It was a long five weeks without any football at Tim Horton’s Field. The Tiger-Cats didn’t waste anytime to erase any neglect that Hamilton may have been experiencing. The Black and Gold showed much improvement in their first half play as they jumped out of the gates to a 27-4 lead after two quarter’s of play. Zach Collaros had a career game as he threw a career best five touchdowns as the Tiger-Cats went on to win 53-7 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders before the 20th straight sell out crowd at Tim Horton’s Field.
IT’S GOOD TO BE BACK
Fans were treated to a clinic courtesy of Collaros. In his first home game since coming back from injury, Collaros put needle to thread as he hit four separate receivers for touchdowns. The Ticats’ quarterback totalled 23 completions off of 30 pass attempts for 381 yards as he threw for five touchdowns. The first major came from a pass that tipped off the hands of a Riders’ defensive back and eventually found its way into the hands of Andy Fantuz, who bounded his way into the end zone for the 37-yard touchdown score. On his second touchdown, Collaros found his target on a 58-yard scoring play as Brandon Banks went streaking through the Riders’ secondary. The Ticats’ offence turned the page as they had arguably their best first half of the year, scoring 27 points in the first 30 minutes that was capped off by Chad Owens 5-yard touchdown. Terrance Toliver would add to his impressive stat line in the second half by catching a Collaros pass deep down the middle of the field before bouncing it beyond the hash mark and into the end zone. The start of the fourth quarter would bring Collaros’ fifth and final touchdown pass, as he would hit a wide-open Chad Owens for his second of the game in the middle of the end zone. Collaros is now 11-1 at Tim Hortons Field.
NO SMOOTH RIDE
The Ticats have been all too familiar with playing catch-up this season. All three phases of the game played their part in the victory against Saskatchewan. Defensively, the Ticats were swarming to the ball and making drives difficult for the Roughriders to sustain. Hamilton had their ball hawks on the field as they managed to pick off Saskatchewan’s quarterback Darian Durant four times. Another interception was added after Mitchell Gale came in to replace Durant in the fourth quarter. The biggest interception may have been that of Rico Murray’s, which put the end to what started as a promising offensive series for the Riders. John Chick, Ted Laurent and Drake Nevis added four sacks to the stat sheet as they continued to put pressure on Riders’ quarterback Darian Durant throughout the entire game. The defensive unit was lead by Simoni Lawrence as he tallied seven tackles against the Riders.
FRIEND TURNED FOE
John Chick made his intentions well known leading up to his first game against his former team, and his presence was certainly felt. Just ask Darian Durant. The former CFL Defensive Player of the Year dragged down his former teammate twice which added to what was a long night for the Roughriders. Since joining the Ticats, Chick has fit perfectly into the defensive scheme of Defensive Coordinator Orlondo Steinauer. Chick sits tied for the league lead in sacks with seven on the year.
