CFL.ca
THE CANADIAN PRESS
HAMILTON, Ont. — The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are feeling pretty good about their offence going into the CFL regular season.
Hamilton quarterback Kevin Glenn threw two touchdowns Sunday as the Ticats beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 38-20 in exhibition play.
“Our offence has executed at a high level all of training camp,” said Hamilton head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. “And when that first group of players was in, they did a nice job.”
Glenn led the pack in that “first group of players”, completing 16 of 26 pass attempts for 196 yards. He moved the ball well with 247 offensive yards and 15 first downs in one half of play.
Glenn, who finds himself again in a battle for the top quarterback spot, led all QBs in numbers, playing time and was the prime reason Winnipeg’s starting QB Buck Pierce didn’t get a lot of reps during his one quarter of action. Pierce touched the ball for only three very short possessions before being replaced early in the second quarter by Steven Jyles.
“(Hamilton) had the ball a lot of the first quarter,” Pierce said. “I knew I wasn’t going to play a whole lot. We couldn’t get some things going. But we’ll start game-planning now (for the opener) and we’ll be able to move forward.”
The Bombers and Ticats open their regular season on July 2 in Winnipeg.
Pierce completed two of three attempts for 16 yards and recorded just one first down, early in the second quarter.
In little more than a quarter of play, Jyles completed nine of 14 attempts for 152 yards and one TD. He was replaced by Alex Brink in the third, who finished with five of eight completions, 86 yards and one touchdown before giving way to Adam DiMichele late in the game.
“We’ve got to catch the football better and just sustain drives,” said Winnipeg head coach Paul LaPolice who added that there were some missed routes while Pierce was on the field. Meanwhile, the Ticats had some drives that went for as many as eight plays during the first quarter, “and that eats up a quarterback’s reps.”
Meanwhile, Glenn was replaced in the second half by Quinton Porter, who completed five of 11 pass attempts for 104 yards, one TD, and one interception — plus 28 yards on six rushes. Porter was replaced by Adam Tafralis with less than six minutes left in the game.
Glenn and Porter battled back and forth last season for the job of top pivot until Glenn took over late in the season. The starter has not been named for the season opener. Both quarterbacks left the locker room before making a comment and Bellefeuille tip-toed around the question when asked if Porter didn’t have a strong game.
“When you look at the quarterback position, there’s some things that people don’t see: Did the receiver run the right depth? Did you have the blocking,” Bellefeuille answered. “Those are things that, as coaches, we recognize.
“You really have to look at what they’ve done over a whole training camp.”
