After his team’s loss to the Montreal Alouettes, Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ head coach Orlondo Steinauer offered a familiar refrain.
“We didn’t execute, we weren’t good enough. All three phases, they kicked our tail in the second half — penalty-wise, explosion-wise,” he told the assembled media. “I mean, you saw the game, right? Flat out not good enough. Not professional. Yeah, not good.”
Not good enough is exactly how Steinauer has described each of his team’s four losses to this stage of the season. That sad song was once again appropriate after his team squandered a fourth-quarter lead and surrendered 18 unanswered points in the game’s final frame to lose 27-14 on Saturday night.
However, an impending bye week — the team’s second of the season — offers an opportunity to change the tune after falling to the bottom of the East Division playoff race. While Steinauer could not say just how serious his reevaluation of the roster might be, he acknowledged some soul-searching would be taking place.
“Anytime you’re not playing well enough, you’re not closing out games and those types of things, you’re always going to take a deep dive,” he admitted.
“You can never really turn it off anyway, it’s always on your mind, but you can’t overthink things. You’ve got to address things head-on, the elephants in the room, those types of things, and see where we’re at. Whatever that looks like, this isn’t getting it done.”
For Hamilton, the team’s problems have been three-fold. In all likelihood, they will enter their bye as the league’s most penalized team — committing 85 infractions for 783 yards — while also potentially leading the CFL in turnovers (25) and big plays surrendered (26).
In the midst of that undisciplined play, questions have been raised about the construction of the locker room. However, veteran linebacker Simoni Lawrence believes the pieces are in place to turn things around.
“It’s simple leadership here. What we’ve got to do is you gotta go to every leader of every group and light the fire in them, you know what I’m saying?” he said at the podium.
“I think that we’ve got a great group of core guys that are able to do that and nobody’s gonna fold, nobody’s gonna back down from anything. I think that we’re just gonna work on our bonding more and get to it.”
With the loss to Montreal, Hamilton surrendered the season series and has placed themselves in a difficult position in the playoff hunt. While they already possess the tie-breaker against Ottawa, the team’s next six games include four contests against the league’s three elite franchises — a road trip to B.C., a pair of matchups with the Argos and a home clash with the Blue Bombers.
That stretch has the potential to make or break the team’s season, putting added importance on the upcoming week off.
“The message is easy: find it within yourself, take care of your bodies, get physically ready for this nine-game stretch, take care of your mind, come in here and love up on each other, and let’s go make some plays and put some more points on the board than the other team,” Lawrence said.
Nevertheless, the timing of the break isn’t ideal in the eyes of his head coach, who is eager to avenge another disappointing result.
“I’d rather play, to be honest with you. I’d rather get back out there and play,” Steinauer insisted.
“It is what it is right now and so we’ll take a hard look in the bye week. I do want people to get away from it for a second and use it for what it is. Pouring more and more football in isn’t always necessarily healthy. So I want coaches and players to get away, but we better come back refocused.”
The Ticats (3-4) are set to return to action on Thursday, August 17 against the Edmonton Elks (0-8).
