Grey Cup berth on the line as Redblacks, Ti-Cats square off in CFL East final
Sunday's tilt is Ottawa's 1st home playoff game since 1983
The Ottawa Redblacks host a familiar foe Sunday at TD Place (1 p.m. ET) as they try to beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the third straight time and book a ticket to the Grey Cup in Winnipeg.
After a second-half surge to the top of the East Division, the Redblacks had a week off to watch the Tiger-Cats beat Toronto 25-22 last Sunday.
They'll now play Hamilton for the third straight time after back-to-back wins against them to end the regular season: 12-6 in Hamilton on Nov. 1 and 44-28 in Ottawa on Nov. 7.
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"The thing I like about this team is … they're just focused on Sunday at 1 o'clock," said Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell.
"There's a bunch of things you can speculate about, talk about and all those things but really what it comes down to is lining up and playing good football for 60 minutes."
Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris, a finalist for the CFL's most outstanding player award after a record-breaking season, said the second-year team's struggles last season were valuable lessons for their first playoff game as a group.
"I think every game last year we were battle-tested, trying to get a victory and facing the uphill battles of being a part of a new organization with a lot of new guys," he said,
"Now with steady growth and through all the ups and downs we went through this year, especially some of the games when we had a chances to cement ourselves into first place against the Argos, I thought those games were critical for us and our success in the future, which is now."
Ticats pushing for 3rd straight Grey Cup berth
Hamilton is trying to put itself in the best position possible to get their first win over the Redblacks this season and reach the championship game again.
"I feel like we're gelling right now, we have an opportunity to go to the Grey Cup three years in a row and there's a lot of veteran guys that know what it takes to get there," said linebacker Simoni Lawrence.
"Two good teams are playing, it's going to be a good game and I'm excited to see how everybody responds."
The first of those back-to-back Grey Cups came when Burris was Hamilton's quarterback, before he was released in the off-season and signed with the Redblacks.
"This thing is bigger than Hamilton in my mind … this is all about us continuing what we've built here, as far as from last year to this year, it's been a lot of hard work put into this. It's been a lot of hours that I've lost sleep trying to help the team get to this point, but we're here now," Burris said.
"The fact we've been able to achieve this [with] the guys in this locker room, a lot of guys that were here last year, this is something special to all of us. I'm not going to let anything or anybody outside this city and those walls, the guys I play with inside this locker room, mess up what we're doing."
1st home playoff game in 32 years
This is Ottawa's first CFL playoff game since 1994 and its first home playoff game since 1983, when it lost 33-31 to Hamilton.
"We're thrilled to be at home and playing at home but playoff football all comes down to 60 minutes of playing good football and I don't think any of the other stuff matters," Campbell said.
"Even the new players they feel the energy of the fans, of the city, they know what [getting to the Grey Cup] would do," said Redblacks wide receiver Jamill Smith.
"We watch highlights, it's been since like the 70s since a playoff game has been here so they know the energy that's being made by the fans, by the community, by the city."
The winner will play either Calgary or Edmonton in the 103rd Grey Cup in Winnipeg on Nov. 29.