The Canadian Press
Darren Desaulniers
OTTAWA–Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ coach Kent Austin didn’t worry about wins or losses last night, which was a good thing.
Ray Early kicked a 37-yard field goal with 68 seconds left to give the Ottawa Redblacks a 30-29 win over the Tiger-Cats, who had a nine-point lead with six minutes to go.
“I think our effort was pretty good and we played a pretty clean game, but game’s like this, the only thing that’s important is that you learn from it,” said Austin, adding the late loss was a teachable moment.
“Learn from it as an individual player, learn from it as a football team.
“We had a nine-point lead and we let them get back in the game,” Austin added.
“We need to learn to be more resilient and extent the lead.”
Both teams combined to use seven quarterbacks as they opened the pre-season portion of their CFL season.
The Tiger-Cats used Jeremiah Masoli, Everett Golson, Matt Johnson, and Cody Keith while the Redblacks countered with Trevor Harris, Drew Tate, and Ryan Lindley.
Ottawa used all three of its available quarterbacks in the first half, and in keeping with the theme of getting everyone involved, 11 different receivers caught passes in the first half alone.
“We just came out here to play fast,” said receiver Tori Gurley, who was making his Redblacks’ debut after signing with the team in the off-season.
“Everything we’ve been scripting in practice, it’s just great to see it come to life,” he noted.
“We’ve still got to work on timing, and I know there’s some things I need to work on, but we have to just keep practising and keep having fun.”
Harris started, completing 12-of-15 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown.
“I’ve been ready to start the season since December,” said Harris, the only returning QB from the Redblacks’ Grey Cup championship team last season.
“It was a relief to get out there and get executing,” he added.
“I was itching for a while to get that,”
Toronto beat Montreal 24-20 in the other exhibition game last night.
