Tiger-Cats Go Toe-to-Toe with Lions, Fall Just Short in Vancouver

So close, but not quite close enough.

The Ticats went toe-to-toe with the BC Lions Saturday night but fell just short in a last-minute 27-24 loss.

 Marc Liegghio’s 57-yard-field goal—it would have been the longest of his career—curved slightly wide left as time ran out in Hamilton’s desperate bid to deliver the game into overtime.

It was the Ticats’ third loss in a row as they reached the halfway point of the regular season at 3-6, and dropped into third place in the East, a game behind the 4-4 Argos. It doesn’t get any easier as defending champions Saskatchewan come into Hamilton Stadium next Saturday afternoon.

But there were lots of things to be encouraged about in this game including some huge plays on special teams—downfield coverage, a blocked field goal, some field-tilting runbacks by Isaiah Wooden Sr.—and on defence. Jamal Peters had a potentially game-changing interception in the fourth quarter and Phil Ossai had a fumble recovery.

And Harrison Frost, despite the offence’s struggles in the third quarter, showed that he’s got the poise and accuracy to start in this league and head coach Scott Milanovich confirmed after the game, “he’s the quarterback.”

Frost was grateful for the support of his head coach; “but we didn’t get the win. I wish I could have a couple back; there were a couple in the second half I made the right read on and didn’t make the throw. It felt like I short-armed it a couple of times in the second half. I’ve got to cut loose.”

Frost led some impressive drives, including starting on the Cats’ own 38-yard line and getting the ball to the Lions 50 in just 14 seconds to give the Ticats a chance to tie it at the final whistle. But there was also a difficult stretch in the third quarter in which the offence did not make a first down in their three possessions and held the ball for only three minutes.

“I’ve got to learn from this and just get better,” said Frost who, went 20-for-33 for 239 yards, threw a touchdown pass and had one interception off a tipped pass.

“I thought he was composed, he made good decisions with one exception,” Milanovich said. “In the third quarter we didn’t protect him very well.

“Our offence had some good moments but hit a wall there in the third quarter, with a couple of mistakes, a couple of busts. They weren’t letting us run the ball…we have to be better.”

The Ticats rushed for only 26 yards on 10 attempts, two of those one-yard touchdown plunges by short-yardage quarterback Jake Dolegala. One of those was the Cats’ first fourth-quarter touchdown in six games.

Last week was the first time all season Frost had reps with the No. 1 offence, and he didn’t get any last season here either. He was told at the start of the practice week that he would start after he came off the bench in Montréal in relief of Tre Ford, who’d taken over from Dolegala as starter a couple of weeks before that, as the Ticats continue to navigate the quarterback position with Bo Levi Mitchell out with a lower-body injury.

And you could see the stark difference that week of work made. There were a couple of misdirections and misreads, but the interception was a deflection and there were a lot of  tight accurate spirals.

“I’ve got to learn from this and just get better,” Frost said.

The Ticats defence was swarming and aggressive, limiting BC to 77 yards rushing, about 250 fewer than the Lions racked up in Winnipeg last week.

But with Nathan Rourke back from injury, the Lions passed for 370 yards. Justin McInnis broke loose, with five receptions for 159 yards,  more than half of those yards after the catch, and Jevon Cottoy, just returned from injury, had 109 yards, grabbing all seven passes directed his way and churning out 67  yards after the catch.

Those two controlled the final BC drive which, ate up 64 yards and while the Hamilton defence eventually forced a field goal rather than a major, it broke a 24-24 tie, and the Lions had gobbled over three minutes of late-game clock time and left only 20 seconds for Frost to move the team close enough to try to square it up again.

Arguably, this game was decided on second downs. Hamilton converted only a quarter of theirs (4-for-16) while BC moved the sticks 50 per cent of the time (12 for 24). And while it’s tempting to assume that the differential came—as it has often before—because of the opponent’s success on first down, that wasn’t true in this case. The Ticats held each of the excellent BC running backs, Zander Horvath and James Butler to under four yards per carry and the Ticats actually averaged more yardage than BC did on first down.

The Lions, however, converted seven of the 13 occasions when they needed at least seven yards for a first down. Two of those came on the game-deciding drive.

“It’s just a matter of we got to get off the field,” said Hamilton linebacker Jordan Crook, who had a defensive tackle and excelled on special teams with four, three short of the Ticat (Terry Wright, 1991) and CFL single-game record.

“We talk about it every week, the details, the discipline and coming down to the fourth quarter. We’ve got to hone in on the little things.
“It was a hard-fought battle and this one hurt. I’m a bit at a loss for words right now. You give your all and have an outcome like this when it could have gone either way. You kind of want some plays back.”

Two-and-outs were also a factor in the game as the Ticats offence had six of them, while the Lions had three as the teams traded off offensive dry spells and strong defensive stands.

The Ticats offence went two-and-out to open the game and the Lions scored a touchdown on their initial possession but then it was the Ticats defence toughening up, stopping the run and hurrying, but not sacking, Rourke. Their one mistake after the first TD was an 82-yard sprint by Justin McInnis, who caught a seeing-eye pass in tight coverage and simply broke away from everybody for a TD.

But Frost directed an intelligent drive in the final minute of the half to set the table for Liegghio’s 47-yard field goal as time expired and give the Cats a satisfying 17-14 lead into the intermission.

And despite the lopsided third quarter, the Cats hung in tough but the Lions, who won their second in a row to climb to 3-5, had just a smidgen more.

“We did some good things but at the end of the day we all have to look in the mirror and find more that we can do,” said Ticat centre Liam Dobson. “Whether that be every week, every day, every play, we just have to find it within ourselves to get a little better the next week to help us get a  better for next week.

“Frosty did a great job on that last drive getting us into a situation where we might be able to win the game but, especially up front, we have to operate a bit better.”

Liegghio struck the ball cleanly on the final play of the game, “and maybe it had just a bit too much of a turn on it. It went two or three yards deep so it had the distance. The operation was pretty smooth and Mitch (McCarthy, holder and punter) did a great job getting the ball down.

“I’ve just got to get better and hit the next one.

“It felt good off the foot and watching it drift a little at the end was disappointing.”

So it was a heart-breaking tale of two zeroes on the clock: a made field goal to end the first half, a much longer barely-missed one to end the second half.

So where do the Cats go, as they pass the regular season equinox?

“Back to work,” Milanovich said bluntly.

CATS CLAUSES

DL Mario Kendricks blocked a punt for one of the Cats’ two forced turnovers … WR Myron Mitchell caught both passes thrown to him for 61 yards including a key 46-yarder … Kurleigh Gittens Jr caught 7 for 54 yards and a TD … …DB Devodric Bynum and LBs Braxton Hill and Reggie Stubblerfield led the Cats with 6 defensive tackles each while MLB Wynton McManis notched  4 … Isaiah Wooden had 205 return yards including a 42-yard punt return and a 30-yard kickoff runback … the Ticats defence had 8 pass-knockdowns including three from S Stavros Katsantonis … Mitch McCarthy averaged over 50 yards on his 9 punts … Tyler Ternowski, who was returning to the lineup after injury, was a late scratch with injury and was replaced by Jake Nitychoruk … Hamilton won the turnover battle 2-1 … the Ticats took three penalties on the Lions’ first drive then didn’t have another one accepted the rest of the game although two were declined because of yardage made … Ottawa has signed DB Kenzel Lawler,  younger brother of Ticats WR Kenny Lawler who caught 3 passes for 48 yards Saturday … Lions QB Nathan Rourke was 22-for-39 for 370 yards, 2 TDs and 1 interception … BC DT and former Ticat Casey Sayles’ wife Katie gave birth to their daughter Wednesday night, their second child … it was the second football game played on the new BC Place turf installed after the natural grass for the World Cup was removed … attendance was 19,387.