Tiger-Cats have lost their kick
Just because it’s as rare as three straight solar eclipses, it doesn’t mean you ever want to see it happen. Especially not this.
For the first time in Jeff Reinebold’s long, long coaching career, his team has suffered blocked punts in three successive games.
“I’ve gone three years in a row before without having any blocked,” says the Tiger-Cats special teams co-ordinator. “We were telling the guys today that we went through 500 punts here without one. And then they came.”
And so did the derivative points. When Brett Maher’s punt was blocked in Calgary three weeks ago, it cost the visitors a field goal. Blocks by the Argos in back-toback games cost Hamilton a touchdown each time. Ex-Cat Justin Hickman’s third-quarter block inside the Ticats’ 30-yard line Sunday night took less than a minute to convert into a touchdown, the major that put the Argos ahead for good in their commendable comeback.
“I don’t really know the answer to what happened right off the top of my head,” Maher said after the game. “I think a lot of teams are doing the same thing to us. Giving us pressure up the middle. We have to figure out how to handle it.
“I’m sure I’ll have a better answer once I watch the tape.”
The relevant coaches — Reinebold and Kent Austin — watched the tape and say this:
“It was an individual bust,” according to the head coach. In other words, personal miscue, not schematic flaw. But, as is their custom, the Ticats would not name the player. Not their style to let a man dangle in the media wind. “I’m never going to point the finger at players,” Reinebold said, echoing his boss. “When there’s a breakdown, no matter how that breakdown occurs, we all share in the responsibility. This is a team game and, as we pointed out to the players in the meeting today, when those kinds of mistakes occur the whole team suffers.
“That’s why playing on special teams is such a unique thing. An offensive lineman misses a block, the quarterback gets sacked and they call on the punt team to clean up the mess. A defensive lineman can jump in the wrong hole, and a linebacker will make a tackle at eight yards and you get a chance to play again.
“But, when you’re in the kicking game, those plays involve such huge transitions in field position, in every aspect, that each of those plays is critical. They’re amplified.
“Player mistakes are coaching opportunities and that’s the way we’re going to approach it.”
And, maybe, take some solace in the belief that bad things tend to happen in threes, not fours. NOTES: Hamilton has signed defensive end Louie Richardson. The University of Manitoba grad made the Ticats as a free agent in 2012, played two years here, then went to Winnipeg for two more. He was released earlier this year. Kent Austin said he will bolster special teams . ... Running back C.J. Gable, OT Peter Dyakowski and wide receiver Terrence Toliver didn’t practise but Austin said there was nothing seriously wrong with anything of them . ... Defensive tackle Jake Olson wore a helmet at practice for the first time since he was injured a year ago next Monday, but his return to play is not imminent.