Tiger-Cats focused on bouncing back ahead of Saturday’s showdown with Argos

So where do the Tiger-Cats go from here?

To a mirror, many of them said Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg.

This was after the Blue Bombers, buoyed by the return from injury of quarterback Zach Collaros and sensing a beckoning hole in the playoff derby, took a 60-minute scythe to the Ticats with a stunning 40-3 victory.

“We just have to perform better and execute, and each of us have to look at the film, look at ourselves and each of us improve what we can,” Ticats centre Coulter Woodmansey said in the sombre Hamilton locker room.

“I have to look at myself. I made a bad snap and that can’t happen.”

That bad snap, on a first-quarter drive, was more symbolic than impactful because Marc Liegghio kicked a long field goal on the next play but it did typify the atmosphere of the entire afternoon, which was drenched in sunshine and Bomber proficiency.

“Scott (Milanovich) is the kind of guy who’s going to come out and take the blame,” said Bo Levi Mitchell. “But it’s on the players to realize we are the ones who play the game. We didn’t get beat by schemes. As an offence you have to find a way to be inspired and play great football and make plays and find a way to be consistent enough to take what they give you underneath, break tackles up-field and win the 1-on-1s.”

Star receiver Kenny Lawler, who at one stage had been targeted seven times, mostly on deep corner routes, but had only one catch said, “I hold myself accountable, I played a horrible game out there, there were some balls I wish I could have got back, so I’ll start with myself.

“It falls back to winning each matchup winning the game, going 1-and-0 and not feel sorry for ourselves and hold everybody accountable for our mistakes and figure out how to fix it.”

The Ticats had clinched a playoff berth, and a home game in the playoffs, with Toronto’s 27-22 loss in B.C. the previous evening. But Montréal’s earlier 38-20 win over Calgary tightened the tourniquet in the battle for first place in the East, with the 8-7 Als just two points back of the 9-6 Ticats and the return of quarterback Davis Alexander elevating them into a different, more confident team.

Hamilton owns the season tie-breaker, so the “magic number” remains at four—of combined points won by Hamilton or lost by Montréal—as they head into Toronto’s BMO Field on Saturday afternoon to face the Argos, who are all but eliminated from playoff consideration after the weekend results.

A large number of tickets have already been sold for that one, a significant chunk of those to Ticats fans who were hoping to see the Cats clinch their first division crown since 2019. But they can’t clinch next weekend; both teams have three games to play and the Als are on a bye next week.

The Ticats’ fate is definitely still in their own hands despite their three-game winning streak, crashing into a blue and gold barrier.

But they will have to be better, much better, than they were in Winnipeg and slam the brakes on some dangerous trends, which include recent vulnerabilities on kick coverage and surrendering too many yards on defence.

Collaros and Co. amassed 514 yards in net offence, the fifth time in the last seven games that Ticats opponents have netted more than 400 yards of offence, with two of those exceeding 500. But this time the opportunistic Cat defenders did not generate enough of those big plays and turnovers which led the league and have so often helped translate close games into wins. This one wasn’t a win and it wasn’t close.

The Bombers lost in Hamilton two weeks ago, but Saturday in Manitoba what they knew they had to do…they did. And everything, or most of it, the Ticats knew they had to do, they did not.

Beginning with controlling primo Winnipeg returner Trey Vaval, who went basically untouched for a 98-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff.

Vaval escaped the shadows of his own goal post after two converging Ticats tacklers collided with each other—perhaps some kind of early omen—then broke to the outside and raced the length of the field on a solo sprint. He was accompanied by a cacophonous soundtrack from the sold-out audience of 32,343 who basked in the sunlight and their re-generated hope that this might be another Grey Cup-bound team.

The Ticats knew they had to contain Collaros and interrupt his rhythm, which they could not do often enough—he completed his first eight passes and converted the offence’s first six second-down situations—but Job One was to limit power running back Brady Oliveira. He can broaden the playbook when he pounds for yardage or catches swing passes, both of which he did, with 151 combined yards from scrimmage.

They scored points the first four times they had the ball, including Vaval’s second return major in two games. That brief flash covered 98 yards, the next drive went seven plays and 102 yards and resulted in a touchdown, the third was good for 82 yards and a field goal, and the fourth went 40 yards for another Sergio Castillo field goal.

They led 19-3 at the half, after a Ticats drive stalled deep in the Bomber end on third down as the half concluded. Then Winnipeg opened the second half with touchdown marches of 104 yards on seven plays and 82 yards on five plays.

“(Winnipeg) is a championship-calibre football team that was not going to lay down,” Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich said. “You don’t want them to get ahead of you like that. They took it to us.

“We could have stayed in the game if we could have converted right before the half, then they got a couple in the third quarter and it was off to the races for them.”

Ticats defensive back DaShaun Amos gave credit to the relentlessness of the Bombers’ attack which sliced too easily through the air and over the ground for those long stretches.

“They came out to play today,” Amos said. “They were hitting on all cylinders—offence, defence, special teams—and on top of that we didn’t come out to play our best football and that’s the result you get.

“We weren’t getting the job done. We weren’t making the plays we should have been making, it’s as simple as that. And they were making the plays they should have been making.”

Milanovich was blunt about his team’s shortcomings, which he always is, and, as his quarterback predicted, turned the mirror on himself and his staff.

“We got whipped from the opening kickoff until the end of the game,” Milanovich said. “We’ve been talking after games, ‘this was a three-phase win, this was a three-phase win’ but this was a three-or four-phase loss, including the coaching staff. They were more ready to play and that’s my responsibility; we weren’t ready to play.

“We’ve got 24 hours to sulk and figure out what went wrong.

“We know what’s coming up next week.”

Which is another rivalry game at BMO Field and despite the Boatmen’s mere five wins they, like everyone else in the league, are playing for something, whether it’s the slimmest filament of a post-season hope, to create momentum, or to make an impression for next year.

“They’re going to come out and play inspired,” Mitchell said of the Argos. “That’s what the atmosphere is going to be like every single game from here on out.

“Clinching doesn’t mean (bleep). You have to play good football right until the last whistle of the Grey Cup, if you don’t, you won’t be there. It’s about getting better; right now we are not a good enough football team to win the Grey Cup.

“You have to come out and play like every game is our last. From Day 1 in practice.”

His centre isn’t worried about whether the Ticats will rise to that summons.

“No,” Woodmansey said. “We’re going to fix it. We’re going to address all the problems, leave nothing unturned and move ahead.

“Toronto will be a challenge and we’ll show up ready to go.”

CATS CLAUSES: Ticats RB Greg Bell had 11 carries for 88 yards and four catches for another 26 yards … Cat WR Kiondré Smith caught all six balls thrown his way for 65 yards and now has 906 receiving yards, just 27 short of his career-high set last year … Smith and Shemar Bridges (44 yards, four catches) each had three receptions on second down … Kenny Lawler caught two passes for 34 yards … it was the high-flying Ticats offence’s lowest-scoring game of the year, and just the third in which they haven’t scored a touchdown. Bo Levi Mitchell said “They came out playing for their lives; we came out surviving.” … Mitchell was 21-for-32 for 212 yards with no interceptions … Taylor Powell was under centre in the dying minutes, and went 5-for-6 for 42 yards … Marc Liegghio was wide from 47 yards in the second quarter for his first field goal miss after 25 straight successes but hit a 55-yarder on the next possession … the Ticats were sacked 3 times, twice by James Vaughters and once by former Cat Kyle Wilson … Zach Collaros was 20-for-25 for 367 yards, 1 TD (Dillon Mitchell) and no picks … Brady Oliveira had 15 carries for 98 yards and 53 receiving yards … short-yardage QB Chris Streveler had 3 Bomber touchdowns … Winnipeg’s Nic Demski led all receivers with 114 yards off seven catches … Ontario Wilson caught 3 passes for 97 yards … Sergio Castillo was 2-for-2 in field goals for Winnipeg … the Bombers scored points on six of their seven drives (2 FG, 4 TDs) and also had Trey Vaval’s opening kickoff return TD … There was a moment of silence for Edmonton Elks owner Larry Thompson who died last week.