It was only pre-season but some good indicators for Ticats, including the “win” on draft night

A win is a win, especially against Toronto and even in a pre-season game because there’s competitive muscle memory involved. Get used to the feeling and maybe it becomes a habit.

So, while there were a lot of the expected rough edges to the Ticats’ victory over the Argos before an encouragingly large audience (17,411) at Hamilton Stadium Saturday night, I saw some early indicators that, if they continue to evolve, should bode well for the Ticats.

First things first: the 24-16 win on Saturday’s scoreboard, was preceded by a win three weeks earlier in the CFL National Draft and that played out before the opening quarter had expired.

Barely nine minutes into Saturday night, linebacker Devin Veresuk, the Cats’ first-round draftee and No. 2 overall, made the kind of special teams tackle you might wait a whole season to witness again, and still never see it.

Janarion Grant, the reigning CFL Special Teams Player of the Year, somehow escaped being pinned to the west sideline on a punt. He swung deep toward his own goal line to swerve around more coverage as he ran full speed toward the east sideline, and seemed to be poised to round the corner. This is a man with the nose, and the feet, for the end zone, carrying four returns to the house last year.

But he didn’t reckon on Veresuk, who’s not only big (6-foot-2, 232 pounds) but has the unusual combination of linemen’s strength and defensive back’s speed, a tandem which got him a tryout at the Indianapolis Colts’ mini-camp … and a high slot on draft day.

Veresuk’s footwork and football intuition allowed him to track Grant laterally and his muscular stability made sure the league’s best returner was tackled for what was officially a 13-yard loss on the return. It was one of those plays that video replays cannot do justice: you had to be in the building to fully recognize the gaping path toward the end zone that Grant was trying to reach.

And just five plays later rookie defensive end Isaiah Bagnah—the Cats’ second draft choice and ninth overall—busted through to Toronto quarterback Nick Arbuckle (only the Grey Cup MVP) and knocked away his third-down pass for a turnover.

You can add to that four defensive tackles by Veresuk at middle linebacker, some decent coverage at safety and on special teams by third-round choice Mack Bannatyne, and fourth-quarter appearances by another third-rounder Arvin Hosseini on the offensive line.

So, while it’s just one game and there’s a lot of learning and integration yet to go for the new professionals, here’s a tip of the hat to GM Ted Goveia and his scouting crew.

Veresuk’s tackle on Grant was symbolic of another encouraging sign for the Ticats. The special teams play was solid and executed at speed.

With only the odd exception, they continually pinned the Argos deep on punts and kickoffs and served notice that this will likely not be the Achilles heel it was during most of the first half of last season. They hit their punts to the correct parts of the field and got a three-for-three in field goals from Marc Liegghio despite the confounding winds. Before he hurt his shoulder—he was sidelined at practice Monday—Lawrence Woods made the right decisions on his two returns and second-year Cat Isaiah Wooden, who got into one game last year, took three punts for 43 yards, including a revealing 24-yard dash.

The returner position is one of the most critical battles of this year’s training camp and with only one critical week of practice, and a return match with Toronto in Guelph Friday, Wooden made a statement.

“Playing in that game last year helped me get my feet wet,” Wooden says. “I’m a lot more comfortable. I don’t feel like it’s any pressure on myself. I’m a very consistent person, so I just harp on that consistency, making sure I do my job right.

One intriguing change head coach Scott Milanovich made in the off-season was to provide special teams coordinator Dennis McKnight with designated assistant coaches; former player James Tuck, who also works with the running backs and Elijah Sandweiss, who is also linebackers coach. It is clearly paying immediate dividends and Milanovich said afterward that it was probably the best special teams coaching he’d ever seen in a pre-season game.

“It’s usually a disaster because you’ve got 80 some guys out there and usually you don’t have enough guys on the field or you’ve got too many,” he said.

The Ticats rushed 24 times for 187 yards on Saturday, and while Milanovich said that was largely to do with what the game situation dictated and what the Argos gave them, there was also a distinct message there, to his own team and to the other eight squads in the league. As he said, post-game, quoting his friend and colleague Orlondo Steinauer, film travels.

What was most impressive was not the success of the running game, although that was commendable, but the obvious commitment to it. The offensive linemen were like kids with free popsicles, completely pumped that they could surge forward aggressively on the run and keep the defensive front seven off-balance. Collectively, the first and second units had a good night.

“It all starts with those guys up front,” said Johnny Augustine, who had 51 yards on five carries while starter Greg Bell was 8-for-49.

In the first half when it was, with a couple of exceptions, Toronto’s No. 1 defence vs. the Ticats’ No. 1 offence, Bell had eight carries and Augustine had three, all of them on a trio of consecutive plays, including a powerful 28-yarder. Bo Levi Mitchell ran once for seven yards but, more significantly, used his legs to roll decisively, opening up time and space for his throws and his receivers’ routes. That is a subordinate clause of the running game.

“Obviously, when you have a good ground game, that’s what makes life easier, right?” Augustine said. “Because now you’re opening up the passing game. Everybody knows that. And especially in this league and especially with the (Grey) Cup being in Winnipeg this year. When the weather gets colder, you’re gonna depend on the round game. So to be able to start that early on is nice.”

It’s dangerous to draw too many conclusions from pre-season but among the other positives was some synchronized aggressiveness in the defensive backfield once the secondary found its rhythm after Arbuckle’s opening two drives. They forced turnovers and Destin Talbert might have had another but his acrobatic interception was negated by a questionable roughing the passer penalty.  And the front four exerted a lot of pressure, as the Ticats didn’t allow a point in the first half—although they only scored three—before the game was turned over to the reserves.

But make no mistake, there were mistakes. Among the most glaring flaws was shoddy tackling. Milanovich brought that up after the game and again Monday morning at Mac. And there were some mis-throws which cost the No. 1 offence some points, although Milanovich said that upon film review, that wasn’t as much of a problem as it appeared to the naked eye Saturday.

And there were times when the pass rushers didn’t get to the quarterback quickly enough – imperative when you want your secondary to play tight and tough—which contributed to a nice march by No. 4 Toronto pivot Tucker Horn at the end and one by Arbuckle at the start.

There are only two more practices, and a walkthrough, remaining before Friday’s second and final pre-season game, and then the gun goes off for real, with a road trip to Alberta to face the Calgary Stampeders, June 7.

The scrutiny on every player increases in the last week of training camp, even on those destined to start and you could sense something different, a little testier, a little higher-pitched, at practice Monday.

It was a very physical display, especially in the trenches—Milanovich called it “chippy, and I didn’t mind that”—and likely results from a combination of finally getting to hit someone in a different uniform without holding back and being stimulated by the first real game film of the year. All of it backed by the mere urgency of roster cuts and opening day looming on the horizon.

“Tensions are high,” Wooden acknowledged. “People know it’s the time to go; you can’t leave anything out. Everything has to be left on the field, so everybody’s going to give it everything they have. This is the last week, so everybody wants to make a good impression.”

CATS CLAUSES:  Shutdown boundary CB Jamal Peters and WR Kenny Lawler, both in the CFL’s elite tier at their positions, continued their friendly, but very physical and very intense, head-to-head competition in Monday’s team drills. That should be a daily highlight of practices all season …  RB Treshaun Ward, who played at Florida State, Kansas State and Boston College, had an impressive outing against the Argos Saturday with 8 carries for 76 yards and a 49-yard touchdown which showed his second gear as he hit the 10-yard mark. In 2020 he was a semi-finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which goes to the top player in U.S. college football who began his career as a walk-on (non-scholarship) player. The award eventually went to Georgia QB Stetson Bennett, now with the Los Angeles Rams who beat out finalists Purdue QB Aidan O’Connell and Troy LB Carlton Martial, who was with the Ticats for 2023 training camp before being released in the final cuts … on Monday the Ticats signed DB Cam Lockridge who played college at Reedley, Hawaii and Fresno State and WR Matt Landers from Georgia, Toledo and Arkansas. Both are Americans.