TORONTO \u2014 Time hasn\u2019t cured what ails Scott Milanovich.<\/p>\n
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach\/offensive co-ordinator hasn\u2019t got over his club\u2019s lopsided 40-3 road loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers last Saturday. The contest began badly for the East Division leaders as Trey Vaval returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll let you know when I\u2019m over it,\u201d Milanovich said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to put your finger on exactly why you have a performance _ coaching performance, playing performance _ like that \u2026 we were whipped in all four phases, coaches included.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton (9-5) remains atop the East Division, two points ahead of idle Montreal (8-7). The Ticats will play their final regular-season road game Saturday afternoon at BMO Field with an opportunity to eliminate the Toronto Argonauts (5-10) from playoff contention.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we play those guys it\u2019s a dogfight, it\u2019s going to come down to the last three minutes of the game,\u201d Milanovich said. \u201cObviously their backs are against the wall, we know that.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like we knew Winnipeg\u2019s back was against the wall last week. We know we\u2019re going to get a playoff effort from them and we\u2019ve got to raise our level of execution and intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton had clinched a home playoff berth with B.C.\u2019s 27-22 home win over Toronto last Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s one thing that might tell you that something like that could happen with a young team, the fact that they woke up (Saturday) morning and found out they were in the playoffs,\u201d Milanovich said. \u201cBut I can\u2019t say that\u2019s for sure why.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re learning lessons every week and I think we learned a big one last week. We\u2019re going to find out Saturday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton will look to rebound from its worst loss since a 60-1 defeat versus Calgary on July 29, 2017. And a win would give the Ticats the season series with Toronto 2-1.<\/p>\n
Defensive back DaShaun Amos won two Grey Cups with Toronto (2022, \u201924) before signing with Hamilton as a free agent. His priority Saturday is helping the Ticats resume their winning ways and not ending his former team\u2019s playoff hopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously last week just wasn\u2019t up to our standard at all, we still have a sour taste in our mouth from that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about bouncing back, responding to some adversity and going out there and playing our football and proving to ourselves we\u2019re still a good team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much that we have to focus on within the building, within the organization, that it\u2019s more so getting another win than eliminating another team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amos said a 37-point loss is always concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you lose like that it\u2019s going to raise eyebrows, right,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more of a learning experience, it\u2019s not something where we\u2019re hitting the panic button or doubting ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it raise concerns? Yeah, because it\u2019s not something we can take lightly or sweep under the rug and act like, \u2018Oh, that was just a bad day.\u2019 No, there\u2019s a reason we got beat the way we got beat and we\u2019ve got to address that and move forward to be the team we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton still controls where it ultimately finishes in the East Division, aided by also having won the season series with Montreal and thus gaining the tiebreaker should the two teams compile identical records. Toronto, however, must not only win its final three games but get help from other teams to reach the post-season.<\/p>\n
Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said his message to Argos players is a simple one: Worry about what they can control.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we control is how we go out and play (Saturday,)\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to stop the run and give them second and long and get after the quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s going to be the key. We can\u2019t let (Mitchell) sit in the pocket and pat the ball letting (Ticats receivers) get downfield. That\u2019s when they\u2019re making the big plays so the pass rush has to come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran quarterback Nick Arbuckle will make a 15th start for Toronto. Like Dinwiddie, Arbuckle said the Argos can only deal with what\u2019s immediately in front of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always want to be in control of your destiny as a football team but the reality of the situation is we\u2019re not,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery team always talks about just trying to focus on going 1-0, focusing on next week and this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a situation like this, there\u2019s not even a luxury or reason to think about anything else because nothing else exists after this game if we don\u2019t take care of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Time hasn\u2019t cured what ails Scott Milanovich. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach\/offensive co-ordinator hasn\u2019t got over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-189704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}