Steve Milton: It’s essential for Tiger-Cats to take advantage of home-field advantage

The history is real and harsh and figures directly into what - five of the final seven regular-season games played at home - lies in the near future for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

In the CFL East, you do not go to the Grey Cup game if you do not have a home playoff game, which means finishing first or second. Well, you could go, but you'd have to be the 1970 Montreal Alouettes, the last eastern team to do it.

So, it's important, kind of like breathing is important, to take care of challengers for first and second place at every opportunity. Opportunity knocks again Saturday afternoon (4 p.m.) when the Alouettes come into Tim Hortons Field, where the 4-3 Tiger-Cats have won both their games this shortened season and are undefeated in the last 11 regular-season games, three shy of the franchise record for consecutive home victories.

The Ticats have already beaten the Als (2-4) once, surviving six quarterback sacks for a 27-10 win in Montreal in late August. With a win Saturday the Ticats would be three games up on the Alouettes with six to play, and own the tiebreaker. Then, Hamilton would almost certainly be guaranteed to finish ahead of the Alouettes and they can start thinking about the 4-3 Argos, their next opponent.

Everybody does understand that we are playing eastern division opponents now," says head coach Orlondo Steinauer, a one-game-at-a-time guy who does concede playing so many at home should be an advantage. But all our focus is really on Montreal. We can only get two points from one game."

This game pits strength vs. strength. Montreal leads CFL scoring at 26.3 points and 413.2 yards per game and league-leading rusher William Stanback has amassed 272 yards in the past two games. And quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. is a threat to run and can lead explosive drives, putting the ball up for his receivers to make plays. But that can also make him vulnerable to mistakes and the Ticats' steadily improving defence is in the league's top two in limiting points and yardage and has forced more two-and-outs than any other team.

They're an explosive offence, they have one of the most explosive quarterbacks in the league," says Ticats strong side linebacker Kameron Kelly. They have some good skill players who can go up and get the ball."

So far, the Ticats are the only team to have success against Stanback, limiting him to 40 yards in August, but because the Als fell behind their run options were limited. Saturday, they will try to establish the run early, as most teams do.

You always want to be able to stop the run because any time you get people in second and more than five you're going to win second down. Especially us." says weak side linebacker Simoni Lawrence, one who pick-sixed his way to No. 2 among the CFL's top September performers.

This game also matches weakness vs. weakness: Hamilton's offence and Montreal's defence.

The Alouettes are giving up more points per game than any team not located on the Rideau Canal and have been especially vulnerable on second downs.

The Ticats had to lean on ball and clock control to beat Calgary and Ottawa with No. 3 quarterback David Watford but even before they were injured, both Jeremiah Masoli and Dane Evans were having trouble stretching the field in typical Ticat style. Hamilton is worst in the league in average offence, surrendering sacks and going two-and-out.

But, there are dramatic changes in the offensive lineup for Saturday which should change the dynamics of how Hamilton proceeds downfield.

Masoli is back from rib and elbow injuries, although he's going to take a while to get up to full game speed. Brandon Speedy" Banks returns after three games recovering from a rib injury and Bralon Addison makes his first start this year. The Ticats' top two 2019 playmakers join an American starting receiver mix (with Canadian David Ungerer as backup) that includes the acrobatic and dependable Jaelon Acklin and impressive newcomers Tim White and Steven Dunbar Jr.

It kinda feels like 2019 out there," Acklin says. Not having Bralon at the beginning was rough getting used to."

Veteran safety Mike Daly, back on the active roster after a neck injury, says the trio of offensive team returnees steps the game up and makes it harder for defences to predict what we can do."

The Ticats will also insert 2020 draft choice Coulter Woodmansey at right guard so there'll be four Canadians in the offensive trench. That helps accommodate the American receivers but also signals that the team views Woodmansey as an eventual starter, so why not take the eventual" part out of it right now?

Montreal head coach Khari Jones says this that his team has a dug a hole" and this is the time to start climbing back out. But an extra 3,000 voices will be braying to prevent that as the provincially-mandated attendance cap has been increased to 18,000.

We want to be a team," Addison says, that doesn't lose at home."

And there's a lot of home left, including the Grey Cup Game, if the Ticats can win their way into it.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com