Sep
Hamilton 24 Calgary 17
Courtesy Calgary Herald:
On a beautiful late-summer night in Hamilton, the resurgent Tiger-Cats gave the Ivor Wynne faithful another reason for optimism.
And the ham-handed Calgary Stampeders? Well, they gave their fans cause for some very real concern.
While the Ticats were celebrating their gritty 24-17 Canadian Football League win before 19,448 fans, the Stamps were wondering how they’d suddenly forgotten how to catch footballs, how they’d taken a dramatic step backwards in team discipline, and pondering how, for the second time this season, they will replace one of their starting receivers.
While Ticats wideout Arland Bruce III was making the big catches — two of them for touchdowns in the fourth quarter as the Ticats came back from a four-point halftime deficit — Calgary receivers were doing quite the opposite, and they paid the price with their fifth loss in 11 games, snapping a three-game win streak.
“We dropped the ball,” summed up Stamps coach John Hufnagel afterwards. “Simple as that. I know (running back) Joffrey (Reynolds) had a good game (121 yards rushing), but you can’t drop passes for first downs and expect to do much. We didn’t play with a lot of skill. Full credit to Hamilton, they were around the ball and they caused us some problems, I’m sure, catching the ball, but we have to do a better job of playing skilled football.”
Adding to the woes for the Stampeders is the likelihood Canadian receiver Ryan Thelwell, who at the age of 36 was in the midst of a terrific season, is done for the year after a possible tear of his Achilles tendon in the fourth quarter. Early in the week he’d been struggling with the injury, which he suffered simply making a cut on a pattern. He’ll join Ken-Yon Rambo in sick bay for the rest of the season,
“I believe it’s very serious, probably his Achilles tendon,” confirmed Hufnagel. “It’s very tough. He’s a guy we depend on heavily, and now we have to go back to the drawing board.”
But the damage was done far earlier. There were plenty of fingers to be pointed all over the receiving corps — Brett Ralph dropped an easy ball in the end zone; running back Jon Cornish had a drop on a second-and-short play as the Stamps were driving in the fourth quarter; Thelwell, too, mishandled some balls — as Calgary failed to capitalize on two early touchdowns, courtesy of Hamilton turnovers.
The first came on Hamilton’s second offensive play. Defensive ends Charleston Hughes and Tearrius George, both of whom were making their Stampeder debuts, got through the Hamilton offensive line to put pressure on quarterback Quinton Porter, who simply lost the handle and George recovered at the Hamilton nine. Two plays later, Burris was able to scamper into the end zone from a yard out to open the scoring.
Later in the quarter, slippery running back DeAndra’ Cobb had the ball stripped from his grasp by Calgary linebacker Malik Jackson, and safety Milton Collins scooped up the football and sprinted 39 yards for his first CFL touchdown.
But Calgary never found the end-zone again, ruining a pretty solid night by the its defence, which forced Hamilton to attempt four first-half field goals (Nick Setta made three of them) and also picked off a pass in the end-zone.
“That’s not the way good offences operate, and if we want to be the kind of offence we know we can be, we can’t have nights like this,” said Calgary quarterback Henry Burris, who was 10-for-25 for 114 yards. “We have to show up every night. It’s definitely not acceptable. We characterize ourselves as the best offence in this league, and we didn’t show it tonight.”
Bruce scored twice in the fourth quarter, once on a 17-yard pass from Quinton Porter, who was solid in his first start after a knee injury, and the other on a 36-yard toss from third-stringer Adam Tafrailis, who was in for what looked to be a second-and-short sneak.
“We put ourselves in position to win the game and it didn’t happen,” said Calgary safety Wes Lysack, who had a nice game with a pick and a sack. “In all phases of the game, we took penalties that we shouldn’t have and did some dumb things. That’s not our M.O. We’ve established an identity of this team being a smart team, taking care of the football, taking care of each other and winning games. We clearly didn’t do that today. I hope it’s a wake-up call. It better be.”
Calgary’s discipline suffered all night, as the Stamps took an appalling 14 flags for 142 yards.
“You can’t be more frustrated, actually,” said slotback Jeremaine Copeland. “We gave this game away. Way too many drops. Way too many penalties. Way too many second-and-longs. You name it, we did it today. When it comes down to it, they made the plays that needed to be made and we didn’t.”
The Stamps are back at home Friday when they play the B.C. Lions in an 8 p.m. start at McMahon Stadium.
