Article by Josh Thomas
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were in a crowd-pleasing mood to start the Canadian Football League preseason.
It wasn’t just the fact that the Tabbies welcomed their fans back to the newly-named Hamilton Stadium with a 24-16 win over the Toronto Argonauts, how they did it was reason enough to be cautiously optimistic.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Pound The Rock
Hamilton’s running backs combined for 178 yards and two touchdowns in the preseason opener, with significant contributions from Treshaun Ward (eight carries, 76 yards, one touchdown), Johnny Augustine (five carries, 51 yards, one touchdown) and Greg Bell (eight carries, 49 yards).
Head Coach Scott Milanovich also deserves credit for the diversity in the run game. He kept Toronto’s linebackers guessing with different looks and it played a major role in the ‘Cats victory, especially when it came time to close it out. It has been a long time since Hamilton had a really good running game. Though it’s only one game into the preseason, the blue-collared fans in Steeltown will be more than content if it’s a sign of things to come.
A decisive Bo is the best Bo
Bo Levi Mitchell’s 13-for-23, 101-yard night won’t exactly make his list of career stat lines, but Tiger-Cats fans have to be happy with what they saw on Saturday.
Everyone in the CFL knows Bo can deliver the deep ball on a regular basis. Being unafraid to test coverages and take chances down the field is what makes him one of the best gunslingers the league has seen. The question asked repeatedly since the hiring of Milanovich was can he take what the defence gives him and march the ball methodically.
While the run game was Hamilton’s primary source of offence, Mitchell showed he had no problem hitting the open guy for first down yardage with a long of just 13 yards. Encouraging signs for an offence that we already knew could hit teams over the top.
D-what?! Defence.
Oskee wee wee, oskee waa waa, everybody on the Ticats’ defence was eating ’em raw.
There is simply no hiding that defence had been a sore spot for the Tiger-Cats for a long time leading up to the midway point of last season. The question on the mind of many fans heading into Saturday was whether the defence would be able to build on the way they played down the stretch with Chris Jones under new defensive coordinator Brent Monson, who was hired in December after six seasons with the Calgary Stampeders.
Monson’s defence was smothering, shutting the Argos out in the first half and making a number of key stops in the second half. The defensive line was in the backfield wreaking havoc all night, led by Julian Howsare who looked unblockable at times. The secondary looked good and even produced a takeaway, which has been an issue for previous iterations of the Ticats’ D.
A total of 24 guys contributed defensive tackles on Saturday. Regardless of who was on the field, the defence looked in control.
Special Teams look prepared for opening week
Sure, there was the classic confusion created by having sixty guys on the sidelines and multiple special teams units, but it was an overall professional outing from Hamilton on special teams.
Marc Liegghio hit all three of his kicks with a long of 38, Nik Constantinous booted the ball away four times with a net average of 48 yards and a long of 54, and tackling was good across the board. It was a solid performance and one which lacked some of the mistakes you might expect from the opening week of the preseason.
Receivers easing their way in
I’m not sure how concerned fans should be with the play of the receiving corps after their first preseason game, but if you had to pick one group which looked to be shaking off some of the pre-season rust, it would be them. Now, to be fair, I’ve already touched on the fact that the running game stole the show, but seeing Kenny Lawler’s five receptions for 36 yards lead the way is definitely not the start I expected.
On the plus side, Mitchell did connect with eight different receivers, four of whom had two or more receptions. None of them set the world on fire, but all of Hamilton’s big guns got their feet wet as Tim White collected two receptions for 19 yards, Kiondre Smith picked up three receptions for 24 yards, and the aforementioned Lawler led the way with five in his Ticats debut.
Pump the brakes… for now
There are two kinds of Ticats fans. Ones who will be cautiously optimistic, and others who can already see the parade making its way past the formerly dubbed Donut Box. To the latter, as much as I truly love you guys, let’s not get carried away.
Yes, this was a great way to start the CFL year. How can we not be excited? The run game looked good, the defence was on fire, and it felt like the version of the Tiger-Cats that the City of Hamilton so desperately wants. It did not look like a team figuring out the kinks in game one of the preseason, they looked like a group prepared to handle their business.
Nonetheless, they’ll still 0-0 in a few weeks time and they have still started the year in abysmal fashion the last three years running. Which brings me to my final thought…
Will it translate?
If you want to point to one reason for each of the last three seasons not panning out anywhere near how Ticats fans envisioned them, you can put a large share of the blame on slow starts. The 2024 Ticats made plenty of noise down the stretch but were never really in the playoff picture thanks to a 1-5 start.
For three seasons, I’ve asked guys on both sides of the ball what Hamilton needed to do to get off to a better start. They answered the question tenfold last night by coming prepared to play in all three phases. The question now will be can they continue to build on the performance and will they look equally as ready to go on June 7 in Calgary.
Preparation was the difference in last year’s season opener. The Cats cannot afford to let it be the difference again.
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