TICATS ROAR BACK TO LIFE ON LABOUR DAY
Hamilton passing game shreds Argos in second half, writes Frank Zicarelli.
HAMILTON The Argonauts wasted a 13-point lead and a career game from Derel Walker and were basically laid to waste in the Labour Day Classic, yet again proving how this Toronto team is good enough in stretches, but not good enough for an entire game.
Walker recorded 203 receiving yards on the day.
The game ball on this day should be reserved for Tigercats offensive co-ordinator Tommy Condell, who worked for the Argos for two seasons before returning to the Hammer.
Condell made all the right adjustments in the second half after his offence was under siege by an aggressive Argos defence that forced turnovers and recorded sacks.
“I’m not frustrated at all,”
Argos head coach Corey Chamblin said afterwards. “Like I told the guys in there, the one thing we have to do is we’ve shown we (can be competitive). It’s always going to be a tale of two halves. It’s not just one half of football.
“We put together some good things in one half, but we have to find a way to put together a whole game. The biggest thing is when we have a lead in the second half, that we don’t self-destruct. We have to make sure we keep the lead, and that’s offence, defence and special teams.”
The problem all season has been that the Argos offence can’t produce touchdowns when it matters most.
The Argos, now 1-9, were leading 24-11 at halftime, but lost 38-27 as the Ticats improved to 9-2 and seem well on their way to hosting the East Final in November.
Hamilton’s offence simply abused Toronto’s secondary in the third quarter, exposing the Argos’ inability to cover.
The Argos did record two more sacks in the quarter, but they couldn’t get the Ticats off the field as Hamilton scored 10 points.
Toronto took a 27-21 lead into the fourth quarter, but momentum had swung Hamilton’s way.
With 13:17 to play, Hamilton moved ahead 28-27 following a Jackson Bennett touchdown run, a career-first for the University of Ottawa product.
Dane Evans completed 19 passes in a row before throwing an incompletion, tosses a high school quarterback could complete, given how bad Toronto’s back end played.
Evans had a career game after looking so pedestrian in the opening half. What changed was how Hamilton designed its second-half schemes, and for that, Condell gets all the credit.
The Argos had a real shot to blow the Ticats off the field in a dominant first half, but the offence failed miserably to capitalize on all the turnovers. Toronto quarterback Mcleod Bethel-thompson was average at best, his game going sideways as the game unfolded.
Hamilton’s secondary lost two players to ejections and one to injury, but it found a way to regroup at the break.
The Argos had no run game to speak of, and no Brandon Burks, who was placed on the six-game injured list.
James Wilder Jr. played for the first time since Toronto’s visit to Calgary on July 18 and was a complete non-factor.
Wilder Jr. was in the middle of
We put together some good things in one half, but we have to find a way to put together a whole game.
a melee involving Simoni Lawrence in the game’s opening half, two players who like to shoot their mouths off and pose for the cameras.
When the dust settled and order was restored, Frankie Williams and Tunde Adeleke were ejected.
Undaunted, the Ticats found a way to persevere, and when the second half began, Hamilton was clearly the better team.
Emotions ran high and the game would end with emotions getting the better of players on both teams.
“Each and every time we have a setback, we can’t let it snowball,” Chamblin said. “We have to find a way to step up. The team in the other locker-room found a way to do it. In the second half they came out and they came out together.”