The good and bad of Hamilton’s loss to the Argos

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
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Good read here from Josh Smith of 3downnation
He was at the game in the stands

[url=http://3downnation.com/2016/06/11/good-bad-hamiltons-preseason-loss-argos/]http://3downnation.com/2016/06/11/good- ... oss-argos/[/url]

I liked these parts especially

Good… No, GREAT: The BMO experience

While not perfect — I was seated on the east side of the stadium and the sound system over there apparently was not working today — after just one preseason game, you can already tell that BMO Field is a massive improvement over the SkyDome. Something as small as the refillable collectors’ cups coming with Argos logos on them is a major step up from how the team was marketed at the Dome (any type of item bought at concession stands came with Blue Jays logos on them). The crowd was fairly decent for a preseason game as well, and those who were there seemed interested and engaged, and perhaps most importantly, they were young. I saw a lot of younger people in the stands. Twenty-somethings, teens and kids, and they were excited to be there. There are still some kinks to be worked out here and there, but this is going to work. You can just tell.

[b]Good: Worry not about the defensive line

[i]Fans need not worry about the team’s defensive line following the mass exodus of talented players this offseason. John Chick’s motor is as advertised. On the game’s first play, he blew by his man and nearly brought down Logan Kilgore. If this is the John Chick we are seeing during the preseason, I cannot wait to see him in the regular season.

Another new addition that made quite the impact was former Argo Delano Johnson. All reports are that Johnson is having a fantastic camp and he added to that by picking up a sack in the second quarter today and just being a general menace while he was out there. Johnson is making a strong push to Ted Laurent’s defensive tackle mate to start the year and performances like this will push him closer to that starting spot.

Another defensive tackle that had a very good game was former No. 1 overall pick Lyndon Gaydosh. You won’t find his name on the stat sheet, but he was constantly taking on two linemen and doing so rather well. If Gaydosh can become the player many envisioned when he went No. 1 overall three years ago, the Ticats will once again have an embarrassment of riches along the defensive line.[/i]

Good: Nor the offensive line

The Ticats starting offensive line looked spectacular today. When Jeremiah Masoli was in the game, he had a lot of time to make his reads and faced very little in the way of a pass rush. Masoli also made quick reads, which helped the line look so good, but even with that and without a pair of starters, Hamilton’s hogs looked very good. This offensive line could be the best we have seen in Hamilton in some time.[/b]

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Football starts in the trenches and depsite our offensive explosion at the beginning of last year, the oline in particular always seemed like the weak point on the team (very passable weak point I'll say but there is always a weakest link) but I was very optimistic with the group of five we had slated to start this year and very happy to hear they looked so good even if it was just preseason.

Great post glad to hear overall it was a great experience and the main guys who we will see in action on June 23rd looked crisp.

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This is a relatively meaningless pre-season game. We did not play any number of 'feature' players, like CJ, Simoni, and our somewhat banged up QB, but some of the acquisitions showed up smiling, that if we need to dig down, we know they are going to be there for us. Chick is going to be a great fit, and I trust the D-Line to stop anything.
While I love to see us win (especially against Toronto and Montreal!) I accept that these pre-seasoners are just to excite people like me, and let the Coaching Staff find the players they want and need.
When they slide Banks and Owens back into the roster (was the Banks hold out orchestrated? Scratches balding skull?) its going to get very, very different!)
I think Kent has it together...win the games that put points on the board. More importantly, we seemed to have no injuries from this one, and that's always a positive!
Toronto will be a strong opponent, but I believe we can take them. Montreal will struggle at QB, and Ottawa will fade away from a blaze of drafting...

Lets see what happens! The Cats should show well!

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Yes the O-Line did do a good job and also keep in mind that it was missing two out of the five slated starters. Both Filer and Bomben weren't dressed for this game but both were effectively replaced by Girard at centre and Rice at guard with 1rst round draft pick Revenberg also getting some reps as well at both positions.

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Nice first post, Creeker.

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The other side is that personnel matchups aside, teams tend not to show interesting defensive wrinkles in preseason, so it’s not the same kind of test we’ll see when the games actually count.

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:( :( THE BAD: I think the two INT's thrown by Matthews was the BAD. Kent stresses good decision making as a key in a quarterback's growth. Jeff's decision making has been suspect in the past and still appears to be an area of concern. The coach also feels that a player, especially a quarterback only improves with real game time experience. Any thoughts on how the playing time at QB should be split up against Ottawa. :)
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One of the more interesting battles in camp is the battle at kicker. it appeared round one went to Maher from the game stats but I do not see his name on our roster. Maybe I am missing it?

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Mandell kicked a 51 yarder but missed one, Maher kicked two short ones, they seemed to be close on the punting.
Maher had longer punts but that doesn't mean a lot, the "hang time" may be more important.
Mandell was a punter in the NFL an a punter at Alabama
Both Internationals so it could be a good battle. Friday's game will be the decider

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Maher's name has never, at least yet, appeared on the ticats.ca Team Roster, as is the case with Huggins, since his re-signing and LaQuan Williams. The closest to accurate roster available to us, which includes those players and corrects wrongly listed jersey numbers is the numerical one which accompanied the depth chart for the first pre-season game:

[url=http://assets.ticats.ca.s3.amazonaws.com/app/uploads/2016/06/10091437/Depth-Chart-Roster-6-11-16-at-TOR.pdf]http://assets.ticats.ca.s3.amazonaws.co ... at-TOR.pdf[/url]

This version, however, does not include Collaros and Archambault, who have been declared "Exempt Veterans" for training camp, nor Butler and Olson who were both put on the 6-Game Injured List at the start of camp. It does include D.J. Hunter who was "suspended" late last week, I believe, to accommodate the return of Brandon Banks, who is not listed.

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Apparently Mandell hit a 67 yarder in warm ups I remember hearing? Or maybe it was Maher? Can't remember clearly anyone recall who this was?

I remember Kent joking about going for like a 60 something yarder and saying he was legitimately thinking of going for it because Mandell hit one from 67 in warmups and said he could hit it in the game but then Cats took a delay of game and just punted.

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That was probably in that THF wind tunnel

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Maher hit a 67 yarder at BMO in the warm up and was going to try a long one when they had the time count penalty. I used to watch Medlock in the pre-game warm ups and he would hit from 55-60 yards. :smiley:

Pat Lynch(the old guy)

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Thanks, Ex-Pat, its nice to feel welcome.

As "Bobo" has remarked, I don't think there are any worries on the O-Line.

The addition of John Chick, and (dammit his name has vanished from memory, but the guy who got in trouble last week for going a bit too far in getting through to the QB), we should be content with the ends, and the interior linemen, I'm pretty pleased with.

We will hurt a bit without Butler at FS, not that we aren't covered with Austin's thoughts or Orlando's smarts, but we do have bodies that can cover this. The D-Backfield seems pretty strong.

Having both Owens and Banks (the only downside is that they are both kind of 'small') is going to give a boost to special teams (we could play one or both, and give opposing coaches fits), and nothing very wrong with Reinbold and the coverage teams that set this up. Playing either or both (as they both want to) in the regular offence, gets a bit 'iffy' in the Special Teams Role, but I'm not a Coach...

We are a bit weak on the running back side of things. CJ, is, of course, a great running back, but gets injured too often. Timmins looks good, but is a rookie, and that could go either way. We don't really have a ball buster FB that can take it up the middle on short downs, and block like a stone wall. As a result, some of the younger QB's (attempting to win high paying jobs) get a bit mixed up and try to throw miracles, that sometimes results in interceptions, instead of the bench or the dirt.

They, too, don't know just where we are with a kicker, either as a placement kicker or a punter, and understand we want a guy who can do both (and preferably is a Canadian!) reliably. We had that with Medlock, and let him slip away, in spite of some of the pourer punts, but here we are, in 2016, and working with what we have left!

Its going to bean interesting year, and TSN might have it right that we might bust up the Eastern Division. It still takes a good deal of ancient, honest "work", but I hope we have the guts for that.

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Delano Johnson
Stephen and Daly are both capable of the FS Duties.
They will be part of a package im sure
DeRel Scott Anthony Woodson and FB Alex Faubert-Lussier all looked pretty good in camp so has everyone though so cuts will be hard. Also CJ has had a string of fluke bad luck Injuries and should have a healthy season he looks STRONG in Camp
Medlock is not Canadian

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This may be the biggest "bad"of the loss:

CFL News ?@CFL_News 14h14 hours ago
#Ticats Chase Minnifield, who was having a great camp before suffering a suspected torn Achilles against #Argos - @scratchingpost #CFL
2 retweets 0 likes

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If Medlock was Canadian he might be the highest paid non QB in the CFL.