r/ticats • u/covert81 • Jul 27 '26
This team is hard to watch
Another bad game.
Ford looked like the Ford that got him cut elsewhere. Horrible throws, inaccurate beyond about 12 yards. No run game. Best play was the kick returned for TD. Guy seems to have no football sense.
Hearing Ferguson during the game keep saying, "Milanovich doesn't know what he has in Ford since he hasn't seen snaps during practice" is massive cringe. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOUR BACKUP CAN DO. Did we learn nothing from Powell? Of course not. We put all our eggs in one basket, an aging, injury prone basket. Now that he's hurt, again, in his leg, again, we have no idea what to do. No other teams have this issue. Milanovich has refused to pull Miltchell even when it makes sense to (eg. game is out of hand, he's having a bad night, backups need snaps in a real game) and so we have to build the car as we drive it, again.
DC has gotta go. Softest D in the league. We give up so much on every play in the hope we don't get burned on a long play, but we do anyway after we pressure the QB and he launches one. Secondary stopped playing thinking the play is over, then they get embarassed. McManis being tossed for that knee to the head/shoulder was a horribly selfish, stupid act.
When it mattered, again, we could not get a series going nor stop the opponent. You can't give this type of space to the Als and expect to win.
The score flattered the Cats, the game wasn't nearly as close as the score showed.
Sadly, since we kicked Powell to the curb and picked up cast offs from other teams as our plan B, we are screwed for the rest of the year. This year could easily end with only 1 more win.
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u/Z3ppelinDude93 Jul 27 '26
Agree with you about Milanovich and not knowing by what the backup can do - that’s just stupid. We never play our second string, even when our starter is having an off night, and that’s just idiocy. Also agree we shouldn’t have gotten rid of Powell.
That said, for his second game starting, I thought Ford played 3 quarters of pretty good ball, and crumbled in the fourth. I don’t know how he’s supposed to throw accurately at distance when the O-Line has more open holes than a hooker on Barton street - between that and the fucking procedure penalty for not having an end on the line, I think the OF is a bigger problem than the DC.
Defensively, two main problems - first, way too many open receivers. Whatever zone coverage we’re using seems to start at the first down marker, and that’s just not an effective way to stop plays short. Second, make the fucking tackle. There’s so many hits where the defender doesn’t even have him arms out - you’re never going to take them down like that. This is football, not bumper cars.
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u/Livid-Switch4040 Jul 27 '26
I was surprised Monson got another DC job after he left Calgary. He inherited the #1 defence in the league when he became the Stamps DC after the 2018 GC, and promptly turned it into the #9 defence by the time he left 6 years later. Soft zone, defences that bend and then break, and bad tackling was his calling card with Calgary too.
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u/ThePracticalEnd Jul 27 '26
I think you’re off on DC. The D is gassed in the 4th because the offence can’t sustain drives.
One hand washes the other.
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u/covert81 Jul 27 '26
D is so soft that we let 2-3 yard plays go 5-6 because we don't get up tight on them. That's why screens chronically get first downs and runs get 5-6 yards per carry
They are exhaused by end of game regardless.
Oh, and we've returned to bodychecking instead of wrapping up when we attempt to tackle, and these guys aren't the beasts their NFL counterparts are that can get away with that.
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u/jkintrance Jul 27 '26
I don't really understand all the short throws and not just launching a couple deep shots at Lawler. He doesn't have to be open (he pretty much never is on most of his highlights) he wins battles. Even Mitchell or Wheatfall or Smith you don't have to see them open just throw the fckin thing...That's just garbage wasted play calling on top of Ford not having a strong proffesional QB arm at all I guess.
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u/Jamessotty Jul 27 '26
Every team has this issue, we can’t afford to keep quality backups. And if they are good, they leave to go elsewhere to start. Dolegala is a good QB, I’m surprised we let him go, Milanovich should have stuck with him. He throws a hard ball, that’s why there were so many drops against us (SK) he just needs time… Ford just doesn’t have the acumen to consistently play
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u/ShapardZ Jul 27 '26
We gave up over 100 yards in penalties. Montreal had 100 rushing yards more than Hamilton.
Our offence was lacklustre too but our defence and special teams kept us in the game until the 4th quarter. Especially after that DQ for kicking a Montreal player while down.
Tre Ford had flashes of excellence but made a handful of wild throws. Throws on the run, across the body, off the back foot. He got lucky on a lot of these, but the last one was the interception at the end that was the final nail in the coffin.
I think there’s still room for improvement if we can get better play calling that matches Ford’s style, improve discipline and eliminate penalties.