Final Four Games still about Winning for Tiger-Cats but Now also About Jobs

After a must-win game in which they did not quit but, more significantly, did not win the grim reality was quick to take hold.

The faint glimmer of a playoff hope has been all but snuffed and, as Ticat co-captain Stavros Katsantonis said afterward, “everyone’s kind of playing for their jobs now. I think everything’s being evaluated even more than it probably normally would be if you’re winning.”

And the Ticats are not winning. Friday night’s 37-25 defeat was not only their third loss of the season to the first-place Montréal Alouettes, it was their fourth loss in a row, and eighth in their last 10 games.

Toronto has virtually clinched second place in the East, up eight points after a 24-19 victory over Edmonton on Saturday and owning the tie-breaker with the Cats. So if they beat Winnipeg Saturday, they formally seize the second guaranteed playoff spot in the conference. And in the cross-over playoff battle, four Western teams already have seven wins or more and the Cats would need to catch at least one of them. But now the Cats can reach only a maximum of eight wins.

Coming off a long-needed bye week and facing an Alouettes team which was missing several key components, especially on defence, the Ticats inexplicably started slowly, dropped behind 24-0 late in the first half, and 24-3 going into the intermission.

They did score 22 straight fourth-quarter points against a prevent defence that didn’t prevent, but it was too late and head coach Scott Milanovich said that the score didn’t reflect the balance of play and he was entirely correct in that honest appraisal.

“They didn't quit; they kept fighting, they kept playing hard but the score flattered us,” Milanovich said of his team. “I thought we got whipped for three quarters and we made it something of a game in the fourth quarter, which I appreciate, but I thought they handled us for most of the game.”

Davis Alexander showed why he’s among the leading contenders for Most Outstanding Player, completing 21 of 27 passes, two of them for touchdowns, his 28^th and 29^th of the season against just three interceptions. He orchestrated thoughtful drives that sliced into the home team’s defence like a new X-acto blade, and made good decision after good decision. At the same time, the Ticats missed too many tackles—particularly against running back Stevie Scott III and receiver Tyson Philpot—and often played too far off the intelligent Als receivers, eight of whom caught passes. One of them was an offensive tackle, Donny Ventrelli, who scored the game’s first touchdown. It was that kind of game.

And it’s been that kind of season since Bo Levi Mitchell was injured.

The sure-handed Philpot showed why he too should be in the MOP conversation, scoring his league-leading 12^th receiving touchdown of the season and inhaling two late-on side kickoffs when the Cats had mounted their 22-point rally behind three quick, lengthy and decisive drives by Hamilton quarterback Harrison Frost.

But Frost was also picked off four times and was among the players in the post-game podium interviews and in the locker room who agreed that the final four games—home and away with West division leaders Edmonton and East and league cellar-dwelling Ottawa—were becoming about possible future employment in Hamilton.

“I told them that anytime you're in professional football and you're having a season like this, there's four games left, you coach and you play for your jobs,” Milanovich said. “And that's the way it should be. That's why we get paid to play a game, paid to coach a game. Not many people get a chance to do it. And results are expected and production is mandated. So, I think everybody's going to have to grasp that fact and we'll see what we're made of.”

The Alouettes climbed to 11-3 including a perfect 7-0 within the East division while the Ticats are at a disappointing 4-10.

Despite a couple of promising mid-game drives that dried up—one into a field goal when they ran out of time at the end of the first half at the Als’ five-yard line, another on Frost’s second interception—this game was never really in doubt for the Als.

Even the Cats’ normally dominant third-and-short game was ravaged for severe damage as Jake Dolegala was stripped of the ball at midfield and defensive back Nate Beauchemin emerged from a scrum of confused players to ramble 57 yards for the touchdown that put the Als up 16-0 in the second quarter.

Down 7-0 late in the first quarter Frost had moved the Cats to a couple of first downs, but his pass was picked off at midfield on a great play by leaping defensive lineman Lwal Uguak, which led to a Montreal field goal.

"I think it comes down to those first two turnovers," Milanovich said of the deep early deficit, which was universally disappointing for a team knowing what was at stake. “The interception, which was a nice play by their guy, that wasn't the worst of the interceptions for sure. And then, obviously, the fumble on the sneak. That's 14 points and at that time it should've been 7-0. Then we got into a situation where we had to throw it a bunch.”

Down so much, so early, the Ticats could not establish Larry Rountree III on the run and Frost was compelled to throw 50 times. Too many were errant, or thrown too hard, but he did show what he can do with touchdown passes to Kiondré Smith, Kurleigh Gittens Jr. and Keric Wheatfall on the first three possessions of the fourth quarter, plus a pair of two-point converts (and a miss). Those 22 points covered 207 yards in a combined seven-and-a-half minutes.

But the final two drives were both snuffed by Montréal interceptions.

“I didn't have it today,” Frost said. “Four turnovers is not going to win you a game. I missed countless other throws. I think guys are working, doing everything they can, working as hard as they can. And unfortunately, the ball is just not bouncing our way this year.”

Milanovich said that, for the most part, he liked what Frost showed in the fourth quarter, pointing out that despite being outplayed, the Cats still had a chance near the end with the two onside kickoffs but “we need to keep the three touchdowns and lose the four turnovers.”

Coming after a week’s rest, an extra day of practice and the indefensible Labour Day loss to the Argos, it was deeply disheartening for Ticat Nation to see their club plunge behind so far so early, with so much so clearly on the line.

“I feel like we played hard but we had to be better,” said defensive end Phil Ossai. “I can only speak for myself and I definitely had to be better but I’m sure you could go around this whole locker room and every single person would say what I’m telling you…. we can do better.”

Katsantonis said that as a team leader he’ll own the blame and said while there’s still a flicker of a chance, it’s hard to talk about winning the final four when they’ve lost four straight.

“So that’s the focus, obviously, winning the next one,” he said. “But I think just being in the situation before, everything's going to be looked at from the top down in this organization. And they're going to find out who wants to be here and who doesn't. And sometimes maybe that's a good thing, right? If you're playing for pride, you'll find out who really wants to be here and who doesn't. Who wants to be here because they want to play for Hamilton and play for the Steel City and go out there and knock heads?”

The Ticats head to Edmonton for a Saturday night game while the Als get their bye week before facing a tough quartet of foes to finish their regular season, two games against Saskatchewan sandwiched between a home date with Winnipeg and a season finale in Toronto.

CATS CLAUSES: Cats QB Harrison Frost was 33-for-50 and 330 yards, with 4 interceptions and 3 touchdowns … Kiondré Smith had 99 yards and a TD on 6 catches … Kurleigh Gittens Jr. caught 9 passes for 72 yards and a TD … Kenny Lawler had 4 catches for 33 yards and a two-point conversion grab … Keric Wheatfall had 5 receptions for 60 yards and a touchdown while Larry Rountree III had five catches for 25 yards but carried the ball just 6 times for 34 yards … Hamilton’s only sack was recorded by Miles Fox and the Cats didn’t allow any … Daniel Bell had a special teams tackle for the 9^th game in a row … Hamilton mounted 381 net offensive yards, the Als 319 … Montréal converted 50 percent of their 20 second downs, the Cats 64 per cent of their 22 … when Jose Maltos Diaz hit the upright it was the first missed field goal in the CFL after 36 straight successful three-pointers, including two in this game by Maltos Diaz and one by Marc Liegghio on the final play of the first half when the crowd was urging Scott Milanovich to go for a touchdown, but the head coach said he’d learned to take the points when you can and the Cats needed to make 5 yards for a major. Had it been 1 or 2, he said, he might have gone for the end zone … Als QB Davis Alexander was 21-for-27 for 218 yards and 2 TDs … RB Stevie Scott III ran 21 times for 108 yards … QB Caleb Evans scored a short-yardage TD … 8 different Als caught passes, led by Tyson Philpot’s 6 catches for 57 yards … when OL Donald Ventrelli caught Alexander’s pass for the game’s first score it was the first Davis TD pass since July 31 (14 TDs) not caught by Philpot or Tyler Snead … LB Geoffrey Cantin-Arku led both teams with 8 defensive tackles … Tyrell Richards had two thunderous special teams tackles … the 6-member Canadian Football Hall of Fame class of 2026 was introduced at halftime after being formally inducted at a televised ceremony in the stadium’s Caretaker’s Lounge Thursday night. The 5 inducted players are: former Ticat stars Brandon Banks and Calvin Tiggle; defensive end Charleston Hughes; and running back the late Jim Evenson; the late Pop Ivy who coached Edmonton to three straight Grey Cup wins over the Montréal Alouettes in the mid-1950s and introduced the twin fullback and “shotgun” sets was inducted as a builder. Neither Banks nor Tiggle was able to attend, but sent recorded messages of gratitude … attendance was 18,078.