Matt Cauz
CFL.ca
Before I begin I want to first say thanks to Dave Alter for having an even more awkward head shot than me. I didn’t think mine could be topped in that category; Alter has raised the bar for all future writers to CFL.ca.
Now my apologies for just focusing on one game but I am going to be honest with you. I left Friday late afternoon to go to Lake Placid to see my twin brother compete in his first Iron Man race. I know the NFL Network has been doing great work promoting our game but I’m just a little wary of my chances of watching Saskatchewan vs. Calgary live.
It was funny to hear people wondering ‘what’s wrong with Montreal?’ But that sort of buzz was out there heading into their game against Hamilton. Leading up to this contest I felt that there was nothing wrong.
They had just finished a three game Western road swing going 2-1 and came within a couple plays in the opener of starting out 3-0. Yeah they gave up a lot of yards to Edmonton but their defence held the Eskimos to just one touchdown and the Alouettes finally won in BC.
Put it this way, the last time they had won in Vancouver, the first season of ‘Survivor’ had just finished, Gene Hackman was embarrassing himself in ‘The Replacements’ (Who doesn’t remember Keanu Reeves as Shane Falco?) and Brad Pitt was madly in love with Jennifer Aniston.
Well the “big” question of Eastern Conference supremacy has been answered; Montreal is still in a class by themselves. Hey I think it’s a great step for the Tiger-Cats organization as a whole that this question was even being floated this week. Two years ago that would have been a laughable proposition.
That said Hamilton is still a long way away from challenging Montreal.
Give the Tiger-Cats credit they did everything they could to hang around with the Alouettes. Their defence handled Montreal’s offence about as well as any team can. Take away Anthony Calvillo’s first two passes, both completions for 57 yards, and Calvillo finished with 99 yards completing just over 50% of his passes in the first half.
In fact the first half story for me was the Hamilton pass rush. When they weren’t sacking Calvillo they were constantly harassing him with at least one player in his face forcing him to get rid of the ball before he was ready.
Justin Hickman, Garrett McIntyre and the rest of the Tiger-Cats front seven made life miserable for Calvillo. Hickman’s second sack in particular was a thing of beauty as he powered through Scott Flory and Jeff Perrett. That’s over 620 pounds of offensive line he beat.
Unfortunately the Tiger-Cat offence could not live up to their end of the bargain.
Kevin Glenn could not carry the momentum from his brilliant game against Winnipeg. He threw behind his receivers all night, held onto the ball far too long (The John Bowman sack/forced fumble combo in the 3rd quarter never should have happened) and early in the second he missed a wide-open Drisan James in the end zone.
Of course Glenn’s lousy night had just as much to do with Montreal’s secondary. Excuse the stupid cliché/hack joke but the Tiger Cats receivers must have been uncomfortably warm cause Montreal threw a blanket on them all night. I can only remember a handful of times where a Hamilton receiver was wide open on a reception.
A couple other quick random notes:
-What a great game for DT Jermaine McElveen, especially in the first half. On Hamilton’s first play he blew up a run up the middle by DeAndra’ Cobb. Than later in the 1st quarter he played a big part in the Cobb fumble on the goal line forcing Hamilton to kick a field goal. A touchdown at that point would have given them a 7-6 lead and more importantly it could’ve injected them with confidence that they could compete offensively with Montreal.
-Once again John Lu is the best dressed sideline reporter at TSN.
-Marquay McDaniel is probably still sore, took several big hits.
-Speaking of Hamilton WR’s, Arland Bruce didn’t register his first reception till 2:24 of the 3rd quarter, the team needs to find a way to get him more involved if they want to compete with the elite teams in the CFL.
-Listen we all know just how great the city of Montreal is and how wonderful it is to watch a game there. But near the end of the first quarter you could clearly hear Justin Bieber playing. For shame Montreal Alouettes! I doubt any football fans in attendance really wanted to listen to a 13 year old saying ‘baby’ over and over again. Needless to say it was stuck in my head for the entire second quarter.
-Ricky Santos has to be the smallest short yardage quarterback in the league.
-Jamall Johnson was once again all over the field. He’s got to be one of the best coverage linebackers in the league.
-Does anyone know why Marcus Thigpen was not involved with Hamilton’s offence? After playing a pivotal role in their victory against Winnipeg he had zero yards from scrimmage.
Overall it wasn’t the prettiest game to watch. I appreciated Hamilton’s pass rush, Montreal’s secondary and Calvillo’s toughness. If this was a statement game I think the overall message was a simple one: it’s time to put away any doubts about who the best team in the East is.
