Pain lingers for Hamilton Tiger-Cats after overtime loss to Winnipeg in Grey Cup

Quality rest has been hard to come by for Tiger-Cats head coach Orlondo Steinauer over the last two nights, with thoughts of his team's painful Grey Cup overtime loss still swirling in his head.

"Not a lot of sleep to be had," Steinauer said. "It's going to take a few more sunrises to put this one behind us."

Steinauer met with players and staff on Tuesday morning for the final time this year. He later kicked off a season-ending media availability via Zoom that included appearances by several top players.

Steinauer said he was proud of his team and had no regrets.

"These guys went out there and did what we asked them to do," he said. "They played physical, they played hard, we were lining up to win. What else do you want?"

With a raucous home crowd cheering them on, the Tiger-Cats led 19-10 after three quarters but Winnipeg stormed back with 15 points in the fourth. Hamilton needed a 13-yard field goal with six seconds left to force overtime.

Winnipeg scored a touchdown in the extra session and added a two-point conversion. Hamilton got a chance to answer but an interception ended the game.

"Yesterday was kind of like a hangover day to be honest with you," said lineman Chris Van Zeyl. "Not so much in the sense that I went out and drank a bunch but as far as the numb feeling and empty feeling of losing.

"For us to be as close as we were and fall short, for the effort we put in, for all we sacrificed all year, for all those factors, it hurts."

Steven Dunbar and Brandon Banks scored touchdowns for Hamilton. Michael Domagala had three field goals and two converts with the other points coming on a safety.

One play that will continue to be debated is whether Tim White should have returned a Winnipeg kickoff with two minutes left instead of dropping to a knee and conceding a single.

Hamilton was playing into the wind, but the single left the Tiger-Cats needing a field goal for the tie instead of the lead. Starting from the 35-yard line, Hamilton still marched down the field and nearly scored the go-ahead touchdown.

With about 10 seconds left, Jeremiah Masoli threw a pass just inside the end zone to Jaelon Acklin, but Deatrick Nichols deflected just enough of the ball to force an incompletion.

"I thought that it was almost like a walk-off home run," Steinauer said. "I thought that ball was going to be caught and that was going to be the way the book ended.