Scott Radley: McMaster Marauders football team rebounds to hammer Waterloo Warriors, 34-13
An awful lot has changed in the 700 days since the last time McMaster hosted a football game on campus.
Two new buildings surrounding Ron Joyce Field are now up, capacity in the stands has been reduced as part of COVID-19 protocol, and cheerleaders are now restricted to the seats instead of the sideline. Just in case one more new wrinkle was needed, there was even a pre-game RIDE program operating just outside campus gates on Saturday.
Geez, how much are students drinking before noon these days?
Don't answer that.
The point is, pretty much everything in the game-day experience has been altered. Except one.
The result.
When the Marauders beat Waterloo 34-13, it was their 18th win in the past 20 starts at home. Both of the losses have been to Western. Take the Mustangs out of the equation and the last loss on home turf was Halloween afternoon in 2015. That's a heck of a run.
Impressive as that is, adding to the numbers wasn't the primary focus this weekend. The more-pressing concern for the guys on this year's team was getting things back on track after the 41-13 spanking Mac took at the hands of those Mustangs in the season opener in London.
It was a bit of a shock," linebacker Eryk Bujalski says.
It was definitely a wake-up call," quarterback Andreas Dueck says.
It was bad. The kind of bad that fairly raised some questions about whether this might just be an off year for Mac. As a result, Saturday was all about getting in the win column and trying to settle things down.
Whether Waterloo just isn't Western - though the Warriors were 2-0 coming in and sitting in first place in the OUA's West Division - or whether Mac cleaned things up during a bye week will be something better judged better in future weeks with a larger sample size to study. But the Marauders sure looked like an entirely different team from the one that was on the field two weeks ago.
The offence that had sputtered in the opener was now purring. The defence that had been pushed around by Western was much, much better and put plenty of pressure on Warriors' quarterback Tre Ford who many say is the best in the league. And penalties were cut in half.
Today was good," Dueck says.
Other than the pivot, the star of the afternoon was receiver Liam Putt who not only caught 142 yards worth of passes but also scored two touchdowns. Which might just be a really good day for some guys but since he was recruited as a quarterback and has been shifted to receiver where he's still learning, it's incredibly impressive.
That said, he wasn't alone. Basically everyone was immeasurably better.
With things now apparently pointed in the right direction, Mac now has a chance to get rolling in this shortened, six-game season. Especially with Windsor up next, a team that's been about as dangerous as a bag of cotton balls in recent years.
Except this year is already proving to be a puzzle. Western has crushed Mac. Guelph has beaten Western. Then last week, Windsor beat Guelph. So, who knows who's really good or not right now?
Plus, this one's on the road. So no home cooking. But boy, it sure makes it important to take care of the remaining four games to lock up home field for at least one playoff contest since it sure looks like playing in front of their home fans is worth a few points. Even if the number of fans is limited.
Saturday afternoon on Ron Joyce Field is about as happy a place as you can have," Mac coach Stef Ptaszek says.
The numbers say he's right.
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com