After B.C., Ticats’ focus turns to the East
Hamilton begins back-to-back with Lions with six games to go
If you parse the season into three mathematically balanced parts, as so many CFL coaches do, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ final third begins Saturday night.
Twelve down — as many on the left side of the ledger as on the right — and six to go.
But not all thirds are created equal. This one, the one that starts at 10 p.m. against the B.C. Lions on the left coast, is the most important and was always going to be.
The Ticats at 6-and-6 and Lions at 5-6 are roughly equal in flatout numbers but definitely unequal in the predatory nature of their respective conferences.
June Jones has talked to his players about six-game chunks all season, and was asked this week where he thinks they are after the first two of those.
“It’s where we thought we’d be,” he said. “It’s going to come down to the end with those Eastern games (Toronto, Ottawa, Ottawa, Montreal to finish).
“This one we’d like to steal on the road if we can because we lost one last week at home.”
That would be the 43-28 demise to Calgary, which doesn’t mean as much as how the Ticats respond to it this week in B.C. and in next week’s return match at Tim Hortons Field.
It will be their first back-toback against the Lions in five years and just the fourth in the 38 seasons the CFL East and West teams have been playing against each other twice per season .
“In the first phase of the season we went 2-and-4, the second phase we went 4-2, so we’re looking for this phase to be much better than the previous ones,” says Hamilton cornerback Jamal Rolle, who returns to the starting lineup after missing a game in concussion protocol. “We want to be in a situation where we can win the division. To get in that situation, we need to win Saturday. There’s no special equation to the formula: it’s prepare and win.”
They’ll have to do it without Brandon Banks, their leading receiver and most dynamic player. His groin will keep him out a second straight game.
Tailback Alex Green is also out with injury, but there’s a more proven and seasoned replacement for him in John White.
“We’re still in a great position,” White says of the Ticats’ sea-level record. “We just have to pay attention to the details because that’s what’s going to win these close games at the end of the season.”
White, whose ACL injury cost him all but the first two games of his 2017 season in Edmonton, was signed in June and played his only three games for Hamilton in July, when he was under-utilized as a ball carrier. Understandably, he’s like a colt ready to burst out of the barn and he’s lost more than 25 pounds since he arrived in town.
He hopes to get the ball 15 times but understands that his major assignment will be to shield Jeremiah Masoli from a B.C. defence that leads the CFL in sacks.
“They play fast, their front four is very aggressive,” Jones says. “They’re No. 1 on take-aways on defence because they play aggressive and they play fast at home because of that (field) surface.”
Jones had head-coached only three CFL games when he led the Ticats into the dome at B.C. Place last September and came out with a 24-23 victory on Sergio Castillo’s last-minute 50-yard field goal. It was the first time Hamilton had won in Vancouver since 2011, six years and three head coaches earlier.
The Ticats won six of Jones’ 10 games, while the 2017 Lions lost eight of their last 10.
But, this autumn, they could play a big role in each other’s late-season fate. The two games with the Lions represent the first third of the Ticats’ final third.
“June divided the season up into thirds, first six, second six, and this is the most important six,” says Ticat defensive end Justin Capicciotti. “You’re either going to ride the wave up all the way to the playoffs or you’re going to go down.
“Even though we played a tough Calgary game, I think we’re on our way up.”
Every Ticat speaks along exactly those lines but, as always in the most important third, the proof can come only on the scoreboard.