Mitchell Hits Milestone, Wooden Breaks Loose, and Tiger-Cats Vow to Clean Up and Come Back Strong

There was late drama, and some interesting plot twists but ultimately the story had the same ending. One we’ve read too many times before.

Once again the Hamilton Tiger-Cats could not find the key to unlock their Opening Night handcuffs, dropping a 38-26 decision Saturday night to the rebuilt Calgary Stampeders. It was the 19th time in the last 22 seasons that the Cats have lost their first game of the campaign.

It was a bell choir with a familiar ring to it. Among the chimes: a failure to capitalize on potential momentum swings;  an offence that should be carrying the team at this point of the season not scoring until the clock was too formidable an enemy; time-gobbling opponent’s marches into the wind; dropped passes; missed open receivers; an anemic running game; inopportune penalties; and a couple of punts that chopped off field position like a guillotine.

What the Ticats knew they had to do—like balance their offence and score touchdowns—they mostly didn’t. And what they knew they couldn’t do—like let Vernon Adams Jr. get outside or give a newly-formed team some reason for belief—they mostly did.

There were positive moments but not enough of them to counter-balance the negative ones. The Cats did make a game of it, which was highly entertaining, but facing a 35-11 deficit early in the fourth quarter was too much to overcome.

“We didn’t coach them well enough,” said Scott Milanovich, never one to camouflage the evidence. “We, I thought, got outplayed in all three phases. We’ve got to improve in every area.”

What was most aggravating Saturday night was that the potentially high-octane offence took so long to find its footing—sometimes literally as there were noticeable slips and falls on McMahon Stadium’s brand new turf—and could not score a touchdown until over 50 minutes had elapsed. Their only other major was an electrifying 105-yard kickoff return by Isaiah Wooden that triggered a late comeback.

This game against a team whose lineup is 37 per cent altered from the one which faced, and defeated, the Ticats exactly one year earlier, was lost in a number of places, sprinkled across the field, the roster and the time clock. But two things illuminate it best, and essentially the game slipped away because of them.

One is statistical. Second down. The Ticat offence successfully converted only seven of their 23 second-down attempts, while the Stampeders were 14-for-25.

A closer look makes it even worse. Four times Calgary quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. found a way, usually by buying time by escaping trouble, to get first downs when he needed a dozen yards or more. On one series alone, an 80-yard drive into the wind that led to a field goal which put the home team up 28-10, Adams read a second-and-13 blitz and got 16 yards on a semi-screen play to running back Dedrick Mills; Adams rolled out on second-and-11 to find Tevin Jones, moving the sticks; Adams ran himself for a first down on second-and-15; and Mills ran for eight yards on second-and-eight.

That’s a lot of probable drive enders that didn’t end the drive.

The other illumination was a pendulum swing of 84 seconds straddling intermission. After giving up a touchdown on the opening series of the game—during which the fairly sparse Calgary crowd fell instantly in love with newcomer Adams—the Ticat defence found its aggressiveness and had forced two wild-throw interceptions (Stavros Katsantonis, Jonathan Moxey) and had a third (Katsantonis) called back on an offside penalty.

Things appeared to be turning firmly in Hamilton’s direction.

But with the score only 11-9, with barely over a minute left in the half, the Hamilton offence had a weak two-and-out and on the ensuing punt the Ticats committed their first turnover when punter Nik Constantinou was forced to run as the Stamps broke in when there appeared to be a miscommunication the left side of the line. He tried to kick on the fly, but Calgary took over on downs after the flubbed attempt.

Then the defence allowed Adams and Co. to easily traverse 43 yards in five plays, culminating in a short touchdown by Mills, who had three majors on the day.

And on the second-half kickoff, the ball hung like a kite into the wind, and returner Johnny Augustine couldn’t corral it as he was surrounded by a red sea, and two plays later backup quarterback PJ Walker scored a short-yardage touchdown. Fourteen points in less than a minute and a half of playing time, and a sudden 25-9 gap.

“It was certainly a critical time,” Milanovich said. “A two-point game about 40 seconds left, and there’s mistakes on every side of the ball.

“Those were certainly the mistakes on the special teams side. I was proud of the way they recovered and did some good things in the second half after we let them recover the kickoff, but obviously we can’t do any of those things.”

The deficit effectively eliminated any commitment to the running game which was already struggling. Greg Bell had only eight carries and 14 yards. The Cats rushed for just 46 yards overall, while Mills had 94 of the Stamps’ 158 rushing yards.

Adams was a modest 19-for-28 for 284 yards with the two picks, but also opened 8-for-8 and used Reggie Begelton to great effect in the opening touchdown march.

Bo Levi Mitchell, who was attempting to become just the 10^th CFL quarterback to reach 100 wins, was compelled to throw far too many passes and could not find his groove until later in the game, completing 31—six each to Kenny Lawler, Tim White and Bell—of his 50 passes. He overthrew or underthrew some targets badly and others were dropped.

“We have to do a better job as an offense of me putting the ball, in a careful spot every time,” Mitchell said. “We just want to reward the defence when they’re playing that well in the first half. Two turnovers and a third one that got called back. When you’re making Vernon throw two, three picks in the first half, you’ve just got to take advantage of them.

“We didn’t do a good enough job of instantly turning those into points.”

Calgary’s new defensive coordinator, longtime veteran Bob Slowik, tried to keep the ball in front of his secondary with a soft zone, and also installed multiple safety-looks, with Damon Webb particularly effective.

“And when that happens, you got to be able to run the ball a little bit better than we did,” Milanovich said. “And they’re going to make you execute for a full drive. There were times when we executed offensively, but there would be a mistake here or there that would get us off the field.

“We’ve got to catch the football. Offensively we’ve got to run the ball better. And that’s not just on the line; it was receivers missing blocks; it was tight ends missing blocks; and it was some of the linemen missing blocks.”

Right guard Liam Dobson, one of the Cats’ prime free agent acquisitions, pointed out that the line persevered and it resulted in some fourth-quarter successes, but “obviously we have things to clean up, myself especially.”

Armchair quarterbacks might wonder aloud why Milanovich went for a two-point convert after a long drive which resulted in Lawler’s touchdown to close the score to 35-26 with about two-and-a-half minutes to go. The conventional wisdom might argue, go for a single convert, then two if you score again. But the Stamps would be getting the ball with a strong wind at their backs and wouldn’t need much yardage, especially with how well they’d been rushing, to be able to punt into and through the end zone for an eight-point lead.

“You were looking at potential singles, and you’d have go for two twice, to keep up,”  Milanovich explained. “So we knew we had to go for it then.”

Tyler Richardson made a muscular tackle on Bell, to keep him out of the end zone, so the two-pointer fell just short. Like so much else in this game.

The Ticats couldn’t complete the ensuing onside kick, Rene Parades kicked his third field goal of the night, and the Stampeders had their second home opener victory in a row over the Ticats who now seek to avoid a full repeat of last year when they lost to Saskatchewan in their home opener. The Riders come into Hamilton Saturday night.

The Ticats were very subdued after the loss but their confidence didn’t seem diminished. They’re well aware it will be a stern week of team meetings and on-field work; there were far too many errors on offence, defence and special teams.

“We have to communicate a little more, attack the film and fix the mistakes at practice,” Dobson said. “And it’ll come together.”

CATS CLAUSES:  Ticat kicker Marc Liegghio was 3-for-3 in field goals … returner Isaiah Wooden showed why the Cats made the right decision on cutdown day, with his 105-yard touchdown return , 204 total kickoff return yards and 213 overall return yards … Ticat defensive coordinator Brent Monson, a Hamilton native, was recognized with a quick video tribute for his years in Calgary … Monson unleashed some creative blitzes out of the secondary from Stavros Katsantonis and Branden Dozier … with his first completion, to Kenny Lawler, Bo Levi Mitchell moved into 11^th all time in CFL passing yardage … FB Ante Litre was 3-for-3 as short-yardage quarterback … No. 9 overall draft choice Isaiah Bagnah recorded his first pro sack … Mario Kendricks also had a sack, which created a safety touch… of Mitchell’s 50 passes, Lawler was the target 13 times, Tim White 9 times … attendance was 18,682 … Hamilton incurred nine penalties for 75 yards while Calgary were flagged eight times for 85 yards … the Ticats scored only five points with the wind … Doug Flutie was among the many former Stamps stars at the game for the Stampeders’ 80th anniversary … Hamilton’s Quincy Vaughn is the Stamps’ third QB and after changing to tight end in college can be used in short yardage. His brother Justin Vaughn was a Ticat DL in 2017-18 and their father Mike Vaughn was a Ticat RB in 1989.