October 15, 2018

Tale of the Tape: Ferguson breaks down Week 18

The Canadian Press

Back at it again with your rapid-fire weekend recap. The Ticats took care of business Friday night in Toronto to go 3-0 against the Argos for the first time since 2010. That year Hamilton lost to Toronto in the playoffs. Thankfully for Ticats fans that fate won’t repeat as Hamilton is set to battle with Ottawa for the next two weeks about who gets a bye week in the playoffs and who gets a tough West division opponent in the East Division semifinal.

We begin in Toronto where Jeremiah Masoli has been trying to find answers in an increasingly damaged receiving group. That certainly didn’t seem to matter in week 18 as both Brandon Banks and Luke Tasker went crazy on the stat sheet. Of course, It helps when the other team doesn’t adjust to your formation and leaves you all alone to play catch with Masoli.

 

When coverage was supplied, the Ticats were still able to find Tasker on a dagger of a corner route against man coverage. The same play sunk the boatmen in the Labour Day rematch.

 

When Tasker wasn’t flying into the end zone, Banks was, even if it meant bouncing off the uprights for one of the most CFL touchdowns in recent memory.

 

Banks popped up and headed straight for the corner to find his son and give him the touchdown ball. A pretty cool little moment that put a smile on little Speedy’s face.

While the Ticats offence starred again their defence made a bunch of great plays Friday, not the least of which was Delvin Breaux hunting down James Franklin to force and recover this fumble on a crazy effort play.

 

With Hamilton winning, they continued to put pressure on Ottawa, who were in Edmonton for a date with Mike Reilly and the Eskimos Saturday.

There were plenty of great plays made by Edmonton as they went on to defeat the Redblacks, including this nasty Martese Jackson cutback that left A.C. Leonard somewhere in Northern Alberta.

 

Or this throw under pressure to the only place Bryant Mitchell could catch it from a flu-ridden Mike Reilly,

 

But the best plays of the day were reserved for the booth where Matt Dunigan was sliding in dumb and dumber references

 

And Mr StealYoGirl Chris Cuthbert was referencing the rap game. Don’t let his calm and cool demeanour fool you. CC is the realest original gangster.

 

After Edmonton won on Super Saturday, we headed to Winnipeg for the rivalry game that was over the second Matt Nichols started strutting.

 

I don’t care what you think about that QB or that team. If Matt Nichols is walking around like that, the defence is in trouble, of course, it always helps when your backup is capable of coming into the ballgame on short yardage and increasing the lead with a flick of the wrist to Weston Dressler.

 

Also, did you guys see the footage of Streveler warming up? When I pass, I hope I’m given the option to come back as a flannel-wearing athletic quarterback with a wild man beard named Chris Streveler.

 

Can you imagine the Redblacks marketing opportunities if that guy was an Ottawa quarterback…

Shoutout to Taylor Loffler – one of my absolute favourite people to interview in the CFL – for his big two-interception performance that was punctuated by this form tackle worthy of a coaching reel.

 

The Bombers blew away the Riders so we went to Calgary to finish the triple dip and got an unexpected result with Calgary somehow losing at home. I’m still not sure it happened. Seems like a big rumour to me. Anyways, here is a running back wearing #13 (weird) scoring a touchdown.

 

Tyrell Sutton! Good for that guy. I hope he gets a chance to play in the playoffs after spending too many seasons grinding away for the Alouettes without playoff purpose.

I can honestly say I’ve never yelled at my TV for someone to score more than I did on this Anthony Parker punt return.

 

Parker makes the first-team nice guy list and it would’ve been so sweet for him to score in his Calgary homecoming. He’s looked great on specials since signing in BC.

The Lions were helped in part to a win thanks to the stellar pressure applied by their suddenly dominant veteran front four. The play below cam one snap after Bo Levi Mitchell took a sack at the hands of Shawn Lemon. Watch how Bo recognizes and avoids the pressure without ever losing focus of where his throwing target is and dropping a ball perfectly over coverage.

 

That is a ridiculous skill to have. For BC Travis Lulay orchestrated the offence all night with having to be spectacular but as Lulay often does he got the job done and celebrated by throwing a ball all the way to Nicks Steakhouse across Crowchild trail before celebrating the win in what was – for now – Wally Buono’s final game at McMahon Stadium

 

What a fun slate of games that was and it only gets better as we near the playoffs.