The Ticats are looking to build off of their 50-11 thumping of Johnny Manziel and the Montreal Alouettes last week. Hamilton was dominant from start to finish, jumping out to a 28-point lead after the first quarter and never looking back.
Jeremiah Masoli threw 17-of-26 for 300 yards with two touchdown passes, one rushing major and two interceptions. Receivers Jalen Saunders and Brandon Banks both eclipsed the 100-yard mark and hauled in a touchdown each. Hamilton’s ground game was also solid. In his season debut after missing time with a hand injury, running back Alex Green rushed for 74 yards and two majors.
Hamilton’s defence wreaked havoc on Manziel all night in his first CFL start, forcing him to throw four interceptions. Larry Dean led the way with seven tackles and an interception while defensive back Jumal Rolle picked off Manziel twice.
The Ticats’ special teams also got in on the action. Curtis Newton blocked a punt deep in Als territory, which was recovered by Sean Thomas Erlington and run back into the end zone for a touchdown.
It was a night where everything went right for the Black and Gold.
“Anytime you can go on the road and win a football game, it’s important,” assistant head coach Orlondo Steinauer told Ticats.ca. “Those are four-point games how we look at it. It’s two points that we get and two points they don’t. Obviously you want to win all those season series, but bigger than that we also played well.”
After a promising start to the season that saw the Ticats leap out to a 2-1 record and appearing to be front runners in the East Division, the Black and Gold were unable to pick up a single win during the month of July. The victory in Montreal snapped a three-game losing skid for the 3-4 Ticats, providing a much needed confidence boost.
The Tabbies are looking to head into their bye week on a high note with a win over Winnipeg.
“We’ve played well in a whole lot of spots but we just haven’t made the plays to win games in those losses,” said Head Coach June Jones. “We wanted to get the fight started early last week and see if we could get it going. We did answer the bell on that one. Any time you go on the road, wins are hard. This [Winnipeg] is a tough place to play, especially when the crowd gets into it.”
The Bombers are eager to get back onto the field after a Week 8 bye. Winnipeg’s most recent game was a 40-14 thumping of the Toronto Argonauts. Matt Nichols completed 19 of 28 attempts for 253 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception. Dual threat Nic Demski found the end zone twice, once on the ground and the other through the air. Winnipeg’s defence was also impressive, picking off Toronto quarterback James Franklin three times.
The victory completed a home-and-home sweep of the Argos.
“Going into this back-to-back we knew it was going to be tough,” Nichols told BlueBombers.com. “You want to go into the bye week feeling good about where you’re at as a team. I feel like we’re hitting our stride a little bit and we’re seeing what kind of team we can be if we stick to what we’re being coached to do and playing clean football.”
The Bombers are 3-1 in their last four outings when coming off of a bye week. Head Coach Mike O’Shea says he has no concerns about his team heading into Friday night’s game.
“They came back and proved in the very first practice that they were ready to be back and wanted to be back,” said O’Shea. “I think if it didn’t look like that the first practice you would reassess how to run the second practice. With rust versus rest, rest is always the key. Everybody in the organization needed it.”
The Bombers offence has had no trouble putting points on the board this season, averaging a league-best 34.1 points per game. However, they are going up against a Ticats squad that has had a lot of recent success in keeping opponents out of the end zone. Hamilton has only allowed one major in the last two games.
“They’re a team that has a lot of speed over there, a lot of physicality,” said Nichols. “They run to the ball well… They’ve made it tough on people to put it in the end zone on them. We feel like it’s going to be another tough week where if you get those rare opportunities you have to make them count because they don’t give you a lot.”
Crunchin’ Numbers:
20 – Straight possessions that the Bombers have not allowed a sack.
94 – Yards needed by Bombers running back Andrew Harris to become the 14th player in the CFL to reach 7,000 career rushing yards.
119 – Consecutive game reception streak for Bombers receiver Weston Dressler.
686 – Receiving yards this season for Jalen Saunders, the second most in the league behind only Duke Williams of Edmonton.
This will be the series finale between the Ticats and Bombers. The Black and Gold won the first matchup back in Week 3 with a 31-17 triumph. However, the Bombers look like a much different squad this time around.
The most noticeable change can be seen at quarterback. Rookie Chris Streveler was at the helm of the Bombers offence back in June while Nichols’ nursed a knee injury.
The Ticats and Bombers have formed an identity this season around their high powered offences. Masoli has thrown for 300 or more yards in 11 of his last 12 games. Meanwhile for Winnipeg, Andrew Harris leads the league in rushing yards with 638 and leads all running backs with five rushing touchdowns.
Both teams will need a big performance out of their defences if they hope to emerge from Week 9 with a ‘W.’
– With files from BlueBombers.com/Ticats.ca.
AFI, Yare Media and the CFL
American Football International is collaborating with Yare Media and the Canadian Football League to present 2018 CFL games live. This is more than a livestream. This is a stream of the top flight TSN network television broadcast.
