White Rebounds, Defence Gets Takeaways but Cats Fall to 0-4

They doubled the number of takeaways they had in the first three games combined and Tim White got his luxury train back on the rails–and then some–but the Tiger-Cats still ended up where they had on each of the previous three Sunday nights.

Watching the other team celebrate the two points they’d just stuffed into their pockets.

Lewis Ward’s 46-yard field goal with exactly zero seconds left on the clock capped a frenetic final four minutes of what had been, up until then, a game mostly without sustained rhythm, and gave the Ottawa Redblacks a 24-22 victory over the still-winless Tiger-Cats.

It is definitely time to be, not panicky, but concerned. Maybe very concerned. Hamilton dropped to a worrisome 0-4 and is stalled a full four points in the CFL East behind Ottawa and Toronto, both 2-1 and red-hot Montreal which has leapt lengths ahead at 4-0.

And although the Cats come back in after playing three of their four on the road for a couple of home games—separated by their first bye week– there’s more frying pan to the fire to that than there is automatic relief. Next up is the B.C. Lions and after the bye, the Toronto Argonauts. They are in second place in their respective conferences and among the league’s top half. The Ticats meanwhile dwell in the bottom third of the CFL, marooned for the moment with fellow 0-4 starters Winnipeg and Edmonton.

“You’re frustrated because obviously you want the win and you’re in the bottom of the standings,” said Bo Levi Mitchell who passed for two touchdowns and 322 yards, but whose offence couldn’t finish often enough as Marc Liegghio had to kick, successfully, three field goals.

“So I think that’s the tough part, knowing that we’ve got an uphill road to climb. In my mind, I’m still trying to catch Montreal. In my mind it’s about first place, not just trying to make the playoffs.  It’s a long season. I’ve been in the CFL a long time and I know that things can change quickly. So, we just have to keep our heads up and keep moving.”

You’d be excused for thinking the Ticats had the game won when Mitchell completed an exemplary 61-yard drive by finding Shemar Bridges, an early candidate for CFL rookie of the year, at the Ottawa goal line for the touchdown that put the Ticats up by a point with just 28 seconds left to play.

But a 27-yard kickoff return by Tobias Harris –this time, not deadly Devonte Dedmon—a nine-yard catch by former Ticat Jaelon Acklin, who had a very strong night, and a 3rd-and-1 completion to Bralon Addison—yes, another former Ticat—when the Cats, knowing quarterback Dru Brown would be throwing, couldn’t get what they desperately needed: either their first sack of the night or a big pass knockdown on tighter coverage than they mounted. They got neither and Ward had all the time he needed to win.

This had such an air of deflating familiarity to it.

With two minutes to go, the Redblacks, who’d had to punt on four of their previous five possessions, required only five plays and 84 seconds to drive 54 yards for a 22-16 lead. They rode three big moments by Ryquell Armstead (two runs, one pass) and a touchdown pass from Dru Brown to star receive Justin Hardy to transform 20,315 Canada Day weekend attendees from dismay to mild delirium.

Mitchell muted them with his answering drive, but a miscommunication and hurried throw on the two-point convert gave the Redblacks a bit of hope and they made the most of the faint chance of new life. The Ticat defence, so effective much of the night, was complicit in that resurrection.

“It’s frustrating to lose any game but that’s two now (the home loss to Saskatchewan) we’ve kind of lost that way,” said head coach Scott Milanovich. “I just told the guys I wish I could yell and scream at them but they’re giving nothing but effort. There’s total buy-in, they’re working hard every day and we just have to keep at it. There are no magic words to make this feel any better.

“When you see the film, you see things you don’t see during the game –-this could have been the difference or this could have been the difference—but they played hard for a full game.

“I thought it was a pretty good team effort for the most part, we didn’t score enough points offensively. They scored 10 at the very end in— What was it? Three minutes? and they got the win.

“We were bogging down (on offence) kind of just outside the red zone. We’ll have to look and see where the mistakes were. We had too many penalties on offence again, too many first and longs and second and longs, that’s part of the problem.”

A problem here, a problem there and they add up, despite a couple of problems the Ticats corrected. Their first takeaway of the season came last week when Jamal Peters made an interception, and they got one on the first play Sunday when Robert Panabaker stripped Dedmon from behind on the opening kickoff and Felix Garand-Gauthier recovered it. A couple of plays later Mitchell hit White in the end zone and he made an outstanding catch, not only giving Hamilton the lead and not buoying his clearly sagging confidence but showing the killer instinct that characterizes Mitchell when he’s in a groove. But despite his apparent successful numbers, Mitchell felt he wasn’t on often enough, and he’s always the first to point that out.

“To be completely honest I just didn’t think I played a good enough game,” Mitchell said, despite his 322 yards and two touchdown passes. “I know we had that last drive, but I feel like this offence is so good …and I missed a couple of reads tonight that took us off the field. And again, it leaves the defence out there. I know it’s going to happen, and I’m not going to beat myself up about it. Just the two-point (convert miss).  And we’d be at a three-point game. And into overtime. Small things I gotta clean up.”

White was able to bounce back—like he was on a trampoline– from a series of dropped passes and miscommunications with Mitchell over the first three games. He did have a fumble, but teammate James Tuck recovered it. He caught eight passes for 118 yards and had one rush for a couple of yards, and after Lawrence Woods III was hurt, he was forced into return duty, handling six punts for 48 yards and a couple of kickoffs for another 46. That’s 218 total yards.

“I saw Bo flush out, so I just went deep, kind of like a scramble drill,” White said of the mood-alerting opening touchdown catch. “I just had to capitalize on it. Those are plays we have to make and expect to make.

“It felt good. I felt like natural, more myself. It wasn’t a perfect game. I put a fumble on the ground which is unacceptable. I’m just looking to bounce back and continue to grind.”

With power back James Butler still completing concussion protocol after being hit in the head last week in Saskatchewan, Greg Bell came off the practice roster and into the backfield. He started fairly slowly but Milanovich remained committed to the run and the “long handoff” (a short pass to a running back delaying out of the backfield).

After three runs and three catches in the first half (for 34 total yards) in the second half, he found his gait, and some better holes, with 10 rushes for 39 yards and four catches for another 23 yards. That gave him 20 touches overall for 96 yards from scrimmage.

“I was proud of him,” Mitchell said. “I thought he had a great game. I thought he did a hell of a job catching the football. That’s not an easy team to run the football against. That’s something they pride themselves on, trying to stop that run game. I thought our O line moved people better tonight against a very very good D line, a veteran group. And I thought (Bell) hit some cutback lanes that were amazing, did a great job on a checkdown there at the end of the game. All in all, great first game.”

And of course, Mitchell was glad to see White re-establish himself so emphatically with the big catch and touchdown and continue the rest of the way.

“We have a great connection,” he said.  “I think Tim had a slow start last year and he came on and led the league in receiving. We know who he is and he knows who he is. It was great to see him get it going and see him get the confidence and start to be a bit more vocal out there. When he’s on it makes our offence a little easier.

“He’s got great hands. I know he had that drop early, but that’s not who he is. He’s an amazing receiver with an awesome skill set.”

And yet, despite White’s resurgence, 379 yards in net offence, having five more minutes possession than Ottawa and Liegghio’s perfect 3-for-3 night, the Ticats still put up only 22 points. And despite allowing only 24, the defence again couldn’t get the big stop, when they needed it at the end.

Which leads to how Mitchell describes the current atmosphere:

“Urgency. We don’t have time to take the day off and go home and watch a movie. We need to be in the film room and find out: ‘Hey what can you do individually to get better?’ And that’s me, that’s every single player, it’s every single coach. We’re in this together, we’re all going to get there together so if we want to get to where we want to go we all have to get better.”

There are a lot of other descriptives you could apply to the 0-4 start but “urgency” will do just fine.

CATS CLAUSES: Steven Dunbar Jr. had four receptions for 90 yards and Shemar Bridges six for 39 yards … Ante Litre failed to convert on a third and short for the first time this year but did make it in his second attempt … Marc Liegghio now has made 9 of his 10 field goals this year … MLB Kyle Wilson led the Ticats with six tackles and has 16 in the last two games … DE Nick Usher had five tackles, two of them for lost yards … Ottawa quarterback Dru Brown was 24-for-39  for 265 yards and a TD (Justin Hardy) … backup quarterback Dustin Crum scored on a short-yardage play for Ottawa … Ryquell Armstead had 10 carries for 51 yards and six receptions for 53 yards … Jaelon Acklin caught seven passes for 90 yards, and Bralon Addison five for 44 … LB Frankie Griffin had 11 tackles as the Ottawa linebacking crew of he, Jovan Santos-Knox and Adarius Pickett combined for 23 defensive tackles. Pickett had three more on special teams … Benoit Marion, DQ Thomas and Daniel Bell all had two Ticat special teams tackle…Scott Milanovich was 2-for-2 in  coaches challenges over pass interference Sunday night