Steve Milton: Tiger-Cats fall to 0-3 in loss to Blue Bombers
When you get to this point, forget what the calendar says because it is no longer early in the season. Not when you're 0-and-3.
Things are turning serious, and not a good serious, for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who finish the month of June winless in three stabs at western teams after they were handled 26-12 by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Friday night in thunderstorm-ravaged Manitoba.
Over recent years the Ticats have started, and often rebounded from, 0-2 starts several times. But, they have opened at 0-3 in only five previous seasons since the turn of the century, and all five times they have failed to make the playoffs. Can they beat lesser lights Edmonton, Ottawa and B.C. to square their record by late July? There's a prop bet, when in-stadium wagering starts.
Even though the offensive line has been riddled with injury - all-star guard Brandon Revenberg's absence Friday made it three Canadian starters missing - it was still hard to imagine this team could go winless through the first three.
It was also hard to imagine that an offence with multiple weapons would play the last 92 minutes without a touchdown, but that's exactly where they are after four Michael Domagala field goals accounted for all their scoring against the two-time defending Grey Cup champions. They didn't score a major in the final half of last week's collapse against Calgary either.
While the defence, buoyed by the return of tackle Dylan Wynn, made some strides forward with four sacks of Zach Collaros, the offence is heading in the other direction. It's short on execution, creativity, timely athletic catches, consistency and rhythm. And, to an outsider's eyes, effective confidence.
On Friday, the Ticat offence actually gave up more touchdowns than they scored. Dane Evans' catchable bullet into traffic was dislodged from Steven Dunbar's grasp by a thunderous hit from Demerio Houston and popped into the hands of Bomber defensive end Willie Jefferson, who rumbled 30 yards for the fourth-quarter touchdown that put the game away at 25-9. It was the second interception of the game off a ball tipped by a Hamilton receiver (Bralon Addison) and third in two weeks.
A string of bad luck, just like a hitter being in a slump," said Evans, adding that he would make the same throws again to those receivers. We'll turn this around. We just have to execute. Plays are being called right."
We'll take issue with some of that. Execution is definitely a problem, with blocking, on up-for-grabs passes and on some straight misthrows, but so is play design and calling. The Ticats eventually established some Sean Thomas Erlington rushing, but they can't get the run going enough to help Evans with more time and better throwing angles. The types of quick, shallow, pass plays which can generally offset a lack of running success - screens, flares, bubble screens - are poorly conceived. And Evans isn't connecting deep frequently enough.
Evans went 25-for-42 and 237 yards. Collaros didn't throw for a touchdown among his 302 yards and was picked by Richard Leonard. But he did hit Nic Demski, who was well covered by safety Tunde Adeleke, with a long pass just short of the goal-line in the final half-minute of the first half to set up Brady Oliveira's easy touchdown plunge and erase a 9-7 Hamilton lead.
There are a lot of those little-bit-here-little-bit-there shortfalls adding up for the Ticats over the first three games. It was a makable play for Adeleke, who's having a very solid season. They got only three points after Leonard's interception. In the third quarter, they had the Bombers stopped and would have got the ball back with excellent field position but Kam Kelly was penalized for an illegal block which kept the drive going for another five minutes, and one of Marc Liegghio's three field goals. And, of course, there were the two tipped interceptions.
There was big contact," head coach Orlondo Steinauer said of the Dunbar-to-Jefferson pick. Everything happens bang-bang out there. At the end of the day, they end up being turnovers and those are back-breakers the majority of the time."
The Bombers had the ball in their possession for 13 more minutes than the Ticats did which is a fatal flaw to give that much rope to Collaros, but it's more an indictment of the Hamilton offence, which mounted just 76 yards of net offence in the second half.
It's usually a combination of things," Steinauer said, citing a few mistakes on defence, and the penalty which extended the Bombers' third-quarter drive.
There was a lot of good in there, but we're not into moral victories. It's obvious we need to score more points. We have to play better complementary and situational football and when we have opportunities to seize momentum, we need to do it.
There are some things we need to get corrected."
Starting, for sure, with the offence.
Notes: For the second straight game, the Ticats gave up only one sack ... Tim White led the Ticats with 78 yards on six receptions. Steven Dunbar had 6 catches and was targeted a whopping 15 times. David Ungerer's 41-yarder was his only catch but was the longest Ticat reception ... Bomber Nic Demski had six catches for 96 yards ... Lightning delayed the kickoff about half an hour.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com