After registering a season-high 44 points on Sunday against the Edmonton Elks, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats fell flat on Friday, losing 33-16 to the Montreal Alouettes at Tim Hortons Field.
Below are my thoughts on the game.
How is that not a fumble?
The biggest takeaway from Friday’s game is the fumble that wasn’t. Tiger-Cats fullback James Tuck caught a pass from Bo Levi Mitchell, rumbled for a first down and was hit, dislodging the ball from his possession. It was immediately recovered by Montreal, or so everyone thought, resulting in what should have been an Alouettes forced turnover.
The issue is that the official nearest to the play whistled it dead early, believing that Tuck was down by contact even though it was clear he fumbled before ever going down. That’s what the command centre is for though, right? To review potential errors made on the field. In this case, the booth came back and ruled that the play stood, drawing audible and understandable anger from Alouettes’ head coach Jason Maas.
In fairness to the command centre, Alouettes defensive back Wesley Sutton was the first player to try and recover the fumble but he didn’t have complete control, so maybe that’s why the ruling went the way that it did. It’s still a tough look for the officials and the people in the review room when everyone else watching sees it very differently.
I don’t like criticizing officials because they have arguably the toughest job on the field and CFL referees are generally some of the best in the world despite getting paid a much lower salary than their counterparts in other leagues. People also make mistakes regardless of their profession. But my biggest gripe is that the command centre should have the ability to set things right and give Montreal possession of the ball. It ended up not mattering in the end but picturing a game that is decided by an obvious error is a scary thought, one I hope we don’t have to live through and see the consequences of.
Hopefully, this is something that gets fixed soon so the officials and command centre have every opportunity to get calls right as often as possible.
Faltering offence
The Ticats came into the game as one of the highest-scoring teams in the league but you wouldn’t know it based on their performance against a stout Montreal defence.
Bo Levi Mitchell struggled on Friday, completing just 29 of his 42 pass attempts for 240 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. Alouettes’ defensive coordinator Noel Thorpe and his unit frustrated Mitchell all night long, baiting him into poor decisions and capitalizing on those mistakes, including an outstanding play from defensive back Kabion Ento to undercut a Mitchell deep ball to Luther Hakunavanhu for an interception.
Kabion Ento 🤝 Interceptions at Tim Hortons Field#CFLGameday: LIVE on TSN, RDS
📲: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/u3l2R9RyxZ— CFL (@CFL) August 3, 2024
Hamilton only generated 343 yards of net offence, averaging 5.3 yards per play and allowed three sacks, resulting in the boobirds coming out from the Steeltown faithful. It drew eerie comparisons to the crowd’s reaction during the Tabbies’s 44-28 loss to B.C. in Week 5. Credit to Thorpe and the defence but the Ticats’ offence can be much better than they were on Friday and will get a chance to try and redeem themselves in the rematch on Saturday.
Pick-six
Hamilton’s only form of offence came from its defence until very late in the game with the score out of reach. Hamilton’s defensive back Kenneth George Jr. jumped a curl route and returned the Davis Alexander pass attempt 18 yards to the house.
Ticats fans have been awfully harsh on George Jr. for his early season play, some of it deserving, some of it not. I thought the second-year man from Tennessee was solid last week against Edmonton and continued his strong play into this week, registering three defensive tackles, a pass breakup, one interception and the touchdown.
It was a similar story in George Jr.’s rookie season, as he started slow out of the gates but became one of the Ticats’ best defenders down the stretch. It appears he is on that track once again this season.
Penalties rear their ugly head
During Hamilton’s back-to-back victories over Toronto and Edmonton, they registered a combined nine penalties for 95 yards. On Friday the team drifted back into their old ways, amassing seven penalties for 115 yards, including a 25-yard major on Casey Sayles for an unnecessary shot on Alexander midway through the fourth quarter.
Davis Alexander mal en point après une rudesse excessive de Casey Sayles 🤕
Pénalité de 25 verges sur la séquence.
📺: RDS
📱: https://t.co/eBvnaL7ehA@MTLAlouettes | @LCFca pic.twitter.com/7oZnGosfQf— RDS (@RDSca) August 3, 2024
It was an obvious penalty taken out of frustration from how the previous three and a half quarters went and I would suspect Sayles’ wallet will be a bit lighter when fines get dolled out early next week. In terms of the number of penalties and yardage allowed, Hamilton simply isn’t a good enough team to be able to give up an entire field of penalties and come away with the victory on a consistent basis. If they’re able to return to the discipline they displayed the previous two weeks, they will be in a much better position moving forward.
Crisis averted
The Ticats avoided a massive injury scare as star defensive back Jamal Peters was carried off the field after Hamilton’s onside kick attempt with what appeared to be a leg injury. He later told Tiger-Cats columnist and Ticats Audio Network contributor Steve Milton that he didn’t think his injury was serious, giving fans some form of solace after a disappointing night.
Peters has been one of Hamilton’s best defensive back since being inserted into the lineup after an early season hamstring injury and the Tabbies couldn’t afford to have him miss an extended period of time. It appears the crisis has been averted.
Up Next
The Tiger-Cats (2-6) will get their chance to exact a measure of revenge against the Alouettes (7-1) on Saturday, August 10 at Percival Molson Stadium.
Hamilton will look for its first victory over Montreal since a 24-17 decision on July 28, 2022. Montreal took the two remaining games of that season series as well as the East Semi-Final before winning all four regular season and playoff matchups last season.
If the Ticats are going to fight their way back into the Eastern playoff race, they need to start cobbling together some victories against their East Division foes. Otherwise, their chances of making the playoffs will be like a fisherman trying to catch a shark with a toddler’s pole — next to impossible.
