Weekly honours - week 8

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1

Ticats are getting duly acknowledged this week by the powers that be. Highlights:

Number 1 in the Power Rankings:
[url]http://cfl.ca/article/nissan-titan-power-rankings-which-team-is-tops[/url]
Hard to argue that one.

Two of the three players in the Top Performers list: Collaros and Norwood.
[url]http://cfl.ca/article/top-performers[/url]

Four of the 10 Plays of the Week: Banks' catch & run, Banks' punt return, Norwood's TD, and Tasker's diving TD catch.
[url]http://cfl.ca/video/index/id/114685/[/url]

This is all great, obviously. But being a Ticat fan, I'm still going to argue with some of the above.

1) Levi Mitchell ranking above Collaros in the Top Performers list.

Mitchell completed 17 of 25 passes (68 per cent) for 248 yards and two TDs, plus two rushing TDs. Collaros completed 19 of 23 passes (83 per cent) for 290 yards and 4 TDs. Both outstanding performances, but looks to me like Zach had better numbers overall. However I didn't watch the other game.

Justin Dunk ranked Collaros higher: [url]http://cfl.ca/article/qb-scorecard-and-starters-collaros-or-mitchell-on-top[/url]

2) Brandon Banks not getting more recognition.

This is a minor point, but I think Banks got slightly snubbed this week. His TD catch was only #3 on the Plays of the Week list. Ranking above him were one-handed catches by SJ Green and Greg Ellingson. One-handed catches are great, but let's face it, we see them every single week.

How often do we see a guy just blow through two tacklers in rapid succession, both of whom had him lined up dead to rights, en route to a TD? Not to mention the guy being outweighed by 50-75 pounds. Football is about more than acrobatic catches. For a receiver, it's route-running, catching, running, breaking tackles. I think that was one of the most complete and impressive football plays we've seen all year. Throw in a punt return TD (only the fifth all season), and 200+ yards of total offence, and you've got a pretty good case for Banks also being a top performer of the week. Maybe he's set expectations too high.

Of course, had Banks made that list, one of our other guys may have been bumped. Obviously I'm just whining here. Great job by the team all around!

2

Pat, I for one, agree completely with all of your editorial comments. Looking at this objectively, and not through my Ticat fan's eyes I think that Hamilton never gets the credit they deserve.

Oh well, credit will come when they win the Cup this year, after all....

2015: The Year of the Cats! (see signature below).

3

@Ex Pat - I agree with you that Collaros should have been ahead of Mitchell in the POW picks.

Hadn't thought about Speedy B but you can certainly make a case for him too. I also thought that he should have been ranked above Green at at least in the plays of the week. One-handed catches are a stock-in-trade for Green but I was impressed with Ellingson's catch.

Glad to see Norwood as a choice. What is impressive about Norwood's stats is that he has put up some impressive numbers in just THREE games!

4

The thing that angers me about that "catch" was the obvious (in replay) push-off he made on the defender; AND THE DARLING OF TSN DIDN'T GET CALLED OUT FOR IT!!! THAT is the reason that OPI should never have been allowed to be taken off the Coach's challenge list. I personally thing that Tasker's second TD catch was a better one than his first, as it reminded me of Champion's in 1989...

5

I don't think anyone would argue against that. It's the second one that made it into the plays of the week montage.

The first one was also pretty neat - both the catch and the stretch to punch it over the goal line. I wonder if the judges discounted that TD throw from Collaros, as most teams would try to run it in from 2.5 yards out and the QB wouldn't get the stat. Although a 1-yd plunge from Mitchell seems to count just fine.

6

One single play from the first quarter of our THF domination of the BC Lions was all that the TSN panel wanted to talk about on this week's 'Game Ball' awards.

Click here

Oskee wee wee

7

From the Subway commercial at the start

IS THIS HUGH O'Neill's DAD? :lol:

8

Perhaps I was a little harsh in my original post about lack of credit. I enjoyed seeing the video. Thanks for posting it. :wink:

Now, if only Jock-Strap Slimie had to give credit to Speedy B (and the whole team) for a great game I would have been very happy. :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

9

This is cool! :thup:

Scott Mitchell ?@SUNMitchell 11m11 minutes ago
Bo Levi on No. 1 performer spot for Week 8: “It is nice to get recognized for it, but, I think, (Zach) Collaros got snubbed." #CFL #Ticats

10

The players know who deserves awards. If only the CFL would let them choose, probably the most deserving would get the honour.

:wink:
11

completely agree with the first post (this topic was the whole reason i came on today.)

That said, the Cats could have swept the Weekly honours and still had someone get left out. I tweeted it right after the game that someone would have to have a big boy game in the Calgary game to bump out Collaros, Tasker, Norwood, Banks, or Harris. Maybe even Laurent in there with the forced fumble.

12

Some more trivia from last week:

[url]http://cfl.ca/article/cflca-game-notes-a-look-at-week-9[/url]

Hamilton’s Fast Starts: Hamilton has started fast for the second consecutive week with 21-0 margins after the 1st Quarter. It was [u]only the second time in 107 years of our history [/u]that any team had ever had consecutive leads of 21+ points after 15:00 of play. Only Winnipeg in August 1994 with 21-0 and then 25-0 leads in back-to-back weeks at the end of the 1st Quarter had ever achieved that feat.
(Shall we go for three?)
First Time in 10 Years: The Ticats scored TDs in four different ways vs BC. They passed for 4 TDs, and had interception, fumble and punt return scores as well. They are the [u]first club to record three separate types of return TDs in the same game in 10 years [/u]since BC had an INT, punt and kickoff return on Sep 8/05. The last time Hamilton had 3 return types in one game was Aug 5/99 vs Saskatchewan (INT, fumble, punt).
(I'll bet it's not very often that a team can score TDs in four ways and none of them is rushing.)
Hamilton QB Sacks: The Hamilton defence has really stepped up of late and over the last two games they have as many sacks as they made in the season’s first 5 games (11). Hamilton is now the only CFL club with 5 players with at least 3 sacks each.
(A true team effort.)