Steve Milton: Hamilton Tiger-Cats’s deserved 31-12 loss in Toronto gives Argos first place
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are going to have to do it the hard way now and, to be truthful, they deserve every bit of that difficulty. They are the architects of their own fate.
In order to be part of next month's Grey Cup CVIII - on the field, we mean - in their own city, the Ticats have to play an extra game than they had preferred. They made sure of that when they were deservedly thumped by the hometown Toronto Argonauts 31-12 in the wind and rain Friday night at BMO Field.
First place on the line, and the Argos come up big while the Ticats come up little. If you're a card-carrying member of Ticat Nation there's a lot to worry about there. It's pretty late in the season, even in one that was delayed and shortened to 14 games, for so many shortcomings to display themselves against any team, let alone the historic rival just down the highway. Who happen to be pretty darn good.
Was Flat Friday just a one-off, or was the now-departed winning streak just a three-off, built against the worst three teams in the CFL? Or was it somewhere in between? The last chance to answer that before the playoffs is next Saturday afternoon at Tim Hortons Field against Saskatchewan.
I thought we played decent in spots but, boy, you're not going to beat a lot of football teams playing the way we played," said Ticat head coach Orlondo Steinauer.
They're going to have to beat a lot of teams, probably, three to reach the Grey Cup. The 9-4 Argonauts clinched first place in the CFL East and with it a bye directly into the conference final Dec. 5. After their regular season ends Tuesday night with lamest of ducks game against the Edmonton Elks, the Argos will have 19 injury-healing days to get ready for whoever wins the Nov. 28 semifinal game between the Tiger-Cats and the Montreal Alouettes.
Where that game will be played comes down to whoever stands second after next weekend's conclusion of the regular season. After Montreal beat the player-resting Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-14 Saturday, the Ticats and Als are deadlocked at 7-6. Montreal hosts last-place Ottawa the night before Hamilton hosts the Roughriders. If the Als and Ticats finish with the same record, Hamilton gets second place, and the home playoff game, because they own the tiebreaker over Montreal.
Friday, the Argos beat the Ticats in all three phases of the game and if there was a fourth phase, they would have been beaten them there, too.
The defence, as Steinauer referenced postgame, stayed on the field too long. The opening eight minutes of the second half, for instance. It missed tackles, was outplayed in the trenches for significant chunks and was beaten to McLeod Bethel-Thompson passes by the hungrier Argo receivers.
Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli had a miserable first half, passing for only 40 yards, missing three well-clear receivers with deep throws and having one good strike dropped by Jackson Bennett. Overall, he was picked off twice, including a late 78-yarder for a punctuation mark touchdown by Chris Edwards. That all begged the question of whether Dane Evans should have come on in relief, at least for a stretch. Steinauer said that wasn't a consideration. We say it probably should have been.
And there's no doubt the offence really missed injured running back Don Jackson.
The special teams were, well, mostly the opposite of special. Taylor Bertolet was only 1-for-3 on field goals while The Argos' Boris Bede made his three attempts and was thunderously effective on kickoffs. The Ticats whiffed on Chandler Worthy's 37-yard punt return and 41-yard missed field goal return.
And for the second time in three games the Ticats had a defensive starter ejected before the end of the first half. This time, middle linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox was gone for rough play. Although the Ticats took only six penalties, plus a couple of more that were declined, they totalled 85 yards on paper and a whole lot more on momentum and lost potential. It was the third time in four games Hamilton has been penalized for 85 yards or more, while the Argos ceded only 20 yards on two penalties. It had been the Argos who'd suffered discipline issues in earlier head-to-head games between and this is not the time of year when it's advisable for those kinds of impactful tendencies to turn around in favour of a potential division-final opponent.
When you're playing in a quote-unquote championship game like this, you have to play cleaner and we just didn't," Steinauer said. Everybody has to look themselves in the mirror, starting with me, and get back to work."
And there is definitely work to do and ground to make up.
On recent evidence, the Argos have distanced themselves from the Ticats. Since their annual Labour Day loss, they've now won three straight against their bitter rivals. The first two were only by a point - although one of those flattered the Ticats - but there was no doubt about this one and you know what they say about who's playing better at this time of year. That's the team everyone wants to be, and which the Tiger-Cats are currently not.
But, before the Ticats can start thinking about the Argos again, they've got to get through Saskatchewan, then Montreal.
NOTES: Jeremiah Masoli was 22-for-40 and 326 yards with two interceptions while Toronto's McLeod Bethel-Thompson was 26-for-34 for a touchdown (Kurleigh Gittens Jr.) and one interception (Cariel Brooks' fifth of the year) ... Tim White became Hamilton's first 100-yard receiver of the year with 110 off five receptions, Brandon Banks caught five for 82 ... Linebacker Henoc Muamba had 11 tackles for Toronto ... Attendance was 10,851.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com