Head coach Kent Austin takes in a different view of Ticats loss to Stampeders

Hamilton head coach Kent Austin had a bird’s-eye view of his team’s loss to Calgary on Saturday evening, after being suspended for one game from the sidelines by the CFL. He wasn’t a fan of his seat.

“I didn’t like it much,” Austin said after the Stampeders beat his Tiger-Cats 36-17 at Tim Hortons Field.

“It is what it is. We move on … Every game is a playoff game for us. That’s the way I see it. So we’re going to have to play really good football to get into the playoffs.”

Austin, who was disciplined by the league for physical contact with a referee in Saskatchewan the previous week, watched the game from the spotter’s box on the seventh floor. He had a headset and was in constant contact with the quarterback and coaches on the sideline.

Hamilton quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who played the entire second half when Zach Collaros didn’t return due to an “upper-body injury”, said the absence of Austin on the sideline made no sizeable difference.

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“There was some difference in the way we called some stuff,” he said. “But there wasn’t really much of a hiccup for us at all. It was just normal procedure.”

Calgary (12-1-1) hasn’t lost since its season opener against B.C. and is on a 13-game unbeaten streak for tops in the CFL West. The Stampeders have already secured a playoff spot.

Hamilton drops to 6-8 and is second place in the tight CFL East race.

Austin saw an offence under pressure the entire night from his temporary seat.

“I thought our defence kept us in early,” he said.

“They pressured us a lot defensively. They got after us up front. They blitzed quite a bit. We had a few opportunities but … we didn’t convert a couple of our drives. That’s what we needed to do. We talked about that during the week with the team, that we couldn’t exchange touchdowns for field goals. And we did. We did that early.”

Carol Phillips, The Canadian Press