Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ blowout loss to Saskatchewan leaves more questions than answers (& six other thoughts)

Photo courtesy: Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

It was an ugly night for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ offence on Sunday in Regina. Early on, they were disjointed and could not find a way to stay on the field.

Obviously, the loss of Bo Levi Mitchell at the quarterback position is massive. We knew this would be the case as soon as the ambulance arrived last week in Hamilton. The remainder of that game was enough to prove that the drop-off from starter to backups was large.

The display at Mosaic Stadium in Saskatchewan magnified those issues.

After a 38-7 drubbing at the hands of the Roughriders, where do the Ticats go from here?

GOOD NEWS

Defensive football in the Canadian Football League will always leave you wanting more. Rarely will a strong defensive performance come without holes to fill. The game is geared for offences to thrive, and the defences need to do enough to keep their team in the game.

The Tiger-Cats defence deserved a better fate tonight. While it was not always pretty, they did enough to give the offence a fighting chance in the contest. Early in the game, it was a lot of bend, but never a break. A missed field goal helped, but allowing one point in the first quarter and 10 in the second is a strong first half of football.

They continue to rally to the ball, making plays and forcing two interceptions. Sometimes those interceptions fall in your lap as a defender; tonight the Ticats fought to make those plays. Wynton McMannis and Stavros Katsantonis made great, heads-up plays to take balls away from Saskatchewan receivers.

What I cannot put on the Ticats defence is the score-line. 27 of the Roughriders’ 38 points on Sunday came off turnovers, including some short fields. Tommy Stevens scored the final two touchdowns of the game for the Roughriders. That was Saskatchewan’s offence’s third and fourth touchdowns of the night. In the three losses this season for Hamilton, this is the first game the defence has allowed more than two touchdowns by the opposition’s offence.

Stevens’ first touchdown of the game was a one-play, one-yard plunge following the Kenny Lawler fumble. The second was after Tre Ford’s first series of the game, and Hamilton turned the ball over on downs in their own territory. That was late in the fourth quarter when the game had fallen out of reach.

If this is the effort we continue to see on the defensive side of the ball from Hamilton, they will have chances to win games. If they can find the offence to win those games is the ongoing question.

SPECIAL ATTENTION

Going into Week 6, there was a feeling that defensively and on special teams the Ticats needed to be at their best. Defensively, things were good until the very end of the game. Special teams? Not great in the game for a unit that is normally on point.

Credit to Marc Liegghio and the field goal unit for converting on both their opportunities in the contest. The issues stemmed from punt coverage in this game. When the offence struggles as much as it did, that unit is going to be on the field more than usual. What cannot happen is missed tackles in the open field to make way for chunk return yardage. It was not an absence of being in the right spot for Hamilton; it was not bringing the returner to the ground on the first or second opportunity.

Mix that in with a punt going directly out of bounds before the Saskatchewan 15-yard line, and the defence had to make up for missed assignments by the special teams unit. Luckily, the defence limited the damage.

The other issue was  Isaiah Wooden Sr.’s decision to field the ball at the back of the end zone after Saskatchewan missed a field goal in the first quarter, which resulted in him being tackled for a single. Under the new CFL rouge rules for 2026, no point would have been awarded if he let the ball leave the back of the end zone. In the end, this did not play a factor in the game. After Hamilton had a rouge loom large last week, I was still shocked to see a play like that happen on Sunday.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

When an offence that cannot effectively run the ball loses the best throwing threat in the league, it can get ugly. It got ugly for the Ticats on Sunday night.

To start the game, it seemed as though Hamilton tried to ease starting quarterback Jake Dolegala into the role with simple, underneath throws that did not put him in danger of turning it over. The negative side of that is the lack of accuracy that we have seen from Dolegala. Even on completions, the ball is put in a spot that does not allow the receiver to gain extra yards. Whether it is low and forces the momentum to stop, or towards pressure, even when Dolegala connects, it leaves you wanting more.

Then there is the issue of throwing the ball too high. Consistently in the game, it was balls getting to receivers above their head and not giving them the best opportunity to make a play.

It is also abundantly clear that the Ticats must adjust to the pace of their quarterbacks available. Neither Jake Dolegala nor Tre Ford can get from one read to the next as quickly as Bo- Levi Mitchell. This is the great separator from good to great quarterbacks at any level. Pivots that can move from one to two to three comfortably will always have a better chance of making a play. Far too often on Sunday, Dolegala was caught still looking at his first read by the time the pressure was getting home.

This was exemplified by the interception to end Dolegala’s night. As Hamilton was driving in the fourth quarter, they found themselves knocking on the door of the end zone. Dolegala had put together a solid drive, now with a chance to show he had found his rhythm. Instead, he threw a ball into a spot with four Saskatchewan defenders and his pass was taken back for a touchdown. Josh Woods benefited from the forced throw, intercepting the ball at his own three-yard line and taking it back 107 yards.

This is where the running game needs to become more of a factor in the offence. Four carries for 12 yards in the opening half when the quarterback was struggling will not cut it. While it picked up in the third quarter, which allowed Hamilton to move the ball more effectively, it was not enough. As I mentioned last week, the commitment to the run needs to come early in the game.

The offence was off the field after four or fewer plays in the first few drives; why not try to run the ball? When it does come out, it leaves the offence in second-and-long, so the short passing game seems like a natural fix. That is until you have a starting quarterback who completes 56.7 percent of his passes. The short throws feel like a gamble; you do not know if they are going to be on target.

Mix it all together, and Hamilton got seven points — two field goals and a rouge from a punt. Since Mitchell’s injury, the Tiger-Cats have failed to find the end zone. With Mitchell having surgery on his injured leg earlier this week, it will not be a quick fix for Hamilton. They cannot just hold on until he returns. They need to find answers.

TOO MUCH POPCORN

For a unit that I have praised since the beginning of the preseason, the Tiger-Cats receivers had a bad night. Was the quarterback play good? No. Did the receivers help themselves when presented the opportunity? Also no. A group that is typically sure-handed and on point had a case of butter fingers in Regina.

I will reiterate that even on his completions, Dolegala is missing the right spots for his receivers. However, it is very uncharacteristic for Kiondre Smith to drop a pass that hits him in the hands, even if he must go up and get it.

Then in the fourth quarter, it was Kenny Lawler fumbling that allowed Tommy Stevens to score his first touchdown of the night. That was one of the first throws from Dolegala that was on time to allow the receiver to keep his momentum. The issue was, it was second-and-10. Lawler caught the ball three yards beyond the line of scrimmage and fumbled two yards shy of the line to gain. He kept the ball in his up-field arm, allowing the defender to make initial contact with it. Had the ball been in his left arm, he would have been taken down short of the line to gain, but kept his offence on the field.

I can chalk this up to one bad night from the unit. I can imagine that with the way the game started, it was immensely frustrating. Add to that the heat, and the receivers never got back on track. With the issues the Ticats face on the offensive side of the ball, this unit cannot be bringing them down. They need to drag the other units back into the fight.

QUARTERBACK QUESTIONS

Until the Tiger-Cats get a sound performance under centre, or Bo Levi Mitchell returns, this will be the focal point. Who starts next week for Hamilton? This week, I assumed it was going to be Tre Ford or a quarterback Hamilton brought in. Instead of Ford or the newly acquired Jarret Doege, it was Dolegala.

Why I assumed it would not be Dolegala is the resume he had put together in the preseason. Through the two preseason games, Dolegala was consistent, but it was consistent with what the Ticats got in Week 6 — inaccuracy, turnovers, and an inability to string drives together.

Ultimately, Hamilton must determine if this is an effort that they can live with. I asked for the Ticats to give an opportunity to a player and give them some leash. We saw that on Sunday. I am fine with giving Dolegala one more chance under centre next week. I do not think the result can be much worse than what we saw in Saskatchewan.

What makes it a difficult decision next week is who the matchup is against. With Ottawa starting the season 0-5 and Montreal being 4-1, Hamilton and Toronto find themselves in the middle. Both teams are 2-3 on the season and tied in the East Division. This season, the difference between second and third in the East might be the difference between a home playoff game and missing the postseason.

The Ticats will see Week 7 as a must-win early in the year. It could allow them more room to breathe and figure things out moving forward.

UP NEXT

Hamilton returns home for their first battle this season with the Toronto Argonauts. The game goes at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, July 18.