Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
What a difference a week makes.
On the heels of a thrilling victory in B.C., where turnovers proved to be the difference in a 35-31 Hamilton victory, opportunities for the Tiger-Cats to put points on the board were wiped out by fumbles and interceptions in a 32-25 loss to Saskatchewan on Saturday night.
Ticats running back DeAndra’ Cobb built on last week’s impressive outing with another 166 yards on the ground, but fumbled the ball twice inside the opposing 10-yard line, leading to two long drives by the Saskatchewan offence.
“A couple plays out there we shot ourselves in the foot and I was the one holding the gun,” said Cobb.
Despite some mental mistakes, the Ticats offence had one of their better games, racking up 503 total yards and scoring 25 points, usually enough to win.
Despite not having the bounces go their way, the Ticats were still in position to tie the game on their final drive, but Kevin Glenn’s pass was intercepted in the end zone as time expired.
Saturday’s game marked the much-anticipated debut of free agent acquisition Stevie Baggs, who showed flashes of the player who led the league in sacks in 2009.
“I felt good out there, but I let the team down a little bit in the first half with a couple of mental errors,” said Baggs.
Baggs was responsible for what could have been a pivotal play in the game, beating Saskatchewan’s left tackle with a masterful spin move and stripping Darian Durant of the ball.
Unfortunately the play did not result in points for the Cats, as the refs made a controversial call in ruling DeAndra’ Cobb had fumbled the ball inside the 5-yard line, despite the play being blown dead, two plays later.
Dave Stala delivered another clutch performance for the Ticats, catching nine balls for 128 yards.
Arland Bruce III added to his impressive career numbers, surpassing 1,000 yards in a season for the sixth time in his career.
“I’ve done it before so it’s nothing new, I plan to do it because those are my expectations coming into any season,” said Bruce.
“I wish we could have gotten the win but all we can do is move on to the next week,” he added.
The Ticats will travel to Edmonton next week in this season’s first meeting with the Eskimos, the first of a home-at-home series between the two teams.
