Tiger-Cats Focus On Correcting Mistakes After Saskatchewan Setback

It was difficult to find positives – the resilient resistance of the defence was clearly one of them – but star Tiger-Cats receiver Kiondré Smith was determined to make his viewpoint abundantly clear.

“I want everybody to understand one thing,” Smith said after the Ticats were humbled 38-7 by the powerful Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina Sunday night.

“This game was not on Jake (Dolegala, the quarterback). We have to do a whole lot better as a unit to help him out. He was very prepared, he executed, he led us, and we have to do a better job for him. I don’t want anybody in the Ticats’ family back home to say anything bad about him. He prepared his butt off, and we have to do better for him.”

“He dealt with six, seven, eight, nine drops (by receivers). Our running back tried his heart out, our O line did what they had to do, and our D really stepped up until the game fell apart on us. Our D kept them stuck the whole first half, but we gave the other team turnovers; we gave them a short field…that’s on us, and we’re going to fix that next week. I can promise you that.”

Next week is Saturday night when the Toronto Argonauts come into Hamilton Stadium for a game which now takes on even more weight than its usual geographical disgust. Both rivals came out of the weekend dropping games to fall to 2-3, two full games back of Montréal. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, climbed to 4-1 and a share of first place in the West with Edmonton.

With Bo Levi Mitchell out for the foreseeable future, and Dolegala trying to ramp up to speed for his first CFL start in nearly two years, the Ticats could not afford many mistakes against a formidable Riders’ squad itching to create a tailwind.

But there were indeed too many mistakes. Costly ones. Four turnovers against a team which, despite its 3-1 record, had created only three all season. The Riders, who’d scored only three points resulting from turnovers in their opening four games, racked up 27 off Hamilton turnovers, including a 107-yard interception return for a TD late in the game.

And the Cats allowed three long kick returns to emerging speedster Mathew Sexton before he departed with an injury.

The normally surehanded receiving group will see this one in their collective dreams, as in nightmares. Kenny Lawler had a rare fumble, Myron Mitchell, who had a long kickoff return, missed one and  Smith, who had five catches, owned up to a couple of drops he would normally safely inhale.

But with the Ticats down only 11-7 five minutes into the third quarter and having put together consecutive first downs, it was another kind of rare Cat turnover –  a 3^rd-and-1 that was decisively stuffed – which was the pivotal one of the game, as Milanovich said afterward.

“I got rocked,” Dolegala said. “That was a good drive, so it was tough.”

The quarterback took the offensive shortcomings – they did not score a touchdown and had to settle for two field goals and a punt single – onto his own shoulders.

“I never got settled in,” he said. “I didn’t execute the way I wanted to. I have to take what’s given.  Scott put me in really good spots, and I just didn’t make the plays.”

“I made the reads in practice all week; but I got out here and didn’t execute.”

Dolegala was 17-for-30 and only 122 yards, with some misdirected passes contributing to short drives. Tre Ford came on late in the fourth quarter and went 5-for-6 for 46 yards.

Milanovich said after the game that he would be considering his quarterback options: “I’ll watch the film tonight, and we’ll make a decision.”

Saskatchewan quarterback Trevor Harris completed 18 of his 25 passes for 211 yards, many of them underneath or short to the wide flats, and a pair of touchdowns. He was picked twice, once on yet another athletic grab by safety Stavros Katsantonis, and by middle linebacker Wynton McManis, who was playing just his second game as a Ticat but dropped back perfectly as the defence was swarming and aggressive.

“I thought they played really well, but we kept them on the field too long,” Milanovich said of the Ticat defence. “They played their guts out for about three quarters.”

The Cats lost WILL linebacker Braxton Hill to injury partway through the game but still stalled the Riders time and again until the turnovers, field position and lack of sustained Hamilton offence eventually caused erosion.

“We played really well, but there are still some things we have to clean up,” McManis said. “Especially myself; getting in the right gap and making some of those tackles. There were still a lot of plays where we could have got off the field.”

“But I think all-in-all we did a good job; I think our morale and our mindset is one of the best things we have going for us right now. No matter how many times we have to go on the field, no matter what happens, we feel we’ve got to get the offence the ball back.”

He gave credit to Harris’s quick reads and nibbling passes that found the holes when needed as the Riders successfully converted 58 percent of their second downs, compared to 32 percent for Hamilton.

“He’s a veteran quarterback; it’s not easy to show him something he hasn’t seen before,” McManis said. “He does a good job of taking what the defence gives him and not forcing too much. They relied on their run game and didn’t want to attack too far down the field and just take what we gave them. That comes with us forcing turnovers, but we have to punch the ball out even more.”

As for his first interception as a Ticat: “I’ve seen those plays a lot in practice and on film, and I just read the play-action, dropped back and read the routes.”

“I wish I’d scored though.”

The defence and special teams might be tempted to feel they have to score until the offence finds itself during Mitchell’s absence, but it’s more important to make a high percentage of the little plays and rise to the big ones when the chances present themselves.

And, Smith vowed the offence will spend this week with an “emphasis on accountability. I have to look at myself in the mirror; we all have to look there and attack the problem. This group will never attack each other.”

The Riders head to Edmonton in 10 days for a first-place showdown of 4-1 teams, while the Ticats dropped into a second-place tie in the East at 2-3 with the Argonauts, who come into Hamilton Stadium Saturday night.

That’s the “Home Away from Home” match, which is technically Toronto’s home game, but they’re still shut out of their home field during the soccer World Cup period.

“That’s big, in our division,” said McManis, who will be playing his first regular-season game against his former team. “Looking forward to getting down to business and making sure things go our way in that one.”

CATS CLAUSES

Ticats DE Julian Howsare nailed his 4^th sack in 5 games, while CB Jamal Peters and DT had pass knockdowns … RB Larry Rountree III rushed 9 times for 36 yards and caught six passes for 31 yards … QB Jake Dolegala had 8 carries for 33 yards 23 on one excellent foray up the middle which he then turned outside … QB Tre Ford rushed twice for 24 yards including a 13-yarder … WR Kiondré Smith had 5 receptions for 56 yards while Kenny Lawler had 5 for 38 … P Mitch McCarthy averaged 53.8 yards on his six punts but 31.8 net average because of two lengthy Mathew Sexton returns … Myron Mitchell returned a kickoff 69 yards … Isaiah Wooden SR had 5 kickoff returns for 99 yards … Marc Liegghio was 2-for-2 in field goals from 42 and 19 yards … WR Kian Schaffer-Baker caught 5 passes for 78 yards and a TD … WR Sam Emilus also caught six, for 72 yards … Saskatchewan MLB Jameer Thurman led all tacklers with 8 while LB Josh Woods had 5 tackles … James Vaughters had 2 sacks and Caleb Sanders had one … RB A.J. Ouellette carried the ball 18 times for 83 yards  … short-yardage QB Tommy Stevens had 5 carries for 54 yards and 2 TDs. One of his runs went for 26 yards … Saskatchewan had 25 first downs, Hamilton 17 …. The Riders had 342 yards of net offence, the Ticats 250 … announced attendance was 25,476.