Third and short goes a long way
A short drag route on second down by wide receiver Luke Tasker put Hamilton in a third and short situation. The following play may have been surprising to see Zach Collaros still in and lining up in the shotgun. Collaros would roll to his right and hit Chad Owens in stride as the receiver broke off his route towards the sideline for a 45-yard gain. In scoring position, the Ticats’ offence did not wait to seize the opportunity. Collaros hit receiver Luke Tasker with a completion just past the goal line. Hamilton struggled to sustain drives but in the final minutes of the game, the Ticats’ offence managed to piece together a game-winning drive with strong ground play from running back Ross Scheuerman. The Lafayette product started his first game at running back against the Alouettes and ran for 79 yards off 16 carries. Around the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Zach Collaros connected with sure-handed Andy Fantuz for a 31-yard completion to get Hamilton deep in the Montreal zone. Collaros completed 25-of-36 pass attempts, throwing for 291 yards and a touchdown.
Dean and Davis déjà vu
Hamilton’s defence did their part in making things difficult on the Alouettes’ offence. The Ticats’ defensive unit tallied three sacks including one by first-year linebacker Larry Dean, who came flying through the offensive line and hauled a scrambling Rakeem Cato. Dean would finish the game with a team-high eight tackles against the Alouettes. Ticats sacks leader John Chick tallied another quarterback sack to bring his season total to eight. Defensive linemen, Adrian Tracy and Ted Laurent both added sacks for the Tiger-Cats defence as well. Emanuel Davis had himself a night recovering two Montreal fumbles and an interception bringing him to four on the season. Dean forced both fumbles that lead to those Davis recoveries. The Ticats also limited agile quarterback Rakeem Cato to just 168 passing yards on the night.
Money Maher
The game went down to the wire with Hamilton and Montreal. With 0:00 reading on the clock, Ticats’ kicker Brett Maher booted a game-winning field goal from 10 yards out. The former Nebraska Cornhusker connected for three on all four of his field goal attempts against the Alouettes. His longest field goal came from 51 yards out five minutes into the fourth quarter. His performance against the Alouettes marks his tenth perfect performance of the 2016 season. Maher has a history of success against the Als. He had a stellar performance against Montreal back in Week 4, making all five of his attempts including a career long 56-yard field goal.
