Hamilton Tiger-Cats unable to rally against Toronto Argonauts this time

TORONTO — Hamilton’s potent attack functioned for just one quarter in Toronto on Sunday, leaving Tiger-Cats coach Kent Austin shaking his head.

While Austin praised an aggressive Toronto defence, he pointed to missed plays by his team.

“We had opportunities, we could have made plays. We had plenty of opportunities to make plays. (We) didn’t do it,” he said after suffering through a 33-21 loss to Toronto before 17,214 fans at BMO Field on a warm late-summer day.

“They played well, they played hard,” he said of the Argos. “They collapsed the pocket on us some and got after Zach.”

Quarterback Zach Collaros, who had the Hamilton offence averaging 41 points a game since returning last month from a knee injury sustained last September, found himself fighting off Toronto defenders from the get-go.

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Collaros, who had thrown for 14 touchdowns in the last four games, spent a fair bit of time Sunday picking himself up off the ground.

“I think they did a good job of pressuring and mixing stuff up,” said Collaros, a former Argo. “But I don’t think they did much of anything new. I just didn’t play well enough for us to win.”

“I’m sure it’s correctable mistakes,” he added.

He completed 22 of 39 attempts for 300 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

“We didn’t convert down in scoring territory a couple of times.” said Austin. “Could have put us back in the football game. We didn’t do that.”

Hamilton rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat Toronto 49-36 on Labour Day at Tim Hortons Field. But on Sunday, the Ticats could not mount a second-half comeback.

In the Labour Day win, running back C.J. Gable rushed for a career-best 135 yards on just 12 carries. The big Ticat was limited to 41 yards on six carries Sunday and had several sessions with the Hamilton trainers. 

Even reliable kicker Brett Maher had a rare miss. His 46-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter sailed wide, his first flubbed kick since July 1. 

Down 13-0 early in the second quarter, Collaros hit Terrence Toliver for a 59-yard touchdown to cut into the Toronto lead. Argo quarterback Dan LeFevour was then intercepted on back-to-back throws. That led to a Maher field goal and a one-yard Jeremiah Masoli TD dive.

With Hamilton leading 17-13 and LeFevour struggling, Toronto went conservative on its next drive. A one-yard LeFevour run was followed by a pass that resulted in a one-yard loss to Brandon Whitaker.

Toronto had to punt from its 16-yard line. A 41-yard return from Brandon Banks gave Hamilton the ball at the Argos 21, which led to another Maher field goal and a 20-13 Ticats lead.

Toronto went into the locker-room at halftime trailing 20-16 after a late field goal. The Argos outscored the Tiger-Cats 17-1 the rest of the way.

Asked about LeFevour, a former Ticat, Austin said he saw “a lot of short passes and a lot of missed tackles and a lot of jump balls that they came down with.”

Hamilton (5-6-0) hosts Montreal (3-8-0) next Friday. 

“We need to play a lot better than we played today,” said Austin.

Said Collaros: “We’ve got to really take a good look at the (game) film. Do we have to flush it and move on? Yeah. But we have to learn something and get better. We can’t have another game like that. That was really bad. It was embarrassing.”

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press