Hamilton made of steel early

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This article was published 02/07/2018 (2628 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A year ago, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were stuck in the middle of a losing skid that would reach 0-8, cost quarterback Zach Collaros his starting job and the end of Kent Austin as the team’s head coach.

What a difference a year has made.

Collaros is gone, Austin remains with the team in an advisory role and June Jones, the 65-year-old coaching legend, has remade the Ticats in a hard-hitting, exuberant style. Hamilton is 8-5 with quarterback Jeremiah Masoli at the helm and Friday night, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were their latest victims.

The 31-17 result flattered Winnipeg.

Rookie Blue Bombers quarterback Chris Streveler struggled for the first time in three starts as a replacement for an injured Matt Nichols and Winnipeg’s defence appeared to be no match for the Masoli’s rapid-fire attack.

In short, the Ticats (2-1) look like the best team in the CFL’s East Division and the Blue Bombers (1-2) have some work to do before they host the B.C. Lions Saturday and begin to work their way into contention for a playoff spot in the West.

Here are five takeaways from Friday night at Tim Hortons Field:

1. What about defence?

It was a long night for Winnipeg’s defenders, who incorporated three lineup changes in the secondary prior to facing the Ticats.

Rookie Marcus Sayles made his CFL debut at cornerback, Kevin Fogg moved from corner to halfback (replacing an injured Brandon Alexander) and Maurice Leggett made his first start of the season in place of ailing halfback Anthony Gaitor.

And it proved decisive.

Winnipeg managed two sacks, but with the Ticats employing additional blockers, quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was rarely under much duress and he threw the ball quickly and accurately to the likes of Brandon Banks, Luke Tasker and Terrence Tolliver.

“They use the extra protection up front to protect the quarterback and really keep his vision clean and allow him to throw receivers open,” said Bombers middle linebacker Adam Bighill, the club’s leader with 10 defensive tackles. “They did a good job of that. Even if we wanted to bring more pressure to their extra protection, the ball was still getting out so fast that really, in a sense, bringing extra pressure is nullified by the ball getting out.

“It’s got to be a little bit of a give-and-take, when are we going to bring pressure, when are we going to play match coverage? If we’re playing match coverage and they’re getting the ball out we’ve got to challenge them more to have contested throws. We can’t be letting them catch the ball and come down and hit them. When they catch the ball they need to be hit.”

2. Johnny Who?

Masoli doesn’t immediately come to mind when you’re talking about the best quarterbacks in the CFL.

But based on his superb play in the second half of 2017 and the first three games of this season, it’s almost enough to make people forget that Johnny Manziel is waiting in the wings.

The 29-year-old Masoli, who’s in his seventh season in the CFL, threw for 369 yards while completing 31 of 41 passes against the Blue Bombers. One glaring error — the first-quarter interception by rookie Sayles — could be blamed at least in part on the stiff wind he was throwing into but the rest of his game looked complete: he spread the ball around to his collection of speedy pass-catchers while rarely challenging the heart of the Winnipeg D.

Winnipeg’s secondary backed off and he picked them apart underneath. Masoli’s now passed for more than 300 yards in eight consecutive starts (including three in 2018), which is one short of the league’s all-time record established in 1956 by Sam Etcheverry of the Montreal Alouettes and equalled in 1991 by Kent Austin of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Masoli leads CFL starters in passing yards (1,045), completion percentage (70.8) and average gain per completion (9.9 yards).

“I think Masoli’s found a really great system for him,” said Blue Bombers defensive end Craig Roh, who collected one of two Winnipeg sacks in the game. “Honestly, for us, we shot ourselves in the foot a bit. We made him look a little bit better… penalties wise, right?

“We could’ve got them out in second-and-long situations, but we went offsides, we had tic-tac penalties. Not good communication, and I don’t want to take anything away from him, he had a great game.”

3. Growing pains for rookie

Streveler wowed fans with his uncanny cool under pressure and athletic skill set during the first two starts of his pro career.

His third time out was a step back, however, as the 23-year-old struggled to find his receivers and move the ball against a stout Hamilton D.

Winnipeg started three possessions in each of the second and third quarters and each resulted in a two-and-out. Six possessions generated a total of 29 net yards. Winnipeg led 10-7 at the beginning of the second quarter and started the fourth trailing 31-10.

“Obviously, there’s things we’ll want to clean up and (we) just came out kinda flat in the third quarter and didn’t move the ball great in the second quarter and I think that kinda killed us,” said Streveler, who finished with 146 yards on 17-for-30 passing.

Streveler’s engineered 20 first downs, although 11 of those came in the fourth quarter and the Ticats were generally tough on the University of South Dakota grad.

“They’ve been flyin’ around, we saw it on film all week what they’ve done and it’s a good defence,” said slotback Weston Dressler, who caught six passes for 55 yards including Streveler’s longest completion (15 yards) of the game. “Unfortunately, we didn’t convert on any of our chances downfield. I think that’s the difference, especially in a windy game if you can flip the field at some point and create that field position, even if you’re not scoring, you’re making progress.

“We just never got any of those big plays and I thought they kept us a little bit uncomfortable in the first half and in the third quarter, we never really got into a rhythm — getting first downs and moving the ball and getting into our play-calling rhythm.”

4. The penalty parade

Winnipeg entered Week 3 with the second lowest number of penalties in the CFL, averaging 5.5 per game. In Hamilton, the Bombers were tagged for seven infractions for 60 yards and had five other flags declined.

Two penalties were prime examples of Winnipeg’s hard luck: Sukh Chungh’s holding call negated a 33-yard run by Andrew Harris and stalled a Winnipeg drive that would’ve set the Bombers up on the Hamilton 10-yard line in the first quarter; and Jackson Jeffcoat’s horsecollar tackle that extended a Ticats possession leading to a Lirim Hajrullahu field goal just before halftime.

“It’s very disappointing… we didn’t play the way we needed to play,” Jeffcoat said. “I put a lot on me. I probably should have got my hands down on the penalty they gave me. I didn’t even know what they called. I don’t think I horse-collared. I don’t know what they got me for. If they call it a penalty, then it’s on me.”

Defensive tackle Jake Thomas insisted the undisciplined penalties were out of character.

“We’ve done a good job over the last few years, really, eliminating penalties,” said Thomas. “It was unfortunate today it happened a lot in the first half, it kept a few drives going and they ended up with points. I think we ve gotta clean up stuff and just kinda make sure we’re taking care of our assignments and I’m sure the numbers will take care of themselves.”

5. Made in Canada

Masoli blended Hamilton’s aerial attack with a surprisingly good ground game.

This time, instead of pounding Canadian rookie Mercer Timmis for 133 yards as they did in Week 2, the Ticats opted for unheralded 2017 eighth-round draft pick Sean Thomas Erlington, who piled up 92 yards in 11 carries. Timmis added a pair of short TD runs.

Winnipeg got 66 yards on 14 carries from Harris, who is one of four Canucks to crack the league’s top-10 rushing list.

Harris’s season total of 201 rushing yards is 31 ahead of his pace after three games in 2017. However, the dual-threat veteran has 12 catches and 91 receiving yards, 29 yards behind last year’s pace.

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