Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
If there was any doubt about which football team is top dog in Ontario after their first two meetings, Friday’s domination by the Ticats in Toronto erased it.
After trading blows throughout the first half, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats didn’t offer Toronto a sliver of hope in the final two quarters, ending the game with seven takeaways and four sacks. For the first time this season, the defence held an opponent to less than 200 yards of total offence.
“It felt great to get involved in the defence again, I’ve been a little banged up the last few weeks so I’m starting to get my legs back,” said Ticats defensive lineman Garrett McIntyre. “It wasn’t just me, the other guys were getting to the quarterback and the (defensive backs) were covering, we all did our job tonight.”
Working opposite of McIntyre all night was defensive end Stevie Baggs, who extended his sack streak to three games, bringing down Argonauts quarterback Cleo Lemon twice.
All week talk in the media had focused on the Argos impressive special teams unit, specifically their dynamic return man Chad Owens.
However it was Hamilton’s cover teams who ruled the day, completely shutting Owens out of the game and delivering some big hits along the way. The Argos’ speedy returner never had an opportunity to get any breathing room and was kept from gaining the outside edge every time he got the ball. On the other side, Ticats kick returner Marcus Thigpen averaged 14.2 yards per punt return and ran back one kickoff for 32 yards.
“That was by far one of our best games, if not our best game this year on special teams,” said special teams standout Yannick Carter.
“One thing that coach always focuses on is that when you keep contain, the next guy makes him stop his feet and then we have our fill-in guys just come and clean them up,” he said.
After starting slowly the Ticats offence fed off the momentum and prime field position their defensive counterparts handed them, scoring 20 points in the second half and putting the game to bed far before the final whistle blew.
“It’s great to see some of these guys come up with big games like Thigpen and Marquay (McDaniel),” said Ticats receiver Maurice Mann.
“This was a huge game for us as far as playoff positioning and making a statement in a big rivalry game,” he said.
While Hamilton didn’t officially clinch a home playoff date with the win, they certainly made it tough for the Argos to host their next meeting.
Now that the Ticats hold a game over Toronto and a three-game sweep in the season series the Argos will need to finish with a better record than the Ticats if they want to be playing in the semi-friendly confines of the Rogers Centre come mid-November.
