Recap: Too many costly penalties in Ticats’ loss to Redblacks but there were some positives too

A CFL exhibition game—especially the first one — is not always about the present: although, with the first live hitting of the calendar year, it is definitely played in the moment. But it’s mostly about delayed time, because the important takeaway is what the game tape says about the little things that went on that might go unnoticed in the heat of action.

So, much of the impact of the Tiger-Cats’ 31-22 loss to the visiting Ottawa Redblacks Saturday afternoon will not be felt until the coaching staff dissect the minutiae, dozens of times over, in the critical darkness of the film room.

But there were a few things which were clear to the naked eye, some positive and some negative.

To wit: Too many dropped passes, something head coach Scott Milanovich said, and we agree with him, has not been a problem in the two weeks of training camp so far; Bo Levi Mitchell’s trajectory toward opening night in Calgary is continuing on track; No. 2 quaterback, Taylor Powell can use his legs to open space on the offence; the Ticats will commit to establishing a run, although, yardage-wise they weren’t overly successful against a stars-missing Ottawa defence; Lawrence Woods can threaten every time he touches the ball on punt returns; and, finally, if Milanovich sees something he doesn’t like, he’s not going to pull punches about it.

And the head coach did not like how many penalties his club took, notably on special teams.

“It felt fun right up to the point where we took about five penalties on special teams in the first quarter,” Milanovich said in his opening post-game sentence. “I told the players and coaches that you’re either coaching  it or allowing it to happen and it’s not going to be allowed to happen.

“Guys are going to be evaluated on special teams as well as on offence and defence. Special teams in pre-season games with so many people are a little bit of nightmare but that was unacceptable. To some degree you expect a little of that. You’re not going to condone that, but it was just too many times.

“It was a lack of focus, it was a lack of attention to details. Those are things that throughout the season end up getting you beat. We have to get better as coaches and we have to get better as players or we’re going to have to find ones that we can count on.”

Having got that out there, Milanovich did note some positives, including his team’s overall effort, some good punt returning, and the pressure that his starting defence put on Ottawa’s No. 1 quarterback Dru Brown.

Because he’s also the offensive coordinator, Milanovich often can’t dissect the inner story of defence as it’s happening until he’s reviewed the films with his staff because he is concentrating on mounting his next offensive play-calling series. But we’ll suggest that beyond the high-level starting unit, some of the players in the B grouping who came on later did well too, among them defensive lineman Trevon Mason who had a couple of big stops, and Canadian defensive back Robert Panabaker who had a thunderous hit that was reminiscent of starting safety Stavros Katsantonis.

Running the no-huddle offence which he loves and to which Milanovich is committed, Mitchell and the A offence found a rhythm in the second half. He and his coach both said there were about three throws he’d like to re-do but he did complete 10 of his 16 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown before giving way to Powell late in the second quarter.

Mitchell  was introduced to the no-huddle at SMU under then-future and now-former Ticat head coach June Jones, with whom he’s still in contact. As the team is whittled down from its current 90-plus men to the regular-season complement of 46 next weekend, the reduced numbers should hone the timing and speed of the hurry-up offence.

One starter—and it’s likely he’ll remain one—who benefits from the quick offence is 6-foot-4 wide receiver Shemar Bridges. He caught four passes with the No 1 unit, and passed a couple of tests. On his first catch, a half-minute into his first pro game, he was absolutely smoked  by Ottawa cornerback Dishon McNary, but held onto the ball. Later, on a perfect pattern, and even more perfect throw from Mitchell he dropped the ball in open space, with touchdown on his mind. Later, though, he executed a nice post pattern and took Mitchell’s pass into the end zone.

“It does a lot for my confidence,” Bridges said of following up a miscue with a major. “A couple of years ago I think I would have let that drown me. (The drop) was not something I usually do. I was worried about going up field, I was wide open.

“For me to go the sidelines and first to have my coaches and teammates say ‘Hey you’re going to get another one,’ and  then me telling myself, ‘All right; maturity. I’m going to be all right.’ And then my coach calling the play and Bo getting me the ball, that means a lot to me. Just the confidence they have in me and the confidence I felt in myself was really good for me. It was a blessing experience in my first game to take me through the rest of the season.”

Mitchell recalled that in the first exhibition game last year Justin McGriff, the sensation of rookie camp, dropped an early pass and Mitchell then hit him too for a major. But he said going back to Bridges—and it was several plays later—was not as much about stoking his confidence as making the right read on that particular play.

After moving to Tim Hortons Field for just one day,  the Ticats moved back to their bivouac at McMaster where they’ll begin preparations for next Saturday’s game in Guelph against the Toronto Argonauts.

Among those preparations will be focusing on some details of execution and a reminder from Milanovich about not taking penalties, especially on special teams.

“I felt like we had a couple of good returns–again nullified by penalties — and those are things that you get beat on in the long run,” he said, extending his analysis to how mental mistakes happen on all three units in the first pre-season games.

“When guys haven’t played in a while, a year or whatever it’s been, they lose their discipline they lose their technique and their fundamentals and they get out there in a game….

“Coach (Paul) Boudreau’s special teams have been the best in the league six of the last seven years (in avoiding penalties). I know that will be a big emphasis tomorrow and the rest of training camp.”

Ticats Clauses:   Taylor Powell was 7-for-14 for 68 yards, had a nice 13-yard run and was strip-sacked on a blitz that wasn’t picked up… Kevin Thomson went 5-for-12 with a touchdown pass and ran for 21 yards in his close-out stint… place-kicker Marc Liegghio was 3-for-3 in field goals, all from 42 yards and in … Dev Holmes had a Ticat touchdown and Tim White was a perfect 4-for-4 in receptions as his teammates did a solid job clearing space for him… Ottawa starter Dru Brown was 4-for-6 for just 26 yards in limited minutes, replacement Dustin Crum was 10-for-16 for 108 yards and a touchdown … Redblack majors went to  Crum. Ryquell Armstead, and former Ticat Jon’Vea Johnson … Lawrence Woods III  had a long return called back on a penalty but Kaylon Geiger followed it up with a 31-yard return on the replay …  Defensive lineman Curtis Woodmansey was hurt with just 88 seconds left in the game and had to be removed from the field by a golf cart with an apparent knee injury. One of the concerned players out there on the field with him was his older brother Coulter Woodmansey, the starting offensive right guard. The whole team eventually came out to support the two brothers.