Brandon Banks has potential Grey Cup winning punt return touchdown called back, Ticats lose title game again

VANCOUVER – The flag flew out of the official’s hand and landed at the 22-yard line. Brandon Banks didn’t see it; he was long gone by then, up the other sideline. By the time Banks, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats return specialist, reached the Calgary Stampeders’ endzone he and most of the 52,056 fans in attendance had no idea anything was amiss.

As far as Banks knew he had just given Hamilton a lead in the 102^nd Grey Cup with little time remaining. As far as Banks knew his kick return heroics had led his team to a playoff win for the second week in a row. But back at his own 22-yard line laid that flag. Hamilton’s Taylor Reed was called for an illegal block on Calgary’s Karl McCartney. The touchdown was called back.

Instead of a 90-yard punt return touchdown to give Hamilton the lead, the Ticats were penalized 10 yards from the spot of the foul, and pushed back to their own 12-yard line with 1:12 to play. Five plays later the clock ran out and the Stampeders won the Grey Cup, 22-16. Calgary, which built a 17-0 lead in the first quarter, escaped with the win and its first Grey Cup since 2008. Hamilton, now without a Grey Cup since 1999, lost the title game for the second year in row, this time in heartbreaking fashion.

After the game, Banks pushed past a crowd of waiting reporters, said he wasn’t going to talk to anybody, and fell into the arms of a woman and began crying.

His head coach, Kent Austin, said the loss would stay with him for the rest of his life.

“I hate losing. It’s really about the players. I hate it for them…I’m not angry, I’m disappointed for the guys.”

The play was controversial, for sure. There’s no doubt Reed pushed McCartney from behind. Some would argue he shouldn’t have done it and never should have put himself in a position to affect the outcome like that. Others say Banks was past him and it didn’t affect the play, or that a lot happens on special teams and not everything gets called.

Austin was both diplomatic in defeat and also had subtle harsh words for the officials and league.

“I have to look at the play, review it,” Austin said. “Every play on special teams something happens.

“We can get better as a league. We can. And we should, we need to. It affects lives.”

Reed didn’t shy away from answering for his mistake.

“I didn't make my block,” he said. "I made it close enough that they called a penalty on it. That's 100 per cent my fault. I've got to be better than that.”

The play caused confusion on the field and in the stands at B.C. Place.

“I just dropped my head when I saw that run back [by Banks],” Stampeders backup quarterback Drew Tate said. “I didn’t see the flag but everybody on our sideline was pointing back at it. And that was the game, because there’s no way they were going to go 100 yards on our defence in 30 seconds.”

In last week’s East Final the diminutive Banks took two punts back for touchdowns and helped Hamilton beat the Montreal Alouettes to reach the Grey Cup. For a moment on Sunday Banks thought he had the first Grey Cup kick return touchdown since 2005. Banks, 26, is a free agent this offseason.

The Stampeders are the fifth different Grey Cup winner in the last five years and won their seventh Grey Cup. It was the third all-time head-to-head meeting between the Ticats and Stamps. They met in back-to-back Grey Cups in 1998 and 1999, with Calgary winning the first and Hamilton the second, their last Grey Cup win.

Sunday’s was the first Grey Cup game since 2010 to be decided by fewer than 10 points. The previous three Grey Cups were decided by an average margin of victory of 15.3.

Despite the stinging loss, the Tiger-Cats had a remarkable season in which they started 1-6 only to claw back to finish the regular season 9-9 and win the East Division. The 2011 B.C. Lions are the only team to be five games under .500 and come back to win the Grey Cup.

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