So once again, I'm late writing about a Hamilton loss. What else is new? After beating Montreal at home the previous week, Hamilton gets smashed in la belle province 42 to 11. Sacre bleu! Enough with the francais. It was ugly and somewhat disturbing.
First off, Lumsden apparently injured his arm, or he was already injured or whatever, but he left the game in the first half, got taped up, played a bit and now apparently needs surgery on the same left shoulder that was operating on before. But a different part. Again, I like the concept of Jesse Lumsden, it is just the execution that doesn't seem to be working. Kenton Keith also proved that all running backs are inherently injury prone (hello Terry Caulley!) by getting has arm slashed to the bone by a helmet or something and also having to leave the game. Leaving us with nonimport running back, John (no not the Star Wars guy) Williams. Quinton Porter managed to rush five times for 25 yards. Hopefully next year we will bring back our draft pick Mike Giffin a running back out of Queen's.
Anyways, we managed to stay in the game for a while, but the TSN turning point was probably in the first half, where we had the ball on the one and couldn't punch it in. We would probably have lost even if had scored a TD there rather than settling for a field goal, but it would have been a lot closer. I believe we also failed on a third and one sneak by Porter. Sad, sad, sad. Shouldn't by this point of the season, we would have learned to make the one yard plays? How lame is the push our offensive line gets for these plays? Interestingly, Montreal in the second half starting to go repeatedly on third down beyond a yard, often in a passing formation (although then they would promptly run it up the gut of a flabby Ticat D). If you have a good offense, this statistically is a good strategy. Teams in the CFL are too cowardly on third and short (apart from the Cats who should be afraid).
Porter was mediocre this week, going 17 for 25 for 167 yards and two interceptions. Porter didn't look like the second coming this week, but his receivers didn't seem to do much for him. The play calling seemed a bit wonky, with Davis catching five passes for a whopping 28 yards. I guess they were testing him and out and it turns out he sucks. Prechae only caught three passes for 30 yards, although Montreal may have realized covering him closely would pretty much shut Hamilton down. So the offense was crap, although not as crap as the defence which was pretty much beyond shitty.
The defence was crap. What happened to the strong run defence from last week? Nonimport Dahrain Diedrick ran for 127 yards with only 15 carries, in place of the suddenly injury prone Avon Cobourne (it's not just us!). A lot of that was some shoddy tackling and the fact the Cats were petrified of the strong Montreal pass offense. Cavillo passes for 371 yards with three TDs and one interception, going 33 for 41. As per usual, the Cats got little pressure (although they did get one sack) and there was a festival of shoddy tackling down field, often leading to extra yards extending the drive. Ben Cahoon caught 13 passes for 164 yards as the Cats refused to make contact with him at the line of scrimmage. Not a lot more can be said.
The Cats have a long ways to go to compete week in and week out with Montreal. Although they split the home and home, so over the past two games they are 500. Next week is Saskatchewan, who they should have a realistic shot at, even at Taylor Field.
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