Written by: Brendon LaBatte
Hey everyone, I write this blog as we return back from Montreal.
It’s never easy to go into Molson Percival Stadium and win. It’s a feat that we had only accomplished once in the last four years. The atmosphere is unique in Montreal because of the smaller, more compact stadium and the french being spoken over the speaker system. It unfortunately seems like I have played in a lot of games there, where hearing the fans celebrating and cheering in french after a TD or big play seems to disorient us and we spiral downward. Nothing is worse then getting off to a bad start in Montreal because that stadium inflicts mass confusion and turmoil if you come out cold. It can unravel very quickly and before you know it you’re in a huge hole.
Being able to get off to a quick start and controlling their fans early was a big reason for the success. Offensively, we were able to capitalize on some of the pressures that we prepared for and we had several guys step up with huge individual efforts. The defence was back to their old self, making a huge defensive stand when the game was on the line. It felt great to be able to beat a team like the Als coming off a two-game skid when we did not play our finest football. The win has positioned us nicely, now we control our own destiny and can be as good as we decide we want to be.
Over the course of the next few weeks we will determine if we will host one more game in November or not. It’s now more critical then ever that each of us as players buy in and commit to achieving greatness and come to work each day 100% committed and focused on the task at hand. There have been hundreds of teams who have had good seasons but in the end came up short. Though we are far from playing in a championship game, the goal is starting to come into view.
Going into week 12 and preparing for the home stretch of the season, you can begin to conceptualize that if you take extra care in your work you have a shot to potentially be the team of the year. As we begin the latter part of the year more adversity and reasons for failure arise. The long season can begin to take its toll physically and mentally, the temperature drops and the excuses and reasons to fail become endless. Now is when more then ever you need to be mentally tough and more focused. The attention of what might become and what may happen can not be a distraction. It should be used as fuel, driving you to be better every day.
We at most have ten games remaining this season. There is no longer anything to save yourself for knowing if you work as hard as you can for ten more weeks, you could be a champ. This is a feeling I have personally never had in my football career. We have never had a steady season with this kind of anticipation and optimism. To finally be in contention and in the mix this far into the season is something I’ve been jealous of other teams for in my first three years. It’s time to make the most of this seemingly rare opportunity and give it everything we have for the next ten weeks. It’s the beginning of an exciting time and we need all hands on board.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and a special thanks to you if you remained True Blue after our two losses.
