10 Random Thoughts about the game

  1. I believe we've settled the question (not that there was ever any doubt in my mind), about the relative merits of C.J. Gable and Chevon Walker.

  2. Gable's 82 yard catch and run was the play of the game, IMHO. If we didn't get points on that drive, I think the advantage goes to Burris with the score tied so late in the game.

  3. I wouldn't have guessed that we'd come out of this game with what you'd have to call a "big play offence." We had a 30+ yard play, couple of 40+, a 50+, and an 80+.

  4. Lefevour looks to me to be the favourite for offensive player of the week. (If a western QB like Durant had over 350 yds passing and 100 yds rushing I'd say he was a lock.) Will Ford is his only competition this week.

  5. I really liked our D's tackling, especially in the second half. There were a few occasions where they had to stop a guy dead in his tracks to force a punt, and they did so.

  6. Maybe some time could be spent in practice this week teaching our defensive line what one yard is. Hard to think of a more pointless penalty than lining up 6 inches offside.

  7. I really think people who are vocal before the game about how badly the team is going to do, should make an appearance after a win and update us on their thinking. Rather than just wait until the next time things aren't going well to come back out in force.

  1. I assume we were able to play a game at McMaster without any deaths caused by ambulances somehow being unable to reach the hospital clear on the other side of campus.
  1. Playing in Hamilton again is great. And it only gets better from here, assuming the new stadium opens up at some point this year. The toughest part of the schedule is already behind us.

  2. Not really about our game, but ... What better way to follow up a Ticat win than to watch Ricky Ray stink out the joint in game 2 of a double-header. (I wonder if having most of your starting receivers go down with injuries is somehow worse than your starting QB and 4 of 5 starting O-linemen?)

Hope you don't mind if I add a few:

  1. Bowman, Davis, Stephen and Plesius. Great games by all 4;

  2. "The" block by Fantuz. Awesome! Totally Awesome!

  3. Great blocking down field by Koch on the Gable TD. Well done.

  4. LeFevour stepping up. Way up in the face of being relegated to 3rd string and seemingly passed over by Austin (perhaps for not signing in the face of an offer by the team. Coincidence?)

  5. Special teams. Great play and seemingly great schemes by Reinbold. (other than the fake punt thing but hey...)

  6. Better, not great but better, running between the tackles. That still seems to be eluding the Cats but it sure was better last night.

I appreciate this thread!
I was down in Cambridge over the weekend and was unable to watch the game. However I managed to sneak away to my car a couple of times to listen to CHML for a few minutes.
After reading these comments and watching the Tiger-Cat video highlights....I think I got a reasonably good sense about what happened.
Great win. :thup:

  1. Chevon is still damn good, but CJ is by far the most complete RB with his awesome blocking ability…

  2. Either that or Banks’ TD…

  3. True, but the only deep pass that worked was the one to Koch…

  4. The Darlings of the CFL’s Will Ford will probably win it because he’s from SSK…

  5. Looked to me that they were concentrating on proper tackling techniques; and SURPRISE it WORKED…

  6. Agreed…

  7. Don’t hold your breath…

  8. lol…

  9. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup…

  10. See above…

@ExPat - Only if you are the Argos are injuries to key starters a catastrophe worthy of mention by the media and used as an excuse by the fans! :roll: Barker isn't doing his job very well (or maybe the coaching staff isn't) if their replacements can't step up and contribute. That being said, Adams and Coombs seem to be doing a decent job in relief.

I get the feeling that hardly anyone aside from Ticat fans really knows the extent of our IR because no one ever mentions it. Last time I checked there were about 16- 17!

I a huge fan of Gable, but I’m not sure you’re being entirely fair to Walker. Gable’s 82 yard catch and run was beautiful, but in the end he got caught from behind, whereas Walker surely would not have. Gable is a more complete player, and I’m glad he’s our guy, but he doesn’t have the raw gamebreaking speed that Walker has. Fortunately the Cats were able to punch it in anyway, but you that you can’t count on that every time.

I wouldn’t choose Walker over Gable, but give him his due: he’s a scary player.

Yeah, that was fun to watch. :smiley:

Agreed. Great play by Koch. Receivers who do a good job of blocking downfield are one of the things that separate great teams from good teams.

@DisplacedCatsFan

Re:#4 - I think Collaros will be recognized ahead of Ford (even if he is a Rider now) because

a) It was Dan's first CFL start
b)Dan contributed about 80% (est) of our offense - 470 yds :rockin:
c) He led the team to its first win of the season
d) Ford isn't new to the game

Just my two cents. We will find out on Tuesday who gets the nod for the PTW.

He even overcame adversity WITHIN the game. I thought he got rattled partway through the game and had happy feet in the pocket for a while, but I think he was able to get settled down again. Great composure after ducking the blitz on a big second down play near the end.

That was pretty sweet too. :smiley:

Tackling! Real honest to dirt wrap 'em up TACKLING! And gang tackling as well.

A RUN game! The only down side here is the QB got 100 yds. BUT how much of that was called and how much was due to the pressure brought to bear.

And, on that note, you hear of the 'O' line getting to know their line mates to give better performance; so what's gonna happen when the 1st stringers start to return? A drop in performance.

Excellent enjoyable game.

100% certainty that Walker would have scored if he had got behind the DBs like Gable did. I actually made that comment during the game. But don’t forget, Gable caught the ball 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. He only got in behind the defence because of a combination of great blocking and being able to pick the right lanes. Maybe Walker would have made the same choices, or maybe not.

Gable may not have “gamebreaking speed,” but if he’s fast enough to sprint 80+ yards and only get caught because of an illegal tackle, I’ll sure settle for that. (As we saw, he’s also fast enough to run 47 yards into the end zone.)

Probably unfair to Walker to make the direct comparison, but the media like to do it to create their “storylines”, and I was just reacting.

I'm loving the defense. They seem to be getting more pressure, yet the sacks haven't come. Butler looked good, glad I bought his jersey before the season started.

Some random thoughts from myself;

A) LeFevour executed the Zone-Read-Run-Option near perfectly. Made the right decisions to pull the ball & run with it off edge which then opened things up inside for CJ later. He ran with confidence & purpose, not just escaping. He was much more poised in the pocket than I had seen up to this point. Stood tall in the face of blitz pressure & made the RedBlacks pay for bringing it by making the right throws.

B) Speaking with one of Olinemen afterwards, they were really, really, really happy to have a good mix of play calling which allowed them to tee off on the RedBlacks front 7. As has already been mentioned, downfield blocks by receivers were great, but it was also nice to see Olinemen getting up to the 2nd level getting a block on LB's & DB's and getting downfield to help spring big runs.

C) I've been hard on Frederic Plesius in the past but he played well Saturday night. When Hasan Hazime went down, the rotation of 2 NI DT's was affected thus Freddy got more playing time I'm adjustment. He did a very good job. Perhaps taking his starting job away from him lit a fire under his butt & has got him going. I still am not of the belief that he should start at MLB, but as an excellent ST's player, situational contributor on D & solid NI backup, he's proving to be quite valuable.

D) Marcellus Bowman is the real deal. He's all over the place. A sure tackler. Can lay the wood. Managing the talent we have at LB & getting them on the field when healthy will be a challenge. Bowman & Lawrence are guarantees. After that what do you do? Harris played well at SAM. Caldwell is looking good. Reed is solid at MLB (minus the penalties & gains game-shape). Murray we know is a very active SAM. 6 players - 3 starting spots. Plesius gets one backup because he's a NI, but what do you do after that? I'd be looking to move Rico Murray back to DB for the versatility & flexibility.

That's it for now ... I'm sure I'll have more later.

Overall, impressed with the game & the TiCats play/performance.

Didn’t notice this. Was the adjustment that Marshall rotated in at DT? (I did notice that Reed had no tackles on the stats and Plesius had 4.)

Plesius had his worst game as a Tiger-Cat last week in Calgary, which is saying a lot. He was much better on Saturday, though.

To me, if Bowman is healthy, he's the starting MLB and there's no question about it.

The SAM linebacker position is supposed to be one of the hardest to fill in the CFL, but we have two really good ones (Harris and Murray). If you move one to the secondary, who do you replace? Everybody on the back end is solid. Stewart struggled on Saturday but was our best DB the previous three games. Breaux is solid, E. Davis is solid, Stephen has played two good games now. It's a good problem to have.

I was underwhelmed by Laurent in the first three games, but he was unbelievable this week.

Norwood and Boudreaux are preventing the defense from taking the next step. We still can't get pressure without blitzing.

Gable said he got quicker over the off-season. He wasn't lying. I still think he's our best player and should be getting 15 touches a game.

I think you mean Terrance Moore as Marshall is no longer on the team. But yes, you’re correct, they rotated Moore in at DT much more after Hazime went down. In fact, very early in the game they were playing a 5 man Dline, (Norwood, Bulcke, Laurent, Hazime, Boudreaux) in an effort to limit runs on 1st down.

Plesius saw more action when Hazime was out. He would go in along with Moore while Reed & one of Bulcke/Laurent coming out thus keeping the ratio intact.

Reed wasn’t as effective as he was in the Calgary game no doubt. Penalties again and not as much playing time. Whether that has as much to do with ratio balancing or his game-shape or his performance/penalties, not sure. I’d say 50/25/25.

Thanks FenderGuy69. Yes I meant Moore. I never know who they made DIs. I gather it was four of Medlock, Madu, Caldwell, Moore and Banks, and I am guessing it was all but Banks. Awkward when you have to do the switching you describe, but I have no quarrel with success.