The Hamilton Tiger-Cats fell to 0-5 for the first time since 2017 after a 44-28 drubbing to the B.C. Lions at Tim Hortons Field. Below are my thoughts on the game.
Slow out of the starting blocks
It’s hard to imagine the Tiger-Cats could have had a worse start to a game than the one they had on Sunday.
After two offensive drives, the Lions were up 14-0 and the home side had yet to register a first down. Bo Levi Mitchell started the game with five straight incompletions and Hamilton’s special teams unit had a mishap of their first kickoff return as Davon ‘Smoke’ Harris watched the ball roll by him while a teammate took a holding penalty.
Hamilton was already going to be in tough against a strong Lions team, so spotting them 14 points in the first 16 plays wasn’t the recipe for success. The game was essentially over after the first 10 minutes and was put out of reach at halftime with the Lions taking a commanding 34-11 lead into recess.
While the team was still 0-4 coming into this game, I thought Hamilton had shown some positive signs in three of its first four games. However, Sunday’s loss felt like any of those positives that were built up have now been erased.
Bust in coverage
Star quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. had a field day against Hamilton’s secondary, throwing for 383 yards and four touchdowns, with 321 of those yards coming in the first half before the Lions decided to utilize William Stanback to wind down the clock for most of the third and fourth quarters.
Mark Washington’s defence had no answer for Adams Jr., as well as receivers Justin McInnis and Alexander Hollins. McInnis went for 144 yards and two touchdowns on 10 receptions with much of that coming in the opening quarter, while Hollins continued his torrid pace to the start of the season with 116 yards on six receptions, including a 69-yard touchdown.
Much credit needs to go to B.C.’s offensive stars as well as offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic, but Hamilton’s starting defensive unit certainly showed no resistance or pushback. There were huge busts in coverage, clear confusion as to why players weren’t in the correct spots on certain plays, and just overall lack of intensity or urgency.
It should be noted that veteran defensive back Richard Leonard was a late scratch for this game, which may have attributed to some of the confusion in the secondary. Regardless, the performance was simply unacceptable.
Through five weeks, Hamilton has given up an average of 33.8 points per game and held an opponent to under 30 points just once. Hamilton already fired special teams coordinator Paul Boudreau, which clearly signifies neither players nor coaches should feel comfortable knowing they’ll have a job in two weeks when the team returns from its bye week.
Just no need for that
When you’re winning or losing by a substantial margin, the general rule of thumb is to act professional and not showboat.
It looks like nobody told the Tiger-Cats they were down by double digits for almost the entire game as several players hammed it up while their team was down big. Casey Sayles and David Menard did their patented sack celebrations early in the fourth quarter, and receiver Kiondré Smith got flagged on the game’s final offensive play after he taunted a Lions defender after a touchdown.
I have no problem with celebrating a big play when it’s called for, but there’s a time and place for that stuff. Looking online, Ticats fans — who booed early and often during Sunday’s game — seem to agree the celebrations weren’t warranted.
Butler’s back
While Hamilton was down and out of this game early, you wouldn’t know it based on the play of running back James Butler. I thought Butler played hard for all four quarters as he fought to get the Ticats back into the contest after a woeful start.
The former Lions’ running back only rushed for 27 yards on nine carries, but was a big-time contributor in Hamilton’s passing attack with 108 yards on nine receptions and a touchdown. Much of Butler’s stat line came in the second half, but he ran hard and never looked like he gave up on the game. I can respect an effort like that in such a lopsided loss.
Field flipper
Global punter Nik Constantinou has been a welcomed addition to the Tiger-Cats this season, showing off his strong leg throughout much of the first near-third of the season. In his most recent showing, Constantinou had an average of 56.5 yards on six punts, including one that went for 71 yards, doing his best to try and set Hamilton’s other two units up for some sort of field position success.
Constantinou has been one of the most active punters in the league with 34 punts and 1,731 yards through five games, a likely sign of Hamilton’s winless record but the numbers are still impressive. He sits third in the league with a 50.9 average, only behind Edmonton’s Jake Julien (53.1) and Toronto’s John Haggerty (51.3) with the Ticats near the top of the league in average net punting as well.
There weren’t many things Ticats fans could say went positively in a blowout loss, but the 24-year-old Aussie was one of the few bright spots.
Ain’t nobody likes grey on grey
Sunday’s uniform matchup was horrendous, featuring Hamilton’s ‘Made in the Hammer’ alternates and B.C.’s fog-grey road uniforms.
I’m not sure whose decision it was to approve both teams wearing the same colour, but it was the wrong choice. I’m a big fan of both uniforms, but they match up much better against teams who have completely different colour schemes, avoiding a bland ’50 Shades of Grey’ aesthetic.
Hopefully, this was a one-off and fans aren’t put through that type of eye sore again in the future.
Remembering Steve
Hamilton gave a beautiful tribute to longtime fan Steve Townsend, who was watching his final Ticats game before medically ending his life on July 16.
Scott Radley of the Hamilton Spectator wrote a terrific story on Townsend and his health journey living with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and becoming an integral part of the Hamilton organization over the past 45 years. He built strong connections with past and current players and coaches and proved what it truly means to be Hamilton tough.
My thoughts go out to Steve, his friends, and family.
Up next
The Tiger-Cats (0-5) are looking for answers heading into their first bye week of the 2024 campaign.
To put things into perspective on how poorly this year has gone, Bo Levi Mitchell is on pace for 40 passing touchdowns and over 6,000 passing yards and the team has yet to win a game. While much of his production from Sunday came with the game out of reach, it illustrates just how far away Hamilton is from the rest of the pack this season.
When the team does return to action, it will be to host the Toronto Argonauts (2-2) at Tim Hortons Field on July 20. The Argos have dominated Hamilton over the past two seasons, winning all four matchups in 2023 and taking three of four in 2022. If Hamilton doesn’t get things sorted out in all areas, they are very much staring 0-6 in the face.
