Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats may not make the playoffs but their climb back into the picture has certainly been fun to watch.
Heck, I’m picking the Tiger-Cats to beat the Stampeders this week.
Why not?
What is not to like about this rejuvenated group?
They’re now playing with house money and nothing to lose.
They have a quarterback who has never been given the full confidence to be the No. 1 guy and they have a bunch of young players who are trying to make an impact for the future.
There is no way 60-1 happens this time like it did between these two teams way back in August.
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With trade deadline come and gone, Zach Collaros remains a Ticat in 2017 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
On defence, players like John Chick, Will Hill and Khalil Wooten are long gone. Adrian Tracy, Demond Washington and Cariel Brooks have come in and made an impact or made a greater contribution like Tracy.
Of course the coach, the quarterback and other personnel changes were made, which have the Tiger-Cats starting to show the talent is there for this year and hope for next year.
Hamilton has done a few other things to turn it around.
First, their offence has much more balance. The most carries for the running back in a single game was 10 before June Jones took over. Running backs have more than 10 carries in four of the last six games with 18 and 20 carries in the last two weeks.
The run game becoming more prominent has allowed reduced pressure on the quarteback. Zach Collaros was pressured 30 per cent of his dropbacks, while Jeremiah Masoli is around 20 per cent.
With Masoli’s ability to run the ball, he has helped those numbers as well.
The other noticeable change is speed.
As in ‘Speedy B’ aka Brandon Banks. He was inserted as a starting receiver and if you spread his yardage over the last six games over an 18-game season he would be on pace for a 1,300 yard season.
It’s not only Banks, however, as Jalen Saunders‘ speed has tested defences all season. These two allow Luke Tasker to work underneath.
Defensively they’ve allowed the opposing offence to go over 400 yards once in the last six games. They did that six times in the first eight games of the season.
Jeremiah Masoli has led the Ticats on a 4-2 run since becoming the starting QB (The Canadian Press)
Kent Austin and Eric Tillman can tick off a few boxes in shaping this roster for next year to try to make sure they can start the season as productively as they’ve been the last six weeks.
They can also tick off boxes on some of those players who may no longer fit into the picture in order to find others who better complement this new game plan.
We’ve already seen this with John Chick and C.J. Gable traded away and there will be more difficult decisions to be made.
If you know much about Tillman’s background, you know he’ll be willing to move on from players who are no longer producing as they once did for the Tiger-Cats.
But that is for this team to worry about in four weeks or more, not now.
They have four games left to continue to distance themselves from that 0-8 start and maybe turn what could have been considered impossible a few weeks ago into a magical run to the playoffs.
I can’t believe I actually wrote that down, but two months ago after the infamous 60-1 game, I wouldn’t have believed I’d be contemplating a Tiger-Cats win over the Stampeders.
But here we are. Stranger things have happened….. or have they?
