From the PBP thread:
"Can our Defence stop the MTL running game and stifle MBT?
Can our Offence string drives together and score majors against the strong MTL Defence?
Can our STs cover kicks/punts and open lanes for returns?
We’re up against a relatively hurting Montreal team, so if we play good, fundamental football, we have a good chance for our first win of the season."
The answer to the first one is a resounding YES. The Defence scored two TDs - a Pick-6 off a tip by Veresuk, and a fumble recovery in the end zone by Howsare. Tackling was about 10000000% better than in previous weeks, the Secondary actually covered receivers, and there really wasn’t any running game to worry about.
The answer to the second is a definite “sorta”. We had a very good drive to start the 4th quarter, but ran into issues with short yardage. All year Litre has been running behind Revenberg and getting the FD or TD. This game, the Montreal D stuffed us multiple times. We had to run what probably was our best 2-point play on 3rd down to score a TD.
We are finally starting to see complementary football with Lawlor and White.
BLM had decent stats, but he had a few too many overthrows on deep passes and a few high throws that left his receivers out to dry. He has to clean that up. The good thing is that he took care of the football and didn’t turn it over.
The answer to the third is WOW. Aside from the start of the second half where Leigghio had to make a TD-saving tackle, the coverage teams were excellent. Ternowski made the play of the game tackling the MTL returner on his 5-yard line, and on the next play Howsare scored his TD. Returns looked better, and NiCo had two excellent plays - the coffin-corner punt to the 1-yd-line, and the fake punt with a pass to Ternowski for a FD. Leigghio was perfect on FGs and PATs.
As @Count_Floyd1 mentioned, MTL had a few starters on their Offence injured, but all Defensive starters were playing. I thought this would be a difficult game, but it was a full team win for Hamilton.
BLM won his 100th game in 143 games - the fastest ever in the CFL by far.
On a funny note, it seemed whenever Luke Wilson was analyzing the game, we scored a Defensive TD. I will lobby TSN for him to do this every game we play… lol
Montreal were 2.5-point favourites this game, and we won by a bunch.
I’m going to savour this win for a while.
), and Stravros Kasantsonis for his consistent play at safety. Also, Global Constantinou (NiCo) who was punting great (6 punts, 47.2 yd avg) with 2 landing inside the 10.