Where to begin...

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1

Just a few observations from where I sat today:

The Cats were outplayed and outcoached.

Chang was obviously misfiring on lots of his passes but he didn't lose his poise out there which is a good sign. I think he suffered from a bad case of nerves, a lack of support and a limited gameplan.

I'd say it was a questionable decision to put Chang in against arguably the CFL's best D for his first game and without the benefit of having Lumsden in te backfield but having done it, Taafe should've been allowed to finish the game.

Chang threw lots of out patterns because the gameplan obviously didn't call for very much down the middle. There were too many plays where the middle was a wasteland. No Cats receivers there.

Taafe seems to be running scared. After saying that he was prepared to give Chang a real chance he pulls him after a first half no worse than many that Maas has turned in. And who does he put in but the veteran Maas, the 1-7 saviour. Coaches always turn back to their old guys regardless of how they're performing when they start to feel the heat. Chang should've been left in--at least that way he'd know taht HE lost the game, instead of knowing that his coach lost faith in him.

Cats receivers couldn't get open, didn't fight for the ball when it it was up for grabs (e.g. Cetout's TD) and had the dropsies. And sure, Ralph caught a perfect pass from Maas but he dropped a drive killer in the 4th quarter too. If he's the best they have, it's not nearly good enough.

Once again the O-line was very inconsistent. Too many breakdowns had the QBs on the run much of the game.

The secondary is porous. They were soundly beaten by a QB that hasn't played in weeks and receivers even I as an Argo fan have barely heard of (e.g. Brossard). Arland Bruce didn't even play!

The D-line was soft. Bishop had as much time as he needed to complete passes all game long.

In my opinion, the only Cat who had a strong game was Moreno. The rest didn't show up--they just mailed it in. The most depressing thing that I saw today was late in the 4th quarter when Maas dropped the ball while running on his own and the fans around me just started laughing as they got up to leave. I never thought I'd see the day when diehard Cats fans would laugh at one of their own. This team has so many problems, I'm not sure anyone really knows where to begin to turn things around. The half-time highlights on the jumbotron featuring Morreale and Hitchcock showed just how far this team has fallen in terms of its personnel.

An Argo-Cat fan

2

While I agree with most of your observations, barneyfife1, it is difficult to fault Coach Taaffe for starting Timmy Chang at quarterback today. Once Coach Taaffe made the commitment to start Timmy Chang in the Labour Day game, there was no turning back. Chang expected it and the fans expected it. Chang took the first string reps in practice this past week and it would appear that running back Jesse Lumsden practiced with him up until this past Friday as noted in the photo and caption accompanying this article in The Hamilton Spectator on Sep 1/07:

http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/242600

While it is unfortunate that Chang did not have the benefit of Lumsden's running and blocking in the backfield, Taaffe had promised Chang that he would start on Labour Day and he lived up to his commitment.

Where do the Ticats go from here? They will have to make do with their existing roster for the next couple of weeks but they also need to bring in some NFL cuts to compete for some positions on the team. The NFL teams released 704 players on Sep 1/07 and have signed or will sign 256 of those players to their practice squads within the next day or two. That means that there are or will be 448 NFL trained players looking for employment. The Ticats should consider bringing in a quarterback, a running back if the injury to Jesse Lumsden is serious enough to keep him out of action for any length of time, one or two offensive tackles, a defensive end, a defensive tackle, and two defensive backs.

While it is becoming an annual ritual for the Ticats to have a second training camp in September because they are basically out of the playoff race, it is a necessity that they bring in the best players they can find and try to build some continuity over the final nine games of the season.

As far as the coaching situation is concerned, Coach Taaffe will be here next year if he wants to be here and he will have to evaluate the performance of his coaching staff at the conclusion of the season.

3

Training camp starts next week, the only way we get better is to bring in some quality 0-line man, receivers and DBs. As far as QB goes Chang starts Maas mops up if he struggles. Nothing will change on offense until we get better play from our supporting cast. Williams was sacked by a 3 man rush at the end and the Argos had the game won. Every time the Argos rushed one extra man they blew through our line like swiss cheese. Brutal is the only way to describe it.

4

Barney you raise some good points, but some of them are a little "twisted"...outplayed and outcoached we were in fact done in by this, especially outcoached where our coachs are Americans accustommed to the short and narrow field with four downs and fair catch rules...

I understand, and you feel full of yourself that the Argo D is the best in the League, but if you can drift back to real life, they are overaged and a way down there compared with Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and so on...(like really, get Real!)

The game plan does in fact come from CT having his buddies get high paying jobs from BY and none of them understand the Cdn Game...BY's "reality check" is Ron Lancaster and he is so far out of it its hardly funny...

Sending Chang to his "death" in the second half would be cruelty personified...you have to give the kid his dignity and a chance to sit with the playbook, as limited as it is, and how another can deal with it.

Maas was the guy to go with, and I fully agree with sending in Williams to give him game day experience and check him against a "good" (I'll give you that) defence with such "starters" as we poccess...

We need coach Sal back for the OLine coaching, we ache for a DE across from McKay, even if your vaunted Argo's failed in three attempts to crash through our DLine that you describe as "faulty" from the 1 yard line...

It truly sucked that we should be called for a penaltyfor crashing Bishop when he is heads up going fpr a first down in open field running and Armour gives it to him in bounds...and yet there were at leat three plays where Hamilton QB's got struck after releasing the ball, without any such calls!

Likewise, the "no yards" calls are emphasized to the extreme against Hamilton...a lot of these seem pretty "iffy" (did the play really change on account of them?)
I hope the zebras all enjoyed their steaks and wines in Toronto tonight, courtesy of Pinball and company, for such favours...there will be no review of the refereeing on the Armour hit...we all understand that