Nine Down and Nine to Go as Tiger-Cats Know There’s Plenty Still to Play For
Nine down and nine to go. More than that in the “to go” portion if the Tiger-Cats can do enough in the nine games whose outcomes are still within their control.
Head coach Scott Milanovich no longer divides the season into sections, preferring to focus on and prepare for only the week ahead, but for fans and some players the halfway point of the season is a good borderline. Over there is what was; over here is what can be.
The Cats can’t do anything about the first nine: they lost their Hall of Fame quarterback until at least the latter stages of the season; have dropped a few games they could have, and should have, won; have used three starting quarterbacks since Bo Levi Mitchell—off to one of the best starts of his remarkable career—suffered an ankle injury; and arrive at the midway point at an unsatisfying 3-and-6.
What Hamilton can do, though, is recognize that there is still a half-season to go and that there is something to be said for using that as a signpost for turning things around, especially now that they have landed upon Harrison Frost as their quarterback.
It’s still a tough road ahead. The Cats have slid to third place, two points behind the 4-4 Argonauts, who also have a game in hand. But on the near horizon, there are two critical head-to-head matches within three weeks with their QEW rivals, ending with the Labour Day Classic.
It’s a difficult challenge, with reigning Grey Cup champions Saskatchewan Roughriders at Hamilton Stadium Saturday night (7 p.m. Ticats Audio Network, TSN, Y108). The Riders are coming off a 42-20 pounding of winless Ottawa, have moved into first place in the West, and have won all three of their road games this season, while the Ticats are 2-3 at home.
But there is value in viewing this as a demarcation point, a chance to make the second half far different than the first.
“I believe there is value,” says Ticats field-side linebacker Reggie Stubblefield, whose strong season has been somewhat overshadowed by five losses in the last six games. “I believe that with the situation around the whole league and just within our division—with us a game or two behind Toronto—there’s definitely a second half of this season where we can put ourselves in a position to get everything that we thought at the beginning of the season that we were going to reach.
“These next nine games are very critical to us; it is the second half of the season. Just try to make sure that we really, really, take advantage of the opportunity; seek out and achieve the things that we want to—and still, like our coach says, take one game at a time and focus only on that game—but understand that these nine games are crucial and it is like make or break.”
The second half of the season launches against a Saskatchewan team which is without several key players—dynamic Canadian receivers Kian Schaffer-Baker and Sam Emilus, power back A.J. Ouellette, and defensive backs Tevaughn Campbell and Rolan Milligan Jr., the CFL’s 2024 defensive player of the year, are all on the six-game injury list—but is also loaded with the talented depth, the perceptive quarterback, and the confidence that winning a league title brings.
They’re also in first place in their conference, which generates a self-belief of its own, allow fewer points and TDs than any team in the league, rank third in offence, dominate the red zone offensively, and have a fierce front seven that includes veteran defensive linemen Mike Rose and James Vaughters and sure-tackling linebackers Antoine Brooks Jr., Josh Woods and former Ticat Jameer Thurman.
Oh, and there’s also Trevor Harris, who reads and delivers passes more quickly than any quarterback in the league, and receiver KeeSean Johnson, who has six touchdowns and ranks fourth in CFL receiving yardage.
“No doubt that of any quarterback in the league, he gets rid of the ball the fastest,” says Stubblefield, who is delivering an All-CFL calibre season. “Him getting the ball out fast is within their scheme. They play to his strengths as a quarterback. Their offence is very efficient in what they do.
“So, they really don’t have to do too much because they understand where they need to be; who’s getting the ball and why. And Trevor does a good job of getting them in the right situations. We have to be good at our keys on drops. Understanding our leverage, understanding what we need to get to and how we need to get there.
“And also, just finishing on plays, with tackling, having good, precise angles and breaks. So, just homing in on our details and the things that we preach on defence will limit what Trevor Harris does.”
The last time these two teams played, a 38-7 Rider victory in Regina last month, the game was not quite the runaway that the final score suggested. It was only 18-7 after three quarters before the defence tired and all three units—specials, offence and defence—made critical mistakes in the final quarter.
But Hamilton’s defence has been getting better week by week to the point that it is now ranked, overall, in the top three in the league, although they still need to turn more pressures into sacks, be stiffer on second-and-long situations and avoid the fourth-quarter letdowns that have weighed on the entire team most of the season. The Cats have outscored the opposition by 37 total points in the first half but are a league-worst minus-84 in the fourth quarter, and they’re facing a team which, over the past four games, three of them wins, has outscored the other team by 38 points, although 20 of those came against the Cats in Regina.
“I know what it looks like from the outside,” Milanovich said Friday of the team’s first-half record. “I know what we can be (and) what I think we will become, and it needs to get paid off (with a win). We had a really good week of practice; the focus was excellent. There’s something to prove. I think we’re improving offensively, and if our defence and special teams keep playing the way they’re normally playing, then I think we’re going to be a different team down the stretch.
“I say this every week, but I think the secret for us is to get teams in second-and-long and not let them have second-and-four, second-and-five, lean on us (and) run the ball sometimes. Get a true passing situation where our D-linemen can tee off, and our secondary has got eyes on the quarterback, and if you get a tipped ball, you get a pick. I think that’s always the key for us.”
Milanovich had Trevor Harris in his quarterback stable for four seasons when both were in Toronto and says there’s no one in the game who gets rid of the ball successfully and more quickly. And he’s not surprised that Harris, at age 40, is the defending Grey Cup Most Outstanding Player and is in the conversation for this year’s player of the year because he takes care of his body, following Tom Brady’s TB12 Institute training program to increase strength and flexibility.
“He takes that stuff real seriously, and so he’s playing at a very high level. His game is a mental game, an accuracy game. I doubt there’s anybody in football that gets the ball out of his hands quicker than Trevor does, and with all the plays and coverages he’s seen, when they do call a play that maybe isn’t going to work for the primary receiver, he knows exactly where he needs to go with the ball on the backside, and he gets there quickly.
“That frustrates your D-line because they may be winning on pass rush, but they don’t get home because he gets the ball out. I think his style of play is probably a little bit more conducive to being able to play a long time than maybe a more mobile guy.”
Because Harris doesn’t roll out often and it’s tough to reach him quickly in the strong Rider pocket, Hamilton defenders say it’s important to get your arms into the air, and perhaps deflect the ball, force it too high for the receiver or create a passing angle which leads to less accuracy.
Ticat defensive tackle Mario Kendricks, who got his arms up to block a punt last week in BC, says that Saskatchewan “obviously has a pretty solid offensive line. But our D-line watched film from last week, and if we take care of the things we did wrong, we can handle their O-line. Trevor Harris is going to sit in the pocket and make some plays, but if the D-line gets pressure, we can take care of him.
“Knowing he has a quick release, sometimes if you can get your hands up, or if the DBs can stay on their man just a little longer, the D-line can get there and hopefully get a sack.”
On their offensive side of the ball, the Ticats must get a better running game after handing off to Larry Rountree III just three times for 13 yards in Vancouver last week. That followed three games of at least a dozen Rountree rushes.
Milanovich said earlier that there were probably five plays that Frost would like to have back from last week and had already confirmed right after the loss in BC that Frost is his quarterback because of what he’s shown.
“Not just last week but over the two years I’ve been with him,” Milanovich explained. “Harrison is accurate, he’s got an under-rated pocket presence, he knows the offence. He’ll get through a progression; he reminds me a little bit of Trevor and the way he gets through his progressions and puts the ball where it needs to be.”
But the coach says there might not be a lot of time to deliver the ball given the strength and experience of the Rider defence.
“Not as much as some, for sure,” he said. “It just depends how much they want to blitz. We have to handle that with our offensive line and the play calls. We have to have some things that don’t take too much time developing.”
And Frost says yet another week of solid practice has him feeling more at home with the offence.
“I’m definitely more and more comfortable every single day, probably every play,” said Frost, who gets his second consecutive start after relieving Tre Ford two weeks earlier against Calgary. “You either confirm what you already knew or you learn something new on every single play.
“I’ll take what they give me early, just try to do my job every single play. Make sure everybody’s getting lined up and communicating. Just try to be myself.
“They’re physical up front. Their coaching staff does a great job of making sure everybody’s very assignment-sound. They’re not going to just give you busted coverages and stuff like that. So, we’re gonna have to play good football to win this game.”
Real good football. It’s the start of a new half-season.
CATS CLAUSES
Where were you in ’86?
The Tiger-Cats will honour the 1986 Tiger-Cats at halftime, recognizing the 40th anniversary of the second-last (1999) Hamilton team to win the Grey Cup. That team was inducted into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame last year. They were playing in their third Grey Cup in a row and had vowed not to be only the second team to lose three straight Cup games. But they had to make the national final first, and in the two-game total-points Eastern Final were beaten 31-17 in Hamilton by the first-place Argos, then eventually trailed by 15-3, and 26 overall points in the second game and were playing without future Hall of Famer Less Browne. But QB Mike Kerrigan got red hot, and they rallied to win by 17 points, winning by two points on aggregate. Then they opened the Grey Cup against prohibitively favoured Edmonton by scoring the third-fastest TD in Cup history, after not even starting with the ball (Edmonton fumbled on the opening kickoff) and went on to lead 29-0 and coast to a 39-15 win for Hamilton’s first Cup win in 14 years. It was another 13 years before Danny McManus and Joe Montford would lead them to the title again.
You can read more about that team here.
The body slams start even BEFORE the football game
Hamilton is known as a football town, but it’s also got a long and deep connection to wrestling, and the Ticats are marrying those two histories prior to Saturday’s home game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Ticats and MAPLE LEAF PRO Wrestling will stage WrestleFest in the south plaza at Hamilton Stadium, beginning at 5:15 p.m.
Headlining the show are the top two tag teams in MLP, current champions
1st Faction (Brent Banks and Sheldon Jean) and The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson), whom 1st Faction beat earlier this year; and interim Canadian champion Stu Grayson; and Hamilton’s Jonny DeLuca, who is only 24 but has competed for eight years and is known for his high energy, speed and agility.
The show will also feature several other notable MLP stars.
A little statistical context
As the league enters the second half of the season, the CFL’s explosion on offence shows no real signs of slowing down. Two quarterbacks, Montréal’s Davis Alexander and Toronto’s Chad Kelly, are on pace for 6,000-yard passing seasons, and if they both make it, it will be the first time since 1993 that two pivots have hit the mark in the same season when Doug Flutie, then in BC, and David Archer of the long-defunct Sacramento Gold Miners did it. And five quarterbacks, Alexander, Kelly, Trevor Harris, Cody Fajardo and Jake Maier, are completing passes at a 5,000-yard clip, and if they all continue, it will break the CFL record of four 5,000-plus quarterbacks, last achieved in 2018.
There are also a whopping 20 CFL receivers whose current output would translate to over 1,000 yards over the season, which would surpass the CFL record of 19. If the late fall brings inclement weather, or if more quarterbacks suffer long-term injuries, it could dampen some of the incredibly high yardage totals, but in the opinion of this corner, the offensive schemes have become so creative and complicated that any fallback will not be as significant as many observers expect.
NOTES AND QUOTES: The only two changes from last week’s Ticat game roster have field side HB Quavian White coming off injury for Devodric Bynum and DL Aamarii Notice in for Charbel Dabire … SAM LB Reggie Stubblefield has at least four defensive tackles in every game this year and if he matches that Saturday night he’ll reach 150 for his career … DE Julian Howsare is one sack short of 50 in his career while WR Kenny Lawler needs 19 receiving yards to reach 6,000 for his career … punter Mitch McCarthy’s 49.4 yard average is ahead of Joe Zuger’s single-season Ticat record of 48.5 and he has the league’s longest punt (81 yards) in the CFL this year … when K Marc Liegghio just missed a 57-yard field goal on the game’s final play last week it was the Ticats’ longest attempt since Seth Small’s 58-yard attempt in Toronto four years ago this month … the Ticats have had four games decided by four points or less and are 1-3 … Saskatchewan has won the last 5 head-to-heads with Hamilton, is 12-4 since 2017 and 56-46-4 since interdivisional play came to the CFL in 1961 … Roughrider QB Trevor Harris threw for 401 yards against Ottawa last week, his 3rd 400-plus game of the season. He’s the Riders’ all-time leader in win percentage … Saskatchewan short-yardage quarterback Tommy Stevens, who has 11 TDs to lead the league, is looking to become the first CFL player to record three straight 3-TD games since BC’s Joe Smith, 21 years ago. Since 2022, Stevens has 41 TDs, the most in the CFL over that time frame, and he has 6 of the Riders’ last 9 TDs… Here’s Stubblefield on the Riders: “We know that this is a team who is playing well in all three phases: offence, defence, special teams. It’s the reason they won a championship last year.” … Saskatchewan offensive coordinator Marc Mueller is the grandson of legendary Ron Lancaster … Rider receiver coach Marquay McDaniel played for the Ticats from 2009-11 and in 2018 and was receivers coach at McMaster in 2018.
