Football season is finally here!
You have to love the season opener. It’s even better when you play a quality team in a meaningful match-up. This game at McMaster is one of the two most important on the 2018 schedule in my opinion. Week 6 @Laurier is the other.
Coaches will talk about every game being of equal importance, focusing on one game at a time, not looking ahead, etc. but fans don’t think that way.
This is a rivalry game.
The Mac-Guelph rivalry has been as heated as ever the past half-dozen years. The Marauders threw some gasoline on that fire when they taunted the Gryphons with a vulgar chant after their upset win at Alumni Stadium last year. Nobody is talking about it but that unsportsmanlike action resulted in the Marauder program being sanctioned by the OUA.
The Gryphons have a chance, not only to get revenge for last season, but to end an ugly streak – Guelph has never won a game at Mac’s Ron Joyce Stadium. The Gryphons last win in Hamilton was a quarter-final playoff win at Ivor Wynne Stadium back in 2007.
The Marauders are still in rebuilding mode, making this a perfect opportunity to end that streak.
Game previews & related links:
OUA.ca website: Week 1 55-Man Rosters
Gryphons.ca: There is no preview of Sunday’s game yet, but you can check out their preview of the Gryphons 2018 season.
McMaster.ca: No specific game preview but you can find some “Game Notes” here
Hamilton Spectator/The Spec.com: No preview found but there is a story on Mac’s new DC
My Take on this Game
Without doubt, this is an IMPORTANT game.
The Marauders are one of 8 OUA teams expected to compete for 6 playoff spots. No team can afford to lose any games to these rivals because it will impact playoff seeding, even if it doesn’t cost them a playoff spot.
The Marauders are a team Guelph has had problems with in recent years. They are the proverbial monkey on our back. The Gryphons have won more games against Western and Laurier over the last five years than they have against the Marauders. To make matters worse, we’ve lost multiples games to Mac that we should have won. Time to end that.
While the Gryphons may be a young team, they appear to have a decided advantage over the Marauders along the lines of scrimmage. That is an advantage in both talent and experience in my opinion.
One place where the Gryphons are vulnerable is in the defensive secondary. They gave up too many passing yards in last week’s preseason game at Laval. But Mac isn’t on par with Laval. The Gryphon D, led by their front 7, needs to smother the Mac running game, then bring “hellacious” pressure on the young Mac quarterback. That is doable in my opinion.
On offense the key is to get the running game rolling. That has to include QB Theo Landers. I want to see Theo running the ball the way he did in his 3 starts last year. Then mix in the pass the way we saw him do it in the East-West Bowl. As I see it, that is the recipe for offensive success this season.
The Gryphon O-Line should be able to create the holes necessary to establish the run early on. We saw them do that in the 1st Q at Laval. The QB run becomes necessary to keep the defense honest. Once the Rouge et Or realized we weren’t going to utilize Theo that way they were able to shutsown our running game. Theo averaged 7.1 yards per rush and 96 rushing yards per game in his 3 starts last year.
Theo Landers runs for a first down vs Mac Photo: Megan Pickett
I liked what I saw of our running backs in Quebec City. I think we were going to see the tandem of Jamal Hooker and Daniel Palmer-Salmon do the bulk of the work early in the season but the unfortunate injury to DPS will require Patrick Pierre or Kwame Osei to step up. When the run game is working we’ve seen that Theo’s passing efficiency can be much better than what we saw last week.
Coach Galloway has that he wants the Gryphons to control the ball and stop the run. That matches perfectly with what I’m saying. If we can achieve that to any significant degree, I believe Guelph will win and it won’t be a nail-biter.
Recent Series History
McMaster has a clear edge in the series over the past decade. Mac has 12-3 edge since 2007 but the Marauders have had the advantage of hosting 9 of those 15 games. The Marauders also hold 29-19 advantage in regular season games since the OUA was founded in 1971. The Gryphons are winless at Mac’s Ron Joyce Stadium which opened in 2008.
2017 – Mac 29-9
2016 – Mac 17-11 [OUA Q-Final]
2016 – Mac 27-15
2015 – Guelph 33-23
2014 – Mac 20-15 [Yates Cup]
2014 – Mac 34-27 OT
2013 – Guelph 24-22
Broadcast Info
TV: Live on Hamilton’s Cable 14 and Burlington/Oakville’s YourTV
LIVE STREAM: OUA.tv Click on LIVE EVENTS
RADIO: TSN 1150 & their live stream of the broadcast
Gryphons Football Blog 