Tiger-Cats a little black and blue heading into final stretch

CFL.ca Staff

HAMILTON — As the Hamilton Tiger-Cats head into their final regular season game and eye the playoffs ahead, they’re faced with an injury bug that’s been moving through their roster as the year winds down.

“We’re a little banged up,” head coach June Jones told members of the media after practice on Tuesday.

Jeremiah Masoli is latest to get hit with an injury, one that kept the Ticats pivot out of practice to start the week. Despite missing the first day, Hamilton’s bench boss is optimistic that the league’s second-leading passer will be good to go on Wednesday.

“Jeremiah has a bum knee right now, too,” said Jones. “When he dove on the ground on that one scramble (last week against Ottawa), he re-bruised it and it swelled up. We held him out today but I think he’ll practice tomorrow.”

Jeremiah Masoli missed practice on Tuesday but is expected back on Wednesday (Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca)

The team has lost a number of receivers to injuries this season, most recently Brandon Banks, who is out for the year with a broken clavicle. They’re also experiencing injuries on the defensive line and pass-catcher Luke Tasker is also dealing with an undisclosed issue.

“We’ll see some young guys,” Jones said when asked about Kay Okafor and Avery Jordan getting reps at D-line this week against Montreal in place of some of their injured teammates. “We’ve got some other guys banged up. Luke (Tasker) is banged up so we’ll make a decision on that as we progress.”

Despite numerous starters going down throughout the season, the message in the Tabbies’ locker room this season has remained the same.

“We’ve created an attitude here of ‘next man up,'” Jones said. “It’s an opportunity for whoever is hurt, the next guy up, it’s a chance for him to get on his resume that he played and he played well. Film doesn’t lie. Not only will we notice it but the rest of the league notices it. This is professional football. They’re evaluated by every team once they get in and get in the game.”

After their regular season finale against Montreal this weekend, the Ticats will face the BC Lions in the Eastern Semi-Final. Hamilton and the Lions met twice this year. The first was an overtime thriller in Vancouver where BC walked away with a 35-32 win. The final meeting was the very next week and it went Hamilton’s way, with the black and gold winning 40-10.

Even though they’ve seen the BC Lions twice this year and Jones is expecting things to be much different in the post-season.

“When you get to the playoffs, it’s a totally new arena,” he said. “A new game. New everything. We had two competitive games with them. We won one and we lost one.”

– With files from Ticats.ca

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