Kiss The Witches Thread, Volume 6

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
#1

Another fantastic game by the Cats D!! I cannot say enough about the tackling of this group -- we are giving teams headaches because they can take nothing for granted!

Collaros had a great game between the 20s. More consistency is needed to finish drives, but the offense is winning the time of possession battle on a consistent basis now.

Super special teams play, paerticularly our return game with Banks and Sinkfield. Sinkfield almost broke a couple of returns!

Moissis Madu had another solid game as Gable's replacement. I would have liked to see more rushing, but you cannot complain when a win is a win.

Finally, Justin Medlock. The man is money this year. His directional punting has improved a lot and his 62-yard punt into the coffin corner really put the Lions in a bind. A great game by him!

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ

#2

The Defence is feeding off the fans that are the 13th man at THF :rockin:

#3

Yup the defense is playing LIGHTS OUT!! If the offense ever catches up and starts putting up TDs to go with all of those yards this team will be REALLY hard to beat by anyone!!!

Might add that ALL of the points were the result of STs play - FGs by Medlock and 4 points off safeties because the Leos were pinned deep by the punts and stopped up short by the D!

#4

We finally have a defense; been waiting for years. Great to see those quick and open field tackles.

#5

cats D were averaging 12 points against in the first 3 games at THF. 17 tn will bump that average up a bit but it was really only 10 if you take into account the pic 6

#6

In their last 39 games when leading after 3 quarters the Leos were 38 - 1. Now they are 38 - 2. Props to the entire team for a job well done. It was a gutty performance by so many that to single out anyone as being the difference would be wrong.

My only concern is Collaros. Is he still suffering concussion symptoms and not reporting them? His play and accuracy has decreased over the last 5 games. I hope he isn't hiding an issue thinking it is the "right thing to do to help his team win". Too many careers have been shortened by such shortsightedness. I truly hope this is NOT the case and that the level of his play has decreased due to the other teams' D's.

#7

I have to disagree with you, oski, on Medlock's punting. It's been a concern, to me at least, much of the season and, other than that late and timely 61 yarder, I thought his punting performance tonight was terrible, both with and into the wind. The way I saw it, Schmitt even punted better into the wind than Medlock did with it at his back.

It was a very entertaining game and a great win. For the second straight week, we may have had a little good fortune with the officials, but this youngest team in the league has learned how to win. I certainly didn't give them any chance of winning these 4 straight against western teams, after than ugly outing in MTL, but now they're alone in first place for the first time in the season, undefeated at THF (4-0), 2-0 in the new signature uni's, and have won 5 of the 6 games since Zach came back. And, after 9 previous tries, the Cats finally won one against Kevin Glenn. The future looks bright now. Friday night in Trawna will be huge in determining where the Cats will finish in the standings.

#8

A win is a win is a win. BUT, we cannot keep counting on the defense all the time. Collaros had 367 yards passing and the only TD went the other way. I like this kid but he is still way too tentative with his passing. Trying to direct the ball instead of throwing it. Austin has to work more with him on delivery. 367 yards looks good in the stats but without putting points on the board means jack. On the plus side the defense looks awesome! reminds me of the good old days. Steinhauer has done a great job with the "D". Offensively it is a good team but we have to put points on the scoreboard. We cannot lose a game against the Argos they are too explosive and can basically score from anywhere.

#9

Some random thoughts on the game:

  1. We had 6 receivers with a catch of 20 yards or greater. I'll bet that doesn't happen very often, if ever. (BC didn't even have 6 guys with a reception.)

  2. You know things have really turned around when you start to relish the thought of your defence coming on with under two minutes left and the game on the line. For a lot of years that meant bad news. Tonight I had full confidence in them.

  3. Madu is looking more like Gable every game.

  4. Strange trivia: Despite missing all those games, Zach has as many 300-yard passing games this year as Ray, Burris, Glenn, Reilly and Durant - COMBINED. (That would be four.)

  5. Lots of near misses for our offence, especially on the intermediate-range throws. That actually doesn't worry me, because I see it as something that we can and will fix before the end of the season. And if we do, watch out.

  6. We really need to figure out a solution to 3rd and 1. We've had very little success since LeFevour went down. Maybe it's time to see if McGee is good at sneaks. If that is his only contribution this year, he will have earned his paycheque.

  7. Nice of B.C. to spot us four points when we were down by five. Thanks Coach. I've always hated conceding safeties since you still end up giving the ball to the other team ... but tonight I was in favour of it.

  1. I actually agreed with Austin's decision to kick the FG from the 1-yard line, based on #6 above. I wasn't loving Coach O's defence in those last two BC drives where we decided to rush only 3 guys - i.e. going away from what had worked all game. But I won't complain (this time). Thank goodness their receivers had the dropsies.

  1. As mentioned earlier in this thread, Medlock's punting has been a little inconsistent. But in each of the last two home games, he had a killer punt late in the fourth quarter that helped us cement a victory.

  2. I don't want to say that I was cheering for the Argos today, but ... let's just say I'm happy to see the East sweep the West. I was starting to get a little tired of all the doomsday talk, such as calls for ending the divisional structure based on a couple of months of results. Even more annoyed that western losses should apparently be excused because of things like QB injuries, yet QB injuries and even a new expansion team are not excuses for eastern losses.

#10

@ExPat - Re: #7 - Would YOU want to punt into a very strong gusty wind from your own end zone to either Banks, Sinkfield, or both (with Giguere between you and them)?

#11

No, of course not. But the result of the safety is kicking off into a very strong gusty wind to those same returners, and giving the offence an opportunity to score again even after you've spotted them the 2 pts. (i.e. 5 pts instead of just 3 pts.) It's a no-win situation for B.C. Still, I was very happy to get those safeties.

I just hope our coaching staff takes note of the importance of having the wind in the 4th quarter.

#12

I agree. They just get to kick off from the 20 instead of punting from their 5.

I guess it could be a matter of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, or 11 points with the punting scenario.
Eleven points would be the worst-case for BC: 2 on the Safety, 6 on the TD, 2 on the 2-point conversion, and 1 on the kickoff going through the end zone...

Heck - let's throw in an on-side kickoff just to make things even MORE hypothetical... lol

#13

I don’t think you can put the intercepted pick 6/7 against the D.

#14

Again, fantastic in two phases. These games would be so much easier if we didn't pass on every single play.

Run. The. Freaking. Football!

#15

I agree they had NOTHING to do with it. Having said that the CFL counts it against the entire team. :cry:

#16

Madu has been a great surprise/relief. I think that he makes catches out of the backfield that Gable drops. To me the one knock on Gable is he lets a few through his hands. Tough catches to make for sure, but similar throws to Madu turn into completions. From what I’ve seen Madu is not the between the tackle runner that Gable is, nor does he seem to find as many “after first contact” yards as C.J. does, but he sure gets the job done in an efficient manner. And, the Cats don’t run the ball tackle to tackle (or at all, truth be told) very much so I don’t think you lose much in that part of the game with Madu over Gable. I saw some great pass protection blocks from Madu the past two games as well. I hope there is room for both on the team next year. And if Gable goes NFL, at least the cats can rely on Madu.

#17

If Zach reads that wind right in the 4th Bakari Grant has a walk in TD he was wide open because the db covering him fell. Zach probably got a little wide eyes lol

#18

I like your analysis, Bill.

I agree, it would be great to have both now and for the future. It never occurred to me that C.J could go south, but if he does, then to have someone who knows this offense, ready to step in would be a good thing.

#19

ExPat: Very interesting and observant post --your 10 random thoughts.
#1 is quite a stat, but I think most of those 20+ yard passing gains were YAC, not mid-length completed passes. It would be interesting though to know when having 6 with 20+ yd. receptions last occurred.
#4 is a Wow! And, your last thought in #8 was really a key to the TiCat victory -- their receivers having the dropsies.

#20

Fixed it for you. You're welcome.

After a safety touch, the options to the scoring team are to: (a) Scrimmage at their own 35-yard line, (b) kickoff from their own 35-yard line or, (c) Accept a kickoff from the 25-yard line of the team who conceded the safety touch.

http://www.cfl.ca/page/game_rule_rule1