Ticats line must be better against Als
Brian Simmons, who acknowledges his own contribution to the problem, neatly summarizes the widespread concern about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ offensive line.
“It’s inexcusable to do that at this time of the year,” the Ticats’ left tackle says of the double-blue landslide which engulfed quarterback Zach Collaros Sunday night in Toronto.
“If this is Week 1 or Week 2, I’m not saying it would be OK but it’s something where people would say, ‘They’ll gel.’ But we’re over the hump now. We’re coming to the last stretch of the season and we have to play better. “We have to play better.” Double amen to that. The Tiger-Cats once more had their issues in the secondary exposed, most notably at corner, during the Argonauts’ tit-for-tat comeback to a 33-21 victory. They had squat for a firsthalf running game, struggled yet again on special teams, were outfought for just about every ball up for grabs and blew a lead to a team without its starting quarterback and middle linebacker.
But the biggest source of anxiety was the persistent peril faced by the franchise player. Collaros was under constant siege from the Argos, was belted a number of times, regularly had to throw from his heels, and had to scramble far too soon and far too often for a guy coming off serious knee surgery.
Although he was sacked just once, Collaros completed just over half his passes.
He has to take some blame there (and, as usual, tried to take all of it), but the beef brigade in front of him was badly outplayed. And there was no tactical answer to an un-Argo-like stream of steadily hot pressure.
Symbolically, on Hamilton’s very first offensive play, former Ticat Bryan Hall blew past centre Mike Filer to force a pass knockdown. At least there was an explanation to that: Filer was still scraping off the competitive rust in his first appearance after six games on the injury list.
But there was no explanation — certainly not any acceptable one — for the rest of it. Collaros was imperiled most of the night.
“Obviously we sucked as a group,” said right guard Ryan Bomben. “I don’t know if that’s the line, or everyone together, but he got hit way too many times to have a chance to win.”
To a man, the offensive line takes this failure in risk-management personally.
“Of course,” Bomben said. “We just can’t have that happen.”
There is, and always has been, a positive correlation between losing the war on the line and losing the war on the scoreboard.
The Cats’ offensive line has looked solid at times this year but the inconsistency is jarring, and dangerous.
Filer should quickly round into the form which made him the last year’s local nominee for top offensive lineman and it’s possible the Ticats will get massive tackle Jake Olson — out for the last 51 weeks with knee surgery and recovery — back within a few weeks.
But the Ticats line also needs a bit of a cerebellum upgrade. These are very smart guys but didn’t show it against the Argos. It was noisy at BMO Field, and the offence took two time-count violation penalties — which Simmons says resulted in him hearing a wrong call, leading to Collaros taking a hit, although he did get the ball off on that play.
“That one was definitely on me,” Simmons said ruefully. “The thing that makes me upset (about the game) is that it’s not physical stuff, it’s mental stuff. To me, if a guy gets beat by another professional physically, I’m not saying that’s OK but as a staff and players we can handle that better, because he gets paid, too.”
And it’s just as frustrating for Ticat fans. The team record is now below sea-level when they could have distanced themselves from the Argos and a potential playoff crossover from the west. That, like the line play, might have been acceptable in the opening couple of weeks, but Friday night against Montreal marks the two-thirds pole of the regular season.
The Als are playing for the future. With their tough front seven, and the Ticats’ blocking woes Sunday that, too, could be dangerous.