Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
For most of the game, Thursday night’s tilt between Hamilton and Montreal resembled a heavy weight title bought, with both fighters squaring up and throwing haymakers.
In the end one fighter had to hit the canvas, and Tiger-Cats turnovers in the second-half eventually led to Alouette points on the board.
The Ticats defensive line looked great throughout the game, harassing Anthony Calvillo all night and bringing the veteran quarterback down three times, twice by defensive end Justin Hickman. Hickman showed the quickness and power than he displayed throughout his rookie campaign, recording his first two sacks of the season, after coming close in his three previous games.
The stout Tiger-Cats defence answered the bell and held Montreal without a touchdown until the fourth quarter, but it just wasn’t enough on a night where the offence struggled to score points.
Except for one play in the fourth quarter, the Ticats secondary played tight coverage all night, forcing Calvillo into checkdowns and incompletions, taking away the big play consistently.
In the end it was other big plays, including a blocked punt, which allowed the Montreal offence to gain some momentum and break through what was to that point, a battle of field goals.
Montreal proved why they have been such a dominant force in the East Division for so long, but early on it was apparent that the gap has narrowed. As an early season test, the Ticats showed that they can compete with the big boys but that they still have some work to do before they can topple the Grey Cup champs.
The Alouettes scored some garbage-time points towards the end of the game and the score at the final whistle didn’t reflect the level of competition seen during most of the game.
Hamilton will be thankful to be seeing the last of McGill stadium and will host Montreal at Ivor Wynne in their final two matchups of the season.
Hamilton’s road doesn’t get any easier next week as they head to Regina to take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday. The two teams split their two meetings last season, with the home teams coming out on top in each contest.
