Conflicting views of final game for Als, Ticats
The Storyline
The Alouettes are playing for next year and the Ticats for next week.
How oddly symmetrical that after three playoff meetings in four years through 2014 — all won by Hamilton, twice in overtime — this will be the fourth time in the last three years that the Alouettes and Ticats will play a late-season ‘meaningless’ game.
Last year, after both teams had been excused from playoff consideration, the Ticats beat Montreal twice. The season before, in a situation similar to this, the Ticats had already been assured of a home playoff game against the western crossover team when the already-eliminated Als closed out the regular season with a 32-25 win at Tim Hortons Field. The Ticats then lost the playoff to Edmonton 24-21, which provides a little historic underpinning for Hamilton coach June Jones’ desire to win Saturday in order to set the proper tone for the playoff against B.C., a week from Sunday.
The Ticats beat the Als 50-11 in Montreal in early August, with Johnny Manziel getting his first CFL start less than two weeks after he was traded from the Ticats to the Alouettes. June Jones has said a couple of times that it was unfair to start him so soon after his arrival in Montreal. Hamilton linebacker Larry Dean picked off Manziel on the Als’ second offensive play, forcing Manziel himself to make the tackle. That led to the touchdown which gave the Ticats a 14-point lead before the six-minute mark.
Manziel eventually tossed four picks in the first half before eventually giving way to Vernon Adams Jr. who also was in training camp with Hamilton. Dane Evans, who starts Saturday, finished up for Hamilton.
The Ticats have a skeleton roster for this game, with none of the three linebackers starting, and only one regular on the offensive line expected to see any action.
The Alouettes, meanwhile, are sticking with basically the same lineup that beat Toronto 40-10 last week for Manziel’s first official CFL win.
Key Hamilton roster notes
DT Ted Laurent, OTs Kelvin Palmer and Ryker Mathews (elbow), DE Justin Cappicciotti all started last week but are on the one-game injury list and CB Delvin Breaux (knee) misses his second straight game. Also, Evans starts for Jeremiah Masoli, who will dress but not play, and Bryant Moniz dresses for the first time since mid-September, as his backup. None of the starting linebackers — Simoni Lawrence, Larry Dean, Don Unamba — will start. And they’ll likely not play at all. Lucas Wacha (MLB), Jackson Bennett (SAM) and Curtis Newton (WILL) move from backups to starting. Courtney Stephen starts his first game this year at safety and Landon Rice at left guard and Mathieu Girard at centre will start for, respectively, Brandon Revenberg and Mike Filer.
Key Montreal roster notes
Manziel starts at quarterback again but head coach Mike Sherman says he’ll also use Antonio Pipkin and Matthew Shiltz, so it’s not certain how long Johnny Football stays in the game.
Nifty numbers worth knowing
3 — The number of 2018 draft choices the Ticats will start Saturday. They had already become the first CFL team this season to start two. RG Darius Ciraco has started all year, WR Justin Buren gets his fourth start; and Jackson Bennett opens Saturday as the SAM linebacker.
18 — Number of first downs the Ticats need Saturday to tie their all-time high (397) for a single season, set in 2013. They’re 3rd in the league at 397 and have averaged 22 first downs per game.
21 — Combined number of interceptions and fumble recoveries by the Ticats: lowest aggregate in the CFL.
25 — Difference in penalty yards incurred by Montreal (the most penalized team in league) and Hamilton (second-most).
26 — Percentage improvement in the Alouettes’ winning percentage over their last eight games (3-5) from their first nine (1-9).
27 — Straight starts by Jeremiah Masoli. That’s the most by a Hamilton quarterback since Henry Burris started 36 in a row in 2012-13. But the streak will be snapped as Dane Evans is slotted to start Saturday night.
51.7 — Second down conversion success rate by Masoli, tops in CFL among quarterbacks with more than 200 attempts. Mike Reilly (51.3) is the only other quarterback above 50 per cent.
545 — Number of offensive yards the Ticats would require to tie a franchise high for a single season (7,386 in 1999). Their 6,841 yards is already the third highest total in Tiger-Cat history, and they’d need 446 yards to match No. 2 (7,287 in 2004)
1,000 — According to CFL Stats the number of games the Alouettes franchise will have played as of Saturday’s kickoff. (They’ve been reborn three times after folding, as the Concordes in 1982 and as the Alouettes again in 1986 and 1996). In the previous 999 games they are exactly .500 at 489-489-21 and have scored an aggregate of only two more points than they have allowed in that very large sample.