Labour Day Setback Pushes Tiger-Cats Into Must-Win Territory

There were numerous Ticats plays that weren’t made and serious mistakes that were, but underneath it all lies a basic football truth. The Toronto Argonauts came into a hostile environment and simply outplayed the Cats.

When that happens on its own turf in front of a sold-out audience yearning to celebrate, a team needs big plays. They also need freedom from costly penalties, turnovers and dropped passes, and they need sustained complementary football to overcome the imbalance of play.

The Ticats didn’t get nearly enough of those things Monday afternoon at Hamilton Stadium, although there was a brief and hopeful glimmer of the Ghosts of Labour Days past. The Cats, decimated all game by injuries, pulled to within a single score at 30-22 with still nearly three minutes to play, behind quarterback Harrison Frost who had come off the bench for injured Tre Ford.

But the Argos emphatically slammed that door, with a definitive closing drive that was abetted by a pass interference penalty to win 37-22 and plunge the Ticats into a precarious position.

The bleak reality now facing the Ticats, besides losing their second straight Labour Day Classic and third of the last four, is that they are now four points back of the second-place Argos, which is effectively five points because Toronto won the season’s series, the primary tiebreaker. And every team in the West has more wins than the Ticats in the divisional cross-over playoff race.

The Ticats have five games remaining; two against Ottawa, two against West powerhouse Edmonton and one against East powerhouse Montréal Alouettes who come to town after the Cats’ bye week … which started after last night’s game.

“It was a three-phase loss quite honestly,” Milanovich said. “Special teams put us in a hole a few times with field position, the defence didn’t get off the field in 2^nd-down-and-long, and the offence didn’t do well enough to flip the field when they had us pinned.”

Despite coming out flat, the Ticats actually led 7-6 early in the second quarter by holding Argo drives to a couple of field goals and getting a touchdown run from Ford who hit his head on the turf on the play which later took him out of the game. But Chad Kelly engineered two touchdown drives in the final six minutes of the first half, including one in which he completed 108 yards of passes to lead 20-7. And they never looked back.

The Cats also lost right guard Nate Dumoulin-Duguay to injury before the game and his replacement Jonathan Denis during it, while linebacker Braxton Hill also incurred injury. Several other Ticats were hurt and had to leave the field but eventually returned to play.

The Cats took nine penalties for 105 yards, but the yardage understates the state of the damage. It started early with Tyler Ternowski’s over-aggressive no-yards penalty at the Argo goal line andincluded a later nullification of a long Isaiah Wooden Sr. return in the fourth quarter when Ante Litre contacted the kicker. That allowed a key Toronto scoring drive to continue.

“It’s shocking,” Milanovich said of the costly flags. “We’ve been a reasonably disciplined team most of the time. I saw a number of them and thought most of them were good calls. I haven’t seen all of them, but I’ll be taking a close look.”

As well as the penalties, the Ticats surrendered three sacks, turned the ball over on a rare Kenny Lawler fumble as they were nearing the end zone, dropped a couple of passes and Frost was picked off by DaShaun Amos on his fourth play after entering the game to open the second half. The former Ticat ran the ball back 55 yards and Burlington native Isaiah Smith plunged in from the 1-yard line to give the Argos their eventually insurmountable 27-7 lead.

After Ford had gone 4-for-9 for 75 yards and rushed for 36 yards and his TD, Frost was 16-for-28 for 218 yards for two TDs, both by Kurleigh Gittens Jr.

Kelly was 23-for-35 for 319 yards, was picked off by Jamal Peters, and threw TD passes to Jake Herslow, David Ungerer Jr., and Damonte Coxie who had a brilliant game.

Kelly and Co. were dominant on second down especially, as Milanovich noted, on longer yardage. Needing seven or more yards they were 8-for-16 in conversions, mostly attacking the wide side, which went a long way toward deciding this game.

“I made a lot of mistakes, throwing a pick and a lot of misthrows,” said Frost, “but we fought to the end.”

Still, after the late Ticat score on a threaded Frost pass, there was that chance for some kind of Labour Day magic, but the spell was broken by the Argos’ well-designed last drive.

And to be fair, they deserved the win because—with a few exceptions—they won the battle of the trenches where it always starts and usually ends. The Cats couldn’t establish a running game, gave up three sacks, made only one themselves and gave Kelly far too much time, too many times.

“They protected with seven or eight guys a lot, and they found ways to make a play,” said Ticatdefensive end Julian Howsare. “It’s tough but the only thing you can do is continue to move forward, continue to fight and give it all we have. The season is not over and as much as this hurts you have to use it as fuel to motivate you, figure out what’s wrong and fix it.”

Keric Wheatfall had five catches for 70 yards to give him 246 yards on 12 catches against the Argos in their three games this year. He agreed that the Ticats, desperately needing a win, struggled to find rhythm and consistency in the first half.

“It was a big surprise to me,” he said. “They basically came out and played better. They played a great first half. We have to find a way to play better and start faster and stronger.

“It doesn’t feel too good. This was a big game and could change a lot of things but we have to push back, regroup and figure out what’s holding us back.” CATS CLAUSES: Arguably, the best Ticat on the day was punter Mitch McCarthy whose 6 punts averaged 56.7 yards and netted 42.3 yards per … Kurleigh Gittens Jr. led the Cats with 7 catches for 94 yards and 2 TDs … Kenny Lawler caught 3 for 66 and Kiondré Smith 2 for 47 … in his first CFL game RB Nahree Biggins rushed 7 times for 36 yards and caught 2 passes for 15 yards … attendance was a sellout at 25,709 … Phil Ossai had the only Ticat sack … RG Nate Dumoulin-Duguay was a game-time scratch with injury so rookie Jonathan Denis moved up to start and Brayden Szeman came off the practice roster as the OL backup … former Ticat and Western head coach Greg Marshall was the Alumnus of Distinction … DB Destin Talbert, who has rarely been called for PI in his career, was flagged twice … the Ticats had 344 yards net offence, the Argos 382 … Argo WR Damonte Coxie caught 6 balls for 100 yards and 1 TD, Tyler Kahmann had 5 catches, all on second down, for 84 yards, giving him 18 catches and 262 yards vs. Hamilton this year, David Ungerer III had 4 catches and a touchdown for 71 yards … Lirim Hajrullahu was 3-for-3 in FGs … James Caesar, Da’Marcus Johnson and Ralph Holley had the Argo sacks …. Toronto LBs Isaac Darkangelo and Adarius Pickett were solid with 8 and 7 tackles respectively… Benjie Franklin caused the rare fumble by Kenny Lawler.