Steve Milton: Ticats take the game by the antlers
What do the Hamilton Tiger-Cats bring back from Edmonton, besides the essential two points?
For one thing, a running game. For another, a quarterback who looks remarkably like the 2017-19 Jeremiah Masoli.
Hamilton did a lot of good things against a bad opponent in the Alberta capital Friday night, moving to 6-5 with a 39-23 rout of the antlerless Elks in a game that was essentially over in the first half. First quarter, actually, when it was 24-3.
Most importantly, the victory keeps The Ticats within striking range of first place in the CFL East. They're one game back of the Toronto Argonauts, who won Saturday, and tied for second with the Montreal Alouettes, who lost.
But, it also gives them some momentum and a sense that what had been an underperforming offence is on the upswing, building on the previous week's win over Ottawa and taking a tailwind into Friday night's home date with the B.C. Lions, the first of three remaining games on the schedule.
The winning is a byproduct of that building," head coach Orlondo Steinauer agrees. I think the offence has made some strides the past two weeks. But the offence has been building for a while, it just hasn't showed up on the scoreboard the way that people are used to."
The Hamilton defence has been among the top two or three in the league since the third game of the season, but if the Ticats are to climb above average-team status and into the kind of unit that can surge into the hometown Grey Cup, they were going to have to get much more out of their offence than they did in the first two-thirds of the season. But, they've been getting much better marks the past couple of weeks, although the Elks and Redblacks don't provide very tough exams.
In Friday's first half alone, Masoli completed 13 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns and ended up going 17-for-24 for 357 yards, his third straight game over 300. He stretched the field not only wide but deep, hitting seven different receivers. One of those was Sir Allan MacNab grad Tyler Ternowski, who came in to replace injured Brandon Banks and caught his first CFL pass, good for a whopping 48 yards.
That was one of seven Hamilton receptions to gain over 20 yards, and three over 40, including a 65-yard strike to Jaelon Acklin. Tim White was superb with six receptions for 89 yards and a touchdown.
There is a positve co-relation, of course, between long completions and other parts of the offensive game. The line, which has shown signs of finding itself, had to cope with injuries to centre Darius Ciraco and his replacement John Yarbrough, but did a commendable job on both pass and run blocking.
Which brings us around to Don Jackson, signed as a free agent for exactly what he did Friday night. In his first start (he played one other game) he made an immediate impact with early first-down runs, then piled up 120 yards on 16 carries. His success put the Elks slightly on their heels, buying Masoli and his receivers more time and space. And that should been an alert to remaining opponents B.C., Toronto and Saskatchewan, that more attention must be paid to a Hamilton ground game. Finally.
I think it helped open up our play actions being able to run the ball like that," Masoli said. The blocking was great and Don and Erly (Sean Thomas Erlington) did a great job running through arm tackles, staying out of second and long."
Jackson, who has a second career as rapper Don Jayy, has usually been a healthy scratch most games as multiple injuries to Canadians influenced the Ticats' ratio roster decisions. He was thankful for getting the start, and said that seeing Masoli clearly settling into a groove kinda makes us feel like we're unstoppable."
Jackson carried the ball six times on Hamilton's final drive, culminating in a determined 16-yard touchdown run. He is the first Ticat rusher or pass receiver this season to have a 100-yard game.
Given the strength of their defence, and of their coverage teams, the Ticats are a viable contender if they can continue to get a threatening ground game and Masoli can keep hitting his receivers deep, both of which open up the shorter passing zones. He clearly enjoyed the long completions.
It does feel great," he said. That's kind of the standard that's been around here for a while. I'm not saying that we're definitely there yet, but it does a lot for our mentality, building our confidence for this home stretch."
Notes: After the Ticats' Simoni Lawrence and Elks' James Wilder got into a physical exchange over a couple of marginally-late Lawrence hits just before halftime, there was a melee and Hamilton's Kameron Kelly was ejected for spitting and Edmonton's Jonathon Rose was kicked out for coming off the sidelines to take part ... Brandon Banks was having a good game with four catches for 60 yards before he left with leg tightness.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com