Steve Milton: Ticats survive late Als surge, if only barely

The difference between what happened and what did not happen is huge - four-point-swing huge - and now we'll see what the Hamilton Tiger-Cats can do with it against the Toronto Argonauts.

Because, for the next five weeks, it's all Argos, all the time, or at least 80 per cent of it. They have a home-and-home beginning Saturday night at Toronto's BMO field, followed by a road game in Ottawa, followed by yet another home-and-home with the Double Blue, culminating on Labour Day. And, yes, we've already mentioned that this scheduling ranks somewhere between dumb and ludicrous.

But this stretch will likely decide at least the first-place finisher in the anemic CFL East, if not the top two spots, and the Tiger-Cats are now in second place, with just two wins in seven games. They're tied with the Montreal Alouettes whom they edged 24-17 Thursday night at Tim Hortons Field but currently hold the tiebreaker with the win. The Argos have three wins.

We found a way to win when we haven't found a way up to this point, very often," said head coach Orlondo Steinauer, something echoed by every player who got a chance to speak about it. We got some critical first downs, we're playing better complementary football. We haven't arrived but we're growing and we're building. It's an eastern division win, and we're at home. I hope there will be a little momentum that we can build here."

There were encouraging signs that the Ticats should be able to turn into fuel: some solid Dane Evans play in the normally, for the Ticats, moribund third quarter that led to two touchdowns and a lead that should have been enough to avert the eventual late-game stress; creative use of backup quarterback Matt Shiltz who got a lot of action; some stout defence spurred by early inside pressure from Dylan Wynn and Micah Johnson that eventually resulted in five sacks of Als' quarterback Trevor Harris; strong punting and a potentially game-saving tackle by Michael Domagala; two alert and profitable coach's challenges by Steinauer, and unified play by a secondary bolstered by the return of defensive halfback Cariel Brooks, who was inspirational in his first game of the season.

But - and this year there always seems to be a but'- it's never easy, even when it should be easy. And that will continue to be a concern until the Ticats stop making it one.

There was some disturbing repetitive traits, most notably a Montreal comeback which resulted in 11 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. If you're keeping score at home, or anywhere, that's Opponents 77, Ticats 26 over the final 15 minutes this year.

And it might have been more but Harris was hit by defensive back Stavros Kostantonis - a critical penalty late, another recurring theme - that left the Als with the ball on Hamilton's 21-yard line, one play left and overtime looming like a giant guillotine. But Harris was removed from the game by the CFL's concussion spotter even though he said later he wasn't hit in the head and should have stayed. Backup Dominique Davis was then intercepted by Ticat linebacker Kam Kelly on the one-yard line, saving 20,932 found-ins from mass apoplexy.

If they lose that one, everyone loses their minds.

But, they didn't lose. Which, as Steinauer said, is pretty well all that matters right now.

Still, the fourth-quarter sag turned on one play and it shouldn't have. With the Ticats up 24-9 and driving, Evans completed a 49-yard pass-and-run to Steven Dunbar, who had 102 receiving yards and a touchdown, but the ball was dislodged by a thunderous hit from Mike Jones and the Als recovered at midfield. Late fumbles have been absolutely destructive to the Ticats this year, and this looked like a repeat performance. Harris led a solid touchdown drive and the appeared on their way to a second one as the clock ticked down and the audience grew tense.

But, as in the victory over Ottawa, the clock did not strike midnight and the Ticats got their second win in three games. Arguably, they should have won the other one too, in B.C. last week.

It's huge," Shiltz said of the victory. Definitely something we should get momentum from. We always say it's four points: two we got and the two they didn't."

Both Shiltz and Evans said they're fine with the increasing rotation that offensive co-ordinator Tommy Condell employs. The two of them have worked out together in Texas during a few off-seasons and were close even before Shiltz signed in Hamilton after the Alouettes released him. He said he couldn't deny that beating his old team had a special kick to the win.

Matt is a fantastic quarterback and this is the ultimate team game," Evans said. So if there's a way to get him on the field, like having two quarterbacks as we've been doing the past couple of weeks, or letting him go on himself, and helps us win, it's great. I'll sit there and signal things in for him."

Now, on to Toronto. And Toronto, and Toronto, and Toronto.

Notes: Dane Evans was 13-for-18 for 206 yards and a touchdown and didn't throw an interception ... Matt Shiltz was 7-for-10 for 44 yards and was the game's leading rusher with 42 yards ... Don Jackson rushed for 24 yards and also caught four passes ... Bralon Addison carried the ball four times and made five catches, one of them a diving grab on a critical second down ... Micah Johnson and Julian Howsare each had a pair of sacks and Dylan Wynn one for the Ticats, whose improving offensive line did not allow a sack ... Kiondre Smith made his first CFL catch ... Trevor Harris was 25-for-41 for 288 yards and one touchdown ... The Ticats lost key Canadians Tyler Ternowski and Curtis Newton in the first half ... Punter Michael Domagala ran about 50 yards to prevent a possible touchdown punt return by Tyson Philpot.

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