allow the big stage to affect him as he threw for 386 yards and a touchdown to lead the Ticats to the title game for the first time since 2014.
Most Outstanding Player nominee Brandon Banks was stellar, again, as was Hamilton’s defence and special teams.
The 2019 Tiger-Cats remind me a lot of the team that brought home Hamilton’s last Grey Cup championship in 1999.
The coaches and players are different but the two teams share some similar traits, such as their professionalism, confidence and toughness in all three facets of the game.
Who would’ve thought that a rookie head coach would have lead a team with an unproven backup quarterback who was thrust into the starter’s role because of injury, having to start several different running backs throughout the year, and deal with a murderers row of road games in the middle of the season all the way to the Grey Cup?
Orlondo Steinauer and the Ticats have not only done that, but they’ve done it in record-breaking fashion — going 15-3 and winning every home game in the regular season and playoffs.
Are the 2019 Tiger-Cats a team of destiny, just like the ’99 team seemed to be?
We will find out on Sunday when Hamilton and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers meet in the Grey Cup for the first time since 1984.