Ticats’ Masoli schools Streveler

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This article was published 29/06/2018 (2633 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HAMILTON — If it was to be boiled down to a battle of quarterbacks, Jeremiah Masoli won Friday night’s competition easily.

The veteran Hamilton Tiger-Cats signal-caller picked apart a sometimes overmatched Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence with a devastating 31-for-41 passing outing, good for 369 yards and one touchdown in a 31-17 Hamilton victory before a standing-room-only crowd of 23,721 in CFL action at Tim Hortons Field.

Masoli was ruthlessly accurate, playing pitch and catch with his fleet of speedy receivers for most of the night.

“The accuracy comes from the time he can buy himself,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “I don’t know that he’s under duress and throwing darts into double coverage. He’s very adept at buying himself some time in the pocket, even if we have a decent rush.

“He’s filtering through it and delivering balls that are catchable to guys that are working for space. Still, we have to figure out a way to take that away.”

While Masoli had a monster game, surpassing the 300-plus-yards passing mark for the eighth consecutive time (one short of the all-time CFL record), Blue Bombers rookie QB Chris Streveler struggled for the first time in three starts to begin his pro career.

Streveler went 17-for-28 passing for 146 yards and oversaw six consecutive two-and-out possessions. His longest completion of the game was a 15-yarder to Weston Dressler.

Streveler finally punched in a 15-yard touchdown run to stop the bleeding midway through the fourth quarter to give the visitors some hope but a late Winnipeg drive stalled on Hamilton’s eight-yard line with 48 seconds left. Dressler was Winnpeg’s leading receiver with six catches for 55 yards.

“When you have six straight two-and-outs, it’s hard to gain momentum but we’ve just gotta stay positive, we have a great group of leaders,” said Streveler. “Like I said, we’ll watch the film and continue to assess what we need to get better at.”

The Blue Bombers, who held an early 7-0 lead, fell to 1-2 on the season and will host the B.C. Lions on July 7.

Hamilton improved to 2-1 on the season and is now 8-5 since Masoli took over from Zach Collaros as the starter last season and June Jones was installed as head coach after a dreadful 0-8 start in 2017.

“We got our butt kicked in the third quarter,” said O’Shea. “Right at the end of the half with some penalties aiding them, putting them in field goal position (and) some game-management stuff on my part. We just gave up a couple field goals at the end of the half. With a team like Hamilton, you can’t afford to give momentum to them.

“And they came out in the third, and I don’t like that first long drive they had. We’ve gotta stop ‘em. We stop one of those drives there, we’re doing OK.”

The Blue Bombers started the game with a reshuffled defensive secondary, inserting rookie Marcus Sayles at corner, moving Kevin Fogg from corner to halfback and giving Maurice Leggett the start at halfback in place of an injured Anthony Gaitor.

And ailing Brandon Alexander, meanwhile, was moved to the inactive list just before game time, leaving only corner Chris Randle and safety Taylor Loffler in their regular spots.

Brandon Banks led the Ticats with 11 catches for 111 yards, while Jalen Saunders added seven receptions for 97 yards and Terrance Toliver chipped in with six more for 84 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

“We played in spurts but not consistent enough,” said Randle. “I think that third quarter was where the ball was rolling for them and we couldn’t stop it. It kinda trickled from the second quarter with the field goals that they made at the end. They came out, we was a little flat but we can’t blame it on anyone but ourselves.”

Masoli toyed with the Winnipeg defence for most of the opening half, completing 16 of 22 passes for 186 yards but the Ticats only led 16-10 at the intermission. His only mistake, an interception by Sayles, who was making his CFL debut, led to Andrew Harris’s two-yard run for a major in the first quarter.

“He had a nice pick early, (got beat) on a double move (on Tolliver’s touchdown),” said O’Shea. “A young guy on a double move. It’s tough. Every player is going to have plays they look at and say, ‘I could be better.’ The key is we learn from this and get a few plays better the next game and get a win.”

The Ticats accumulated 226 yards of net offence to the Blue Bombers’ 102 in the opening half. The hosts also dominated time of possession: 17:38 to 12:22 and finished the game with a 37:30 to 22:30 edge.

Hamilton had a 468-273 edge in net offence.

Winnipeg took seven penalties for 60 yards, not including five that were declined, while Hamilton was flagged five times for 35 yards.

“We gave up 15 points in the third (quarter) and we took way too many penalties,” said O’Shea. “It’s hard to win these games against good football teams when you take that many penalties and extend drives.”

Running back Mercer Timmis added touchdown runs of one and four yards for the winners, who got a 4-for-4 performance in the field goal department from ex-Blue Bombers kicker Liram Hajrullahu.

Winnipeg’s Justin Medlock was good on one of his two field goal attempts, hitting from 38 yards and missing a 59-yarder late in the fourth quarter. Prior to the miss, Medlock had made six straight in 2018 and 16 straight dating back to last season.

NOTEWORTHY: Winnipeg is 2-2 at Tim Hortons Field since the facility opened midway through the 2014 season… Hamilton running back Sean Thomas Erlington, an eighth-round CFL draft pick in 2017, piled up 92 yards on 11 carries. Winnipeg’s Andrew Harris had 66 yards on 14 carries… Chris Streveler accumulated 55 yards on five carries.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14