The Tiger-Cats have to work on that offence

Not to pile on, but here are a few more remarks, mostly negative, from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ 3720 loss in Saskatchewan on Saturday:

In the two first quarters the Ticats have played, the offence has not managed to make even one first down. In the opening frames of their last 21 league and playoff games, dating back to opening day 2016, the offence has now been held to zero points six times and three points or fewer another six times. They have not scored more than one major in any first quarter of 2016 or ’17.

A breakdown of the Tiger-Cats’ three touchdowns so far this year: Offence (1), Defence (1), Special Teams (1). Guess that’s balance.

The Ticats are making plenty of substitutions on defence, especially on the line — partly for ratio reasons, partly for situational play, partly for fatigue-management — and perhaps that’ll smooth out, but it looks awkward and tiring at the moment. That’s particular true deep in either end, when the players have to run so far from their benches, and confusion was visibly obvious on a couple of Rider touchdowns.

No update Monday on injuries which took key Hamilton players centre Mike Filer and linebacker Simoni Lawrence out of the game. Both returned later. Nor had the league sent out any word on further discipline to linebacker Will Hill, who grabbed an official’s sweater and was ejected.

This is not something a quarterback of Zach Collaros’s strong history would be accustomed to. He’s last among the CFL’s nine starting quarterbacks in completion percentage, second down conversion percentage and on the new quarterback rating scale (31.3, Mike Reilly leading at 92.9), marked out of 100 and taking into account the team’s offensive performance.