Justin Dunk
Ticats.ca
It seems as if the Ticats wouldn’t mind playing Montreal every Labour Day.
Although it wasn’t Toronto, the atmosphere certainly felt the same, and the result may of been that much sweeter.
After an impressive 44-21 pummeling of the Alouettes the Tabbies improved their record to 8-0-1 all time versus Montreal on the September holiday.
“We’re building something here, it’s not complete yet, but we believe that we can do it,” running back Avon Cobourne said.
On defence the Tiger-Cats did what they said they wanted to do: pressure Anthony Calvillo early and often, and that is certainly what they did.
Right from the Alouettes opening play from scrimmage, the record-setting pivot felt the heat of the Steeltown pass rush bearing down on him almost every time he sat in the pocket.
“They were focused and wanted to make a statement defensively,” head coach Marcel Bellefeuille said after the resounding win.
“Otis came in and gave us a nice little pre-game speech before we went on the field and got us hyped up,” linebacker Jamall Johnson said. “We tackled better today, we forced a few takeaways and we got to the quarterback.”
Johnson led the charge for Hamilton on defence with six tackles. He was out in coverage making a knockdown on a ball intended for Jamel Richardson and got to Calvilo once as well, while also forcing a fumble.
“I had a little bit of Otis in me today,” Johnson said. “He was living through me.”
After the Ticats turned the football over deep in their own end, it looked like Montreal was going to head into the locker room riding the momentum of a major score. However, the Ticats defence stood tall on three straight plays to deny the Als a chance to cut the Cats lead to one touchdown.
Hamilton would head into the halftime break with a 27-13 lead as result.
“It was huge part of the game,” Bellefeuille said of the goal line stand. “The fact that we had just turned it over and nobody was down and out on the sideline, we’ve been preaching this all year to come back and make a play.”
The momentum gained from stopping Montreal from getting into the end zone from the one-yard line seemed to energize the unit for the rest of the contest.
Defensive end Justin Hickman continued his stellar play against the Alouettes.
In two games this season, Hickman has registered four sacks against the defending Grey Cup champs, whose offensive line has only surrendered 12 sacks all season.
As for Kevin Glenn and his offensive unit, it seemed as though whatever play coordinator Khari Jones called, it was the right one. The offence was balanced, mixing run, pass and play action to keep the Alouette defence on their toes throughout the contest.
“KG was on fire, he got banged up a lot, but he was on fire,” Cobourne said.
Slotback Chris Williams picked up his third 100-yard receiving day on the season. His most impressive catch of the day came when a Glenn pass was thrown just behind him and he reached out with his left hand and tipped the ball into the air, over cover man Dwight Anderson and right to himself — a play that setup a Quinton Porter one-yard touchdown.
Anderson lined up across, and followed Williams all night long, with the rookie receiver certainly getting the better of the match-up on Labour Day.
“Chris creates some match-up challenges with his quickness. He was in a situation were he was getting a lot of man coverage where he had an opportunity to run by him and he did,” Bellefeuille said.
Cobourne, the former Alouette, ran his personal record against his old team to 2-0.
‘Deuces’, as he likes to call himself, led the Ticats rushing attack, gashing the Montreal defence time and time again. Cobourne finished with 19 carries for 102 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
“Our offensive line was dominating and creating seams,” he said. “When you can run and pass the defence doesn’t know what to do.”
The front end of the home-and-home series goes to the Ticats, the tougher second part will come next Sunday against a Alouettes squad searching for answers.
“We’re going to see a much different team in Montreal,” Bellefeuille said. “I know that.”
