Hopefully the new era will begin as soon as is wise in the off-season so I can get the bad taste out of my mouth of our most recent Buono debacle.
Ugly End to Wally Buono’s CFL Coaching Career as Hamilton Tiger-Cats Thump B.C. Lions
National Post
The B.C. Lions were, technically, present at Tim Hortons Field on Sunday, in the sense that there were men in white and orange on the field for the Eastern semifinal.
Figuratively speaking, though, the visitors were utterly absent.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats, despite coming into the game off an 8-10 regular season and on a three-game losing streak, rolled like they were a powerhouse, not a team that had stumbled and swooned into the playoffs.
With the 48-8 win, an outcome that was uncertain for only about 10 minutes of game action, Hamilton moves to the Eastern final next week in Ottawa.
The Lions send Wally Buono into retirement on a desultory and ignominious note, their most lopsided playoff loss in history.
It was as comprehensive a thumping as a football team can manage.
On the opening drive, Hamilton quarterback Jeremiah Masoli scrambled on second-and-12 and found Bralon Addison for a 38-yard catch. It was a play that would prove to be the theme of the day: Masoli finding open receivers and tearing off huge chunks of yardage.
Over and over, Masoli was able to find receivers running in open space, as though the Lions had collectively spent the week dutifully avoiding film study.
The 30-year-old QB, who has been trying to prove himself in Hamilton for three-plus years and had to fight for his job against the much-ballyhooed Johnny Manziel in training camp, finished the first half with 13 completions on 16 attempts for 245 yards and three touchdowns.
Hamilton was the first CFL team to score touchdowns on its opening three drives in a playoff game since 1985.
The score was 28-0 at the half and it could have been worse: Hamilton’s final drive stalled and it missed a 40-yard field goal attempt before the gun sounded.
West teams coming to the East have not performed tremendously well in the post-season — 4-6 since the CFL implemented its crossover rule in 2006.
But the Lions spent Sunday finding spectacular new ways to look like they didn’t belong in a playoff game.
In the third quarter, Lulay lofted a pass toward DeVier Posey on the far sideline, and everyone in the stadium could see the interception coming, up to and including Ric Flair. Frankie Williams stepped in front of Posey and scampered 39 yards into the end zone to stretch Hamilton’s lead to 37 points. It was Lulay’s last pass of the season.
Later in the quarter, with the Lions finally in a position to score, B.C. tried a direct snap to running back Tyrell Sutton, who handled the snap like someone who doesn’t handle a lot of snaps
.
The fumble was scooped up Hamilton’s Simoni Lawrence, who needed 93 yards for a touchdown but ran out of gas after about 80 of those yards.
B.C.’s Cody Fajardo chased him the full length of the field and pushed Lawrence out of bounds at the one-yard line.
It was a hilarious play in the way that broken plays often are, and Fajardo’s dash was, truly, the most impressive thing done by someone in a Lions uniform all day.
When it was over, and Buono was contemplating a future without football, he went back to that long conversion on the first series: Masoli’s bomb to Addison, which set the tone for a disastrous day.
The Lions defensive back covering Addison fell down, Buono said.
“Was that the beginning of a bad game, or just fate?,” he said.
Whatever role fate played, it was definitely the beginning of a bad game.