The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' 2010 season passed away Sunday at home with a 16-13 loss to the Toronto Argonauts. It was an unexpected death, but one with a multitude of causes. Chief amongst them were the Tiger-Cats' inability to run the ball, their inability to stop Toronto's largely one-dimensional attack and their struggles on special-teams. Each deserves further examination.
The Tiger-Cats' ground game was highly inconsistent all year. DeAndra Cobb (pictured above on a run Sunday) finished fourth in the CFL with 1,173 rushing yards, but took a league-high 227 carries to get there. His 5.2 yards per carry average was acceptable, but hardly outstanding, as were his eight touchdowns and four fumbles. Even more concerning, there were some games where Cobb would look spectacular and others where he'd be completely absent. Sunday's eight yards on six carries was certainly one of the latter cases.
Marcus Thigpen demonstrated tremendous potential as both a kick returner and a running back, but had his own issues with consistency. He carried the ball 28 times for 234 yards and two touchdowns, a much better average of 8.4 yards per carry, but also fumbled three times and didn't demonstrate the ability to get it done as an every-down back. Some of Cobb's and Thigpen's issues were thanks to poor blocking from the offensive line, but not all of them. Their inability to generate yardage on the ground proved fatal to Hamilton's season Sunday, allowing the Argonauts to sell out to stop the pass and force two interceptions from Kevin Glenn.
The Tiger-Cats also had issues stopping the run. Despite their arguably league-best linebacking corps of Markeith Knowlton, Otis Floyd and Jamall Johnson and talented players like Stevie Baggs and Garrett McIntyre up front, Hamilton couldn't shut down Cory Boyd Sunday; he recorded 93 rushing yards on 19 carries and added 39 more yards on eight receptions. Those numbers aren't spectacular in and of themselves, but when you consider the lack of threats posed by Toronto's passing game and the Tiger-Cats' consistent focus on stopping the run, that doesn't speak well of Hamilton's defensive effort Sunday.
Special teams may have been the straw that broke the Tiger-Cats' back. Highly-hyped free-agent kicker Sandro DeAngelis struggled all season, making only 76.2 per cent of his field goals, and that trend continued Sunday when he missed a crucial 17-yard effort. He wasn't the only culprit, though; Thigpen fumbled twice on kick returns and punter Eric Wilbur had his own struggles, averaging only 36.4 yards on eight punts (with some considerably shorter then that).
However, it wasn't a bad year for Hamilton. They had some great highlights, such as a 40-3 thumping of Montreal in Week 17, but also some lowlights, like their 49-29 opening week loss to Winnipeg. Overall, they went 9-9 for the second-straight year and again clinched a home playoff game, and that was more impressive this season considering the parity in the league as a whole and in the East in particular, with the dramatically-improved Argonauts and the challenges posed by a talented-if-inconsistent Winnipeg squad. They scored 480 points, up from 449, even if they allowed 450 instead of 428. In the end, they were a mistake or two from advancing to the East final, and that isn't such an awful thing.
The 2010 Hamilton Tiger-Cats season is survived by coach Marcel Bellefeuille and general manager Bob O'Billovich, but their health may be more precarious than before. There will certainly be personnel changes in the off-season though, and expect the running game, offensive line and special teams to be key areas targeted for improvement. This is not a bad team, but it is one with significant issues. If they can remedy them, they could contend for a Grey Cup next year; if not, it might be another so-so season in Hamilton.
Gwen Stefani Sunny Mabrey Karolína Kurková Laura Harring Naomi Watts
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