It was a game of two halves. The Lions came out attacking, sacked a rusty Zach Collaros five times and built up a 32-12 halftime lead but the Ticats wouldn't quit. They sent more pressure, jumped routes and capitalized with a long INT that turned the tables, narrowed the score to 32-19 and sent the Lions into a funk for most of the second half. Jonathon Jennings was afraid to take risks and the coaches called a conservative game on offence and defence, allowing the Ticats to steal momentum and claw away at the lead.Qman wrote:PASSING
PLAYER CP/AT % YDS TD INT LG
JENNINGS, Jonathon 20/32 62.5% 306 3 1 38
RUSHING
PLAYER CAR YDS AVG LG TD
JOHNSON, Jeremiah 15 62 4.1 20 2
JENNINGS, Jonathon 3 24 8.0 14 0
MURRAY-LAWRENCE, Shaquille 1 1 1.0 1 0
RECEIVING
PLAYER REC YDS AVG LG TD
ARCENEAUX, Emmanuel 5 105 21.0 35 2
BURNHAM, Bryan 2 71 35.5 38 1
GORE, Shawn 6 63 10.5 25 0
BOLDEWIJN, Geraldo 3 32 10.7 15 0
IANNUZZI, Marco 2 18 9.0 15 0
RAINEY, Chris 1 9 9.0 9 0
LUMBALA, Rolly 1 8 8.0 8 0
FIELD GOALS
PLAYER FGA FG LG S YDS FG MISS
LEONE, Richie 2 1 27 0 27 37
PUNT RETURNS
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG TD
RAINEY, Chris 1 40 40.0 40 0
IANNUZZI, Marco 2 16 8.0 13 0
KICKOFF RETURNS
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG TD
IANNUZZI, Marco 5 104 20.8 31 0
RAINEY, Chris 3 55 18.3 24 0
PUNTING
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG S NET AVG
LEONE, Richie 7 437 62.4 78 2 326 46.6
KICKOFFS
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG S
LEONE, Richie 7 447 63.9 68 0
DEFENCE
PLAYER DT ST QS INT FR FF
BIGHILL, Adam 7 0 1 1 0 0
ELIMIMIAN, Solomon 5 0 1 0 0 0
PHILLIPS, Ryan 4 0 0 0 0 0
CLARKE, Steven 4 1 1 0 1 0
TURNER, Bryant 2 0 0 0 0 0
BAZZIE, Alex 2 0 0 0 0 0
WESTERMAN, Jabar 2 0 1 0 0 0
THOMPSON, Anthony 2 0 0 0 0 0
IANNUZZI, Marco 1 0 0 0 0 0
EDEM, Mike 1 0 0 0 0 0
LOKOMBO, Bo 1 0 0 0 0 0
PURIFOY, Loucheiz 1 0 1 0 0 1
FORDE, Maxx 1 0 0 0 0 0
YELL, Ronnie 1 0 0 0 0 0
ARAKGI, Jason 1 3 0 0 0 0
JOHNSON, Jeremiah 0 0 0 0 1 0
FRASER, Eric 0 1 0 0 0 0
STEWART, Brandon 0 1 0 0 0 0
BENSON, Mike 0 1 0 0 0 0
PARKER, Keynan 0 1 0 0 0 0
ONTKO, Cameron 0 1 0 0 0 0
Zach Collaros had plenty of time in the second half and ate up the Lions' passive two-deep zone coverage, lobbing passes into intermediate routes in front of flat-footed safeties Mike Edem and Anthony Thompson and, one one TD, a confused Bo Lokombo. An INT by Adam Bighill playing deep in the same cover-2 defence gave the Lions their only spark until the final series of the second half, when Jennings was allowed to return to his natural unslinging role and kept the Ticats off balance by throwing short to Gore and Arceneaux and running for first downs when he got outside of containment.
Kudos to Jennings and Arceneaux for stepping up when the game was on the line, and to the fans for keeping up the raucous atmosphere right to the final Hamilton series. It was a good win and hopefully reinforced the message to the players that no lead is safe, and that the best way to defend is to attack, even with a big lead.